Comic con experiences.

[Cowboy Ninja Viking]

Hey everyone, I've been to a couple cons lately and had a few good and a few bad experiences at the con. I thought that it would be fun to tell some stories about our experiences. I'll start us off

At te cincinnati comic expo last week, I had the opportunity to meet many peoe I really admired.

George Perez was a totally nice guy, very friendly and funny and excited to talk to his fans.

Art Baltazar and Franco were pretty cool too. baltazar was doing his dollar sketches and drew the three founding legionnaires for me!!!

Anyone else have any experiences to share. I know some people have had poor experiences, but lets try to remain respectful of the creators rather than smeer them.

[Cowboy Ninja Viking]

Another I was able to meet was Mike McKone. He seemed to be a bit busy I suppose. His manager greeted me me, took my stuff, and gave it to McKone, who handed it back to his manager, who in turn handed it to me. I can understand though, as it was Sunday and perhaps he had a lot of commissions to finish off. Or perhaps he's not very outgoing, but either way I can't really fault him for it.

Neal Adams was also there, but it was $20 dollars for his signature. I decided to pass as I am aware of his work and greatness but art but don't have a lot of exposure to it. I may regret it some day, but oh we'l.

[exile001]

I went to the Kapow comic-con in London a few years ago for the whole weekend and it was great.

I met and had a brief chats with Mark Millar, Scott Snyder (basically me telling him he's amazing), Dan Didio and Joe Quesada (who signed by Sword of Azrael tpb).

I had a wonderful time, and this was something of a turning point for my opinion of Dan Didio. I've never really disliked the guy, but some of his handling of fans has rubbed me the wrong way. Before I met him he was on a panel talking about the New 52, and his absolute passion for the DC characters and comics in general really bowled me over. And he's funny, didn't expect that.

To that point, I'd just kind of seen him as the guy who came in to manage. After this, I saw his as the guy who came in to manage because of his love for the product. It had quite an effect on me and my opinion of DC at the time.

Snyder, who I loved from batman, was talking about the upcoming Rotworld crossover and really sold me on reading Swamp Thing. I was buying it at the time, but it was low on my reading pile and I was 4-5 issues behind. That really changed for the better.

Everyone there was really cool, and costumes and bargains were everywhere. I was like a kid in a candy shop and after many, many years of being something of a lapsed fan, reading less and less, I completely embraced my love of comic books again. I felt rejuvenated.

I'll be going to my second big comic-con weekender next March and can't wait!

[Aliltron]

Just went to one in Boston this past summer, met some of my favorites there.
Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Two of the coolest guys every, they were talking about their new "Endgame" run
Gail Simone, she was really nice and gave a lot of good tips for people interested in working in comics
Neal Adams, Mark Brooks, Mark Waid, Tim Seely, the list goes on. It was my first comic con and it was absolutely fantastic.

Oh also met Jason Momoa so of course I tried asking him to see if he was Aquaman. But...no answer xD

[The Odd Man]

I met Todd McFarlane at FanExpo in Toronto last year. Very friendly, very gracious, and he told me a quick story about getting paid $800 for the cover art of the Hulk issue I had him sign, then a collector turning around and selling the original artwork for many thousands years later. Heh.

At the same con, my friend brought a literal butt-tonne (and actual unit of measurement here in Canada) of early Spider-Man comics for Stan Lee to sign, which Stan graciously did. I chided my friend for trying to give Stan writer's cramp.

[FiveGhosts]

I went to my first con, Tampa Bay Comic Con, and I got books signed by Mike Grell, Andrew Robinson, Scott Kolins, Paolo & Joe Rivera and Cullen Bunn. I had Cullen sign his Shadow one-shot he did, and he seemed surprised that there are "young Shadow fans" and promised more Shadow stuff in the future (ongoing please!). The back issue bins were the other draw for me, and there were plenty of $1 and $2 issues (including some newer stuff) and $5 trades. Needless to say, I left with a full backpack and a smile on my face.

[manduck37]

I went to the New York Comicon a couple of years ago where Adam West and Julie Newmar were guests. They had both just arrived and sat down at their tables as I walked by. No one had noticed they arrived yet, so I went over to talk to them. They were both so nice and chatty. We spent a good 20 minutes talking Batman, Family Guy and comics. Julie Newmar saw that I was carrying a book on Jim Lee that they gave me at the door of the con, as part of my gift bag. She asked if she could see it. She had just commissioned Jim Lee to do a drawing of her as Catwoman and she wanted to check out his work on Catwoman in the comics. So we flipped through the book together and she liked his Catwoman drawings. She said she was eager to see Jim's work when the portrait was done.

Then a man walked up with his little son, who was about 5 years old. The boy was dressed as Batman. The father points to Adam West and says "See him, he's the real Batman!". The boy smiled and Adam talked with the two of them for a few minutes. As the little boy walked away Adam West gave him a big wink and a smile as he said "See you later Batman", which lit up the boys face.

I thanked them both for their time, got autographs, and as I left Adam West asked me to for for him as Mayor of Quahog in his upcoming re-election.

[pynchon1]

I lived in Connecticut growing up, and the last con I went to was back in '92 or '93. There were local cons that were amazing for scoring back issues, but my first big con was a Boston con during the Cerebus for president campaign. I was really into Cerebus(this was prior to Dave Sim presenting a diatribe that was arguably mysoginistic to many), and I was really happy to meet Sim and Gerhard. I think I was 15 or so at the time, and my parents were really supportive of my comic book addiction. I recently wrote Dave my first letter, and I explained to him that I was really stressed out in line because a woman berated him about themes that were way over my head. Next to Dave and Ger were the guys who made Dawn, and I knew those back issues were a pricey commodity at my LCS, so I picked up first prints of the first three issues and had them signed. My Dad flipped out when he saw them, and he was about to go and yell at the creators for selling them to me, but then I explained I could get some sweet trade credit at the LCS. He held onto them and demanded that he go in and get the trade for me.

However, the best experience I had was at my last con, which was held at the Jacob Javits Center in a January in New York. I think this was in '93, the NYCC, and around Sandman 36 or so, A Game of You. I was also really into Sandman, and I didn't even know Neil Gaiman was going to be there. Someone randomly handed me a ticket to get some stuff signed by him, and I quickly ran around and picked up Sandman 1 for $20 and Gaiman's 24 hour black and white story for $30 and had them signed. The strangest thing about that experience was that he had a girl standing beside him who was dressed up like Death. He was really nice, but this was back before folks dressed up for cons, so I thought it was just some strange eccentricity of a famous comic book writer. At that same con, I scored the low print run copy of Cerebus 21. Good times. I live in Oregon now, and I'm debating whether or not to attend the Portland Wizardcon, but I'm hesitant as I would mainly go for back issue scores, and I'm not too sure if that's a priority there.

[MykeHavoc]

I went to Boston Comic Con this year and last and had many great interactions.

Dan DiDio was one of the nicest guys imaginable. Very talkative and passionate. Guy gets an unjustified bad rap. Scott Snyder was the untouchable rock star unfortunately, so I didn't get to talk to him. James O'Barr was a gentle and shy man and his tough as nails wife was the blunt one moving things along. Perfect couple lol. Mike Mignola was great, and had no idea that his work on World of Krypton had been reprinted, so was a little blown back when I presented it to get signed. Phil Jiminez was nice enough but very busy with commissions. Tony Daniel was awesome. Very pleasant and gracious. Tim Sale was amazing to watch draw. A little quiet but very kind and happily signed all my books. We had a good laugh about the Arkham vs Blackgate softball game he got to draw, as I said it was some of his best work and hilarious to boot. I couldn't get near George Perez, as he was the god of the con, but basically screamed my love for his work and was happily acknowledged and thanked. Ed McGuinness was quite busy. Dexter Vines was a bit more pleasant.

Then this year, first person I hit up was Mark Waid and gushed about how amazing his JLA was and would make me cry with all the moments of team work that I felt was lacking in almost everyone else's runs. I was really wired and tired and has some painkillers in my system, so I was quite emotional lol. Gail Simone may be the greatest person alive. So gracious, so amazing, so sweet, and a blast to talk to. She signed all my stuff, personalized them all, basically told me that Secret Six was officially ago prior to the announcement and showed me her Sensation Comics digital issue a week before it came out on her tablet. Doesn't get much better then that. Chris Burnham rocked, too. He sketched inside my Inc hardcover without me even asking and made my day! Only sketch I got. I told him I loved Batman Japan and that meant a lot to him. Very sweet guy. Adam Kubert was nice, but swamped. Carlos Pacheco and Esad Ribic weren't the most talkative. Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner were great, but with Harley Quinn being the hit it is, didn't have much time to chat. I got 2 of the 3 guys that did Gotham Underground to sign my trade, but can't remember which ones. They were nice though lol. If I remember anything else, I will add it.

[Brian Adkins]

Have met Mark Waid,Jonathan Hickman,Gail Simone and Peter David. All at different times at different cons. All nice and respectful. :-)