From: John Holbrook <[j b h 9] at [ix.netcom.com]> Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.info Subject: HOLBROOK'S CHICAGO COMICON REPORT Date: Thu, 27 Jun 96 23:59:43 GMT 1996 Chicago Comicon Report By: John B. Holbrook, II The fun-filled but sleep deprived weekend began with my picking up fellow RACer Mathew Calvert in Kalamazoo, MI. Matt and I have attended several Chicago events before, and we always have some good conversations during the car ride. After a stop at Bob Evans, we completed the roughly 2 hour trek to the Rosemont convention center. This year Matt and I agreed to attend both Saturday and Sunday, so I booked us a room at the Hyatt-Regency. I don’t know what experiences folks have had at any of the other hotels which adjoin the Convention Center, but I couldn’t have been more pleased with the service and accommodations the Hyatt. TIP: spring for valet parking. It really made it convenient not to have to fight for parking or chase the car down when it was needed. Also, DO NOT spring for the upgraded room they try to sell you when checking in...I didn’t, but I can’t imagine how a continental breakfast and free local calls is worth the extra 20 or 30 bucks they wanted. After checking in, we dropped off our luggage and headed over to the convention, just a few minutes before opening (10:00 AM). TIP: BRING CASH!! Don’t rely on the cash machines at the hotel or convention center - their quirkier than all get-out. Poor Matt had several unsuccessful go-rounds with ATMs during the weekend... Once I got in, I quickly headed to the publisher area.. DC had the same classy set up as last year... lots of TV monitors, tables with preview material, and representatives on hand. MARVEL on the other hand, was way in the back of the publisher area and was quite unremarkable in their display. I actually walked right by it when I was searching for it. Most of the other tables were standard convention fare, although there was a stronger video game presence at the Con this year (Playstation had an impressive set-up in the main publisher area, while CAPCOM set up some coin-ops in the back of Artists Alley. PUBLISHER TIP: If you insist on sinking to the level of having a scantily clad model at your booth (which I don’t like to see), PULEZE do not get some haggard, cheese-thigh, out-of-shape bimbo with a hair extension to do the job. I’m sorry, but Draculina looked just plain disgusting. She sure wasn’t the only one either. Folks, It takes more than just large breasts to make a decent super hero type model. For instance, say what you want about Voodoo (from WILDSTORM) lacking taste, but _at least_ she’s attractive and well groomed. The first autograph I got that day was from John Byrne...who for whatever reason set up a small table right as you enter Artists Alley. Seeing as how I stumbled on to him and found myself next in line, I didn’t question his choice...:) I then spun over to the MARVEL table and waited about ten minutes in line to get Kurt Busiek’s autograph ...he signed my copies of ASTRO CITY 1 &2 as well as a copy of UTOS, which was also autographed by series penciler Pat Oliff. I had intentions of getting autographs from a few others, but the opportunities just didn’t arise. After getting my quick autographs, I headed over to the Friends of Lu-Lu booth and found Elayne. She was in the middle of doing ten things at once (typical con day for Elayne) but we did get chat briefly and share some baby pictures I brought. Most of Saturday afternoon was taken up with panels - the most memorable being the Harlan Ellison hour of anecdotes . This was my first opportunity ever to hear the famous, controversial Ellison. I’m happy to report that, despite his recent heart attack, Harlan remains one of the most energetic, and entertaining personalities I’ve ever to witness. This guy can work a room better than anyone I can ever recall seeing. I had no idea that he had such phenomenal stage presence. He really is wasting his talent on that whole Sci-Fi writing thing...:) Particularly hilarious were his anecdotes regarding his brief (one day) employment as a writer for Disney, and his reenactment of a phone call he made to a guy whom Colleen Doran said was stalking her. He can be quite obscene, but hilarious nonetheless. Later in the day, I saw Harlan and shook his hand, expressing how much I enjoyed his presentation. He graciously thanked me and I had started to walk away (I thought a brief encounter best..less likelihood for me to say something stupid) when Harlan said grinning “How much can you bench press?” This took me totally by surprise. Not because it was an unusual question - at a height of 5’7” I wear a 46 coat - people ask me how much I bench all the time. That _Harlan Ellison_ asked me how much I bench completely caught me off guard. “315” I mumbled back to Harlan (a recent personal best). Harlan explained that before “his body fell apart on him” he benched an impressive 210 lb. That was definitely a high point of the con. If you EVER have the opportunity to see Harlan Ellison at a convention, do. You won’t regret it. After all the convention closed at 6:00 PM, I met up with Johanna Draper, who had changed into a stunning black dress (always has to be the center of attention...). We had made plans to try and go dancing after the LSH dinner that evening, and hoped to get a good sized group to join us. She told me the she did want to briefly attend the CBG Awards ceremony before heading to the LSH dinner, to see if her friend KC Carlson had won “Best Editor.” She invited me to sit with them, and away we went. We ended up staying for the whole thing (we held out for the door prizes, you see...) but unfortunately, KC didn’t win. In fact, other than Alex Ross (Best Painter, Best Cover Artist) and Tom McCraw (Best Colorist) no one won a single category that wasn’t related to the GLADSTONE “duck” titles. The duck people swept the CBG awards. We weren’t happy, to say the least. Afterwards myself, Johanna, KC, and a really nice guy from Westfield comics (who’s name escapes me) headed over to the LSH dinner in my car (this is where the valet parking came in handy). Accolades go to Sidne Gail Ward for organizing everything associated with the dinner. There must have been like 60+ fans to show up, and all had a swell time. KC presented Tom McCraw with his CBG award and the room went nuts. I ended up sitting right across from KC - I hope he didn’t think I was some puppy-like fanboy..I really just wanted to stick close to someone I knew (i.e. Johanna) but it seems like that night I always ended up near KC. I purposefully tried to a bit distant, (I try to be sensitive to what pros go though at conventions) and didn’t bring up the Legion books at all, though I am a big fan. He’ll still probably run the other direction when he sees me at the next Con..:) After some fantastic pizza, I drove our little group back to the Hyatt, dumped off the car (gotta love that valet parking) and we walked to a nearby hotel lobby and met up the other LSH fans a creators for a sort of live version of the AOL LSH Chat hour. Great fun. I ended up sitting next to KC again (see above). “Surprise appearances” were made by Sergio Aragones and former LSH writer and all-around big-wig at DC Paul Levitz which of course sparked some great Q&A. I’ll have to say that this was the best part of the Con for me. The LSH creative team is probably the most committed, selfless, and fan-dedicated group of guys that I’ve ever met.. They _really_ appreciated the dinner and the fan turn out. The great thing was that it never felt like a group of pros hanging out with some fans. It was just a group of people who all shared a love of the LSH. Thanks to everyone who had a part in making that happen. Now, how can I order an Ultra-Bear for my son? :) After things wound down there, Johanna announced that we were headed back to the Hyatt to go dancing at the Friends of Lu-Lu party. I dunno if we ever made it to the FOL party, but we did make it to the bar at the Hyatt. We found the dance floor too..unfortunately, the DJ had the night off (Saturday night????) so we made the best of it with the somewhat danceable radio music they were playing. We danced off and on (between commericals) for about an hour, and decided that we were equally good dancers...which was the whole point of our wanting to go dancing in the first place. :) In between the four or five songs we danced to, we did have some good conversations with other Con attendees - some of the conversations we had were _while_ we were dancing—people just stood there and talked to us while we danced. Alas, no one ever joined Johanna and I, so I hope we put on a pretty good show—J I also did get to talk to some new faces from RAC, though I’m horrible with names, so I don’t remember everyone I spoke with in the bar. What I do remember (and this inevitably happens whenever I first meet Net folks) is that nearly everyone said “Well, you certainly don’t look at all like what I expected!” What _do_ people expect? Two heads? A hunchback? Horns and a tail? Ah well. :) It did make for a late evening—I wasn’t back in my room until about 1:30 AM. Johanna and I were _suppossed_ to go swimming the next morning at 8:00. To bad “Con Woman” lost her super-stamina and wimped out on me—she called me after she got back to her room mumbling something about needing sleep—BAH! JFor the record, I was up at 7:00 AM doing push ups. Sunday morning Matt and I grabbed one heck of a good breakfast at the hotel buffett—$10.00 may sound a bit much for breakfast, but the hotel lost money—._trust me_. After breakfast we packed out stuff, checked out of the room, and left some luggage with the bell check. The first real event of the Con on Sunday was of course the Silver Age Trivia Contest; pros vs. Fans. The contestants were Mark Waid, and um—was there anyone else besides Waid? J Seriously, the contest was a lot of fun to watch—I’m sure others will do a blow by blow of the even better than I can, but it was extremely entertaining. I was actually surprised at the number of questions I was able to answer, or at least partially answer - the silver age isn’t exactly my speciality. I think trivia contests are a _really_ good idea, and I’d like to see one organized at the Detroit show next year for comics 1970 to the present. After the Trivia Contest, a DC panel was held in the same room with Mark Waid, Garth Ennis, the guy who does the art on HITMAN (can’t remember his name), John Byrne, John Ostrander and a couple of editor types (I’m just plain awful with names...). The panel wasn’t as informative as it was entertaining. Most of the information they talked about I had already heard about on the Net or from other print sources. If you ever see John Byrne, ask him to do his impression of Pinky and the Brain...his Brain is especially dead-on. Hillarious. After the panels, it was time to do some serious shopping! I personally found the selection to be just a bit lacking this year...seems like the dealers were carrying more and varied material at this years Detroit Show that I attended three months earlier. I still found most of what I was looking for...highlights being the 7 issue ATLANTIS CHRONICLES (by PAD and has lots of tie-ins to the current AQUAMAN series), UNCANNY #129 (first appearance of Kitty Pryde), BATMAN BLACK & WHITE 1-3, a few issues of BATMAN ADVENTUES...some low 200’s AVENGERS...various and sundry other nicky-nacks. One of the things that always concerns me when I walk down the eisle of the dealer rooms at conventions like this one is when I see adult or pornographic material on open display. In one instance, I rounded a corner and almost ran smack dab into this framed pictue of a topless female. Now, admitedly I’m torn on this issue - I don’t want to infringe on anyone’s right to free speech et al, but at the same time, one has to think about certain realities. I certainly don’t want to bring _my_ little boy around that sort of stuff, nor do I think my wife would want to be around it. Can others out there be so different from me? One of the biggest problems this industry has right now is in attracting women and childern - as an individual dealer, or as a collective industry, do we really want to do anything that might keep these two very important market segments away?? Well, after the shopping spree was over, I met Matt back in the lobby, we packed up my car and headed back to Michigan. This was definitely the best con experience I’ve had in my five years of attending conventions. Worth mentioning are some pros out there who _really_ go out of their way to connect with the fans to make the convention experience extra-special. Special thanks go out to Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, Jeff Mariotte, Steve Lieber, KC Carlson and the whole LSH crew, Tony Isabella, and of course, the inimitatable Harlan Ellison. Thanks also to Johanna Draper for paling around with me Saturday night. Maybe you’ll have more time to yourself next year because I have a special suprise announcement for next year: MY WIFE HAS PROMISED TO GO TO THE CHICAGO COMICON WITH ME NEXT YEAR!!! Yes, that right folks. Diane Holbrook will be in Chicago next year. I’m already preparing her to hear the inevitable “boy, you sure don’t look anything like what I exprected!” ;) CYA next year! -- John B. Holbrook, II - Human Resources Representiative - Keane, Inc. E-MAIL:[j b h 9] at [ix.netcom.com] WWW: http://www.netcom.com/~jbh9/personal.html Keane Inc. is currently hiring programmers - mainframe & client server. E-Mail or call me if you have interest. (888) 475-3263 - toll free.