From: [b--lo--s] at [access5.digex.net] (Jeremy Billones) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc Subject: [CON] Motor City Comic Con Report Date: 27 Mar 1996 17:01:53 -0500 Well, I'm liable to get my Lurker's Card revoked for this, but since my overall impression from MCCC was that I was the only one who had a good time, I figured I'd better post :-) I left D.C. for the Motor City Comic Con on Friday afternoon, taking Amtrak. Anyone interested in the gory details can email me, but to summarize: a) the trip out was great, b) the trip back sucked, and c) I still love Amtrak anyway. It's a wonderful way of turning excess time into excess money. Which I promptly gave away by having to take a taxi to the Novi Convention Center from downtown Detroit; their public transportation system was invisible. Guess I'm just spoiled by the Eastern Seaboard. At any rate, I got to the Con at 9:30 AM with the help of a friendly policeman (OK, the midwest does have its advantages :-) and went straight for the Friends of Lulu booth where I met up with Elayne Wechsler-Chaput, Dave Eppley, and Johanna Draper. They were helping to run the FoL booth with Terri Boyle and Cheryl Harris being in charge. I offered to help (as always), but they're very strict about making sure the booths are run by trained experts. While the FoL booth served well as a place to meet up with fellow Netters looking for E & J, I really think we should find some other gathering place that might not interfere with their work. Gee, the Spawn booth looked pretty empty :-) At any rate, just about everyone else I met up with, from Mike Chary to Paul Holbrook to Paul Storrie, I ran into first at the FoL booth. I essentially "did the Con" on Saturday morning. The dealer room was much larger than Philly, the only other ComicCon I've been to. About 60 dealers, perhaps? Most of the available wares were Silver Age comics and recent Bad Girl stuff. Yawn. I did manage to find one dealer selling copies of Ragmop #5, so I got that off my shopping list. There was also fairly large section for "publishers." DC, Liefeld, and Harris were the only three I recognized at first glance: no Marvel, Dark Horse, or other Image, but over a dozen others. That's also where they put the CBLDF, FoL, and the other cats and dogs. (And yes, I was bummed that Julie Strain had to cancel :-) Back behind there was the gaming area (there was a Magic tournament I never did get a look at), anime area, a blood drive (The Red Cross Challenges Friends of Lulu, anyone? :-) and a very large artists alley with maybe 100 different people. I'd have to classify this as a "large" convention, but they cheated a bit by spreading out the publisher's area: you could drive a car between some of the rows. So there I was, Noon Saturday, having essentially finished doing all the doing I had planned to do. So I came up with plan B: follow Elayne around all weekend. Don't laugh: it worked! :-) Actually Elayne and I tend to have similar tastes in panels: I had marked the 'writing about comics (Sa),' 'brainstorming, (Su)' 'Unfinished Business (Sa),' and 'Golden Age (Su)' panels as the four I wanted to go to before I even knew Elayne was going to be on the first one. I didn't take notes during any of them - I just sat and watched and enjoyed. I would have liked there to be maybe one or two more good panels, but on the other hand I did miss the Groo panel. Getting the various Netizens together for meals was pretty tricky, between the various responsibilities everyone had. But Saturday evening after the Con, we got a crowd of 9 together (eventually) at a nice pubbish place down the block from the convention. Stressing my grey cells to the limit, the attendance was: myself, Elayne, Johanna, Dave, Paul, Mike, R.T., Sidne Ward, and Chris... Chris... (gak! well, 8 out of 9 ain't bad for not taking notes). Afterwards, a smaller group of us headed into Detroit (Hamtramck, actually) stopping by a coffee house to meet up with Matt Feazell who took us to a nice bar down the road. They all had lots of fun dancing past midnight, and I had just as much fun watching them :-) [Hey, lurking is a lifestyle :-] Sunday was a much cheaper trip to the Con, as I hitched a ride with Sidne (with whom I have apparently synchronized my watch without knowing it). I spent most of the morning trying to keep busy while not hovering around the FoL booth, mostly failing at both - I fully expected Cheryl to kick me out, member or no. The afternoon panels were good, and one moment was truly special. During the 'brainstorming' panel, Mark Waid and Bob Ingersoll spent some time talking about basing stories on covers, dealing with editors, and the other speedbumps in the art of doing comics. An hour later, in the Golden Age panel, there were several of the greats of the era (most of whose names, I am truly ashamed to admit, meant nothing to me... but I'm glad they were there) talking about their experiences in comics. And they talked about basing stories on covers, dealing with editors, and the other speedbumps in the art of doing comics. And I was sitting there thinking, even as they railed on about how some kids today can't even be bothered to learn how to draw, about how Mark Waid was sitting maybe 6 seats over from me watching the same panel, and that I think comics today might be in good hands after all. Anyway, after the Con closed, and we took down the FoL booth, those of us that were left helped Chris take down the Atlas Comics booth. (And yes, at least one car was driven between the aisles in the process - not by us, though :-) From there Paul escorted us to a wonderful Mexican restaurant, and from there I got a lift back to the train station for the ride back. So, in review of the Con itself: OK, I guess. Maybe a bit larger than it should have been, and a bit smaller than it could have been. I can see where some people were disappointed for various reasons. But the Con itself isn't why I went. You can't really summarize what it means just to hang out with a bunch of other netters: listing the in-jokes (Elayne's apostrophe's, Chary's check, why I'm going to kill Johanna over two bricks...) isn't important. We only get dribs and drabs of each other's company over the Net, and being able to sit down and talk (even off topic :-) is by far the high point of the Con by my estimation. Comments, replies, and criticism, by mail or Usenet, are welcome and encouraged. Like Chris' last name for example :-) Jeremy Billones http://www.access.digex.net/~billones/index.html Objective Reality Isn't USSF Certifiable "Spending my time \ watching the days go by Feeling so small \ I stare at the wall \ hoping that you \ think of me too."