What an experience THAT was.

I have been off since Thursday, helping out at the Canadian Expo. It’s a massive convention mixing in sci-fi, horror, anime, and a comicbook convention. I love all these things, but you all know the area I specialize in …

COMICS!!!

My role was really simple; make sure people were where they were supposed to be. In this case people included artists like (alphabetically) Mark Bagely, Ian Churchill, Dale Eaglesham, Karl Kerschel, Steve McNiven, Carlos Pacheco, Frank Quitely, Skottie Young, and many others, editors like DC’s Eddie Berganza and Marvel’s CB, and even super writer JM Strazinski. Add to that checking they had what they needed and I really didn’t have much to do.

All of these guys are really great people. They were nearly always there before we had to look for them, and the only time we had a big problem was when WE had miscommunicated where they were suppose to go. Skottie Young and Steve McNiven were particularly wonderful as they were easy to track down.

Circumstances were that I spent a good deal of my time with the DC crew, and boy, will I have memories with them for sometime:

• The super kind words of Dale Eaglesham and his beautiful partner, whose name escapes me and I hope I will relearn some day. If no one else had been great, I could have lived off the sweet things they kept saying about my performance as a volunteer.
• Hanging out with Ian Churchill and his lovely fiancée (whose name I DO know, but will not reveal). I love access to “celebs” not for their autographs or photos, but to hear about their experiences and ideas. Ian’s and his love’s many and varied travels certainly hit that spot. They were super-warm, and super-HUMAN. Fantastic.
• Karl Kerschel becoming a personal hero. There was suppose to be a sketch-off between Quitely and Pacheco. Unfortunately, we lost track of Pacheco, and I ran to the convention floor to grab a substitute. Karl said yes, setting up a terrific time with two great illustrators of Superman! I swear, if I wasn’t so sweaty at the time, I would have hugged the man. And his cute partner who egged him on into doing it
• Reviewing portfolios with Eddie Berganza. Well, Eddie did the reviewing, I was suppose to keep him under time, particularly for those with really rough work. Still I learned A LOT, and hopefully did not make too much of an ass of myself when I interjected my own opinions. There was also the magical moment when an elderly man came forward to show Eddie faded photos he had of Christopher Reeve doing a promotional event in full Superman ensemble. Choked us both up. I may not like the whole idea behind Infinite Crisis, but I am happy to see someone like Eddie shepherding it.
• Finally, Frank Quitely. I really don’t know what to say. You comic fans out there already know what a special talent he has. But that is combined with such a friendly, thoughtful personality that was only outmatched by his wife’s. You see, on the first day, while Frank was distracted with an autograph, I lost what little “cool” I was maintaining and “geeked out” to her what a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE fan I am of his.

  Next day, as I am escorting from the sketch-off to the ACTOR booth (support the cause!) he asks if I was helping until the end of the convention because he wanted to talk to me about something. I said yes … and spent the following 24 hours figuring out what I had done wrong, cause obviously I MUST HAVE screwed up something, why else would Frank want to talk to me in private. The last day I am leading him to his last autograph session when he decides to have his talk. Which was … his wife had mentioned I was a huge fan, and how glad he was to hear it!

  We talked. Actually, he talked about such interesting things like what in particular did he like in specific stories/pages he had done, and Grant Morrison’s ideas on fiction. I melted down, repeatedly regurgitated the words “what a pleasure” and “you are great”. A writer I want to be, yes. I still thrill thinking back on all of it, and it will feed my writing. This I promised Frank.

Special mention must be made to the non-comic celebs I also ran into. Most I saw from afar (James Marsters is short! Tim Russ is built! Linda Park is so pretty! Erica Durance is too! Elijah Wood is such a nice guy!) My own beautiful girlfriend assisted with Kevin Sorbo and Adam Baldwin, so I got to chat with them a bit. Kevin Sorbo is a cool guy, and we have a great shot of him with my girl. And Adam Baldwin is a literal gentleman; he bought us drinks and we sat and discussed the changing landscape of television … a conversation I plan on continuing one day.

The Hobbystar staff and other volunteers were also fantastic. You see, while I ran around a lot but not accomplishing much, those guys moved metaphorically mountains without breaking a sweat. Thank you Aman, James, and Karen for letting me participate, and thank you Joel G, volunteer Joel, Matt, Phil, Rob, Mark(s), and others for putting up with a newbie like me. (Super-big-double-plus-good thankyous to Joel G. and Matt especially).

Sadly, no pictures from me. But so many good memories.

Now to start creating something so I can be a guest next year. Like I said, I promised Frank