Zombies & Killer Turtles
2011 marked my 3rd straight trip to Wizard World. This time out, I had a
plan of attack or strategy in mind. My main focus was to complete the
Sin City, 100 Bullets and Preacher series of books before even
considering anything else. If those action items were successfully met,
goal number 2 was to try and either meet of get a photo of Julie Benz up
close.
After trekking up and down the first 2-3 aisles, I had to stop long enough to bear witness to one Christopher Lloyd. Reverend Jim from Taxi to some. Doc Brown from Back To The Future for others. You can even refer to "boat drinks" or "give it a name"…all of it applicable. I did not take the moment necessary to meet him in person, but it was very satisfactory to stand amidst the legend. However, it was not so easy to avoid yelling "Great Scott, Marty!" in his general direction.
I spent the first hour or so browsing the shop vendors for any deals or unusual items. No one had any of the Preacher books I needed until happened upon one. I could see Volumes 7 through 9 staring back at me, beckoning me to buy-buy-buy. All I needed was the idiot in front of me to move over so I could sluice through, grab them and go forth. Instead, from out of my right blindside, a beast of a waste of space hovered in my slot, took the books that I had rightfully claimed in my mind and made off to buy an extra large order of onion rings. In short, I had been besmirched.
I decided to bottle up my anger and make my way into Artist's Alley. Every year, I tell myself that I want to support indie artists and every year, I walk through going "Lady Wrestler Space Ninjas? Who the fuck would read that?" (actually…that idea sounds cool. Someone get on that, pronto!) During my browsing, a voice said "Hey, I like your Neurosis shirt.". I looked up and saw a tall, lanky blond guy smiling. Jumping at the chance to talk musical shop with someone, I engaged him in conversation.
Shortly after introducing myself, we had chatted about everything from the Fireside Bowl to Los Crudos, MK Ultra and more. Turns out, this guy and I had vaguely known some of the same people in a roundabout way from the late 90's punk rock scene and likely had been to a few of the same shows. He was once in a band called Soophie Nun Squad that (I believe) and old band of mine had once shared compilation space with.
From there, we talked about zines; particularly Cometbus. Not only had he informed me that Cometbus was still in circulation, but he had been doing comic pages for the zine on-and-off for years. Since the mid-90's, he has been building himself a reputation as a new and interesting voice in the medium of comics and graphic novels. I asked about his two published hardcovers that he had for sale and I quickly discovered that he had been published by Top Shelf, the same company that had released Robert Vendetti's Surrogates and Alan Moore's Lost Girls among others.
Tonight, I finally read and finished Nate Powell's Any Empire. The book itself is a beautiful printed hardcover. The dialogue is very minimalist, but his unique art style conveys his narrative in a succinct and relatable manner. Aside from our mutual interest in 90's hardcore, it was refreshing and nice to meet a very friendly bloke who is making his way in a creative industry filled with talented people still waiting to be heard.
Nice people is what brings me back to Wizard World each year.
P.S. I did not get to meet Julie Benz. She did brush up against me without knowing. Apparently, she is beautiful up close. Damn.
After trekking up and down the first 2-3 aisles, I had to stop long enough to bear witness to one Christopher Lloyd. Reverend Jim from Taxi to some. Doc Brown from Back To The Future for others. You can even refer to "boat drinks" or "give it a name"…all of it applicable. I did not take the moment necessary to meet him in person, but it was very satisfactory to stand amidst the legend. However, it was not so easy to avoid yelling "Great Scott, Marty!" in his general direction.I spent the first hour or so browsing the shop vendors for any deals or unusual items. No one had any of the Preacher books I needed until happened upon one. I could see Volumes 7 through 9 staring back at me, beckoning me to buy-buy-buy. All I needed was the idiot in front of me to move over so I could sluice through, grab them and go forth. Instead, from out of my right blindside, a beast of a waste of space hovered in my slot, took the books that I had rightfully claimed in my mind and made off to buy an extra large order of onion rings. In short, I had been besmirched.
I decided to bottle up my anger and make my way into Artist's Alley. Every year, I tell myself that I want to support indie artists and every year, I walk through going "Lady Wrestler Space Ninjas? Who the fuck would read that?" (actually…that idea sounds cool. Someone get on that, pronto!) During my browsing, a voice said "Hey, I like your Neurosis shirt.". I looked up and saw a tall, lanky blond guy smiling. Jumping at the chance to talk musical shop with someone, I engaged him in conversation.
Shortly after introducing myself, we had chatted about everything from the Fireside Bowl to Los Crudos, MK Ultra and more. Turns out, this guy and I had vaguely known some of the same people in a roundabout way from the late 90's punk rock scene and likely had been to a few of the same shows. He was once in a band called Soophie Nun Squad that (I believe) and old band of mine had once shared compilation space with.
From there, we talked about zines; particularly Cometbus. Not only had he informed me that Cometbus was still in circulation, but he had been doing comic pages for the zine on-and-off for years. Since the mid-90's, he has been building himself a reputation as a new and interesting voice in the medium of comics and graphic novels. I asked about his two published hardcovers that he had for sale and I quickly discovered that he had been published by Top Shelf, the same company that had released Robert Vendetti's Surrogates and Alan Moore's Lost Girls among others.
Nice people is what brings me back to Wizard World each year.
P.S. I did not get to meet Julie Benz. She did brush up against me without knowing. Apparently, she is beautiful up close. Damn.
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