Happy Birthday, Jonathan Harris!

Happy Birthday, Jonathan Harris! 

The great character actor was born on November 6, 1914. He would have been 101 years old today. On the occasion of his birth, I'd like to tell you a nice little story about him.

Happy Birthday, June Lockhart!

June Lockhart was born on June 25, 1925. She is 88 years young!

I came across her first on Lost in Space, then saw her on some episodes of Petticoat Junction, and then saw her a few times on Lassie. 

Chronologically, of course, she did Hollywood movies before switching to TV, where she was most famously cast as Timmy's mother on Lassie from 1958-1964. After she left the family farm she guest-starred on an episode of Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea, where the producer of that series liked what he saw. This was Irwin Allen, who cast her in his new series, tentatively called SPACE FAMILY ROBINSON, in 1965. This series, of course, eventually became Lost in Space.

At the beginning of the series it was a straight drama, and June as Dr. Maureen Robinson had many chances to actually act. She was most often paired with Guy Williams as her husband, John Robinson, but as the matriarch naturally had scenes with all of "her" children as well as the other adults, Major West and Dr. Smith. Several times she was left "at home" in command of the spaceship (a wonderful Jupiter 2 permanent set) and was the leader in those episodes. I'm thinking of episodes such as "One Of Our Dogs Is Missing," "All That Glitters," "The Golden Man," and "The Galaxy Gift." In "The Keeper" it is her intervention that saves the entire planet from Michael Rennie's creatures. Unfortunately, as the series progressed it spent more and more time on Dr. Smith, Will, and the Robot and less and less on the actual family. In the third and final season, June had almost nothing to do and no episodes were written around her character.

 

with Guy Williams, these two were
*supposed* to be the stars

  
When Lost in Space ended in 1968, June was hired by the producers of Petticoat Junction to appear on that series. Star Bea Benaderet had recently died of cancer, so June was cast against Edgar Buchanan as the motherly Dr. Janet Craig. Her role lasted a season and a half before CBS cancelled all the so-called "rural" comedies in 1970.

Since then I've only seen June Lockhart in supporting roles. She was a voice on the obscure Saturday Morning cartoon, "These Are the Days" about life at the turn of the century. I remember coming across this cartoon in the early Seventies and not thinking much of it until I realized that the mother's voice belonged to June! I watched the whole thing and checked the credits, and sure enough, there was her name! I haven't seen this show in 30 plus years but I do remember it fondly.

Speaking of "turn of the century" roles, I was in high school when I finally got around to watching Meet Me In St. Louis. Imagine my surprise when a very young June Lockhart turns out to be Judy Garland's antagonist!

June, Judy Garland, and Lucille Bremer from

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

 

I also remember fondly when I was watching an episode of Happy Days where The Fonz sues Howard Cunningham after damage was caused by his having pigeons on the roof. June played the judge who presided over the suit. She was amazingly funny.

So several years ago when I actually got a chance to meet Ms Lockhart (which I wrote about here:
http://seiginonakama.blogspot.com/2011/08/my-first-convention-mid-ohio-con-2002.html )
I got an autographed LiS cast photo for me (shown below) and another one for my friend who adores Meet Me In St. Louis! Every time I visit him I see it sitting there decorating his living room.

It was one of my great pleasures to have met this wonderful lady, and I wish her many happy, healthy returns!

 

Happy Birthday, June Lockhart!

 

the first season of LiS was in black & white, so it

was years before I knew what color these uniforms were!

 

with co-star Marta Kristen as her daughter, Judy

 

in a 3rd season PR photo with Guy Williams

and Jonathan Harris

 

my treasured autograph from 2002

 

Here's June and Frank Cady as store-keeper Sam Drucker from

Petticoat Junction in 1969. I tried to imbed the video but it wouldn't let me.

http://youtu.be/82lX1CL-i9E

Happy Birthday Jose Luis Garcia Lopez!!

March 26 is the birthday of one of the most talented artists to ever work in the comic-book industry, the one-and-only Jose Luis Garcia Lopez (praise be his name!).

Senor Garcia-Lopez was born in Spain, then moved to Argentine when he was five years old. He has worked professionally as an artist since he was in his teens; he sold some of his first US work to Charlton when he was 18 years old! He moved to the US at the end of 1974. He started doing work for DC Comics such as "The Private Life of Clark Kent" or issues of  THE JOKER. I remember him also doing various back-ups and Superman things, but I was never a huge Superman fan. Then he started working in the Batman universe, and I started taking notice. He did wonderful work like this DETECTIVE COMICS cover that became a poster.


In the early 1980s Senor Garcia-Lopez was asked to create a Design Guide for licensing purposes. It was a "style" book for marketing and also for other (new) artists to know how to draw the DC line of characters. From all of these poses have come the vast majority of DC licensing in the past 30 years! In fact, because of this work I was able to strike up a conversation with Senor Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (praise be his name) himself!

It was at the Baltimore Comic Book Convention in 2011. My friend Rick and I had driven to Baltimore the night before to attend. We were staying at the Sheraton, but the Convention was at the Hilton (or vice-versa?). So I was making my way over to the Convention after breakfast and held the door open for an older gentleman. Now I have to say, I had no idea who he was at the time; I was simply being friendly. If you've never been to a convention I'll tell you this: it seems like there are two types of people there: those who are happy to be there, and those who are frustrated or angry or unhappy to be there. I'm always one of the happy ones because 1. I can remember when there weren't any conventions to go to at all! and 2. I live and work in a "normal" environment, so I'm in a great mood when I'm surrounded by like-minded geeks and nerds! I am just so gung-ho to be there that I try to share the happiness. So anyway, I held the door open for this older gentleman, knowing he was either an artist or a vendor or a fan like me. I, of course, had an Aquaman t-shirt on. We chatted on our way to the convention site and it became obvious that he was an artist. He thought we had met before (do I have one of those types of faces? haha) and I told him that it was the first time I had been East for a convention. When I said that my favorite character was Aquaman, I pointed at my shirt. He then said, "Oh, I drew that."

the t-shirt in question

I'm sure my mouth dropped open, at least a little bit.

"Y-you...you drew this?" Obviously I then realized who he was.  I stammered out a reply. "I....One of the reasons I'm here is to see and meet you, Senor."

"Well, I'll be at my table all day. Come by and we'll chat some more."

And he walked in to the hall, leaving me to walk to the "general admission" line. Floated, I should say, as I was definitely on cloud nine!!

Later that day when there weren't so many people in line to meet and greet with him I did stop by and we did continue our chat. I reminded him who I was by pointing at my t-shirt (HIS Aquaman) and asking him how his day had been. There was no sign on his table about him doing sketches, so I didn't even think to ask him. Instead I had him autograph a few of my comics (LEGACIES, shown below, featuring my favorite, Aquaman, of course!). When other fans started to show up, I moved on. I was very very happy.

A few hours later as the convention was winding down and I was in line to get somebody else's autograph, the guy in front of me and I struck up a conversation. When I told him about meeting and chatting with Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (praise be his name), HE told me that he had gotten an original pencil sketch of Robin from him for only ten dollars. TEN DOLLARS!!! He showed it to me and I nearly flipped out. It was beautiful!! Anybody remember those "I could have had a V-8?!" commercials when the actor slaps his forehead in stupidity? THAT was me. By this point it was too late to go back, but I knew that the next chance I got I would get a sketch.

Fast-forward to Baltimore Comic-Con 2012. One of the reasons I decided to make the trip at all was to get a sketch from The Master. After I verified that he would be in attendance again, I decided to return. On the day, I got back in line to meet Senor Garcia-Lopez again, and this time I brought my copy of Modern Masters Vol. V. THIS time, I got an original pencil sketch of Aquaman, reproduced here. It is still one of the treasures in my collection of Aquaman goodies. Plus it's a hell of a story.

As you probably guessed, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (praise be his name) is a soft-spoken, friendly man. I hope that someday I will get another chance to meet him. In the meantime....I have my sketch, my memories, and my t-shirts.  Thank you, senor, for your incredible talent!!

Happy Birthday, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez!

 One of the Aquaman Style Guides. Look: the first pose is the same as the one on my t-shirt! 

 The greatest illustration of Classic JLA 

(except for Hawkwoman getting blocked by her husband's wings)

  This one is for you, Shag! 

My copy of this has my Aquaman sketch on the inside front cover. :-) 

My copies of these two issues have autographs on the inside where 

Aquaman and the Justice League and Teen Titans appear, 

as drawn by The Master. :-) 

My current favorite t-shirt....check out ALL of the 

Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez goodness!! 

Happy Birthday, Tony Isabella!

Today December 22 is comic-book writer and historian Tony Isabella's birthday. Never heard of him? Well, how about Black Lightning, have you heard of *him*? Tony created him. Ever heard of Hawkman and Hawkwoman? Tony wrote their best comic-book series, SHADOW WAR OF HAWKMAN. In his long career Tony has also written Captain America, Daredevil, Luke Cage (Power Man), The Avengers, and also created/helped create Tigra and Black Goliath. He had a memorable run on Marvel's GHOST RIDER, and although that character never did anything for me, what I've read about Tony's run on that series makes me think I probably would have liked it.

Go to amazon.com and type in TONY ISABELLA and you are guaranteed to find something entertaining!


In 2009 Tony published 1000 Comic Books You Must Read. It's a fun read about all the major "milestones" over the past fifty years and also lists plenty of stories that are just plain fun. If you like comics or are looking for a gift for anybody else who likes comics, you can't go wrong with this book. 

Tony Isabella lives in Cleveland, so for many years has appeared at the Mid-Ohio Comic Convention in Columbus. This is where I had the honor to meet him and chat with him a few times. He is a great guy to talk to and has plenty of wonderful stories. He also autographed my Black Lightning action figure, which I am looking at as I write this. Tony is a cool guy.

Tony is working to get back in the swing of things, so has toned down his presence on-line. However, his Tony's On-Line Tips column is still on-line, from 2001-2010 if you would like to read some of his comic reviews and commentary go here: Tony's On-Line Tips

Happy Birthday, Tony Isabella! 

Tony's classic run on GR

For years this was my favorite Tony series

My all-time favorite "take" on these characters

Tony's favorite story he has ever written

Tony and "his creation"at MOC in 2011

Happy Birthday and RIP Jonathan Harris

Jonathan Harris was one of the stars (if not THE star) of the TV classic LOST IN SPACE. He portrayed the break-out character Dr. Zachary Smith, who is probably the most recognized character from that show. It is ironic, then, that the character of Dr. Smith was not in the original LiS pilot! He was added after the pilot was filmed because the network (CBS) and the producer (Irwin Allen) thought that the Space Family Robinsons needed a weekly "villain" to play against. Because all of the billing contracts were signed, Harris asked and received "special guest-star" billing in the opening credits. And the rest is history!

Jonathan Harris was born on November 6, 1914. He died on November 3, 2002, just days before his 88th birthday.

Mr. Harris was one of those character actors who appeared in all sorts of television programs in the 50s and 60s before LOST IN SPACE. I happen to know without even looking that he was on THE TWILIGHT ZONE, BEWITCHED, ZORRO, and LAND OF THE GIANTS to name just a few. A few years after LiS he also starred on SPACE ACADEMY, a Saturday-morning live-action show I remember fondly. In this series he was the captain/principal mentor to the young cast; he was the good guy!

Dr. Smith was nobody's favorite character. (Mine was Will, of course.) However, because Harris was concerned about getting written out of the series, he tried to make himself the center of attention. Working with directors and writers who agreed or humored him, Harris' Dr. Smith *did* become the focus of the series; so badly, in fact, that to this day I can't bear to watch some of the worst offenders. With an excellent  cast of seven talented actors (and a guy in a robot suit) it's a shame that too many episodes were based on Will-Smith-Robot.

One of his last major voice roles was in A BUGS LIFE.

That being said, my favorite Dr. Smith episode hands-down is "The Time Merchant." In this episode Dr. Smith actually gets his wish: he is returned to Earth. He is returned *before* the Jupiter 2 blasts off, and can now choose to not be stuck on the ship when it leaves. The catch: he finds out that it was his added weight that helped the Jupiter 2 miss the brunt of the terrible meteor shower that got them lost in the first place. He realizes that if he does not *choose* to get on the ship, he will cause the Robinsons to die. Knowing he can not be responsible for the deaths of his friends, he stoically stows-away again. So that show did have its dramatic moments, buried within all the silliness.  

I was so happy to hear his voice in TOY STORY 2

I have a very special Jonathan Harris encounter to talk about. Due to the 1998 big-budget Hollywood release of the film "Lost in Space," the original series was released on videotape all over the world. I was in Japan at the time and was able to find all sorts of Japanese-language material about the original series (which was titled "Space Family Robinson" there, by the way). At the same time I was in a yahoo chat club about LOST IN SPACE. I found out that Jonathan Harris loved hearing from his fans all over the world. I asked another member for his contact information. Then I bought extra copies of some of the Japanese magazines I had about the series and sent them to him with a note and a translation. I remember saying something like, "Thank you for countless hours of television pleasure." Well, a few weeks later I got a letter from California and it was Mr. Jonathan Harris himself writing back to thank me for the kind words and magazine cut-outs. I treasure that letter to this day.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Jonathan Harris!

"Lost in Space Forever (1998)

The closest we ever got to a "real" LiS reunion show

(I think that "prop" is the same time-belt from the episode 

I mentioned above, "The Time Merchant")

New York Comic Con 2012

So last week the wife and I drove to New Jersey so that I could go to the New York Comic-Con. It was held at the Javits Convention Center from Oct 11~14, but I only went on Friday, October 12.

We left our house in Columbus, OH at about 8 AM on Thursday. The plan was to drive through the rest of Ohio, then West Virginia, then Pennsylvania before getting into New Jersey. The whole trip was supposed to take us about eight hours.

However, a day or two before we left the wife mentioned that she would like to see Falling Water, the home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, which is nestled in the outskirts of Pittsburgh. We map-quested it and I went to the homepage and got specific directions. Then we called and made a reservation for 12:30 on Thursday. I figured we would take about half an hour to see it....it was a summer home, for goodness sakes. How long could it take?!

Well....LONG story short, it took a good two hours to do the whole experience. We got there before 12:30 but couldn't find a parking spot, so we missed our 12:30 "tour" and had to wait for an opening at the 12:45 one. Then the tour itself was one hour, no exceptions. In hindsight I'm glad we took the time, as it is a beautiful home and a beautiful spot. Still, at the time I was thinking, "Really? Can we not just move this along a bit more?!" :-) So although we left the house with plenty of time to spare, we ended up getting about 90 minutes behind. We didn't get to my buddy Brian's place in Maplewood NJ until about 8 PM that evening.

My original plan was to go to the convention on both Friday and Saturday. Then I waited too long to get tickets, so Saturday's show sold old and I could only go on Friday. Then when the wife said she wouldn't mind going, too, I went back to get her a ticket and they were sold out on Friday, too. I should have known this was a bad omen....

Brian works in The City so we got on the early train from NJ to NYC on Friday AM and parted ways at Penn Station.The wife and I walked down to Javits Center and traded in my bar-code receipt for an actual pass. However, (there will be a lot of those in this story) because my wife didn't have a pass, she wasn't allowed into the convention center AT ALL. Every other convention I've ever been to had an "open space" area like a lobby or something where people could meet. Not this time, not this place. It was cool and windy outside, but people could not wait inside if they didn't have a ticket. By this time my wife wanted to use the bathroom, so she had to take MY ticket and go inside (not into the convention itself, mind you) to use the facilities. Right off I was annoyed at the logistics. She also could not sit anywhere and watch people while I waited to get in. (It was 9 AM or so and the doors didn't open until 10 AM.) We lounged around outside for a while to figure out whee things were. When she walked off to start her day and I went inside. Not the best start to the day.

I should tell you that I was wearing a green AQUAMAN t-shirt underneath an orange long-sleeve shirt. I was not wearing a costume, but I was showing my fan-colors. I was cold outside, and warm inside. Another thing to be annoyed about. ;-) 

As soon as the wife walked off and I walked inside, I was shepherded like a member of the flock into a huge cavernous room. All of us Geeks were lined up to keep us in order while we waited for permission to Enter. I took this time to look over the program and try to find the artists I wanted to meet. The map of the facility was not clear to me because I was not familiar with the layout of the whole place and I hadn't been given any opportunity to familiarize myself with it! I figured I would find stuff, though, and I zoned out for the next 20 minutes or so.

At about 10:30 my line was finally allowed "up" and by this point the doors had been thrown open to the outsiders, too. So as I walked back upstairs from the basement cavern they had us in I realized that I could have stayed outside with the wife and actually gotten in earlier if I had NOT entered earlier~! Mentally kicking myself for this I followed the other sheep people into the convention. Not recognizing anything from the program's map, I asked somebody "Where's Artists' Alley?" It turns out that it was a separate part of the building, and I could have lined up on THAT side if anybody had guided me there, or if I had known to ask. Grrrr.....! Half an hour wasted?!?!

Artist Alley was WAAAAY the hell on the other side of this crowd. :-(

Okay, so this is when the story actually begins to get good (finally, right?). I got to Artists Alley and immediately met up with my buddy Rob Kelly, he of Ace Kilroy and The Aquaman Shrine fame.  He wished me luck in tracking down the creators I wanted to meet, and we parted ways for a few hours. I made a mental note to buy one of his cool t-shirts of Ace fighting a dark lagoon creature with the caption "Kilroy Was Here!" on it. It was SWELL!! (Of course, I forgot to actually buy one. Oops!)

I walked around to try to find all of the creators I wanted to meet. Several were not even present yet, but I found their tables. I met the current creators of AQUAMAN, penciller Ivan Reis and inker Joe Prado,  but they asked me to wait until 12 Noon when they were going to do autographs together near the front of the hall. We chatted a little, and I teased Joe about wearing a Hawkman t-shirt instead of Aquaman. He said he had left his Aquaman t-shirt at home in Brazil. I told them that I would be back later. There was a steady stream of people asking for sketches and other drawings, so I was happy to see that they were busy.

Then I met up with Joe Staton. He signed my GREEN LANTERN, AVENGERS, and JLA covers and we chatted about how his "Dick Tracy" syndicate also owns "Annie," which is being produced on Broadway right now. He gave me some "Annie" bookmarks to take back to my Gahana Theatre troupe because we are doing "Annie" in February. I wish I had some of my JUSTICE SOCIETY comics, but they are all back in Japan. I actually told him that, and he was mildly amused by it. (I had them shipped to me when I lived there, and then I did not get them shipped back when I moved back...!) 

I also met up with Rich Buckler, who was sitting near to Joe Staton. He was charging for his autographs, so instead of getting him to sign all six or so JLA and TEEN TITANS comics I had brought, I picked out one of each. Rich Buckler is very famous as one of the post-Jack Kirby FANTASTIC FOUR artists and also as the co-creator of Marvel's Deathlok. But at DC he mostly did covers and ALL-STAR SQUADRON, which I kept with my JUSTICE SOCIETY comics in Japan. Oh, well!

I walked around again and found that George Perez' line was not so long. When I asked, it turned out that he was giving out numbers, so I gladly took one (#44). When I found out that he was only on #18, I left again.

By this time Bill Sienkewicz was at his table, so I got in line to meet him. I asked him to sign the elegant  LEGION cover shown below and his only AQUAMAN work, a story where he inked the wonderful Jim Aparo's pencils. We chatted about how much fun it was for him to work with Jim Aparo, who was one of his idols. Sienkewicz (pronounced sin-kev-itz) is best-known as the Marvel artist on MOON KNIGHT and YOUNG MUTANTS, so it surprised him to see some of his rarer non-Marvel work. He was a nice guy, and I asked him to stop by The Aquaman Shrine to talk about his work with Jim Aparo. Hopefully he will.

Walking around still waiting for other artists to appear, for my Perez number to be reached, or for it to be noon so I could get Ivan Reis and Joe Prado's autographs, I happened across David Finch's table. David Finch is one of the current BATMAN artists, but he was well known for doing various Marvel work (I want to say THE HULK, but I don't know for sure). He also did a lot of the BRIGHTEST DAY covers from a year ago, and I had brought two with me just in case I met him. He seemed nice as he signed them while chatting about his new JLA assignment and how much he likes how these BRIGHTEST DAY characters have turned out, especially AQUAMAN.

 

By this point, Ramona Fradon had arrived. She was definitely one of the reasons I was there, so I was very happy to see her. She was the artist on AQUAMAN during the early Silver Age, when he had a back-up series in books like ADVENTURE and WORLD's FINEST. Then she was the artist on SUPER FRIENDS during the mid-70s. I had brought most (not all!) of my SUPER FRIENDS issues to her for her to sign, which she pleasantly obliged me.

She also had the following 6 x 6 drawing for sale, so I picked it up. I had commissioned a drawing from her recently and got a wonderful pose of Aquaman drawn ala "The Thinker." I told her that work had been me, and she seemed to remember the piece I was talking about. I told her I loved it, but also liked this more "fun-loving" drawing. There was also a wonderful Aquaman-Aqualad drawing with them petting a dolphin that I loved. It was a little bigger than this one and cost $65, which was out of my allotted budget. :-(

As she was signing she would say things like, "Oh, I remember this issue" or "Oh, this was a fun story to do..." and I tried to get some of the behind-the-scene stories. I was having a great time! I had a few issues signed by then-editor Larry Hama, who I had met in Baltimore. We talked about him a little bit (how he had loved working with her) and then I mentioned that I was actually from Ohio. So she looked at me and asked, "So, what's going on in Ohio? Is the state going to go Democratic or Republican?" Oops! I always hate talking politics with celebrities/artists/creators because I don't want to offend them. I also don't want to know if someone I really like is a radical! So I hemmed and hawed a bit. I told the truth, which is that the state really does seem to be split basically fifty-fifty. I said that I had friends on both sides, but that I believed that Ohio would probably just barely go for President Obama. She then came-out as a Democrat, saying that she was scared that Governor Romney would take away Social Security and Medicare etc. She is about 85 years old and an artist, so I guess I could have guessed she was a Democrat...! We talked a little bit about the politics of this great land (she is from NY) and then she was at the end of my stack. She had reached the SF issue shown above, #40, and I laughed as she started to sign it. "Oh, I brought that one especially, because I had a letter printed in it. Funny story, the letter was about another one of your covers that didn't have Aquaman on it. I was writing to ask if you could try to get Aquaman on all the covers." Then she showed some interest, and I showed her the cover I was talking about (#35, below). Then she actually opened up the issue and read my letter! I was a bit embarrassed by this point, but she looked up and told me that the writer was also the guy in charge of the letter column, and he would never print any letters that praised the art; he only printed letters about the stories, or if they criticized the art. She went on about how he was a bit difficult to work with, even though she liked the book and thought she did some of her best work on the series. I told her for sure it was my favorite book for years, and that her work was awesome. I just always wanted Aquaman on the covers. :-) She laughed, and I left, totally forgetting all the hassles I had faced to get to this point. I was happy.

(For your reading pleasure, here is a copy of the letter I wrote back in 1980 that was printed in #40 about issue #35. By the way, the editor got my address wrong. I lived in UNIVERSITY City, not UNION.) (And I stand by my opinion: Aquaman COULD have fit if the rest of the team had been drawn a tad smaller. ;-) ) 

I walked around again, but two guys were still not here. It was still not noon, so I figured I might as well wait at George Perez' table again. Even though my number was still high, if nobody else showed up I would get to go, right? 

So I got in line behind 29, 30, 33, and 34. I figured this was pretty good chance of getting to see one of my favorites. After about half an hour, a couple who had both taken numbers got to go forward. When the husband moved forward and started talking to George, the wife turned to me and handed me her ticket. That was #34. I was now going to be next....! I, in turn, handed off my number (#44) to the guy next to me. However (again?), as we were waiting, more *earlier* numbered people kept showing up. So I kept getting bumped as 21, 18, and 26 all showed up. :-(  So close, and yet so far...!!

As I was waiting I noticed that the other main table in this area was being set up. When I asked I found out that the AQUAMAN artists, Ivan Reis and Joe Prado, were going to be signing *here* at noon. So I was at the right spot after all! I went and got in line to wait for them, knowing I was not losing my George Perez spot. (In fact, from where I was I could see that he was still doing sketches for the people I had left behind.) After about ten minutes waiting I got to move forward. Joe and Ivan were signing together to benefit HERO INITIATIVE, one of my favorite charities. They were signing for a donation to the cause (to help support retired or in-need creators with health or other budgetary problems). Because Ivan was the penciller and the more famous one, he was also doing sketches. So I went up to Joe first and he remembered me. We chatted about how good they were on the book (they are moving over to JUSTICE LEAGUE in the next few months). He was a genuinely nice guy. He then told Ivan that I only wanted books signed and not a sketch, so the uber-popular Ivan Reis stopped the sketch he was doing to sign my books for me!  

You might notice that there are three signatures on this cover. Joe Prado signed at the bottom, Ivan Reis signed at the top, and Rod Reis signed in-between them. Rod Reis is the incredibly talented colorist on AQUAMAN. After I got Ivan and Joe to sign, and after I met George Perez, I went to Rod's table and asked him to also sign them. He is doing some incredible color effects on the book, especially in the underwater scenes. These comics (this "zero" issue in particular) and the Ramona Fradon original scanned above are my new treasures. :-)

Now what can I say; how can I express the feeling of going back to George Perez' table and asking the guy standing at the front of the line, "what's your number?" and showing him that mine was lower than his! When George Perez looked up and asked "Who's next?" and I said, "I'm #34" nobody stopped me from being next. It was my turn!!! :-) 

However (haha), by this point I only had $20 left in my wallet! I didn't have enough to get an original sketch for $40. He didn't have any Aquaman drawings among his prints. So I showed him the books I brought and asked him if I could get him to sign them. One of them was a very rare, independently published fanzine of his from 1979. The others were TEEN TITANS, JLA, and AVENGERS. He said sure and signed them off without any complaints. I didn't ask if I had to, but I dropped my last $20 into his "tip jar" and thanked him for being so great for so long. He thanked me for the money and then my experience with George Perez was over. If I *ever* meet him again, I will get a sketch. It's my new goal. :-)

This scan is for you,  Greg and Shag(g)!

I checked in with Rob one last time and told him about my day. He was beginning to do well; he ended up selling out all of his ACE KILROY collections, so huge CONGRATS to him for that. I told him I was going to try to see my remaining Aqua-guys. If they weren't there, then I would give up on them and move on to the "Main Convention Hall." True to my word, I went by Erik Larsen's table and this time he was there! I asked him to sign two of my AQUAMAN comics, one of which I had also gotten Bill Sienkewicz to sign. Erik Larsen had been the writer and the cover artist of this series, so it was cool to meet him. He is more famously known as the creator of The Savage Dragon.He laughed that nobody had liked his version of AQUAMAN, but now the character was doing very well.

 

I never did see the living legend, Carmine Infantino. He was not in Artist Alley, and when I went to the main exhibition hall I didn't see him there, either. He was not listed on any maps, and I forgot to ask where his booth/table would have been.

The Main Hall was even more crowded then the photo taken above. WALLS of people, and I was there with a back-pack full of comics. I walked around the whole place just to look at things and see what was what. There was a lot more video game type stuff than I thought there would be. A lot of zombies and anime and other non-comic book stuff. The celebrities were stationed somewhere else and I didn't even think to look for them, as I had no money to get any autographs by this point. I think I would have liked to have met Carrie Fisher, though.

I ran into my friend John from Baltimore and we went to Broadway Deli for lunch. He was talking about how NYCC compared to other conventions he has been to, and I decided that Baltimore was more my style. I really had a good time there. Now that I have been to NYCC, I don't think I want to go back. Too many people, and too expensive! I mentioned Dragon Con or Chicago as possibilities in the new year....we'll see.

The last part of my day was shopping. I wanted to get t-shirts for my buddy's kids; I ended up getting a cool "muggle" t-shirt for his daughter and a cool STAR WARS shirt for his son. I also bought toddler t-shirts for two of my work friends' kids (Flash and Superman, respectively). Then I ended my day at Neal Adams' booth. I had met him at Baltimore and again at Columbus, and reminded him of that. I picked up two JLA prints for two friends but didn't see the Captain America I had seen before. My buddy was a big Cap fan and I wanted to get him that. If I bought three prints I got a better deal than if I bought two, so I specifically asked for something with Captain America on it. This made his wife start digging through boxes to find the Cap prints she swore were there somewhere. This allowed me more time to chat with Neal Adams, so...win-win!! :-) I ended up getting this rare product signed and personalized. I was out of money, but I was happy. 

The wife called almost at the same time I was about to call her; we met up outside and headed back up towards Penn Station. I called Brian but he needed to stay at the office a bit longer, so Yuko and I went to Macy's and walked around for her to take pictures of the Empire State Building and other various NYC things. A few minutes after 5 PM Brian arrived and we got on the train back to NJ.

One last story about the NYCC. On the train back to New Jersey we rode with someone looking very much like this:

 

I was feeling pretty good about myself and I figured they were in the same high spirits as me, so I said, "Excuse me, may I ask you what you are supposed to be?" It turns out that he is a Brony. Bronies are male fans of My Little Pony, and this character is evidently one of the ponies. I have never seen the show, and I couldn't find anything on YouTube that wasn't a parody. But it was kind of fun to chat with him and his geeky friends as an end to our exciting day.

Brian, Yuko, and I then went out to dinner at a place in Maplewood, NJ and had a normal evening among normal adults. :-)

Saturday we spent with Brian and Virginia and their kids. We went to the beach board-walk at Asbury Park and then hung out at home making cookies. Sunday we got up early and got out on the road. With no problems we got home at about 5:30 PM. Another exciting weekend in the books. My birthday celebrations were finally over. :-)  

Columbus Wizard World 2012

Oops! I forgot to write up about my experiences at this year's Wizard World Comic Con! Sorry!!


So the last week of September I took two days off from work to volunteer at the Con. Last year I volunteered for a day and a half and heard later that only volunteers who work on the *last day* get any free stuff (aka "swag"). So this year I decided to do the whole thing: prep work on Thursday and Friday, and then actual work on both Saturday and Sunday, too. I wanted some prizes for my hard work! ;-)

This year's show was supposed to feature William Shatner, but for some reason he was replaced by Patrick Stewart. Also Val Kilmer, Dean Cain, and John DeLancie ("Q" from ST:Next Generation) were the celebrities I recognized. There were another half-dozen celebrities that I did NOT recognize, but I'll get to them in a minute. On Thursday there was very little to do prep-wise; we toured the areas, got the lay of the land, filled in the required paperwork, and helped unpack certain things. Last year we had been stuck in a small hall kind of out of the way; this year we were back in one of the Grand Halls, and right away I felt we were going to have more fun in this open and inviting space than we had last year. Friday was more of the same prep-wise; we had to stuff catalogs and pamphlets into "gift bags" and just in general get things ready for the 5 PM opening. I'm never sure how these things happen, but as we got closer to the Opening Time I was assigned to the front gate. I was directed to help artists and exhibitors if they had problems, but to keep the paying customers out until it was officially open. So this is how it happened that I got to meet and chat with one of my all-time favorite artists, Mr. Neal Adams.

Keep in mind that the Wizard World staff people are not, by definition, from Columbus. I think they are from New York, or Chicago, or even Texas. They aren't local. So often I would be standing there listening to directions or whatever and somebody else would walk up and ask, "Where is the Hilton?!" or "How do I get back to the loading dock?" I made myself useful by being able to answer these types of questions with no fuss. That might be one of the reasons I was positioned at the front. I was also obviously not a Shrinking Violet or unable to handle myself in various situations, and I also did what I was told. All of those things might have something to do with how I was assigned over the weekend. So...anyway, I'm standing there helping people in various ways when I see a familiar face walk up to me. I met Neal Adams at the Baltimore Comic Con so I knew what he looked like. (He had signed my Aquaman, shown above.) I was beaming as I said, "Welcome to Columbus!" He introduced himself to me and I said, "I know who you are, Mr. Adams. I met you in Baltimore, and now I'm happy to have you in my home town." He said, "Next time we need to meet in MY hometown, New York." So I said, "I am planning on going this year. If I do I will stop by your booth." He had some registration questions, so I directed him to the staff so that he could take care of them. But I had talked to one of my idols! I was pretty happy. 

On Saturday I showed up early, knowing the day would be hectic right from the beginning. I was at the front gate again controlling traffic until right after we opened, when the staff asked me to work at the Eliza Dushku booth. The what? It turns out she is an actress who was in BRING IT ON, SOUL SURVIVOR, JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKES BACK, and several other things I've never heard of. Oh, and she was on BUFFY, I think. So it was my job to stand at her area and do crowd control. Believe it or not, this was quite a job as many many people wanted to see her, and she was only there on Saturday so everybody had to get in line to see her then. The line snaked around and into Dean Cain's area, so we constantly had to be moving people or asking them to move on. Plus photography was forbidden, so we had to say, "This is a No Photo area, please" and ask people to stop. All during the day as I was working I also got to watch how Dean Cain was interacting with his fans, which was fun. I wanted to go over and get a picture signed but his prices were a bit too high for me...Now, of course, I wish I had...

I was originally scheduled to do Face Painting on Sunday (Kids' Day) so I thought that watching Dean Cain (not in a stalker-ish way!) would be the highlight of this year's work. Uh...no. Turns out it wasn't. :-)

Sunday I went in late because I hadn't actually walked around yet on any "off time." So in my civilian guise I walked the floor and went shopping. Unfortunately, some of the things I had seen while volunteering earlier were no longer available....like the Black Manta lead figurine I had seen, and the Neal Adams Aquaman/JLA print I had wanted. I did buy an Alfred E. Neumann MAD Aquaman action figure. And I bought a t-shirt from my buddy Terry Huddleston and some nifty JLA art by Alan Schell (shown below).

Then I was ready to put my Volunteer t-shirt back on and get back to work. As soon as I walked up to the volunteer coordinators, they asked me what I was supposed to be doing; I told them I was scheduled for face painting. They told me to forget that and to go see the guys at the Patrick Stewart area because they needed me. So...off I went! I then spent the next three hours or so at the Patrick Stewart area! My job was to keep people organized before he showed up, then to help keep the line moving after he *did* show up, and to answer questions about what his schedule was when he went away again. I'm not gonna lie; this was pretty cool!

When he finally did show up I was standing less than four feet from where he was sitting. I could hear how nice he was to his fans, as he spoke in that awesome baritone voice. One young lady came and talked to him about Shakespeare; she brought a copy of one of his plays for Mr. Stewart to sign. He had her *recite* some of the lines and did a quick coaching bit with her! I know that made her day!! When there was a lull in the line some guy walked by and shouted out that he thought Patrick Stewart had been hilarious in an episode of FRASIER. They chatted, and when he walked off I was emboldened to say, "I saw you the other day on Jon Stewart's DAILY SHOW, and I thought that was pretty funny, too." He then talked TO ME: "Yes, that was a blast to do. Those guys are fun to work with." So here I am, having expected to spend my day face painting with kids, spending my day with Patrick Stewart!! I was quite happy, I gotta say.

His manager came by at around 2 PM and they got ready to go. I pulled out a copy of the programming one-sheet and asked him if he wouldn't mind signing it. I pointed out my last name Burbage is the same as  Shakespeare's buddy Richard Burbage. He smiled, looked at my name tag, and then signed my program. He walked off to catch an airplane a few minutes later. John de Lancie was at the nearby table, so it was easy to ask him to sign my program, too. As the convention was winding down I would have liked to get Dean Cain's autograph, too, but by the time I got over to his table he was gone. In fact, by that time most of the other volunteers were going around getting their volunteer t-shirt signed by artists and celebrities. There was a huge line around The Boondock Saints tables, and so I was actually working while most of the other volunteers were "off." That's okay, though, because I have never seen BOONDOCK SAINTS and had never heard of any of the actors. The staff guys were telling me I *had* to see the movie, so I have added it to my list of movies to see. It's easy to not be impressed with celebrities when you have no idea who they are, haha!

 

 After all the clean-up when the celebrities were gone and things were over, we got our pick of a few cool things. I got a t-shirt that says COMIC CON on it, plus a few toys. But the feeling of fun while representing my city is what was really great. Next year I'll have to go to more of the off-site events like the Costume Contest and the drinking. Fun weekend, and a great way to start my Birthday Week.

Baltimore Comic Con 2012

 

Last week my wife and friend and I drove the seven plus hours from Columbus, OH to Baltimore, MD to attend the 2012 Baltimore Comic Con. It was my second time, but my friend's first. And my wife went sight-seeing instead of actually attending the convention. 

Each time I go to a convention I look at the guest list and decide who I want to visit with. Last year I was able to meet one of my all-time favorite artists, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. I got him to sign a few of my comics, and I even chatted with him for a little while. However, I didn't realize he did sketches, and after I heard that he *did*, I kicked myself for not getting one. So this year, my number one goal was to get a sketch of Aquaman from the master.

I wore my orange Aquaman t-shirt with a green dress shirt over it. I figured it would be cold in the convention center.

My wife waited in line with me and my friend before the convention opened. During that time she saw several people in costumes as well as several...well....shall I call them "Extreme 40 Year Old Virgins"? And by that I mean over-weight and or unattractive people in obscure comic or anime or pop culture character t-shirts. I mean, I'm no Brad Pitt myself but I looked normal! (One of the pleasures I get from going to these types of things, to tell you the truth!) My wife turned to me and said, "I understand. I take back all the bad nerdy things I've called you over the years." In Japanese there is a word, "o-taku," that is used to call people what I think of as "extreme nerds." Characters from THE BIG BANG THEORY, perhaps? Oddly enough, this year for every two or three of these people we saw, I saw a hot girl or guy, too. When I was a kid the "cool" or "good looking" kids never admitted to reading this stuff. So I was impressed every time I saw a good looking, fit guy and a normal looking, sexy girl together. The future looks bright!


As soon as I got inside I made a bee-line to Garcia-Lopez' table. However, he wasn't there, yet. So we went to Larry Hama, who is well-known for creating Obnoxio The Clown, for editing X-MEN, G.I. JOE, and WOLVERINE, for appearing on an episode of MASH, and for editing SUPER FRIENDS. That is why I wanted to see him....we chatted a little bit about the comic-book (his first editorial job, he said) and the work involved in it. He was obviously surprised to see 70s DC comics when he's used to seeing 80s MARVELs.  He told me how much of a joy it was to work with the artist, the extra-ordinary Ramona Fradon. I told him I hoped to see her at the upcoming NY Comic Con and maybe get her to sign the same issues he had just signed for me.
 

He was seated right next to Roger Stern and Scott Hanna. I think Roger Stern wrote the best CAPTAIN AMERICA series ever and one of the best AVENGERS stories, so I got in line to ask him to sign those. His wife (I assume) asked if I wanted them personalized, but I was so surprised by the request that I was momentarily struck speechless. In the end I said no, and I got "Best, Roger Stern." He was a hell of a nice guy. Scott Hanna was offering new copies of PHANTOM STRANGER, so I bought a copy and got him to sign it as we chatted about the character. That was cool, too.

And then.....back to Garcia-Lopez' booth. He was there and we waited in line. My buddy John joined us because he, too, wanted to get a sketch from the master. Finally, after some annoying dealer guy was finished being rude to him, it was our turn. By this time I had seen an earlier guy ask for a sketch and pay $20, so I knew that it would be okay. "Hello, sir," I said respectfully. "Could you please draw a sketch of Aquaman on my Garcia-Lopez Treasury inside front cover?"  He took my book, grabbed a pencil, and went to work. Moments (yes, mere moments!) later, I had the following illustration. "Thank you so much!" 

I could have gone home right then, I was so happy.

My friend and I walked around for the rest of the day. I saw and chatted with Mark Waid, who signed his newest project, STEED AND MRS PEEL.

I had Paul Levitz sign a few of my favorite LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES issues, then later went to listen to him talk about his life in the industry. I chatted with Peter Tomasi, who was the editor of AQUAMAN for several years.

I hung out some more with my buddy John at TWO-MORROWS PUBLISHING. I bought a few back-issues of Back Issue and Alter Ego. They always seem to have interesting articles in their magazines, so that was fun to chat with them.

And lastly, I went up to one of the all-time greats, Mr. Neal Adams, and asked for an autograph. Now, all of these other creators had been signing things for free. Neal Adams, however, charged five bucks. So I gave him a favorite illustration of the JLA and asked him to sign near Aquaman. I pointed to my shirt and told him that Aquaman was my favorite. We made small talk about The Aquaman Shrine, and then I was leaving. It was definitely a tad surreal to meet one of you idols like this, but I'm glad I did. Five bucks seems steep for a signature, but for the whole experience, it definitely seems worth it.

 

We headed back to our hotel and got stuck in the sudden storm. I had to change into one of my newly purchased Aquaman t-shirts (green this time) for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. I met up with my Aquaman Shrine and Ace Kilroy buddy Rob Kelly and *his* pal, Doug Slack.

The next day we got up early and drove to Washington DC to visit with another friend. Seven plus hours later, we were back in Columbus. It was a greatly fun weekend.

Next up is the Ohio Mid-Ohio Con (aka Wizard World Columbus) coming up the last week of September. Then we are hitting the road again to go to the NY Comic Con. Looking forward to that one, for sure!