People often ask if it’s worth it, meaning is it worth travelling so far to go to a comic book convention, especially the conventions where I only fly in for the weekend and then go back again the day after the convention ends, spending only 4 to 5 days in the US. I have probably said it before, and for those who have heard/read it before I apologize, but it bears repeating; Baltimore Comic-Con (BBC rest of this article) is a great comic book convention, with emphasize on comic books. It is more than worth flying in on a Thursday and leaving again on a Monday, despite the 6 hour time difference. Luckily I rarely suffer from jetlag, but for those who do, I can perfectly understand that it might appear slightly crazy flying back and forth like that. BBC focus solely on comic books, and do not have any of the media type events going on, which a lot of other conventions do these days, which is not entirely a bad thing, it can just sometime take away the focus from what comic book conventions started out to be. Do you ever get that feeling of having arrived at the right place? Having been a comic collector for almost 30 years, and a reader for even longer, going to comic book conventions have been a great added enjoyment, especially the BCC. Going to BCC feels like having arrived at the right place if you are interested in reading and collecting comic books. In a low key laid back atmosphere, you are able to meet and talk to the creators who created the work you love reading. And the creators also love going to Baltimore, which they will tell you if you ask them.
All of that is very apparent if you look at the guest list, which consists of a long line of great talent, who would normally not be at a convention the size of Baltimore. And as you know size does matter, but in the case of BCC a lot of the other things I mentioned above also factor in, which is why the guest list is as impressive as it is. See the complete list here Some of the bigger guests this year was Todd McFarlane, who drew very long lines at his two signings on Saturday.
I was lucky enough to attend one of the signings by donating some money to the HERO Initiative (more on them later). However the guests I was most looking forward to seeing were Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Klaus Janson. I have had the fortune of meeting both creators briefly before, and was looking forward to talking to them again. To rewind a little and start at the beginning. After having arrived Thursday evening, I went down to the convention center Friday to meet up with some good friends and hopefully do a little shopping during set-up. I’m always grateful for having the opportunity to walk the halls during set-up, and as usual I spent a lot of money.
After the halls closed at 6 PM, I went back to my hotel to change, and get ready to have dinner with Marv Wolfman, who was a guest at the show, and his daughter Jessie. It is always great to spend some time with Marv and we had an interesting conversation while enjoying a good meal. Afterwards we went to the bar at the Hyatt, which was the hotel HQ for the convention. Here I was fortunately enough to meet and talk to the above mentioned Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. He is an incredible modest and soft spoken person, considering what an amazing artist he is.
I also managed to talk to quite a few other friends, before the untimely closing of the bar just before midnight! Not sure that the hotel staff were prepared for the con crowd, who likes to hang out very late. The same thing happened Saturday and Sunday night, so that is something to be improved upon for next years con. Saturday morning I spent an hour in the Todd McFarlane line, and immediately afterwards I went over to Klaus Janson’s booth. He was sharing the booth with Howard Chaykin, whom he was also doing a seminar and an artist workshop together with later that day. Howard Chaykin is always a popular guest, and Klaus Janson is a rare guest at conventions, so they drew quite a crowd.
I always go by and say hi to Howard, as he is such a great guy, and an amazing artist, who is very knowledgeable about comic book history and art in general. I always have some very fun stimulating conversations with Howard, as he is a no BS guy, who will always give you a straight answer whether you like it or not. Howard also boosted my street cred without knowing it. Seeing that they were unable to sign for everybody before going to their seminar, they told people that they would be back again between five and six. So half an hour before people started to line up, myself included, to wait for Howard and Klaus to return by 5 PM. By 5.15 PM they still hadn’t showed up, so I gave Howard a call to hear when they expected to be there. He told me that the seminar ran a little late, but that they would be there in 5 minutes, and told me to tell everybody in line this. So I went up and down the line passing this information along, when somebody asked if I had this info on good authority? I said Howard told me, and people around me went you know Howard? Yes, I called him and asked. You have Howard Chaykin’s phone number! So for a couple of minutes my street cred was pretty high among 25-30 fellow fans, I have never met before and will probably never meet again. After the signing I went back to my hotel to clean up and prepare for the Harvey Awards. I love going to awards ceremonies, which I know I have said many times before, but I’ll gladly repeat it. The Harvey Awards starts with a reception, where I got to talk to good friend Mark Wheatley and his wife Carol.
After the reception we were ushered to our assigned tables. I got to sit at table five, which was just in front of the stage to the left. I was joined at the table by Louise & Walter Simonson, Cathy & John Workman, Marifran & Denny O’Neil, Todd Scott from BCC and Kevin Brogan from the HERO Initiative. Quite a lot of talent cramped into one table. Like last year, Scott Kurtz was the MC and did an amazing job – that guy is funny! I kept telling people afterwards that the awards ceremony was a combination of an awards presentation and a roast (and a lot of people got roasted!). No one was safe from Scott’s sharp wit, and especially Richard Starkings’ table was cheering Scott on. He was pulling no punches, and no subjects were off limits. Like when he introduced Jim Shooter, he said that the last time there was a “Shooter” in town everybody was afraid to get gas. People got a little quiet and Scott looks around – too soon? Jim Shooter gets up to the stage being sure that the people behind the Harvey Awards have conspired against him, as he is stuck with the Best American Edition of Foreign Material category with impossible to pronounce names. He manages to do a decent job with the audience having quite a fun time while he does it. He also presents the Best Inker award, which went to Klaus Janson. He was very grateful for the award, which much to my surprise was actually his first award. Long overdue if you ask me, as he has been an amazing artist for more than three decades.
Before that Mark Waid held the keynote speech, which sort of drifted off track, and may have lasted a little bit too long, despite being about a very important subject, that of copyright. Afterwards, if memory serves me right, Scott Kurtz compared it to Neal Adams 30 minutes speech last year about the holocaust and motion comics, not being sure which subject matter was the most depressing….. Aside from the Harvey Awards, the HERO Initiative also gave out two awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award and the Dick Giordano Humanitarian of the Year Award, which was presented for the first time. The first DGHA was a tie between two creators, and the first recipient was Tim Sale, with Kevin Brogan from HERO presenting the award. When he was announced Tim wasn’t present, and Scott Kurtz commented that he was probably just pulling a Tony Stark, playing dice somewhere else. Kevin then introduced Jerry Robinson as the second recipient, who got a standing ovation. After Jerry Robinson had given his acceptance speech, someone had managed to get hold of Tim Sale, who was very grateful and surprised to get the DGHA. One of the next presenters was Denny O’Neil, who gave a very grand and passionate speech about the next category, until Paul McSpadden (Harvey Awards master of ceremony) politely told him that he was introducing the wrong category. He thought he was about to present the HERO Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award, but that was not until later.
Scott Kurtz was convinced that he would give the same speech again, as he would have forgotten all about it when he got around to doing the intro again. He didn’t though, but finished it nicely, and called Louise Simonson to the stage, who in turn announced that her husband Walter Simonson was the recipient of the HERO Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award. Good choice and well deserved. Read more about the HERO Initiative here, and go and support them.
A lot of other funny things happened, like Mike Allred roasting Mike Mignola…twice, and Erik Larsen accepting four awards on behalf of Image creators saying less and less each time he came to the stage. But it is hard to remember all that took place, so I hope that I didn’t misrepresent anybody in my recap. I would like to mention one more special moment, and that is when Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics won the Best Biographical, Historical, or Journalistic Presentation category. When Denis Kitchen who did the book (together with Paul Buhle) accepted the award he asked Charlie Kochman from Abrams to join him on stage. Charlie told that when he came to Abrams a couple of years ago, he had three dream projects he would love to see happen, and this book on Harvey Kurtzman was one of them, and he said it was gratifying to see the Harvey committee acknowledging the work with the award. After the awards ceremony we hit the Hyatt bar which was a very short event, as it closed at midnight. I went to one of the nearby bars with some friends for a couple of hours, had a little walking adventure in the streets of Baltimore until getting to bed around 3 AM. A lot of the allure of going to comic book convention is the social networking and possibility of hanging out with some good friends that is normally not possible due to living so far apart. And it is rarely dull when you get to hang out with good friends.
Like the two sweet blond girls I know from Orlando. When I met up with them, the first thing one of them tell me is; no high heels?, which is a story for another day. If you catch me at a future convention in a quiet moment I’ll tell you the story. Aaaaanyway. Having attended MegaCon in Orlando this year, I had not planned to be back for a few years, but they both insisted that I should go there again next year, which I might. For those of you who think that having two attractive blonds asking you to attend is not enough reason to go, Stan Lee will also be there and Roy Thomas too! “Nuff said”. Read more about MegaCon here. Sunday was laid back and relaxed, and I managed to do just about everything I set out to accomplish. One of the things I was trying to get done, was getting the Wednesday Comics HC signed by all of the creators who had worked on it, that were present at the convention (which were quite a few).
It is an amazing collection, who won an extremely deserved Harvey Award for best anthology. However, it is not an easy book to drag around, all though I was far from alone dragging it around, but I can’t imagine bringing it with me again! After the convention closed I went out and had dinner with some good friends, before spending a couple of hours at the Hyatt bar. Good times in the company of good friends.