Sunday I took the boy and two friends to Boston Comic Con. I was a bit nervous; while I've had mostly good experiences with the folks at my local comic store, I did meet a misanthropic troll at another comic store in town, and my experience with the guys who ran Phantasy Emporium in Cincinnati was...well, let's just say the Simpsons' Comic Book Guy didn't seem that far off the mark.
And there were a lot of dealers there, and many of them did not stray too far from the stereotype, but here's the thing--the guys who actually make the comics (and I say guys because they were nearly all guys) are like the total opposite of the guys who sell the comics. The comic creators we met were uniformly kind and friendly. The boy got a ninja turtle poster signed by co-creator Peter Laird, and his presence there was pretty impressive to me. I mean, here's a guy with at least 4 movies based on his characters, action figures, video games, and probably enough money to fill a Scrooge McDuck swimming pool, and he's sitting in a sweltering basement in Boston signing comics and posters all day. So I thought that was cool.
I bought some independent horror comics from the nice folks at Severed Head Comics, and the highlight of the show for me was getting my copy of Cycle of the Werewolf signed by Bernie Wrightson. I was ridiculously star struck to be standing there with the guy who created Swamp Thing (as well as decades of awesome horrror illustartions), and eventually blurted out "I really love your work" before fleeing in shame, clutching my signed copy.
The boy and I counted seventeen and a half people in costume, including a full Batman, and a Captain Jack Sparrow with a grossly authentic smell.
Overall, the vibe at the whole show was really nice.
I also picked up a 39-year-old copy of Creepy for 10 bucks! Bargain! I'm definitely going back next year.
