Scenes from the Life of an Amatuer Comic Book Collector (16)--Easter in Allentown

Allentown, Pa., is famous as a place people need to get away from. In both the movie and Broadway stage version of 42nd Street, Peggy Sawyer hails from this hamlet. When she tells Julian Marsh "Show business isn't for me, I'm going back to Allentown," he erupts "I'm giving you the chance to star in the biggest show Broadway has seen in 20 years and you tell me Allentown???" Rose in Bye Bye Birdie and both Frankie and Johnny in Terrence McNally's play Frankie and Johnny in the Clare de Lune are also escapees.

So where else did I spend last Saturday but in said burg? My friend Diane was visiting her mother for Easter weekend and I was visiting my folks in Consohocken near Philly. Conveniently, the Merchants Square Mall was hosting the Great Allentown Comic Con that day. I drove the hour to visit, met Diane and her mom at the mall, shopped for comics, then we had lunch at the IHOP--I had the strawberry pancakes with scrambled eggs, hash browns, and sausages--and we had the guided tour of Allentown. Highlights include the diner where President Obama had lunch last December and they saved the remains of his food for weeks, and the building where they hid the Liberty Bell during the Revolutionary War figuring no one would look in this hick burg. But I kid because I love, as Krusty the Clown says.

The comic con was actually a comic show with about 15 dealers selling their wares and maybe about 100 attendees, five of whom were in costume. Why do they always come as stormtroopers from Star Wars? There is always one table where they sell for half-price and I find it right away, spending over $70. I did find another table where they had really good stuff from the early to late 1960s with no covers and pretty beat up for only $1 a book, so I bought seven of those including two Mystery in Spaces with Adam Strange stories I have in the DC Showcase Adam Strange collection, but two absolutely beautiful sci-fi back-up stories with fantastic art by Murphy Anderson--The Answer Man of Space and The Trojan Whale of Space.

Here are the comics I bought:
Action 349 (coverless), 389
Adventure 385
The Atom 25
Captain America 102
DC Showcase 41 (Tommy Tomorrow of the Planeteers)
Detective Comics 301, 360, 443
The Flash 161
House of Mystery 163
Jimmy Olsen 79, 80, 106, 127, 130
Journey into Mystery (with Thor) 119
Lois Lane 27 (coverless)
Metal Men 37
Mystery in Space 73, 76 (both coverless)
Strange Adventures 122, 140
Superboy 132, 156 (giant)
Superman coverless giant spotlighting Lex Luthor with first seven pages missing, 230
Superman Family 165
Thor 133, 137
World's Finest 148, 181, 203 (last two coverless)

Riding the Subway with Mr. Sulu

Friday morning I was riding the subway to work and George Takei, Mr. Sulu from the original Star Trek series got on at 42nd Street. I wasn't sure if it was him since he was wearing dark glasses, but as soon as he started talking to the man with him--I assume it was his partner whom he married in California before the hateful Prop. 8 was passed--I recognized his voice.

"We need to get off at 8th Street--NYU," he said. That was my stop. I figured I would say something to him when we all left the train so he wouldn't have to deal with all the people in the car who would recognize him.

I had a perfect reason to say hello other than just "I'm a big dorky Trekkie fan." About 23 years ago I was a volunteer guest escort--no, not that kind--at a sci-fi convention where Takei was a guest speaker. At the time I was a member of UNYT—The New York-based Doctor Who fan club. Yes, I admit it, God help me. I forget what the initials stood for, but it was a variation on UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce that dealt with extraterrestrial stuff in the Doctor Who series. Anyway, the group was involved with organizing this event which took place at the Ethical Cultural Society on the Upper West Side. Also in attendance were the second Doctor Who (Patrick Troughton) and the fifth Doctor Who (Peter Davison) and some British horror movie queen named Caroline Munro.

I wound up serving as George’s guest escort when a friend of mine who was coordinating speaker relations grabbed me at the convention—it was called Infinicon—and told me Sulu’s original guest escort failed to pick him up at the hotel. It turned out the guy overslept. What would I have to do?, I asked. Here’s his schedule, she said, all you have to do is take him from event to event. First he gives his talk and question and answer session, then he signs autographs for an hour, then take him to lunch, there’s a talent show tonight, then tomorrow a special luncheon for people who have paid extra. So I said okay. He was a lot of fun and it was great to be with him as people on the street recognized him.

I haven’t been to one of these things in a long time. Comic Con and the other comic-book conventions I’ve been to aren’t really the same thing; they are too big or they don’t concentrate on intimate interaction between stars of old sci-fi shows and the fans. I used to go all the time. During the course of my convention-going, I met or saw most of the crew of the original Enterprise, most of the Doctor Whos, several of his companions, Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith from Lost in Space) and Judy from the same show, Joyce Randolph from the Honeymooners, Dawn Wells from Gilligan’s Island, some cast members from V and Blake’s Seven, Adam West (the original Batman from the 1960s series which was my favorite TV show), and Chewbacca from Star Wars.

It would be fun now to go to one, but these days the cons are either enormous media whore shows like Comic Con with little interaction or they are rinky-dink things with D-List people like wrestling stars or Mason Reese (the former commercial child star who looked like a tiny old man) or Larry Storch or Bill Daly from I Dream of Jeannie, The Bob Newhart Show, and Match Game sitting at tables and selling their autographs from $10.

When the train got to 8th Street, Takei and his partner were not making to get up. But I had to in order to make it to work. Should I tell him “I was listening in and heard you say you should get off at this stop”? Instead I just shook his hand and said “George, I just wanted to say hi. Twenty years ago, I was your guest escort at a convention.” He smiled and said “Is that right?” The doors were opening and I said “It’s nice to see you” and left. He was still on the train. There’s wasn’t time for me to say “I thought you wanted to get off here.” So I am guilty of making George Takei miss his stop, I guess he wasn’t a very good helmsman. Get it?