Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (18)--A Pro at Two Cons

It's been too long since my last blog post. A lot has been happening--there was a major event I had to organize for work followed by one of my collegues taking a long vacation, then me getting a sinus infection, etc. But enough whining. There were two bright spots--Big Apple Con Oct. 2, followed by Comic Con on Oct. 9. Last year, these two cons threatened to be held on the same weekend this year, but Big Apple Con backed off on that game of chicken and was a week earlier. Holding it in the Penn Plaza made it seem small compared to last year's huge event at Chelsea Piers. There was the usual washed-up celebs selling their autographs and photos to make their Medicare payments--Lee Majors, Adam West, Burt Ward, all three of the Brady boys, one of the kids from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Richard Anderson, Majors' co-star from 6 Million Dollar Man, even Oscar nominee Mary McDonnell.

The comic book pickings were pretty lean, I hoped a lot of dealers were waiting for Comic Con the following week. There was one dealer from Virginia who has some good deals with lots of Silver Age books at about $4-$5. One guy had plenty of stuff for $1; it was all Bronze Age and I was able to fill out the Fantastic Four holes.

The following week I got to Comic Con at the Javitz Center and there had to be at least 20,000 people. There weren't as many people in costume or as many interesting panels as previous years. I did see some repeat costumed people, like the same Batgirl, Black Canary and Green Arrow as at last year's Big Apple Con.

My friend Diane was there and she turned out to be a MacGyver when her sandal broke and she fixed it with a paper clip. The only celeb we saw was Carroll Spinney who plays Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street.

There were plenty of familiar superheroes including lots of Catwomen, Supermen, and Spidermen. There was one guy who had a giant inflatible TARDIS from Doctor Who on his head. But the coolest outfits had to belong to two fellows we encountered once we left the con and started to head to Ninth Ave. in search of a restaurant. They were Unemployed Man and the Master of Degrees, promoting their own graphic novel (pictured above). I asked if the guy in the college grad gown if he was supposed to be Mastermind, a villain from Justice League of America # 28 The Case of the Forbidden Superpowers, who dressed in a college cap and gown to denote his superior brain.

There were lots of great buys at Comic Con and I didn't spend any more than $3 on a book. I did buy Action #368 without realizing I already had it and that the copy was damaged with a rip through all the pages. On top of that I thought I was going to pay $1 for it, but the dealer said "That's a $2 book, it wound up in the $1 box." I should have said, "But it's in the $1 box, so I should have it for a buck." Too late now. The highlights were finding lots of Jack Kirby Capt. Americas, and some good Jimmy Olsens and Lois Lanes.

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?