Big Weekend, Episode I

I haven’t had a weekend so packed with fun in a while.

It started out with a D&D game Friday night, in which the intrepid band of adventurers came face-to-face with a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. That’s not just awesome, that’s Fifth-Grade Awesome. Because there’s nothing more intrinsically awesome than the things you love in 5th grade. (We’ll see this again later in the weekend.) The only thing that would have been cooler (although a shame for the player involved) would be if my T-Rex chomped the paladin in half and everyone could see his head and torso bounce through its ribcage.

The next day was the Main Event. I drove down to Philadelphia for the Wizard World comic convention there. I was looking forward to it for a couple of reasons. First of all was One-Eyed Jack. Mike and I had finally completely my chapter of the graphic novel, in which Jack and his pal Hogan live one of their nine lifetimes as Lewis and Clark, making the historic journey to America’s west coast.

The original plan was to save publishing any of the book until the entire graphic novel was completed, but it gets frustrating going to conventions with nothing to show people. So this special issue—the complete Lewis & Clark story—was born. People seemed to respond well to it—especially parents and kids. It was really gratifying. (I'll do a separate post on the book later today.)

Another reason I was looking forward to the show was the chance to see friends again. I caught up with Mike, of course, as well as Scott Neely and Sean McManus. Plus, I got to meet an online friend for the first time, since Ami was in town for the weekend too! I had lunch with her and her friend Greta, and later on we had a great time walking the con floor. And Ami got to witness my second moment of Fifth-Grade Awesome for the weekend. Or maybe third-grade. Either way, it was serious glee when I encountered this:


A big pile of comics.

Not comics in boxes. Not comics in bags, or boarded up. And these were the comics I was pulling off the drugstore stands when I was a kid; some of them were the same books I bought from Greenberg’s pharmacy before riding my bike home. It was like finding some lost treasure. It was like winning the lottery. They were 50 cents apiece, and I pulled one after another from the pile, just on the basis of their covers alone. Fantastic Four? Sure! Popeye? Why not? Casper? Cool -- any Richie Rich around, too? Ghostly Haunts? Ditko says YES!

After the con, Mike had me over for a delicious cookout at his place, then we went to the Zenescope after-party, where I didn’t drink as much beer as I’d like because a guy only has so many bonus points, and I knew there was pecan pie in my future. Mmm... pie.

So that takes us through half the weekend. Special thanks to Black Manta, the Baroness, and of course the ever-adorable Ami for classin’ this post up with their smiling faces (and, um, helmets).

Rob