The O'Hare airport was easier to navigate than I expected. And baggage was a snap. A pain it was, though, to wait about twenty-five minutes for the Really Late shuttle to the Hyatt. Nothing much happens at the Hyatt until...
I arranged to meet my good buddy Park Cooper (He runs the DC FANZINE Chats and TOP TEN Polls) at 9:15. So I went down to my hotel's lobby, and asked some badge-toting people for directions. It turned out that the woman of the pair was Joan Weis, and on seeing her nametag I blurted, "Wonder Woman Annual #6!" So we walked along, talking about what I read, and eventually her male companion says, "How long have you read the Legion?"
"Five years, but I've read almost all of them 'cause my brother has almost all the back issues."
"So you've read the Who's Who?"
"Yeah, I've got five of the seven."
"What about the Secret Origins? #25?"
"Um. Is that the one with the Atom on the cover?"
"I think so. Well, I penciled that one," said Rick Stasi.
"Oh yeah! You drew the cute little alien kids looking at the origin of the Legion!" And inked by Dick Giordano, with a cover by Curt Swan, said Rick. So I already met some pros whose stuff I'd bought.
After that, I met AOLer Park Cooper and his girlfriend Barb. They were actually on time too! So we talked for forty minutes in a nearby parking lot, and it was really pleasing to have a GREAT experience in meeting friends so soon.
After that was over, I couldn't sleep, and there's probably enough good reasons. I skipped dinner; maybe that helped, but I'm sure it's mostly a) my internal clock not being used to checking in early, b) the extra-tight, and c) thinking about the next day. Oh, and that incessant player piano on the second floor that was so bloody loud might have something to do with it. Well...it might. Same thing for the next two nights.
LEGIONNAIRES penciler Jeff Moy walked up to me shortly before 9:00 on Saturday morning, seeing my Legionnaires T-shirt. I knew who he was, but he didn't know who I was until I mentioned my screen name (Any DC fan without AOL is severely deprived). Then we went over to a counter, and he signed my stuff. I got his business card; it has Spark (with trademark tongue-projecting action!) on it. He showed me a great Koko-less Brainiac 5 sketch he was doing for a fan. Then former DC Online host Mike Leib came over and the two lined up for a while in the exhibitors/dealers/guests line.
After meeting Jeff Moy, it was time to line up for about half an hour. After I got in, the first exhibit I stopped at was DC's. Not out of choice, but rather that it was there. I was impressed by their big spotlights, preview copies of every title coming out in the next month or so, and their giant video screen which keeps pumping out info about upcoming projects and current signings, interspersed with video clips from the Batman and Superman cartoons, "Steel", and Smashing Pumpkins' "Batman & Robin" soundtrack contribution (which is good for me, as I hardly see it on Canada's music channel ). Some nice previews I saw were CREEPER #1 (looks like I'll have to drop a title to collect this one), a new BIRDS OF PREY (with Batgirl?!), WONDER WOMAN: AMAZONIA (unbelievably detailed art for WW's first solo Elseworld), and best of all: THE NAIL, a JLA Elseworld by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer...watch for the Silver Agey-looking cast to be a huge hit next summer!
About twenty minutes into the con, I went over to the Moys' setup at Artists' Alley. This is where I met a lot of onliners, and I also got to see lots and lots of both brothers' sketchbooks. I was very impressed by Jeff's massive collection of rejected cover layouts and character designs, and was surprised by his pencils for the upcoming cards in the next Overpower CCG expansion. I looked at the pile of original art, and reserved one from Legionnaires #43, where Chameleon in disguise fakes an attack, and prompts the doglike Cannus to flee and Splitter to, um, split.
I asked for my $20 Spark pencil sketch, which I bought first thing the next morning, and for that I said "IloveyouJeff!" Other sketches I'd seen over the couple of days were the pre-Crisis Superboy, current Supergirl, a character from "The Fifth Element", and fugged if I can remember the rest.
I spent a lot of time with LSH inker Ron Boyd, an extremely cool guy and funny as hell. Over the two days, he looked at some lousy pencil samples I did. He drew an excellent sketch of Brainiac 5's pet monkey Koko for me to give to my retailer. He had available future LSH penciller Jason Armstrong's designs, with plenty of his takes on all the Legionnaires. These look great! I'll miss the old penciller Lee Moder a lot, but Armstrong will more than fit the bill. But then, he has some things to learn, like not calling Saturn Girl "Irma." Also on hand were some photocopies of upcoming issues. I requested the art for LSH #96 p.22 if Boyd gets this page; it features a wedding, is just plain gorgeous, and the kicker is that Cosmic Boy is wearing an MST3K t-shirt! A reference to my favorite TV show in my favorite comic -- I couldn't resist!
Tom McCraw (LSH/LEGIONNAIRES co-writer, colorist for LSH, LEGIONNAIRES, FLASH, IMPULSE, AQUAMAN) was cool too, which was no surprise, but what was surprising was how young-looking he was. Anyways, he had, I dunno, about a dozen color guides for sale. I was quite happy forking over the $15 to buy the guides to Impulse #8; I started buying that title at #9, got the TPB (#1-#6) and heard #7 sucked, so this was an interesting way to fill that gap! Loved it to bits. On Sunday, I saw Tom coloring a Shrinking Violet pinup for a fan; it was amazing.
Alex Ross was pretty cool. He had his parents there to sign too, as Rev. Clark Norman Ross was the model for KINGDOM COME's Norman McCay after all, and mother Lynette was drawn in at least three times, by my count. It's frightening how good Alex is at painting. . .everything! but capturing likenesses is especially cool. I asked Alex if that's really Jack Knight's store we saw on pg. 7 of KC #1. No, it isn't; it's just a coincidence that there's a vaguely zodiac-like symbol outside the KC store and there are turrets on the roof. He hadn't even known that Jack had a store when he was painting that.
I met Jill Thompson at her table in the Artists' Alley. She's nice, sure, but mostly untalkative as she worked on fans' sketches. Jill just might be my favorite SANDMAN artist (her or Michael Zulli), so I asked her to draw Mervyn Pumpkinhead, a choice she was pleased with. She also had piles of original art for sale (her art looks far better in Black & White), greeting cards with depictions of her upcoming opus "Scary Godmother," and some lovely little paintings. Daniel-Dream cost $35, as did Morpheus, and Death in a red dress on a window-sill. The best one, Delirium sitting on a roof-top, was a mere pittance at $100. I picked up my sketch a few hours later, shortly before the dealer/exhibitor/artist closing time at 6:00 pm.
At 3:00 was the DC Online non-virtual chat room. I met a few people there, coolest of all "Drumore", the first person ever to write to my web page. Halfway through, Drew and I jumped ship to the Vertigo Q & A Panel, with guests like Alex Ross, Charles Vess and Phil Jimenez. Alex mentioned that they're planning bronze-something-or-other statues of the KC versions of the heroes. His "Uncle Sam" project with Steve Darnall looks great, of course. I don't really remember too much of what they said at this panel, considering they were talking mostly about books I don't read like PREACHER and BOOKS OF MAGIC . After this, I ran into Alex in the halls and talk to him some more. I asked him fannish stuff, and he did his best to answer.
I'd heard from Boyd and really good buddy Lev Kalman that there would be the costume display at around 4:00. I thought that the guy dressed up in the starry Star Boy costume was one of them, but nope, these were separate. In the foyer of the con center, descending the escalators, were the Legion of Super-Heroes. Ultra Boy (Mike Leib), the current Superboy, Live Wire, Saturn Girl (Sidne Ward, Saturn Girl's mother in Legionnaires #38 and the dinner organizer), Apparition, M'Onel, Cosmic Boy, Kinetix, Shrinking Violet (Johanna Draper, current DC Online host), and GATES!!! Yes, that's right, the insectoid Legionnaire! Later, during the unmasking, I found out Gates was played by Leman Yuen, who made all the costumes. The Legionnaires went to the DC booth and posed for pictures for a while. I got one decent one, but it doesn't have them all in it. I did have a perfect shot...but Grife! I didn't turn on the flash. I was extremely disappointed that my well-framed shot of the entire group and the Legionnaires creators went snafu. Oh well, at least I have some good pics of these incredibly beautifully tailored and accurate outfits that put Wizard's gathering of Batman, Catwoman, Xena, Darth Vader, Wolverine, Boba Fett, bare-assed Shi and all the rest to shame. I heard there will be some photos of the real life LSH in an upcoming Wizard.
Phil Jimenez is great! I saw him signing at the DC booth a bit before closing time, and asked for signings. He's a wonderful, chatty fella. I only have a few bits of his stuff on hand, "The Big Book of Urban Legends" and the Wonder Woman Gallery. He said he loves the Big Books and is pleasantly surprised that I had this for him to sign. His Big Book contribution was great fun to do, though a little bit restraining in terms of layouts. About his piece in the Wonder Woman Gallery, he said it was a real treat getting to draw the two characters that got him into comics (Wonder Woman and Donna Troy), and we both complained about the colorist screwing up Diana's lasso. Fun! Phil had out some cover he did for an upcoming magazine, called Riot, due in October. It's the JLA, and although I'm tired of seeing These Same Seven Heroes over and over again, it's a jaw-dropper. It became closing time, and the DC employee told Phil to wrap up. Now, get this, Phil interrupted the guy and says, "No! No! I'm still talking to him!" "Oh. All right," the guy said, standing corrected. Wow! I was impressed that Phil was cool enough to really get into a conversation with a fan like me. I know it's not a big deal, but it shows his enthusiasm for his work. I felt worthy after this!
After the regular parts of the show ended, I went up to my hotel room to dump my stuff and sort out what still needed signing. It took me over half an hour. Then I went back for the Silver Age Fans vs. Pros Trivia Contest. The pros are Dan Mishkin, Kurt Busiek, Tony Isabella, and Mark Waid. Mark's knowledge is frightening, let me tell you. I wish I remembered more about this, other than Mark Waid kicking major ass.
That over, most of the Legion fans walked as a group up to Giordano's, just about the best pizza restaurant I've dined in. About a mile later, we were all ready to be seated. I sat directly across from Paul Levitz (The most popular LSH writer ever, and current Executive VP at DC Comics), whom we weren't even sure was going to be there! He brought along his daughter Nicole. Well, this was fun -- observing the eating habits of someone whom many people in the room considered to be God. Other pros were KC Carlson (Legion editor), Tom McCraw, the Moys, Ron Boyd, WC Carani (Legionnaires inker), and Mike McAvennie (DC editor, former asst. editor for the Legion). The pizza was great, and with no exaggeration the best I ever had. The big stuffed kind was the main attraction.
I was wandering around after my dinner, as I'd finished ahead of most of the others. While Johanna was collecting questions to be used in the chat after dinner, there I saw Phil Jimenez (penciller for INVISIBLES, writer/penciller for TEMPEST). I said hi again, and he snagged some pizza. And he didn't even know about the dinner; he just happened to show up at the restaurant alone and spot us.
Well after dinner, Brad Horning (Klord Brad on AOL) from Toronto brought out his action figures. Mighty Grife, but these were amazing! He had taken spare toy parts and reassembled them into the LSH, their villains, and their supporting cast. These were, without a doubt, excellently made, what with all the details, accuracy, and great coloring. That would be impressive in itself...but what really showed his diligence was that he made so many! About sixty in total, with damned near every postboot character you could think of. OK. . .well, there were a couple supporting cast members he didn't do, but I digress! I'm looking at the photos I took to tell how far he went: three versions of Triad, Koko, Andromeda as a Legionnaire and a nun, huge Leviathan, Jeka as the Princess and her normal form (!), upcoming member Thunder, giant Mordru, Violet as herself and as Veye, Gates (albeit huge - it was the best he could do), Shvaughn as herself and the baby (!), Lori as Future Girl, Legionnaires #50 poster girl, and Star-Spangled Lass, Wildfire, the Uncanny Amazers, the Workforce, the Subs (just Polar Boy and Night Girl), the Heroes of Lallor (Splitter doesn't have an action, the Fatal Five (huge Validus), and the Composite Man. Kid Quantum II and Monstress were made but not present. Brad is planning on doing the future Legionnaires as seen in LSH Annual #7. Everyone was floored by these, including Phil Jimenez, who was standing directly behind me.
That out of the way, it was time for the non-virtual chat hour. Questions were drawn out of a hat, and prizes were given out: sketches on napkins and Legionnaires #52 a few days early.
SPOILER TIME! The Super-Pets will gradually return. A current Legionnaire will be outed, but it won't be a big event. Look for a Legion Year One mini-series. The Legionnaires will get an Outpost up in space, susceptible to an alien invasion. The Legion Secret Files may not have space for all the info they want to divulge, so they might do another one later on. The Planetary Chance Machine won't return, but another goofy invention will. Frank Miller drew the cover to LSH Archives #7, but drew three Luornus; the LSH crew wasn't brave enough to point out his error.
During the chat session, Brad asked me to get a pitcher of ice water for KC. And I did! Then Paul Levitz shocked everyone by picking up the tab; this was revealed after he left early due to his daughter's bedtime. That's about sixty-three dinners! Boyd paid for all the alcoholic drinks.
I think the after-dinner started at 11:15 or 11:30 pm in the Sofitel lobby, but I'm not too sure of the time. While our ride Jim (Jc cubby on AOL) was looking for a parking space, Lev and I were the first to arrive. We didn't know what to do so we just loitered 'til the others showed up. The only pro I'm sure didn't show up for this one was WC Carani, and I think Phil Moy didn't do this one either. By now the LSH crowd was whittled down to about thirty or forty. Spotted in the bar were Charles Vess (STARDUST, BOOKS OF BALLADS AND SAGAS, SANDMAN), Sergio Aragones (GROO, MAD), and some people I didn't know, but were probably pros as well.
Hijinks included Johanna Draper as Violet, sitting on Boyd's lap, and Boyd wearing the Gates costume mask. I've got pictures of these; they're great! Boyd is such a riot; he was doing a dead-on impression of Aragones walking around in circles. And when McAvennie gave us baguettes, we were very messy. So. Until a few minutes past 1:00 in the morning, this was mostly KC again, but not so much spoiling as much as reminiscing, about things like the Shvaughn/Sean (when a long-standing female character based on one of Levitz's friends was retconned to have been a male all along) screwup. A great line about some Green Lantern/LSH crossover (I think -- I may have to get back to you on this) went something like (and this is NOT accurate), "We liked it because [GL editor Dooley] ACTUALLY came up with a good idea!" That earned lots of laughs for being unintentionally misworded. KC talked about "Big Head Cover Month" troubles -- in October, every DCU title will have a main character's head shot on the cover. Because they didn't want Inferno to participate, the whole series had to be scheduled something like every five weeks so as to avoid this. LSH will feature all three Triads (which is cheating, as the idea is to have one character) and Legionnaires will feature Chameleon (for diversity; not just another human). Now this is great -- Adventures in the DCU will feature Flash but his head is really REALLY huge -- his forehead is monstrously distorted, in reference to an old Silver Age deformation. So, KC is breaking all the rules with what he thinks is a silly marketing gimmick.
For me, and probably for a lot of people, the highlight of the after-dinner chat was Alex Ross walking through the lobby to go up to his room. He noticed the crowd, and asked, "What's this?" It's explained that it's a Legion gathering, and he was just SOOO bewildered by all this. His expression was hilarious! It was like we were being really weird or something. I'm reminded of "The Simpsons" when Marge acted in "A Streetcar Named Desire." Homer, Bart and Lisa walk in on the daycare where dozens of babies are sucking on their pacifiers, and the Simpsons are spooked as they pick up Maggie and slowly walk away. Anyway, Alex was asked to join us, but he politely refused. "But you're a Legion artist!" "And there were more of us before!" After he left, some people asked who that was (Alex had cut his hair and eliminated the beard), which only adds to the greatness of the moment.
I got stuff signed by Marc Hempel, who penciled Sandman's "Kindly Ones." He didn't talk much, but he was really nice in drawing a bee-yootiful mini-sketch I didn't even ask for -- in my "Kindly Ones" hardcover there is now a gold-ink Morpheus head.
At noon was the "Comic Jeopardy!" panel, which is really a misnomer since the contestants didn't answer in the form of a question. Competing were Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, and Buddy Scalera, a Wizard World Online Editor. Mark was given an advance copy of Rob Liefeld's FIGHTING AMERICAN #1 to use as a "signal buzzer" by rolling it up and thwopping it against the microphone. He even wiped his nose on the damn thing. Unlike the Silver Age trivia contest, these questions were easy. I got about half of them. I even got one that stumped them ("Flex Mentallo recently teamed up with who...?" or something like that. Answer: The Legion of Legions). This was great; the contestants were all very funny. When it came time for the fans to ask the questions, the host was asked by net.goddess Elayne Wechsler-Chaput how to correctly pronounce "Busiek". Apparently, he'd been saying it wrong all this time. It rhymes with "you sick."
Charles Vess. Luckily I got to him before the line-up started. I had tons of things for him to sign, and like Marc Hempel, he was kind enough to do a little sketch of Morpheus, this time in my "Dream Country." I knocked over a display or something while I was getting books out of my bag. Oops! Previews of about half of STARDUST, his upcoming project with Neil Gaiman, were on his table, but I didn't have the time to look.
Jeff Smith's line. Too bloody long!
Idiot me, Dreamhaven Books from Minn. had a booth selling Gaiman-signed stuff, and I didn't buy the things I needed. Most "needed" of all was his Neverwhere hardback, which apparently isn't in Canada (my home and native land) yet. I don't know why I didn't buy it; I could afford it. Idiot me.
Biggest disappointment was that the "confirmed" guest James Robinson was a no-show. Well, not really a disappointment as I'm sure he's busy, and couldn't come, but you know.
Anyway, unless I forgot something (probably not) that's Everything You Needed to Know But Were Afraid to Ask about my trip to the Chicago Comicon '97. Here's hoping for a return in '99...after San Diego next year!