I'm a little later than I'd planned to be in writing this particular entry. As I mentioned previously I wasn't able to attend the show in 2011, so I was quite looking forward to this year's expo. William and I met up shortly after lunchtime on Friday and headed down to the grounds around 2pm. Parking was no problem as we were quite early, but the line inside was already a substantial one!
I stood in line while he went off to find out how the volunteer stuff he'd been signed up for was going to work. While waiting for his return the doors opened and I was able to make my way in with JR and his group of fellow nerdlings. Once inside we found a table to sit at and I looked through the schedule to determine where I needed to go to get some items signed. I had figured that Friday would be a good day to acquire signatures as the attendance would be lighter than Saturday or Sunday. This hypothesis would later prove correct.
Once the convention officially started I decided to head to the media section and try to meet Lance Henriksen. Several years prior I had the good fortune of attending the San Diego comic-con with several of my friends, and purchased a book about the special effects of the movie AvP. I had it signed by Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis. The foreword was written by Lance, so I decided that would make a good item to get him to sign for me.
I arrived at his table just as the hall lights were being turned on, but Lance was already there...and I wasn't the first person in line! I purchased a copy of his new book "Not Bad For a Human", and introduced myself to him. He was very gracious when I told him about my experience meeting them. He smiled and said that he, Tom and Alec had had a lot of fun over the years and asked if I wanted my book simply signed, or personalized. It was a brief meeting, but a worthwhile one for me.
After that I headed over to the artists area to try getting some comic books signed. I was able to get George Perez to sign my copy of JLA #200, and my trade of Crisis on Infinite Earths. He was quite chatty too, but I waited longer than I'd expected. Granted, this was not due to George, but several of the people in line ahead of me who had decided to bring entire RUNS of comics to get him to sign. I mean...have a little courtesy both to the people waiting in line behind you, and also to the guests. Do you really think they want to sign thirty of your comics? I doubt it...
I also stopped at Claude St-Aubin's booth. Now I can imagine that you're saying Claude who? I don't really blame you...but he's, in my opinion, someone that Canadian comic fans should know...because he was the colorist on almost the entire original run of Captain Canuck. I remember reading those comics as a kid, and still have them...so I picked my favorite cover out of the bunch and asked him to sign that, and my IDW trade of Captain Canuck as well. He was extremely friendly and I was happy to chat with him. He had a new product that he was promoting but I didn't pick it up. I had intended to go back on Sunday afternoon to chat with him again and buy a copy, but when I did return he wasn't at the booth. I regret not picking it up on Friday...simply because I said I would come back. I like to keep my promises.
Larry Hama was also in attendance, so I had brought along my copy of Marvel's GIJoe #1 to get him to sign too. In actuality, I was quite interested in meeting him but was a little disappointed. He didn't seem all that interested in chatting with me, merely signed my book and returned it. He was polite, but not very welcoming. After that experience I decided not to attend his panel later in the expo...even though I'm sure it would have been quite interesting.
With all my signatures except one acquired, I was pretty much set for the day. I had seen the first Star Trek TNG panel (Gates McFadden & Denise Crosby) and planned out the rest of the things I wanted to see. So Jason and William and I toured around the convention hall seeing what else we could and headed out shortly before close.
As a short addendum: William and I also played in the MtG pre-release later that night. I'll not be doing that again. It was simply too late a night with too many people I'm not interested in playing games with. I don't need to stay up until 4am any more!
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