A Boy and a Con!

I lived the hard comic book collectors life growing up!  I mean come on I had to get out of school and go to work at the Friendly Neighborhood Comic Book Store 3 day's a week! The horrors of not getting a paycheck and getting paid in Comic Books, Bags and Board was unbearable.  This was at the hard working age of 12!  

It got worse! At 13 I decided to borrow $75.00 to set up my own booth at the Las Vegas Comic Con. Oh what a disater that was. I made over $900.00 and my booth was by that Green Alien Chic from Star Trek.

That same year the Friendly Neighborhood Comic Book Store had this guy .....hmmm what was is name...Jim, no Jerry, no that wasn't it either Oh Jack Kirby!  Imagine a 13 year kid being forced into helping him set up his table for signing and watching the line so no one would cut.  Then I had to figure out what stack of comics I would have him sign when everybody left. I had to sit there and gringe as he signed my comics and asked me Why I liked Hawkeye.  Then ,if that wasn't hard enough, I had to go out with the owners (Tom and Mary Heiner) and Mr. Kirby for dinner and sit next to him while he told these crazy comic book stories. 

NOW THE WORSE thing I havn't told you yet! In between 12 and 13 I was thrown in a truck and driven to San Diego for this thing call SDCC!  The letters alone at 12.5 years old was scary enough! I mean what did SIDCEEE mean it wasn't in the dictionary.  Oh! As we pulled up and I saw the banner SAN DIEGO COMIC CONVENTION!!!! So the big guy on campus goes to his first S.D.C.C in 1982! (on a side Note Malve Atomics Comics owner his first was 1985 Bang Bang got you Mike!) 

Malve (287) to Me (1) on the things we did first before the other person chart)  

So we checked in. I go to sleep that night just wondering what I'm going to find at the Con. I think there has to be at least 15 to 25 tables? (because Vegas Con had about ten its first couple of years!) I knew San Diego would have a tad bit more) OOPS forgot a part! Before I went to sleep I started to watch SDCC tv show and it was hosted by this Vampire woman telling us about how big the CON was going to be.  So I wake up throw on my O.P shirt, slide on my bermuda shorts and have my pocket full of hard earned, mowing the law, cash!  My $35.00 is going to get me something really cool! So I go into the elevator and Bang Bang there is that Vampire lady in the elevator.  So I walk in and she says;

"Hi" and I say "Hi"! 

She then says "Are you ready to have some fun at the con?" I smile and say "Yes Mam!" 

She then Says "I'm the host. My name is ELVIRA!"  I say "Cool!"

She Says "Do you know who I'm?"

I say "Yeah your that Vampire lady on TV!"

Conversation ends! I made a Vampire lady mad at me.  I could see the nightmares when I go to sleep that night already. 

Okay so I go to the front of the Con. The owners hand me my badge and say "Go through that door we are going to do some buying in another room."

So in 1982 at 12.5 years old I turn the corner to these double doors.  I remember it as I'm writting this Blog like it just happened this morning! "WOW" (now to this day I can't remember if I yelled it out loud or said it in my mind) its disneyland no rides just comics!  HUNDREDS of tables and Thousands of people!  Now theres a point in the Lord of the Rings when the Fat Hobbit says "One more step this will be the farthest I have ever been from the shire"  Well, I remember my first step through the doors a Bolt of lighting hit me and I could feel the energy of a new world and life I had just entered!  It was the sound of music with the family on the hill dancing it was like eating my first piece of pizza in Italy! It was like trying to figure out how to pronouce Thano's correctly! (well maybe not the Thano's thing)  I will never forget it.  The rest of the con was a blur.  I remember seeing George Perez (with hair) but everything else was just too much for my brain to handle.  

Ah the hard life of 12 and 13 years old as a comic book collector!

Hence its 2010 I'm now a director of Phoenix Comicon. I'm now looking at it from the inside and trying my best, with a great group of leaders, to make it great for the fans.  Now your going to see me running around like a comic with out a cover (I'm sly like that get it? Like a Chicken with its head cut off!) 

Every once in awhile though, you will see me glance at the front entrance. For there will be a kid walking into the Con for his first time, and I'm guessing, that his first word will probably be "WOW!"

Six Shooter Jesse James!

P.S. Comics I bought at that Con;

1.   The Heap #1

2.   New teen titans #2 sign by Perez

3.   Elfquest #1 first print

4.   E-man #10

5.   Rip Hunter #29

6.   Avengers #99

7.   X-men  #46

and the rest I can't remember!