DallasComicCon

Today was a pretty cool day...

Last week, my wonderful wife found out that the Dallas Comic Con and SciFi Expo folks were having a con with free admission. The guest of honor was Anthony Daniels (a.k.a C3-PO), but also in attendance were supposed to be Jaime Mendoza and James O'Barr...

JAMES O'BARR?!?!? The guy who wrote/illustrated/created "The Crow"! Oh yeah... we were going to this, and I was going to get him to sign my book. By that I mean the graphic novel that I purchased after the movie had come out. See, it was the late 80's when I came across this black & white indie comic that really grabbed me. I hunted and dug and found every issue, and read most of them to tatters. It was in the early 90's that I sold the rest. I first dressed as "The Crow" for Halloween in 1991. I had exactly one person know what the make-up, leather pants, and black wig were all about. Then I found out about the movie, and had to go and find the comics again. I lucked out and found all of them in one anthology, one giant graphic novel, that I read again and again.

When I heard that the man who created this... this work of art... was going to be at this con, I had to go.

He signed my book. He was cool about it too... He was sitting there, working on an original sketch, when he looked up and saw me standing there like the ultimate fanboy and asked if I was waiting for an autograph. I said "Yeah, but I don't want to interrupt..." He smiled a gracious - and almost embarrassed - smile, took my book and signed.

I nearly pissed myself.

Later, as we continued to walk the con, my wife and I saw him walking around. He was looking at comics, action figures, memorabilia... He was being a geek, and that was really fuckin cool.

Also, as we are walking around, I saw a guy that I used to go to school with at the Art Institute, Mark Walters. After I got my book signed, I saw him behind one of the tables, and asked if it was really him. It turns out that this guy RUNS the cons. He is the cons. I found out that a guy that I used to hang out and smoke with is in charge of organizing one of the coolest things that happens on a regular basis in D/FW.

Today was a pretty cool day...