Comic Related - Life in Four Colors

Life In Four Colors: Convention Coverage
Buckeye Comic Con - August 8th, 2008

The Buckeye Comic Con rolled into town this sunny Sunday morning. Well it actually didn’t roll into my town….but Columbus Ohio…about a forty five minute drive from my house. And as usual the con was held at the Buckeye Hall of Fame Café near the heart of the Ohio State University Campus. And I learned something today. I can drive for seven hours…all the way down to the southern portion of North Carolina…over 400 miles…and I can find Heroes Con …no problem. But…my friend Chris Metzger and I can drive pass the Buckeye Hall of Fame Café about four times and somehow manage not to see it, despite the huge neon sign that says….Buckeye Hall of Fame Café’ in letters about twelve feet tall each…go figure. In the end we did manage to find it …after stopping to ask for directions. Twice.

Chris and I had heard about this show for a couple of years but never attended it. While talking to Fearless Readers owner, Bill Thade, about four months ago he had mentioned he was going to attend…and that it was a small show but worth the trip. That pretty much clinched it for me.

The Café itself was very impressive, and the convention was a well organized, high quality show…but a little on the small side. It was probably the smallest comic book show I have ever attended, about half the size of S.P.A.C.E Con if you’re familiar with that one. I had thought I heard that there would be over seventy dealers there, but there was only half that number, if even that many. I felt caught between two very different extremes as the show served up a wide variety of several Silver Age and even some Golden Age books that are out of my price range of course…being a collector on a thin dime…and several bargain books (three for a dollar type stuff) but from the dark days of comics….mid-nineties over surplus stuff that again didn’t appeal to me. I’m a slave to the Bronze Age and went into this show looking for about three specific books that would finish out a few runs that were only missing one issue. Those books being Black Lightning (1st series) #11, the last book in that run, Moon Knight (vol.1) # 38, also the last issue of that run as well, and (Marvel’s) Red Sonja (vol.1) #10. But had no luck.

Chris was wanting to bone up on some key Batman stories (and he did rather well in that regard) and was looking for a copy of Silver Surfer (vol.3) #128 which would have finished out the series for him, but couldn’t find it.

The Usual Suspects: Who would think that these three guys
(and I guess one gal) would be so hard to find, but after yet another
comic convention they’re still missing in action.

I did run into some “old friends”….starting with the writer and artist duo of Stephanie and Sean Forney. The creative force behind the Scarlet Huntress comic book. I was fortunate to meet this two a year or two ago during a street fair in Westerville Ohio and have attempted to stay in touch with them since. After a second walkabout the show room floor and realizing there was just a few items I was going to pick up (a copy of Ghost Rider (vol.2) #1 being one of those items, signed and dated by Mark Texeria while he was at Heroes Con. Mark’s line at Heroes Con was really long and I was short on time…it was cool to be able to pick this up)…I was able to drop by Sean and Stephanie’s table a second time and actually pick up a very dynamic print of Captain America which had caught my eye the first time through and that Sean gratefully signed for me.

While at the table a second time I noticed Stephanie was working on a piece of comic art as well. At first I thought she was inking a piece Sean had drew, but turns out that not only is she a very impressive writer, but she’s an artist as well proving to be a creative double threat. She was working on a piece that featured “The Beast” from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast animated film. The illustration also featured Mrs. Potts…I believe the final work will go on a card. I saw several Beauty and the Beast card sized prints laid out in front of Stephanie as she was working.

Sean stated he was very busy with a series of “very special” t-shirt designs…which he wasn’t at liberty to discuss but impressive was kind of an understatement. Sean and Stephanie also already knew I was going to ask about the progress of Scarlet Huntress #2. When I last spoke with them at Gem City Comic Con this last April Sean was hoping to get the second issue done before Mid-Ohio Con in October and capitalize on the Halloween mood a few weeks later. (The Scarlet Huntress hunts down werewolves in a very modern and unique sleight of hand take of the Red Hiding Hood stories.)

Stephanie said the book was completely written and edited and Sean was already working on pencils for the first couple of pages and Sean re-confirmed that he felt the book would still be out before Mid-Ohio…adding that once he hits his artistic stride he could complete about a page a day.

Next up for the Fantastic Forney’s, besides Mid-Ohio Con the first week of October is the brand new Screaming Tiki Comic and Pulp Convention just two weeks after that (October 17th-19th) in Niles Ohio (near Youngstown). This convention will feature a strong showing from the classic Batman series from the sixties, including Batman himself (Adam West), Batgirl (Yvonne Craig), and Catwoman (Julie Newmar). The Batmobile and the Batcopter, also from the show, will be at the event. Comic writer and Perhapanauts co-creator Todd DeZago and comic artist Joe Jusko will also be in attendance. Looks like another Comic Related road trip in my future. For more Screaming Tiki info www.screamingtikicon.com and for more on Sean and Stephanie Forney www.smcomics.com

Then I ran into Jesse Noble and Bill Thade, the masterminds behind one of the fastest growing conventions in Ohio, Gem City Comic Con. And as I mentioned before Bill owns and runs Fearless Readers Comics in Dayton Ohio…very top notch store. Bill and Jesse didn’t have any comics at the show today….one of the reasons I was able to walk out of the event with money in my pocket…because Bill always has great deals on comics at both his store and at the conventions he attends. The two of them were instead working on selling off a couple of tables full of Comic Related action figures and t-shirts which they just recently acquired in a toy store buy out. That surprised me a little because Bill always prides himself at “selling comics and just comics” at his shop. But Jesse and Bill are two of the most intuitive and business smart guys out there in the comic book arena and I’m sure they know a deal when they run across one and these toys probably were dropped in their laps but you can bet they won’t be there long.

1613 Huffman Avenue. Dayton Ohio
(937)-252-3036
fearlessreaders@gmail.com

Bill, seen here in his Dayton shop, with his daughter Emily two weeks
before Free Comic Book Day. Fearless Readers is very much a family owned
and operated shop that treats their customers like family just as well.

Talking to Bill I was very relieved to hear the topsy turvy economic situation that had sidelined a couple of comic shops in my neck of the woods has pretty much left him unaffected. He mentioned that longer standing stores, stores that have been in business for three years or more seem to be weathering the storm just fine, himself included. Bill mentioned all in all he was having a pretty good year the recent highlight being purchasing a complete run of Uncanny X-Men #1-100.

Jesse answered a few questions I had about Gem City Comic Con 2009…the first being was Doctor Strange Illustrator Supreme Frank Brunner still scheduled to appear and after consulting the Eye of Agamotto, Mr. Noble confirmed Brunner would indeed be at the show along with “ a few other names still floating around in the neither realms.”

I intended to make it back to their table later on and pick their collective brains a little more but it was difficult to catch both of them at the same time and place….almost like one would be hovering unseen in the Negative Zone while the other was wheeling and dealing here on planet Earth. I don’t know if I’ll see either of them anytime soon but I know I’ll catch them both April 5th 2009 for Gem City Comic Con (vol.4).

For more info www.gemcitycomiccon.com

After talking to Thade and Noble (now that has a classic ring to it…like a really cool rock band or at the very least a professional wrestling tag team you really don’t want to mess with)….I spent some time lurking about the center aisle of the show where I did run across a couple of things I wanted but not on my “hot list”….Marvel Two In One #17 and New Avengers # 38 while Chris was quickly running out of money picking up the hard back collection of “The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told”, the classic “Arkham Asylum”, also in hard back, the complete multi-issue “Batman-Year Three” event and Luke Cage Hero For Hire #1.

While playing Middle Man, I had the good fortune to run into Jamie Colegrove who along with his wife Teresa own and operate Pack Rat Comics in Hilliard Ohio. The Colegroves had organized the Ohio Comic Convention to fill the void created by the termination of the long running Mid-Ohio Comic Con. They even managed to score an appearance by Jason Mewes of Jay and Silent Bob fame. While at Gem City this past spring news broke that the Ohio Comic Convention and Mid-Ohio (who had been purchased by a new owner) would be merging into one comic convention. Jamie and I discussed the details of the merger a little along with the news that Pack Rat Marysville store was recently closed.

Jamie stressed the fact that although, financially it just didn’t make sense to keep the Marysville store open any longer, both he and Teresa are avid about opening a second store. Perhaps closer to the Hilliard store or even…..in Springfield! He mentioned that a site near the Wittenberg campus would be very nice and asked if I knew of any possibilities in that area…and there are a few. We both felt that Springfield could support a local comic book store, if ran properly. I’ve felt this for years.

And anything that Jamie and Teresa touches is a quality deal. Both stores…the Hilliard and Marysville stores are very nice…or were…keep forgetting the Marysville store closed its doors this past Thursday.

I also mentioned that if he decided to seriously look at a Springfield option I would do anything I could to help make that transition a successful one.

Teresa was hovering around somewhere at the con…I believe back by the guest artists tables…both her and Jamie knew most of the featured guests including Sean and Stephanie, Molly Durst, and J.D. Larabee. And although they were both there Pack Rat didn’t have a table at the show and were playing the role of consumer this time around.

Jamie and Teresa from Gem City Comic Con 2005
More info: www.packratcomics.com

Right about 12:30 Chris talked me into leaving while he still had money to buy lunch and we enjoyed a very good meal at Johnny Rockets. Awesome food…great atmosphere…done up like a classic 1950’s style “Hamburger Joint” sort of like Steak and Shake but turned up to eleven. See for yourself. www.johnnyrockets.com and we finished off our trip to the Capital City with a solid round of disc golf over at the O.S.U West Campus….which we found….after asking for directions. Twice.

I wonder if they noticed that we took this with us when we left. Just kidding.

Seeing how we had to drive by Hilliard on the way home Chris and I decided to drop by the Pack Rat store where I picked up yet another thing on my list, Image’s Monster Pile-Up #1 mentioned in this week’s column Why I Love Comics by Eric Ratcliffe right here on the Comic Related website. Actually we found something else that we both wanted … the Batman: Haunted Knight trade paperback by Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale….but I was down to my last three bucks…and Chris was broke.

And no matter how cool Jamie and Teresa are…I don’t think they wanted to part with the book for just three bucks and seventeen cents. They may have been born at night, but they weren’t born last night.

Oh well….gives us something to look for at the next Buckeye Comic Con.

Until then….see you in the Funny Papers.