Sunday, March 8, 2015

Big Apple Con

  I was a guest at Big Apple Con yesterday in New York City and, while I was not nearly as popular as the Green Power Ranger or wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper, I did have a steady flow of fans stopping by to say hello and get an autograph or two.
  I always find it interesting to see which of the stories I've written are brought for signing. One person brought a copy of Detective Comics #467 and another brought an assortment of the issues of Batman Family that I wrote. Another person had a couple of books that I was pretty sure I had no stories in, but he pointed out that I had handled the letter columns and there were Daily Planet pages in them, so I signed them for him.
  One fan had an issue of DC Comics Presents that he had pretty much read to death. It lacked the cover and the first and last pages, though the back-up story I'd written ("Whatever Happened to Sargon the Sorcerer?") was still intact. He told me it was one of his favorite comics as a kid and I could certainly believe it.
  I also signed the plastic bag that contained a copy of the Platinum Edition of Superman #75. There were only 10,000 numbered copies produced and I've probably signed a dozen of them by now, even though I did not write the story. But I was the Production Director at the time and responsible for the manufacturing of these collector's items. Of course, as my son Chuck pointed out, no one will ever open those bags to see what's inside, reminding me that I once said in a meeting that "We can put old issues of G.I. Combat in the bags and no one will ever know!"
  A couple of people took pictures, but I don't know if they will turn up anywhere on social media. In their place, here are a couple of appearances at conventions long ago...when I had a mustache, glasses, and hair on my head.
A late 1980s convention with my pal and 'Mazing Man / Hero Hotline collaborator Stephen DeStefano
A 1990s San Diego con, from which I was doing a live online chatroom report from the DC booth

2 comments:

  1. I just recently discovered your blog, even though you've been writing it for years. I tried to find an appropriate blog post for my comment, but I guess this will have to do.

    I got "into" comics in the summer of 1978 (the DC Explosion/Implosion), and was a regular comic book reader for some years, till about '85 and Crisis on Infinite Earths. After that, I didn't keep up with comics regularly, but still occasionally picked something up.

    Anyway, I just want to thank you for the fun stories you wrote that gave me so much pleasure, from Batman Family, Teen Titans, 'Mazing Man, and all those backup stories you wrote with the Atom, Airwave, and other characters. But I especially wanted to thank you for Hero Hotline. That was not just a fun comic like most of your stories were, but a great concept! Oh, and who can forget Bat-Mite's New York Adventure? ;-)

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