I only stuck around until Friday night of the show, so this is the final part in my three-day trip.
Friday, July 27
Shane had taken off the day before, so Hal was the only one in the room with me. He had some last-minute work to do on some Green Ronin books due at Gen Con, so after breakfast I headed off to the show alone.
I wandered around the exhibit hall, and it was packed. Happily, in the several acres of booths, I stumbled upon the Capcom display and found a working demo of the first chapter of the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law video game I worked on for High Voltage. It looks flat-out fantastic.
Eventually I found the Devil’s Due booth and found my friends James Farr and Cindi Rice. They had a meeting with Tom DeSanto, whom I got to embarrass myself in front of my saying to him, “Why do I know that name?” Cindi corrected me with a good-natured smirk.
When Cindi introduced me as a game designer, Tom copped to loving D&D. He started out playing it back before you could find 20-sided dice. In those days, kids, we had to pull numbered chits out of a coffee mug–and we liked it!
At 3:30, I went to the only panel I attended at the entire show, for Boom! Studios, at which they announced that they’d just hired Mark Waid as their new editor-in-chief. Afterward, I met publisher Ross Richie and his co-founder Andrew Cosby.
Later, Hal and I stopped by the Boom! booth, and I picked up a few of their books. While there, I ran into John Rogers, who writes one of the funniest blogs I’ve ever read. He also writes Blue Beetle for DC, scads of comics for Boom!, and many excellent screenplays too. He’s also a dedicated gamer and at least as funny in person as in print.
Hal and I wandered over to the Gelatometti section of Artists Alley, which is filled with all sorts of talent from WildStorm. There I caught up with many old pals, including Richard Friend and J.J. Kirby. I bought a Peter Pan print from J.J., for my kids, and then lost it on the way out of the hall, just as the place was closing down. Maybe I dropped it, maybe it got picked from my bag in the crowd, but either way, I’ll be replacing it as soon as I can get a hold of J.J. again.
As I left the place, I got a hold of Alice Henderson. She and I joined with Jeff Mariotte and his son David for a quick bite to eat. Then Alice and I grabbed a quick drink before I had to hustle out of town.
I picked up my bags at the hotel, flagged down a cab on the street, and caught my overnight flight back to Chicago. I got in at 5 AM and drove back to Wisconsin. I caught a few hours sleep, then jumped into the minivan and rolled up to Watersmeet, Michigan, for a well-deserved week’s vacation with Ann and the kids.
Whew! I get tired just writing about all this.
Again, my apologies if these reports bore you. I write them mostly for myself so I can remember what I’ve done. After a while, the conventions tend to blur together, and contemplating them long enough to write about them cements the individual events in my mind. Thanks for bearing with me!
