Heroes Con 08 Recap

I'm back, bitches. Let's recap my trip to Charlotte, NC for the awesome Heroes Con. I would have done a daily recap there, but couldn't get the internet going in my room cuz I was usually drunk.

Friday, 6/20: After sleeping only 3 hours 2 nights before and not sleeping at all the night before, I catch my small, tiny plane to Charlotte. Seriously, it was the smallest plane I've ever been on. I think there were 4 seats and I was one of the co-pilots. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but it was tiny! Heroes Con thankfully provided a shuttle. And it seems that every con I attend, I run into Cliff Chiang at the airport. No different this time as he was in the shuttle along with Sean Chen and Mark Texeira. Nice guy, that Cliff, as he always is polite and remembers who I am.

I check into my hotel, The Westin ($99 Con Rate!), upon arrival and head straight over to the convention. Meet up with fellow podcasters and set up our community table. Pants and Murd from Comic Geek Speak, James from Comic Book Savant, Chris from Comic Addiction, and Ryan from Comics Playground. After some time chatting, I took a little walkabout running into several friends in the process. At 11 a.m., the show opened officially. Friday was a slower day and made for a nice time of walking around and chatting with creators and exhibitors. The ever so awesome Jonathan Hickman (The Nightly News, Transhuman, Pax Romana) and I have become somewhat of friends and took some time catching up. He introduced me to Ryan Bodenheim, his artist on Red Mass For Mars. Greetings and salutations to friends and friends of the show including Mike Dawson (Freddie & Me), Danielle Corsetto (Girls With Slingshots), Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Rick Remender, Matt Fraction, Charlito & Mr. Phil (Indie Spinner Rack), Chris Staros (Top Shelf Comix), Alex Robinson (Box Office Poison), Andy Runton (Owly), Kevin Mellon & Dennis Hopeless (Gearhead), and more. What? You think I wasn't going to name drop?

Another friend of the show, Francesco Francavilla (Zorro), sees me and calls me over. We interviewed Francesco last year. As you can tell by the name, he's Italian and his accent is very thick. Many a time when saying his name, I would imitate him. All in good fun! I love the guy! Color me surprised when his wife greets me with, "I love when you do Francesco!" And then Francesco says, "It's very funny. We play for our friends all of the time." Phew! This is why I love the dude. He has a great sense of humor and knew I wasn't making fun of him in a malicious manner. Saw the humor and had fun with it. Awesome, standup guy! His wife said she wanted me to call some of their friends and try to fool them because I have him down so well. Oh, the pranks we could do!

I had to run to the hotel and do a quick disco nap since I was going on no sleep. A nice rest and back at the con. Dinner plans were all over, but I made sure to hook up with some of the CGS guys and listeners over at the pizza joint.

Earlier, I had officially met Adam Withers and Comfort Love, the great husband/wife team of the comic The Uniques. Very cool and really a great story. We had been in touch for the past couple of months or so when I picked the book as one of my Top 3 choices in an episode. Nice to finally meet them. They joined me for the pizza fest organized by listener and all around cool guy, Jon Carroll.

We were eating outside and there was an impromptu, or so we thought, special tribute/auction to the late, great Mike Wieringo. Todd Dezago and Mark Waid got up and shared some funny stories about Wieringo and auctioned off some of his art. It was a really touching moment and we all raised our glasses collectively to the awesomeness that is Mike Wieringo.

Dinner ends and it's off to the Westin to party in the bar. And that I did. Much drinkage was had. Much. I hung with Hickman and Bodenheim for quite a bit and had a blast. Mingled a bit and chatted with a few folks including Steve Niles and a few others. Finally, no more drinks and it's bed time around 3 a.m.

Saturday, 6/21: Again, I don't sleep all that well. Slept a total of 3-4 hours. I arrive a bit late to the con. Some time around 12. Just in time to chill at the table for a bit and collect myself before the podcasting panel at 1 p.m. Charlito and I head up right before 1 p.m. and meet up with Pants and Murd and Heidi MacDonald. There are about 5 people waiting and the room is locked. Uh-oh.

Someone finds someone and they come to unlock the door. Just then, the DC Nation panel lets out and a throng of folks come over our way for the panel. And gotta say, we had a great turnout! Heidi Macdonald of The Beat was naturally very professional and informative as moderator. The panel consisted of your own pimp daddy (ME!), Adam Murdough (Comic Geek Speak) and Charlie La Greca (Indie Spinner Rack). I'm pretty sure it was recorded and will possibly show up somewhere online. The panel was called The Future of Podcasts in the Media. Heidi and I had come up with this in a phone conversation a few weeks back. We covered podcasts as media, their role, where we saw our shows going, best moments and more. Really fun and informative and at times...hilarious! Stay tuned. I'll let you know if/when the audio goes up.

Post-panel, back to the floor. A much busier day, I still walked around a bit and did some table sitting. It was nice to meet some of the forum folks that I had become friends with over the past couple of years. While we didn't hang much, it was very cool to hang/chat with Heath Holland. He's been a loyal listener for a long time and even has his own podcast, Geek Brunch. As per usual, apologies to fellow podcasters, forumites, and listeners if I was all over the place. At cons, I always run around without any agenda and end up missing on hanging out with a lot of peoples.

Charlie and I decided to grab dinner at the hotel restaurant bar. The awesome and beautiful Amy took great care of us. Then, it's off to the Art Auction where creative director, Dustin Harbin, was acting as auctioneer. I dubbed him "Dustin Timberlake" because of his snazzy outfit! We kept singing, "He's bringing comics back. YEAH!" The auction benefits the con itself and deservedly so.

Pieces being auctioned off are drawn during the con and can fetch up to $4000! Too rich for my blood! Of course, $5 is too rich for my blood. We head back to the Westin and the bar is hopping. Everyone's drinking much and mingling. At one point, the decision is made. Off to the club that gentleman frequent.

A small crowd head over. Yep. Same place we went last year where I met the stripper nerds. Or nerd strippers. Sure enough, I think I see the same girl from the previous year. I go up to her and ask if she was here last year. "Yes." And before I could reply, she continues, "You have the comic book radio show." Holy crap! That's some memory. She even mentioned how I had an eye patch last year. (Which I did because of a corneal abrasion). We hung out a bit and she talked about coming to the con again the next day. A smoking hot stripper who loves comics. Now, if she drank bourbon, played video games and liked The Knicks...she'd be perfect! Ah, fuck it. Being a smoking hot stripper who loves comics is enough for me. After spending way too much money (I provided her comic purchasing for at least a year, I'm sure) and drinking much, back to the Westin to bed.

Sunday, 6/22: Yup. Barely slept again. WTF?! Not hungover, but pretty tired. Hey, I can hold my liquor! Today was going to be interview day. And boy did I interview.

Danielle Corsetto. She of Girls With Slingshots fame. And talking cactus McPedro fame. She was selling t-shirts that said something about a mustache ride. So clever! Always great chatting with Danielle.

Julia Wertz. The sassy, brassy and crassy girl behind The Fart Party. She's just as hilarious as the book makes her out to be. Funny bit...I approached her Saturday around 2 p.m. about an interview and she says, "I've been drinking. Tomorrow will be better." We get slightly debaucherous, but it's pretty funny stuff.

Matt Kindt. Super Spy and Pistol Whip are some of his work. Really nice guy and I'm happy to hear he's got more coming down the pipe as I'm a big fan of his style.

Pat Lewis. I recommended his book, The Claws Come Out, a couple of weeks ago. It was nice to see him again and chat about his work.

Scott Weinstein. Another one who's book I recommended on CNI. After-School Agent is a fun romp! Scott gave me a copy of the Ashcan edition for issue #2. And yes, it rocks.

Shane Heron and Joel Buxton. This was sort of a fluke. On Saturday, I stopped by their table for a second. Shane noticed my shirt and had listened or heard of me and the show. We chatted for a few minutes and I picked up a couple of their mini-comics. Tales of Awesome Marcus Ninja had me peeing my pants in places. They are also the Canadian guys who picked up Charlito and Mr. Phil and had us worried that they might be serial killers. Funny guys and I'm glad we had a chance to chat.

I also got Francesco Francavilla (dueling Francesco's at the end!), Jonathan Hickman, Ryan Bodenheim, Rick Remender and Adam & Comfort. Interviews will be dispersed over the next 2 episodes of Comic News Insider.

The con ends and we head over to the store that sponsors the whole thing, Heroes Aren't Hard to Find. Owned and operated by Shelton Drum. The Dead Dog party was thrown for professionals and friends and great food and drinks were provided as well. I was able to hang for a little over an hour before dashing off to the airport. Massive thunderstorms delayed my flight for about 45 minutes and it's a quick nap/ride home.

Waiting in line for the cab, Rafael Kayanan starts chatting me up. Fellow Filipino and all. We shared a cab and he told me a few things he was working on including the Spider-Man musical with Julie Taymor! Really cool guy, so I'm sure we'll be having him on in the near future.

If you have only 1 convention to attend next year, make it Heroes Con. It's cheaper, nicer, friendlier and full of southern charm! Everyone is approachable and it's always a blast. Thanks again to Shelton and Dustin for taking such good care. I'll see you next year!

Comments

[mike.]

Sounds like a crazy fun time. Fraction's my hero, and Adam & Comfort do good works. Hope you didn't harp too much on the "fanboy/fangirl reaction" to the Fillion interview at your panel. :p

[Comfort and Adam]

We must say, meeting you Jimmy, was hands down one of the biggest highlights of our time at heroes. You're fun and funny to listen to on the podcast - but we'd say even more so in person.

We feel that it is an honor to know you sir, and we thank you for that opportunity :)