Con Report:

Dallas Comic & Toy Fest 4

The trip started with the adventure that is flying post 9/11. The security was a little different. For one thing, you can’t go past the metal detectors if you don’t have a ticket. This made the usually crowded section of restaurants and gift shops past the metal detectors at Bush Intercontinental look eerily abandoned. I got on my plane and left for Dallas. I brought the second and third Harry Potter books with me on the plane for comfort. I’m a control freak and like my mom, flying is not my favorite thing in the world to do. The woman sitting next to me on the plane looked at me like I was some evil Satan worshipper. I ignored her and kept reading my book. I arrived at Love Field and met up with Zack (Console-tations). The following morning we left his house in Fort Worth at 8:30 to head to the Richardson Civic Center. We arrived there about 9:30 and met up with Mat Bredfeldt (Toy Story). Mat had been there for thirty minutes and there was still no sign of Joe Singleton (Artistic License). So I took charge and went up to the people in charge of the con and told them who we were and asked if Joe had arrived yet. They gave us our badges and took us to our table. About ten minutes later Joe made it in, and we set up the CT banner. The Convention itself opened at 11, so at about 11:30 I started combing the dealers room for my marks...I mean potential interviewees. I quickly found Geoff Johns and asked him for an interview. To my delight he agreed to an interview at 12:30. I searched the room for John Cassaday and in the process ran into the JE Smith, the writer of Complex City. He was busy coloring a drawing of Supergirl for the art auction. Whoever won that piece is very lucky indeed, it was very pretty. He told me about his plans to put out a Complex City Trade. Start searching in your Previews for that soon, boys and girls. You know in that section behind the Marvel, DC, Image, and Dark Horse sections. So after talking to JE Smith for a while, I headed back to our table and started trying to brainstorm more questions for Geoff Johns. Of course my Collector Times compatriots were no help. * glares at Joe, Mat, and Zack * So finally, 12:30 rolls around and it’s time to interview Geoff Johns. It was a great interview it’s up on the site now. You should go check it out. Geoff’s a great guy. After interviewing Geoff Johns I walked over to Todd Nauck’s table and talked to his wife for a few minutes. I interviewed Todd at last year’s Dallas Comic and Toy Fest. After talking to her, I started to wander the dealer’s room again. I didn’t see much I wanted to buy here, but then I think I’m spoilt by San Diego having such a vast selection. Not seeing anything I really wanted immediately, I headed back to the CT table. As I was sitting at the CT table this chick came by and was buying all of the small press comics at the show. She asked us what we were selling and looked shocked when we said we weren’t selling anything. I think what annoyed me most about her and what makes her stick out in my mind is that she looked like she felt sorry for us and wanted to do us a favor. I saw her talk to the people on either side of me, and it just seemed like she felt obligated to buy the small press comics and that it was a burden on her. Maybe she doesn’t like comics and she has an editor with a bullwhip. Wait! There’s only one editor with a bullwhip and I know this chick doesn’t write for us. Hmmm . . . So about 1, some of my friends from Cepheid Variable (editor’s note: The SF Club at Texas A&M University) show up. I bounce happily out of my chair to go hug Kim, the Rocky Horror director from last year, and instruct the rest of the elder gods how they can get to Tim Bradstreet. I talked to Kim for a while and then the other elder gods come out of the dealers room and mention that John Cassaday is in the dealer’s room. My little ears perked up immediately and I headed into the dealers room to stalk . . . I mean . . . to find him. Eventually I headed back to the our table to wait for him to finish talking to whomever he was talking to. I wasn’t the only one that wanted to talk to him, apparently. I went to the bathroom and when I came back, guess who I should see standing talking to someone else in front of our table, but John Cassaday? So, I waited for him to get through talking, and then asked him if I could interview him. He said sure and said I could come and interview him during his signing between 3 and 4. So about 1:45 Zack and I went to lunch. When we got back to the table, I discovered a note from John Cassaday saying he’d got the times wrong and his signing was between 2 and 3. So immediately I high-tailed it over to his table to interview him. When I arrived there he was talking with some friends of his. He insisted on going and getting me a chair to sit in while I interviewed him. So he came back with a chair and we sat down and conducted the interview. You’re just going to have to wait until next month to see that one. After I finished my interview with John Cassaday, I heard an announcement made over the intercom about a small press comicbook panel. I went to the panel, and it was a lot of fun. I got to hear a lot of stuff from five very cool small press guys: JE Smith of Complex City, Scott Kurtz of PVP, Nick Derington of Paper Museum (It’s a one shot and it’s coming out soon. Check it out in Previews. Nick’s a cool guy. ), Mark Murphy of House of Java, and Cal Slayton of Shades of Blue. After that I made my purchases of the con: A coffee table book on The Brothers Hildebrant, a Simpson’s toy for Elaine, and couple of small press comics. One of those comics being Moon Rush, which I review this month. Shortly after the CT staff left the convention and went out to dinner. Zack and I headed back to Fort Worth. Later that evening Zack and I went to see Minority Report which I also review this month. Hey ma, look! Shameless plugs for everything I’ve done this month in one con report! I didn’t return Sunday but rather spent it hanging out with Zack. Later that evening I got to fly back to Houston. Security at Love was fun. I had to take off my shoes so that they could run them through the metal detector, and they decided to search my bag. They guy doing the check pulled out my roll on deodorant. "What’s this?" he asked. "My deodorant," I replied," You’re welcome to keep it if you want." I was very amused at this point. Apparently my tape recorder from the interviews was baffling them, but they let me go and I got safely home to Houston, where I sit currently writing this report for Madame Editor.