Well, THAT worked

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

The reason I was attending Wondercon was that Activision brought me out to promote “Spider-Man: Edge of Time.” Since I was out here on their dime, I wanted to make sure that anyone who wanted to see me had to come to the panel. But I didn’t want to be a prisoner of my hotel room for two days.

So I put together a Green Hornet costume and walked around for two days. No one knew it was me. It was a kick the way people would say, “It’s the Green Hornet!” rather than, “It’s some guy in a Green Hornet costume.” Plenty of people took my picture. I encountered a couple of other Hornets, including one guy who had a photo perfect re-creation of the 1960s version, complete with Hornet sting (although he was sporting a red beard. To my mind, if you’re going to do a character, commit to it. Lose the beard.) And best of all, I had conversations with people I’ve known for years and they had no clue who I was. I honestly wasn’t sure it would work.

I was packing a 1960s style Hornet gun that Kath painted up for me. To me the major thing that made it work was that I inset a pair of flip-up sunglasses lenses into the eye holes of the mask. So it gave me an eyeless look that added an extra layer of creepiness to it.

It was a fun and different way to spend the con. Plus, considering I was wearing a full suit, a black leather duster, and a wool hat, I think I dropped five pounds of water weight.

PAD

41 comments on “Well, THAT worked”

  1. Awesome. So what was the most entertaining conversation you had that would’ve turned out differently had they known it was you?

      2. I liked the story about the conversation where you ended it by giving the person something (being vague so Peter can tell it if he chooses).

        I was lucky enough to have gone up to the panelist table shortly before the Activision panel started, looking for Peter to say hello. Saw a guy off to the side in a Green Hornet costume and I did think “That might be Peter” (having the advantage that it was a time/place where I was expecting to see him), but didn’t say anything since it was a toss-up between “What the heck would he be doing dressed up at the Green Hornet for a Spider-Man game panel” and “If it is Peter, I guess he doesn’t want to draw attention to himself”. Peter then came over and chatted, solving that problem. It was a quite good costume.

      3. I liked the story about the conversation where you ended it by giving the person something (being vague so Peter can tell it if he chooses).
        .
        You’re being so vague even I’m not sure what you’re referring to.
        .
        PAD

  2. Ah yes, the joy of a costume so convincing no one knows it’s you. Woot! (Two Halloweens ago, for a costume party I dressed as a Lovecraftian professor, complete with glasses (which I don’t wear), gray beard (don’t have a beard) and gray wig (I’m a redhead). The highlight was when my ex-girlfriend was at the party and had no idea who I was until I spoke.)

    Are we going to get a picture of your costume here, PAD? I’d love to see it!

    1. Speaking of Halloween costumes: A few years ago, I polled my friends on what I should be for Halloween. They unanimously decided that I should be Radar O’Reilly, given my more-than-passing resemblance to Gary Burghoff. The only problem was, I had recently grown a goatee, was rather proud of it, and didn’t want to shave it off for just one night.
      .
      Solution: I went as Evil Radar O’Reilly from the Mirror Universe.

      1. And they should have KNOWN it was Evil Radar, because you even had your first name spelled backwards!

    2. When my wife was in grad school she kept going to Halloween parties hosted by people who were really, really into it. One year she had a friend do her up: she arrived in a cut-off shirt, mesh top over it, short skirt, about twelve pounds of makeup on her face, hair teased halfway to oblivion, and carrying a freshman bio textbook covered in cobwebs. She was going as a “sorority bimbo” who was every grad student’s nightmare.
      .
      She had a good five-minute conversation cornering one of her best friends and just prattling on and on. It took, seriously, something around five minutes before the target finally said, “oh my god, LISA!”
      .
      Good, good times.
      .
      (The following year, if memory serves, was the year she took two polo shirts — one red, one blue — cut each in half and restitched them together, and brought an empty Domino’s box to the party while wearing a nametag saying “Lisa Hazard, Ph.D. Proud Employee Since 1998.” Several of her friends refused outright to talk to her, saying she was TOO scary.)

      1. Back in undergrad at UNC-CH, my then girlfriend and her best friend decided to go to a football game as ultimate southern preppy sorority types. I walked in when they were applying the second or third inch of makeup, took one look, and said I didn’t want to see them again until they returned to normal so I’d be able to maintain my respect for them.

        That evening, she and I had the following conversation (she having changed back to normal clothes and taken a shower to remove the makeup and perfume). Me: “So how’d it go?” Her: “You won’t believe me.” Me: “Of course I will. How’d it go?” Her: “Each of us had three passes made at us.” Me: “You’re right, I don’t believe you.”

      1. Unless you’re referring to a different Tom, nope. Didn’t even have a camera on me.

      3. So, Peter David was disguised as the Green Hornet, and somebody else was disguised as Tom Galloway!

  3. Well, that answers the age old question as to whether superhero costumes really work or not in hiding identities!

  4. So waitaminit, if Tony Stark were hiding in plain sight as Iron Man and playing his own bodyguard it would actually work?

    Who knew? (lol!)

    1. Funny story: At San Diego, Robert Downey Jr. was hanging around the Marvel booth. A fan suggested that he should cosplay Tony Stark because he looked perfect.
      .
      PAD

  5. One of the best times I had at a con was Mid-Ohio-Con in 1997. I had gotten a full-head Dilbert mask, which came complete with the bendy tie. I put it on and walked around the dealer room (also attended an auction in it). Had lots of photos taken, several with some attractive young ladies, which stoked my ego to no end.

    Biggest drawbacks were that no one could understand me when I talked, and, though there were airholes in the nose (which was positioned where the mouth would be), it did get hot. When I removed it, sweat plastered my hair against my head.

    I need to find it and wear it again, or find one online. Thanks to a particularly nasty appendectomy (it had burst, and they had to go in around my stomach), I now have a “butt gut” like Dilbert. But I can’t promise that I would be able to attend a con anytime this year. Since my move to wichita, money has been sparse.

    Kim Metzger

  6. So, that explains why we never see Peter David and the Green Hornet in the same place at the same time. And all this time, I suspected it was really Brit Reid under that mask.

  9. Did you visit the Image booth and tell Erik Larsen you’re his biggest fan!?!?

    1. I swung by the Image booth a few times, but the only person I saw there that I knew was Robert Kirkman, and he always seemed pretty busy.
      .
      PAD

    1. This guy works for Activision (the company that makes Edge of Time), there is a very good chance he knew it was PAD with certainty.

  11. That’s hilarious. My dad is a huge fan of the Hornet and he must have seen you because he really wanted to know where he could get a mask like that.

  12. PAD,

    Did you disguise your voice in some way, too (presumably people who know you personally would have recognized it)? Or was the convention noisy enough overall that people would have had a hard time hearing you, in any event?
    .
    Any temptation to do something like that again? I’m sure there must be times when you might like to spend time at a convention as a fan.
    .
    Your anecdote about Robert Downey Jr. reminds me of when I attended a screening of the first X Files movie. Dean Haglund was there, doing a brief presentation before the screening. Afterward, I was interviewing him, and to get away from the crowd, he stepped into an empty concession booth. A kid came up to him and wanted to buy something. Maybe the kid hadn’t been at the screening and/or never watched “I>The X Files. And maybe he just didn’t really look at the guy behind the counter.
    .
    I’m also reminded of the story John Leeson (the voice of K-9) has told. He appeared incognito at a convention as “the fan from Philadelphia.” He even lost a K-9 sound-alike contest.
    .
    I later learned that either at that convention or another one, his true identity was subsequently revealed. Of course Leeson had the added advantage of most people not knowing what he looked like.
    .
    Rick

    1. I dropped my voice down in register, making it more throaty. If it were just me standing there talking like that, you’d wonder why Peter is talking strangely. But with my identity obscured–particularly with my eyes blocked by the shades–people flat out didn’t make the connection. Initially I just allowed myself a few words–telling Mark Evanier I was a big fan, for instance–but the more confident I became, the more ambitious I got. I had a five minute conversation with Paul Levitz, whom I’ve known for decades, and he never would have known if it was me if I hadn’t subsequently told them. Same with Terry Moore.
      .
      I doubt I’d do it again. The only reason I did it here was that I literally had nothing else to do. Normally when I’m an invited guest, there’s plenty to keep me occupied.
      .
      PAD

      1. Looking at the picture at bleedingcool.com, I’d like to think I would have recognized you even with the lower voice, but if I was sufficiently distracted I suppose I might not have.

        Someone–Tony Isabella, I think–once told a story about wearing a Spider-Man costume in the Marvel offices sometime in the ’70s and being instantly recognized by everyone who knew him, despite the full-face mask.

      2. With all respect, Paul, it’s easy to say after the fact, “Oh, I’d have recognized Peter.” Paul Dini didn’t recognize me (at first) and I’ve stayed over at his house. As for Tony, of course they recognized him. A Spider-Man costume is very form fitting and Tony has a stocky and distinctive build. The Hornet suit, coat and hat are more concealing, plus the suit jacket had wider shoulders so it built me up.
        .
        PAD

      3. Fair enough.
        At the same time I was writing that, I recalled one of the years I ran the art show at Farpoint and was so distracted by everything I had to keep track of that I failed to recognize one of the guests when he was standing right in front of me. And what’s worse is that he even said his name and I still blanked. Embarrassing? Oh, yes.

      4. PAD,
        .
        I was thinking more along the lines of conventions you’d be attending just because you wanted to attend, not those where you were an invited guest. I imagine there might have been times when you wanted to attend a certain convention (say a pro from the early days of comics was making a rare convention appearance, for example, and you wanted to meet him) but didn’t for fear you might have inadvertently stolen someone else’s thunder.
        .
        A hypothetical exchange: Convention organizers: “Hey, Peter David’s here. Let’s have him sit on panel X.”
        .
        You: “No, no. I just wanted to meet ____. And I wouldn’t want to take attention away from (invited guest(s)).”
        .
        That sort of thing.
        .
        Rick
        .
        P.S. With regard to the outfit, maybe at a future convention, you could do a version of To Tell The Truth. Get a group of men with similar builds to yours and have them on stage in Green Hornet outfits. Then have a contest where members of the audience try to guess which is you. The whole “Will the real Peter David please stand up?” bit.

  13. Pingback: Today’s Comics Guide: April 6, 2011 | CBGXtra

  14. I read your response to the idiot who insulted you on bleedingcool.com, and only have one thing to say – OWNED!

    That said, I have a question about the mask: how did you get the clip-on sunglasses lenses to stay on the mask? I’m planning to go to Comic-Con later this year either as Kato or one of the Crazy 88s from Kill Bill, and I like the idea of the eyeless look.

  15. Pingback: WonderCon | My wrap-up report from last weekend’s con | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment
Comments are closed.