Year: 2005

Back from United Fan Con up in Springfield, MA. Overall a perfectly nicely run Trek Con. The one problem was that, while the dealers were in the large dealers room and the guests were all signing in the main foyer, I was set up at a table in a small “comic book” room off to the side. But many Trek fans don’t read my comics, or even know I write comics; they just read my Trek fiction. So they’d be wandering around with their copies of “Imazadi,” give a perfunctory glance at the comics room, and keep going. I raised a mild fuss and by Sunday had been moved out into the main foyer, where fans kept coming up to me and saying, “Where have YOU been all weekend?”

At the Friday meet-and-greet, actor Matthew (Neville Longbottom) Lewis spend a splendid amount of time talking with Ariel, who had come to the convention with the specific hope of meeting him. He couldn’t have been nicer to her, so if anyone is looking to invite him to a convention, do so by all means. Then invite me. And Ariel.

Saturday night was the banquet and the cabaret, in which all guests were required to participate. Richard Hatch didn’t know that, and had nothing prepared. So he joined me in a dual reading of my parody Doctor Seuss poem, “Green Eggs and Crack.” The audience loved him. Mira Furlan, also of a poetic bent, did some lovely readings of poems by Shel Silverstein. The most entertaining, however, to my mind, was Sylvester McCoy. He marched up with a full sized guitar case, opened it and produced a tiny violin case no more than a foot long…opened THAT and withdrew a pair of spoons. He then, with musical accompaniment, proceeded to play the spoons with dazzling skill, bouncing them not only off his own leg, but tables, chairs, people’s heads and–most memorably–Mira Furlan’s posterior when Mira leaned forward and half rose from her chair to whisper something to me.

So next weekend we actually have a breather, and then after that, it’s off to mid-Ohiocon. Our house sitter is getting a workout this month.

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Marty Kasman passed away today. He was my daughters’ maternal grandfather, and he was one of the sweetest guys in the world. He passed away quietly of natural causes. He is survived by his wife, Claire, his daughter, Myra (mother of Shana, Gwen and Ariel), his sons Robert and Alex, and numerous grandchildren.

Although I don’t think it appropriate to publicly post Myra’s e-mail, she does read this website regularly, so anyone who wishes to post condolences may do so here.

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Book’s not out yet, but I thought I would pass on to you folks this review brought to my attention by Chris Ryall at IDW:

http://chadwickhsaxelid.typepad.com/chadwick_h_saxelids_cluel/2005/11/fallen_angel_1.html

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Recent discussions I’ve been having on the internet have really brought into stark relief for me how my participation can be a perpetual lose/lose proposition. Why? Because literally no matter what I do–indeed, what any creator can do–it can and often will be construed in the most negative light possible. It doesn’t mean I’m going to stop doing it, or that I’m upset about it. It’s kind of fascinating, actually, in the way that any no-win scenario can be.

Continue Reading “The lose/lose proposition that the internet can be” →

The first Wizard World convention I’ve attended in years, and I have to say I was impressed by the overall organization. They had tons of volunteers and organizational folks with headsets that actually, y’know, worked. The only downside was that the con was somewhat underattended, mainly (I think) due to Nascar being the same weekend. But even an underattended Wizard con still has respectable crowds. In terms of signings, they only had me scheduled for a couple hours each day, but I wanted to be as accessible to fans as possible. So they managed to find me some table space in Artists Alley…which was fortunate, because I was signing pretty steadily both Friday and Saturday. I hate to think what it would have been like if we’d tried to fit all those fans into the scheduled signings.

Tons of people told me how much they’re enjoying “The Other,” which is very gratifying. I’m always fascinated by the variations in fan expectations. Some people come up to me with three books to sign and say tentatively, “Is this too many?” Others don’t hesitate to bring me my entire run on “Hulk.”

I was very impressed by Sean Astin. I chanced to see him during his signing, and there was this little boy who wanted to meet him, but didn’t want to go near him without mommy…and then was wrapped around mommy’s leg, not even wanting to look at him. And Astin took the time to gain the kid’s confidence and had him doing a thumb war. About as unaffected as a Hollywood star can be.

They had me doing a thing on Saturday called “Wizard School.” The concept is that it’s a teaching programming track, and naturally it’s supposed to be about writing. I chose to hew to the name of the concept, and strode into the class in my Tim the Enchanter outfit. I did a straight-up lecture about story structure for fifty minutes, and then took questions for another forty. I insisted that any question be prefaced with “Oh Mighty Peter,” which they actually did. I very much suspect there will be pictures of it in an upcoming issue.

This weekend, off to United Fan con in Springfield.

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Hi, it’s Glenn again. As you may know, I posted a week or so ago about an auction going on now of 30,000+ comics over at Lot Auctions, and that I’d be answering questions about it over there.

Unfortunately, right after I said that, I got hit with deadline hëll and site problems (that were exacerbated by Hurricane Wilma hitting my credit card processor, of all things) that had me unable to respond immediately. So I started a new post– which of course also serves as an ad to go bid on stuff. Responses to everybody after the fold.

And yes, there’s still ten days left to bid. Go for it. There’s some really great stuff in there– including comic books that never came out in this country and comic books that many people swore never came out at all.

Continue Reading “A comics commercial break, part 2” →