We had a great time.
There’s just no other way to say it. Kathleen, Caroline, Ariel, Ariel’s friend Marina and I, after all the sturm and drang, had a great ol’ time at UFC. A decent number of appreciative fans (hard to determine exactly how many, but it seemed like a few hundred), smoothly run programming (I mean, yeah, the Saturday night banquet started fifteen minutes late, big deal), hanging out with old friends such as the peerless Bill and Eileen Mumy, Grace Lee Whitney and Tracy Scoggins, and making new friends such as BSG’s Nicki Clyne, Dr. Who’s Wendy Padbury, and–‘eeeeyyyy–Henry Winkler.
Bob Greenberger braved near hurricane winds to come up Saturday afternoon to hang out, which was great. Pocket Books was kind enough to send me one hundred copies of my brand spanking new Trek novel, “Before Dishonor,” which I gave out free to the first hundred people who came by my table. At the evening cabaret I read the first chapter of “Tigerheart,” Wendy did a reading of Doctor Who’s long-lost diary which was hysterical (I totally forgot to ask her if she wrote it because it was marvelous) and Mumy did a terrific half-hour set that he himself described as “schizoid,” a fair description of a set that includes heart-felt ballads, a song about the nightmarish blending of Will Robinson into Lennier, and ending with an audience singalong of “Fishheads.” Bill then continued the set out into the lobby, seated at a piano, dueting on some Barnes and Barnes songs with a hardcore B&B fan and even singing the theme to “Space Cases.”
Sold a bunch of stuff, made a decent amount of money, so that was good too. My sister Beth and her family came up as well on Saturday, so Caroline had an opportunity to hang out with her little cousins. Henry gave a terrific speech on Sunday: I missed the first half because I was signing, but Mumy said it was fantastic and inspirational (Kath took the above picture of myself, Henry and Bill afterwards.)
If they have the con next year and invite us up, yes, I’d be there.
PAD
• 
Peter,
Glad to hear you had a great time at UFC this year. There was less for fans to do with the lack of comic artists like last year, but I certainly made the most of my day at the Con on Saturday.
Thanks for the free book and the chance to buy the Fantastic Four book I had been unable to get before now.
By the way, don’t forget to check out that author I told you about: Jon Land.
And if you are back next year, I most assuredly will be there as well.
Jay
Thanks for the Space Cases sing-a-long, Peter! I put it up on youtube if you want to take a gander: ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDUZGKQpiMQ
I’m afraid I didn’t have as great a time. In fact I got kinda pìššëd øff.
Okay, no, I’m not a convention guy. But I always go for the vendors. I’m a bad geek I guess. So I drove to Springfield with $200 in my pocket and rented a room in the Marriott. Sunday morning I made my way down to the sixth floor, but apparently they had set up registration at the other end of the floor. After talking to the guard, I went to the other end to purchase my tickets.
I told the lady at the cashiers that I just wanted a ticket for the vendor’s room, and she told me I needed to fill out a form. This wasn’t just a name and email form, it was all the possible personal information you could submit without giving a blood sample.
I pointed out that I just wanted a general ticket for the vendor’s room, and asked if I really needed to fill that form out for that? I was pretty rudely told that yes, it was required, which is the first time I’ve ever seen that. At first I almost gave in, as I’d driven 90 miles and rented a room to spend a little more money. Then I thought that it was dumb and I felt disrespected as a fan… oh, we’ll take 20 bucks off of you and could you also please give us all your personal information, so that you can spend some more money?
I lost my temper and put the pen down. “Forget it,” I said, sulking away to go back to my room. I heard the lady behind me ask one of her assistants to “escort” me out of the convention area. Because I guess I was a menace or something.
I would have been happy to pay the 20 dollars to get into the vendor’s area, but there was no need to give out my personal information so that I could buy a bootleg of the JLA pilot or whatever. I guess I could have just filled out with a bunch of false information, but the cold I’ve been suffering with for the past two weeks has obviously made me a Grouchy Gus.
PAD, glad you had a good time. Also, at the risk of inciting your cult of personality, good show in having the grace to truly accept an apology and offering to return to UFC next year.
Hi Peter,
just a comment to say you are looking GREAT!
wow. . at least 10 years younger.
keep up the good work (the writing, and the weight loss)
You are cool like Fonzie.
Peter; it was great seeing you there – “Monster Mash” on Friday night, the reading of “Tigerheart”, the handing out of “Before Dishonor” – you were definitely great to the fans this weekend and I’m looking forward to reading what I got from you. I do apologize for waiting too long to tell you that story of the guy who thinks you and KRAD are the same person – I just as easily could have told you that here – I didn’t intend to be “that guy” – nobody likes “that guy”. You were heading home after a great weekend and I didn’t mean to delay you – I know that you thought that the story was funny, but I shouldn’t have kept you and I apologize for that.
To Ken who posted before me – I understand your frustration about registering for the con, but remember that they don’t know you and they don’t know if after you go through the dealer room that you might just hand your badge off to someone else who didn’t pay the entrance fee (BTW, they would have asked to see your ID to match it against what you filled out on your form). Unfortunately, it’s happened in the past too often.
Than why don’t they just collect his badge on the way out?
I’m sorry, no: that’s a ridiculous policy. The fact that I could have just lied about all my personal information means it was pointless to gather it (they did no identity check with the guy in front of me) and it’s nothing that wristbands wouldn’t take care of.
I know I was grouchy because I was sick, but it was an unnecessary hurdle to make me jump through when I just wanted to get into the vendor’s room. Not that I wouldn’t have wanted to meet Peter; I had no problem registering for Dallas Wizard World when I lived there and getting his signature. It was fun! But for this… it was an inconvenience.
But mind you, it wasn’t that that irked me so much… it was the condescending attitude of the woman at the cashier’s position. Seriously, I needed an “escort” back to the elevators? If I was going to rip them off I would have just gone into the vendors’ area after talking my way past the guard at the other end of the floor.
Or they could stamp his hand. Or put one of those paper wristbands on his wrist that you can’t take off without tearing.
Collecting his home address isn’t an effective way to keep someone from passing off his badge.
Hopefully this will be my last comment on this – I’ve seen other threads get too off-topic. The con used to use wristbands, but they’re very easy to get copied and they can be taped back together after being cut off. They actually did stamp hands with an ink that was supposed to last 3-4 days; I had to get my hand re-stamped on Sunday and most of it is gone even now. They can’t collect badges when a person leaves because people come and go all day. The photo sessions, for instance, were on another floor of the hotel. You also wouldn’t have seen Peter in the dealer’s room; he was in the foyer of the presentation room most of the time, except when he gave a presentation in one of the function rooms.
I can’t speak on the identity check of the guy in front of you; maybe they knew him. I know several members of the staff and I still presented my ID to pick up my pre-registered package and I showed my ID to get my hand re-stamped on Sunday, even though I was already wearing my badge.
Taking down the information actually does prevent people from passing off the badge since they also do the hand-stamp – no hand-stamp and you don’t get in (yes, the registration location is awkward, but you couldn’t get into the presentations, at least). If you go to registration with a badge and say that you need your hand re-stamped, they would ask for your ID. Your ID doesn’t match your badge info (which it wouldn’t if you gave fake info on the sign-in sheet) and you don’t get your hand stamped.
Is it a pain to have to register for the con? Sure? But they only do it because of the people who try to rip them off, driving up the costs for all the legitimate attendees (and I’m not saying that this is what you were trying to do). If you still think that it was too much, then we’ll just have to agree to disagree. I’m sorry you were disappointed in the experience and that you couldn’t see Peter on this trip.
As someone who has also walked away from con registrations where they were demanding that I fill out a large form of personal information in order to be allowed to give them money so that I could go into the dealers area and spend more money, I will note that yes, indeed it is too much, and that my not attending also drives up the costs for “legitimate” attendees.
They want to make it hard for someone to reuse my badge? Take a quick photo of me and print it on the badge. I don’t mind people who see the badge I’m wearing knowing what I look like.
Wait… so he has to fill out a form with his home address, be prepared to show his driver’s license, wear a badge, and have his hand stamped? Can I possibly be reading that right?
Oh, and Peter David looks healthier in that picture than he did 15 years ago or in any pictures I’ve ever seen of him, so congratulations on that PAD.
Yeah, you look like you lost even more weight, Peter. Btw, I notice that you’re clean-shaven, even though you said at Jim Hanley’s that you were growing the scruff in to play Sancho. Are your performances done?
Interestingly, the filename of that picture leaves one to wonder if Henry Winkler has been moonlighting as a voiceover artist for the Muppets. 🙂
In a day where identity theft is a growing concern, and unwanted marketing is thrown at you at every conceivable (and inconceivable) turn, where Toys R Us demands your phone number for marketing purposes every time you gleefully buy something from them, having to fill out your life history for a Con badge is going too far. If more people had the chutzpah to draw the line and say no, this is too much, this crap would have to back down, but to question authority is not good citizenship nor good patriotism.
1) price the admission lower so more people can afford to attend, and you’ll have fewer people trying to sneak in
2) if the guests are running you too much money to cut costs, find cheaper guests or have fewer of them. It doesn’t have to be the mother to end all cons; one good guest and we’ll show up. The rest is just icing on the cake.
Hi there. I’m a former UFC staffer and just wanted to drop my $0.02 about ken’s problem.
Basically, it’s like this: The personal information is used to create the future mailing list for the convention mailing. It’s pretty much the central way the con is advertised each year.
As for the escorting, yeah, there have been times where people have sneaked into the show to look around without paying. Plus, I’m sure the escort was just trying to get you to where you had to go so that you’d get to the right place that wasn’t going to interfere with the rest of the convention. And we’re only getting your side on how you reacted to things.
I’m sorry you had a bad time. But as I said, we’re only hearing your side of things and not what was offered to you as to why things were done or if anything was done to better accomodate you.
If the information is used to create the mailing list, it shouldn’t be mandatory. Toys R Us just needs a phone number…which isn’t accurat, because what they really need are 10 numbers to enter into the system. At times I’ve given them 555-5555 as my number, because we occasionally get a telemarketer or a NFP sneaking through our Do Not Call registry.
There is no legitimate reason to require someone to disclose a large amount of personal information just to enter a con. Heck, our property management company is requesting a lot of personal information that frankly they don’t need to know…the number and names of my pets, age and names of my kids, etc. I’m not providing them with any information I don’t think they need…and I don’t care why they think they need it…and I’d have no qualms refusing such information at a con, too.
Peter David REFUSED TO SIGN my corn muffin.
Mr D,
Thank you for a Wonderful Sunday Breakfast Experience,(now showing at an IMax theatre near you), at United Fan Con. It was a pleasure to meet and speak with you and your family, and easy to see why you are known as a “fan-favorite” at cons in general. I am enjoying “Before Dishonor” and am now looking forward to picking up your other titles. Thanks again!
I live in CT and drove the 30 minutes to the con on sunday and it was totally worth it. I only went to meet peter and for the vendor room. I got to here Peter read from the Doctor Who short story he is writing (it was awesome) And then Peter was kind enough to sign my very used copy of New Frontier book 1. It was a great experience.
We over at RigelianCulture, a Space Cases club, were all most pleased to hear about the performance of the best song ever. Really makes me wish I could have been there.
Kevin –
I can’t speak on the identity check of the guy in front of you; maybe they knew him.
For what it’s worth, when my wife and I picked up our badges for SDCC this past July, they didn’t ask for ID’s and they’re supposed to as well. Again, FWIW.
You got to meet Barry Zuckerkorn? That’s awesome! You know, he’s very good.
Good for you that you had a good time. Too bad you had to spoil someone else’s. A friend of mine had his first karaoke experience and you had to be all “smart” by agreeing with his self-proclaimed comments that perhaps he had not done too well. He actually thought he had not done too poorly until you agreed that he had.
You may have been gracious to the event organizers when you agreed to come back (and I give you kudos for that), but you could have remembered the phrase “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
If one is going to perform karaoke in front of others one does not know well, one had best have a thick hide, a good sense of humor, or be inebriated enough to not care about the lack of either.
Good for you that you had a good time. Too bad you had to spoil someone else’s. A friend of mine had his first karaoke experience and you had to be all “smart” by agreeing with his self-proclaimed comments that perhaps he had not done too well. He actually thought he had not done too poorly until you agreed that he had.
Yes. I did do that. And then, chagrined because his feelings had been clearly hurt, I sought him out the next day and apologized profusely for my behavior. He accepted my apology, seemed pleased that I had done so, and I believe we parted friends.
That’s what adults do when they screw up, you see: They say so, face to face. That may seem odd to someone who prefers to snipe from anonymity, but there it is.
Hey Doug…remember what I was talking about at breakfast? There y’go.
PAD
Thank you for letting me know you went back to him. Kudos to you, Sir. And as I do not intend to be a regular poster to this board, and am also minorly annoyed at UFC’s need to collect personal information felt it easier to maintain my anonymity.
Botton line: thank you for doing not only the right thing, but a nice thing.
Thank you for letting me know you went back to him. Kudos to you, Sir. And as I do not intend to be a regular poster to this board, and am also minorly annoyed at UFC’s need to collect personal information felt it easier to maintain my anonymity.
Personally, I’m a fan of stepping up, saying what you think while people know who you are, and dealing with whatever happens. That just seems…I dunno…a healthier way for a society to be. But naturally you have to do whatever is right for your comfort level.
In any event, you’re articulate and present your viewpoints well. I’d like to see you stick around and contribute to this odd little community we seem to be developing. It’s entirely up to you.
PAD
OMAR said:
“Wait… so he has to fill out a form with his home address, be prepared to show his driver’s license, wear a badge, and have his hand stamped? Can I possibly be reading that right?”
—–
Yep. It’s because comic book readers are all a bunch of thieves, dontcha know?
I posted this at the other thread, too.
—————–
OMAR said:
“Wait… so he has to fill out a form with his home address, be prepared to show his driver’s license, wear a badge, and have his hand stamped? Can I possibly be reading that right?”
—–
Yep. It’s because comic book readers are all a bunch of thieves, dontcha know?
I’m glad most people had a good time. But.
UFC needs to work on their thought process about how they handle customers.
—–
Toys ‘R’ Us asks for your phone number, but you can refuse.
When I fake an address, I use 90210 for my zip.
Protecting your identity is mostly not up to you, despite what your local television news says. All your information is encoded into your credit card. If the credit card company screws up, your identity will be open to theft.
Peter, let me add my voice to those who have already said you did a classy thing by going to the convention, although I hope there was a healthy amount of crow served at the Sunday breakfast.
In some ways, I can understand Ken’s reluctance to give away too much personal info just to get into a dealers room, although sick or not, he may have have made the situation a tiny bit worse by overreacting a bit. The way I look at it, I don’t worry too much if people have my address; any correspondence can simply be disposed of without opening. The same with e-mail to some extent, which can be more or less screened out. But I do have a major problem with people obtaining my phone number and with the possible exception of my passport renewal this past summer, just about every request for my number gets a phony one. If The Container Store needs a phone number for their data base, that’s okay, but it’s not going to be mine. Since a big chunk of my business as a freelancer is done over the phone, I don’t like to have my work interrupted by somebody trying to sell me a new fiber optic phone plan or asking me to vote for their favorite candidate. And for those who do somehow manage to obtain my unlisted number, I have no compunction about hanging up on them immediately. To me, that seems like a good compromise, but in this day and age of rampant identity theft, I can certainly see why other folks are a bit reluctant to hand over their personal data at a drop of a hat.
And Peter, you look really good in the photo. Now if I can just figure out how Bill never gets any older…
Joe-
I asked his wife about that and she glanced Bill’s direction and mumbled something about a corn field so I dropped that line of questioning. *grin*
Kath
Ha! Both Bill and his daughter must get a lot of mileage out of cornfield jokes.
So that’s why Peter refused to sign Doug’s corn muffin! It’s all starting to make sense now.
People seem to be echoing my actual sentiments while saying I overreacted… so I’ll clarify.
Yes, stores like TRU and Best Buy ask for your phone number when you use credit and debit cards, and while I do know that (at least in the past) this was just used for building a database about where their main customers lived, which is for advertising purposes, I don’t trust them now. Now, when I’m asked “Can I have your phone number?” I just say, “You don’t need my phone number for this purchase.” Very Jedi, but it works.
The only time this didn’t work was at a Best Buy in Dallas where the cashier tried to argue that it was just for a database, blah blah blah. Well, if it’s just for a database, then match up this purchase with a purchase I made on your website with the same card, and you’ll know my address, which is what you really want. He did not appreciate the logic of my argument.
But that’s off topic.
Yes, I know I was grouchy because of being sick and snotty and having a runny nose, and that perhaps helped precipitate my reaction. I admit that. My problem was with the attitude I was presented with. Maybe it was my sickness, but there seemed to be a certain amount of “well of COURSE you have to give us all your personal information” coming from the woman. And when I refused and headed back *the way I came* the proper thing to do, if she was so scared that I’d just go ahead into the vendor room on the way to the elevators, would be to *discretely* tell an assistant to make sure I didn’t sneak into the Vendor’s Room, not bark it out while I was obviously still in earshot.
To give out that much personal information to go into the Vendor’s Room is ridiculous. As I said, there are wristbands to handle that, and yes, wristbands can be passed on, if your guards are half blind and your cashiers have no idea how to securely fasten them so the security measures activate when somebody tries to remove them. I’d have been glad to give an email, that’s no problem; I have a junk Yahoo account for such things, and I do check it every week because the things I use it for, yeah, I might want to be updated on. And hey, yeah, if I’d preregistered, I wouldn’t have any problem giving personal info in order to get a discount to see Peter and get whatever comic I pulled out of my collection signed.
But to go to the Vendor’s Room? Sorry, no. That’s ridiculous.
“Ha! Both Bill and his daughter must get a lot of mileage out of cornfield jokes”
If it wasn’t quarter after 5 in the morning I’m sure I’d be able to come up with a really good popcorn line. Well, I’d laugh at it, anyway.
Either popcorn or Dr. Scholl’s corn remover.
Since at most cons the dealers have to pay for their tables, making the fan pay just to enter the dealers’ room is like a double-taxation to start with. You want the fans in there. The more the dealers sell, the more likely they are to come back again. I can’t think of any other venue where I’d spend a chunk of money just to enter a place to shop (outside of private car auctions, exclusive estate sales, etc, where purchases start at 4 figures).
I’m glad you thought it was well organized. From this fan’s perspective, it wasn’t. When I walked up to registration, they rudely announced “we’re closed” and continued the hostility even though the posted end of registration was 2 hrs away. My hand stamp wore off after I showered, and I got more hostility when I went to get it restamped.
The panels and guest Q&A sessions were embarrassingly unattended. The reserved seating section didn’t even look half full (and that’s with people creeping forward illicitly). Getting items signed was also poorly organized and felt half assed (to me).
The auction was also a mess. It felt like people were cleaning their closet, an dumping them at the con. The items weren’t well described, and the general attitude was not very welcoming. Genre actors were quickly mentioned by first name, and little information was given. Saying a “Star Trek First Contact” item is signed by “Jonathan” is not that helpful. Saying it was signed by Jonathan Frakes who not only portrayed Cmdr Riker and also directed the movie would have been much better.
The only conventions I’ve attended have been fan run cons, so this isn’t a pro con vs. fan con issue. The last fan con I went to had at most 200 people attending, and it was the second convention the organizers have run, and it felt more organized than UFC.
And why didn’t they replace at least one of the two big name draws? I’m not asking for a refund, but asking why they couldn’t try to give me back some of the value of the ticket I bought.
For me, the biggest problem with the con was that the overall impression I got from UFC staffers was that they were angry, bitter, unhappy, and didn’t want to be there. I understand con fatigue, and being burned out by volunteering tons of time and energy for fandom. I think they should have taken a year off, or explicitly said “Hi we’re doing a low key UFC this year.”
Peter, it was great seeing you at the Convention this year. I had a blast having sitting with you at the banquet and I’ve sent along some photos that I took at the Convention for you. I hope to see you at another convention sometime.
To Julia, who posted before me, Bill Mumy was the replacement guest for Adrian Paul not being able to attend. Aaron Douglas canceled literally the week before the Convention and that was when Peter was asked back after he had been uninvited. It would have been nearly impossible for them to get anyone else that close to the event because of how actors schedules tend to be. Plus, if they were able to find someone last minute, they might not have been able to afford them with their budget.
Holy Kolker, you met Barry Zuckerkorn? The Fonz himself? The teacher that bought in in Scream? Hot dámņ!!!
Speaking of BEFORE DISHONOR: I just finished reading it. Very good; very surprising, but very good.
Thanks for a good read.
You are looking hale and hearty there PAD. Billy looks like he hasn’t aged. Henry seems to be embracing age with dignity rather than Just For Men….hey!
I have to agree with Ken. One may feel as PAD does – that it’s not a problem to give out that information and it’s just standing up as yourself – or as Ken does – that it’s a camel’s nose under the tent to allow such personal inquiries: That’s a matter of personal preference and comfort level. I almost always give such information when it is requested, but I agree that it’s nobody’s business when buying general admission or any nonregulated products. (I will reluctantly admit that one should give positive ID when purchasing sniper rifles, for example, but admission to a comic con showroom, or to the presence of comic book nabobs, isn’t really such a security issue.)
Peter,
I don’t mean to be random, but I just have to comment on one of your articles in Comic Buyer’s Guide. Just a background – I’m not a comic book aficionado – my husband, Len is. We’re happily married for 10+ years and I’m very used to seeing copies of Comic Buyer’s Guide around the house. During a brief moment of boredom, (highly unusual) I opened the Nov. 2007 issue and found your “But I Digress” column of “A matter of some weight”. I was sucked in immediately…
First of all, I enjoy your honest and witty writing style – very similar to my husband’s (Dilemma Presents….). Secondly, I firmly agree with your approach to weight loss. While I was never considered morbidly obese, I was certainly knocking at it’s door. However, many failed programs later, I finally came to basically the very same conclusion as you…eat what you want in “normal” portions, and MOVE! While it’s still difficult for me to recognize what a normal portion size is (years of bad habits), I feel confident I’ve conquered my issues once and for all. As a fellow “work in progress” I wish you all the luck in your continued weight loss. Thanks for telling it like it is and giving other TDF’s a major reality check. You may have lost 100 lbs., but you’ve gained back many more years with your children and family – how precious is that?
Cheryl Mihalovich