The FanExpo Episode
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Yeti Stereo Microphone-1: [00:00:00] Welcome to the multi-verse comics podcast on this episode. Scott and Steven tell you all about Dallas fan expo / Enjoy.
Are we on? Yeah, I think so. I think it's working. I mean, the little red line is getting bigger and the little blue line is getting smaller, so. Well, my cardiologist said that was bad, but. Well, yeah, I would think so. Hopefully this isn't connected to your biorhythms. Absolutely. But yeah, so, it turns out that our esteemed overlord is on assignment somewhere else.
What is he, the swap meet this time? It's the board game convention or something. I don't, he goes every year. So Jason's on assignment and we could joke about Budapest, but he's actually been there. Yeah, he actually was there when we made that joke last time. Yeah, so. He's out and since we, as if you listen to our channel, he did announce that we had some technical difficulties that he kicked up the dust.
, so Steven and I decided that we would try our hand again. And [00:01:00] since we were both at the fan Expo here in Dallas, Texas, this past weekend give our sights and sounds and review of the Three day geek extravaganza, which is the closest thing to San Diego con wherever you get here in the Lone Star State.
I don't know why that made me think of it. You've seen this is spinal tap, right? Yes. So there's a, I think it's in the intro when oh gosh, what's his face. The guy who directed that Reiner Rob Reiner, and , he's playing Marty DeBergey, the , the erstwhile documentarian of this band.
And he goes, I wanted to do something that would capture the sights, the sounds, the smells of a hardworking, Every metal band or a hard working rock band. There's some truth to that at the convention, especially on Saturdays. Gosh, yeah. I was a lightweight. I only did Saturday and Sunday, but you were there on Friday.
We, we, yes myself, Ally, and some of her family from her dad's side did all, tried to do all three days. [00:02:00] Now, I did all three days. Ally did all three days. The family members on Ali's side only made it until Saturday. My sister, we did our photo ops on Sunday, but yes, all three days. Wasn't my original idea to do it that way.
Right. But I did. So did you have all the kids with you on Friday? All of her. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. We brought, we went out there. Yep. My thought process was we were going to pick up passes for the entire weekend. Right. Because we had them pre ordered. I was, since this was some of their first conventions, I wanted them to get a lay of the land, and I did not think they would blow through as much money that their parent had provided them as they did.
And being teenagers and first time out in geek world what was going to happen Saturday was inevitable. When they blew the rest of their money. They were ready to go home, and not our home, where I and Allie live, their home in Hillsboro, and so [00:03:00] that created some tension, and we got it all resolved.
Okay, well, before this becomes libelous Oh, no, wait a minute. They have to be alive to sue. I'm sorry. Wait a minute. It's liable if it's in print? Or is it slander? No, it's slander if it's in print.
Now if it's face to face, it's hearsay, if it's on paper or recorded, it's evidence. Ah, okay. Okay. So, well, anyway, moving on. Because I think you've just highlighted the concern that I was trying to avoid. So, yeah, so you were there Friday and I came in on Saturday my original plan was to only do Saturday, but one of the highlights.
One of the, one of the offerings of Fan Expo this year was the the Frank Miller Experience, which kind of sounds like a 1960s, pop band for intellectuals. He might be up there singing Yeah. It could be, I mean, we couldn't get tickets to the Jimi Hendrix experience, but this guy Frank Miller's having an experience, so we'll go and do that [00:04:00] instead.
And that was originally supposed to be on Saturday, but then they moved it to Sunday night, so that's how I ended up getting drafted in on Sunday, but going back to you, so you were there on Friday. Now, you You've, you've gone to these shows, what's the, what's the first show how long ago was the first sort of, and I appreciate that Fan Expo isn't a comic book convention per se, it's, it has a lot of comic book elements in it.
But it's also been it's a media, it's a media event. You've got the celebrities and you've got, there's a very heavy manga presence there. But we'll just, for the sake of, for the sake of this discussion, we'll just think of it in terms of it being a comic convention.
What's the oldest period? Yeah. Ever. Yeah. Do you remember the first type of show you went? Yes, I did. The Dallas fantasy fair. It was it was run by Leisure Suit Larry, who [00:05:00] passed away not too long ago. I think the first one would have been my junior year in high school. So I graduated in 86.
Okay. So 1985, Larry Langford is who Leisure Suit Larry is. It took me a minute to remember his name. That was the convention that my friend Jeff and I boldly tried to figure out. My dad took us the first day and then my dad was like, I'm not driving you to Dallas two days in a row. Y'all figured it out.
So we got in Jeff's Volkswagen and by memory, drove out there, got to the hotel, Dallas Hilton. Right before you get to it's on 635, before you get to the 75 split going to Plano. And I was so excited because Robert Asprin was there. The Myth Adventures writer novel series I enjoyed. The next year, Jack Kirby came.
Okay. Alan Moore was there, but I did not know much about Alan Moore at that point in time. But then I discovered Swamp Thing Watchmen [00:06:00] like after he left. I think we skipped here. Then the next time I was out there was when Neil Gaiman gave us Sandman number one when we didn't know who he was. Right. Then somewhere in there, there was some legal people suing each other over the convention, who was supposed to run it.
And so there was a drought in the 90s to 2000s. Then there was the outfit that runs the Chicago Comic Convention. Okay. Did it in Arlington a couple of times. Right. Brought Kevin Smith, that's where I met Ethan Van Scriber, that's where I met Jeff Johns before he took over. started Green Lantern then they stopped coming to Texas and there was about another three or four year drought and then whoever owned Fan Expo before it was Fan Expo did the conventions at the Irving Convention and they did three a year, February, big one in June, and then October.
Okay. Then the outfit that runs Fan Expo currently, bottom, knocked out the [00:07:00] February one and due to a year. The one, the big one in the summer at K Bay Hutchinson and then the little one in October at the early Irving Convention Center. So I'm going to say I've been going to conventions in one for, I went to Chicago in 2000 with Cliff.
That's where I got the email. Green Lantern Jersey that everyone tries to buy off of me. So I've been going to conventions since 1985. 1985. Gosh. Long, long story for a short answer. No, this is what I wanted to know. My first experience with a comic book convention would have been when I was a kid.
Let me think about this for just the briefest of moments. It would have been 19
Me think 80, I think it was 1987. I think it was 1987. I'm trying to remember what, when did the Batman movie come out? Ke Keaton? Yeah. 89. It was the summer of 89, wasn't it? . Okay, so, [00:08:00] yeah, I think it had to have been, I think it had to have been 87. And it was the UCAC, which is an acronym, and it stands for the United Kingdom Comic Art Convention.
And It was held at the University of London. Stone's throw away from the British Museum, if memory serves. And it was a two day event comic centric. And they had they had quite a range of guests. I mean, for a show like this it was, obviously you've got all the British talent there.
So, if you're British and you were in the comics industry. You were there. You were probably there. With the exception of maybe some of the kind of. Those somewhat violent nasty schoolboy comics. Which I don't know would mean anything to you like the Beano or the Dandy or Wizard Chips and all this kind of stuff.
But the those [00:09:00] comic book professionals who were probably sort of in the kind of art form of the medium. I mean all the 2000 AD guys would be there. Okay, let's put it that way. And you would get some, you'd get spillover from Europe. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. And and they would also have quite a roster of guests coming in from the U.
S. Because it was it was the show where, I don't know if they still do this actually, but they, they used to be the Eagle Awards. I remember the Eagle Awards. Yeah, and that's where they would host the Eagle Awards. Which I believe is named after the sort of seminal famous British boys comic, The Eagle.
Which I think is where Dan Dare, I think Dan Dare was in The Eagle. I don't know, I never read The Eagle, so. But yeah, so I did that in 87 and and then again in 88 and there wasn't one in 89 because of things that happened in the 88 convention which [00:10:00] caused the the producers of the show to basically be ejected from being able to use the University of London.
Ah. Which is an amusing anecdote. But it'll take a minute. So we might circle back to that. Cause that was probably one of some of the scariest hours of my teenage life. Did you get to experience those firsthand? Oh yes, I did. Actually. Yes, I did. Yeah. But anyway, back to Fan Expo. There's a tease for you.
Since then I've been to a few other shows mostly on a through the 90s, it was mostly smaller scale stuff. And then you got into the 2000s, and I started to go to things like MegaCon in Orlando, DragonCon in Atlanta there's another sort of Fan expo y type event that they have in Atlanta as well.
And then I did this fan expo in 2018, I think and then this past weekend. Yeah because we were both there we John Byrne experience and then we had the that [00:11:00] little speed bump called the pandemic. So that was That kind of derailed pause on things Yeah Did you go to the Irving right after the pandemic where it was like a holiday theme?
I did. I think I remember the disappointment. Yes. Where there was nothing there but Christmas trees and crafts. It reminded me of when I was , very young before We're talking elementary school, and this is before I ended up getting Shanghai'd to move to England. I went to an elementary school.
This was in South Florida, and I remember, at Christmas time, they would set up these tables where the kids could bring in their pennies or whatever, And buy absolute useless Christmas crap to surprise their hard working blue collar parents, 1970s with. It reminded me of that a little bit, like, Oh no, this isn't really a convention, this is more of a shopping experience.
Yeah, we're just trying to get you in here so you remember we're here. [00:12:00] Yeah. And none of it being particularly like, Oh wow, I'm so glad we came here because, Look, there's that guy with that booth who does the woodcuts of all of his favorite Star Trek characters. And at least I think they're Star Trek characters. They could be. That way it doesn't keep you up at night wondering. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, no disrespect to the art of woodcutting. But this guy's got a little ways to go. Keep going buddy, you'll get there. And but what I thought was interesting, which is why I asked, is that I think you and I, we both got to experience the the comic book convention.
Yes. The sort of The real, this is comic book fans engaging with comic book professionals and comic book dealers, and this is the type of show to, in the hopes of finding that elusive back issue that you just, I mean, granted this is before, some of the online merchants, certainly [00:13:00] eBay and stuff like that.
So, but now it seems these types of shows, I don't know, is it that you can't have a big comic book only show. Convention anymore. It's unsustainable. What do you think? I'm going to hurt some people's feelings and I, I apologize. This is what we do ahead of time. Once again, I didn't ne I've never gotten to go to the San Diego Convention in either iteration, pre Hollywood or post Hollywood.
And I remember the conventions we had around here, even the Dallas Fantasy Fair, was just one floor of a Holiday Inn. So, where you would have the Grabowski Wedding, with the dance floor. Right. Is where, The comic book convention was. And maybe out in the hallway was the talent. And the talent was maybe five or six people.
Comic book stores learned this a while ago. But comic book conventions figured it out about a decade [00:14:00] ahead of time. If you are a comic book only operation. Right. And, you need to feed your family and support yourself. You won't make it. Right. Okay. So, when we look at the Fan Expo, true comic book vendors, and I'm also going to take out the guys that had the pops, the statue, I'm talking about the comic book stands, there's probably twelve.
Right. Now, one side of me, that hurts greatly because I love my hobby. Yes. I love the comic book experience. And I love that there's a large diverse group, that is getting to experience our hobby. But it's not always the main element of my hobby comic books that draws them in. It's going to be the Japanese animation.
It's going to be the pops. It's going to be the mystery boxes. I mean, come on, there were etched [00:15:00] glasses out there. The Lego mini figs that, those guys butcher themselves and sell out there for a shit tummy. There, there was a gardener thing out there with potted plants. At a comic book convention
So like a lot of business, but you know, you, this is almost true of any business. You go back in the sixties, just a grocery store standalone, had to adapt to other things. Sure. Just a five and dime had to adapt to other thing. You couldn't have a, the old mall toy store had to change up toys for us.
Didn't just carry toys. Right. The comic book shops, if I'd been running one, and I tried to in the late 90s, I had two, my friend Cliff that you got to spend some time with and another gentleman, we were really close to pulling the trigger. And I promise you, if we pulled the trigger, we might have been out of business in five years because I personally would never have bought into in store gaming.
Right. There was gaming out at this [00:16:00] convention. Yeah, sure. The, but the nice thing about it. On the flip side of that, the comic book fans weren't showing up just because the media people were there. Right. They wanted to see the artists. Yeah. It gives you an opportunity to co mingle. And that's what happened, I think, for the industry as a whole.
Comic book stores have been going out of business since the 70s. The guy that runs Mile High Comics has been going out of business, he's a billionaire almost, he's been going out of business since 1978. Because he doesn't rest on his laurels. Right. He doesn't he knows the business has to diversify. So, when I walk around there trying to shop, tell this story today in the store, I bought two comic books.
The most money I spent out there was on the frickin food. Yeah. And then the next, if you drop down a tier, then it was two prints from Tom Grimmett, which was really the only reason I was heading out there for the Artist's Alley. Yeah. I would love, there used to be a North Texas comic book [00:17:00] convention that, that nutted up right before the pandemic.
That's where I got to meet Jim Shooter, Al Milgren, all that. That was just a comic book convention. Sorry, I keep hitting the table. Y'all, y'all are right when I'm doing that. I gotta watch that. But it was only half of the floor at the Irving Convention Center. Right. So like it or not, it's tough because we're the ones that invited everyone to the dance.
But if we want to keep having comic book conventions, then I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna have to have Hayden Panettiere from Heroes with Jonathan Frakes at my convention to make the money to get the spot. Because Fan Expo makes its money off the talent, not the vendors. Yeah. It's the same, to me, it's the same philosophical argument you get into about how do we compete with digital downloads.
Right. GameStop hasn't figured it out at all. We've been able to maintain a parody because there's still a market for these floppies. Yes. Not what it was in the 80s. No. [00:18:00] There's people, I used to think it would just be all my generation that wants the floppies. And there's, 20 year olds buying them.
Yeah. May not, they may not hang on to them the way we do, but you bought it the first time around. So, I don't, Ever see a future. I hope I'm wrong. I want to be wrong. That it could be just my comic book store again. Where you come in and I have a whole glass wall of nothing but those top grade Not slabbed.
Yeah. Top grade back issues that everyone It's just You know, you shouldn't die until you have a Hulk 181 and Giant Size X Men number one. Right, right. And it's funny, I can say Giant Size number one and everyone knows I'm talking about X Men. I had to throw the X Men in there for the people, but if I say Giant Size one, no one gives a shit about any other except that one.
That's my dour opinion, and I'm looking at your face, my friend. I see you, you have a difference. I do, well, no, it's no, it's not. And that's good, if you [00:19:00] do, I mean. It, no, it's not that I have a difference of opinion. What I'm, what I wonder, And it's something that I've wondered for quite some time now.
You talk about diversification. And I can see that as being a lead in as to why these types of shows have become what they are now. But I wonder, the question that I ask, and I asked myself this question this past weekend and I'm asking it again now, for the benefit of the people listening at home, or wherever they are. Is, Was it diversification out of necessity to keep this particular thing alive or Was it diversification? to Expand the revenue potential or Was it? simply diversification for the sake of diversification because an opportunity presented itself and this is and his You [00:20:00] here's the argument, here's the evidence of my question, my argument.
Something like San Diego Comic Convention, which I've never been either, and I really have no desire to. For years and years, I was like, one day, next, next year's gonna be the year. I just won't pay the mortgage for an entire year. I'm gonna get this sort of erstwhile, the, Steinbeckian journey the geeks of wrath, I'm gonna make it to the west coast with grandma strapped, grandma's corpse strapped to the hood.
And and I'm gonna go to this thing. And then became aware of, well, what happened this year? So and so from that movie that everyone loved was there. And then the next time it was, oh man, Marvel are actually bringing fricking Robert Downey Jr's gonna be, they're intrude.
These are your avenger. Lord of the Rings, or whatever it was. And now, that seems like that [00:21:00] show is known as the Hey, this is where we're gonna meet all those celebrities that are in those geek things that we love. Yeah. But is it because San Diego comic convention was dying and they're like, Oh, we just, we need something to get the punters in.
Or was it the studios saw, Hey, actually this is a fairly, I mean, you think about the amount of money that gets spent on marketing for movies. This actually isn't that expensive. We can get a lot of press out of this. Well, I go back and once again, I can't pronounce Chuck's last name to save my life.
It's the guy. that runs Mile High Comics. He Rosowski, I'm just, I like him too much to butcher his name. We'll call him Big Chuck. Yeah. He he's very good at documenting his displeasure with the way the San Diego con shifted away from comics. And he's one of the people that talked about, if we over diversify, we're going to diversify ourselves out of a place.
And there's a danger of that. But He started pointing this out in the late [00:22:00] 90s. Well if you go back, the late 90s, I think the best comic book movie there was either Mystery Men or Men in Black. We didn't get Marvel until 2009, 2008. The Batman movies had collapsed. Yeah, that's right. So now Batman Begins is wedged in there, but that was one You know, that was one franchise we didn't have, even the Superman movie tanked up.
So the industry and the convention industry was changing. You go to a convention, like I'll talk about the Arlington one in 99, 2000, you had all B list celebrities. Now granted, nothing against Lou Ferrigno, but back then I wasn't paying 140 to take a picture with Lou Ferrigno. And then you had a bunch of wrestlers.
Yeah, sure, yeah. Okay. And so you, and you had Aaron Gray, Gil Gerard, and all your second tier, maybe D list Hollywood people, but B list science fiction actors. Right. I remember there were some surviving members of Land of the [00:23:00] Giants. Okay. Lost in Space and Star Trek. All of those people were still celebrities in there.
The movies didn't start interfering until about 2000, we'll even go 2007, cause I don't know when they announced Iron Man, cause Marvel Studios wasn't Marvel Studios when Iron Man came out. So from. That's right. So from 2007 2008, that changed for a third time. So you've got the comic book conventions that the really long in the tooth people remember in New York in the 70's.
You remember the count of the. Mixed media that we got to see when we were teenagers, and once again, you might have had the kit car there, or Mr. T from A Team, or, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict there, Lauren Green in a wheelchair. You didn't have Edward James Olmos. Yeah. Any of these. And then the next generation that we are riding through was 2007 to 2009 Iron Man.
Right. Then everything else, I, and I don't know [00:24:00] when the Americanization of Japanese animation kicked up the frenzy that it has now because it, it was there, but it was not what's been in the last five years. No. Oh gosh, no. If someone out there listening knows, give me a date. Because that also has infused a whole new group of people going to Fan Expo to Cosplay.
Because once again, Winded Cosplay has always been a thing. Windy Penny from ElfQuest was Red Sonja for Marvel. And I watched a documentary on it, it was very fascinating. And there were people dressing up there, but it wasn't the business boom. There's people making a living being cosplayers. And more of them than ever.
So there, to me, we've ridden through three waves. Yes. The poor guys that got us here, because I think I counted 12 true comic book Tables and they were in a half arc right behind that t shirt wall Right. Yeah, it's because [00:25:00] we got the big the t shirt In the main aisle 900 they were right there.
There were no comic book. Why are they not comic book? stands Where the comic book talent is. Yes. Why do you have that edge glad cuz you know to me if I'm You Trying to help out the comic book artist, my talent, and it, and, sorry Fan Expo, you don't care about your talent. Don't put them against a fucking wall when you've got this big open space where Chick fil A was.
Put them over there so that, I don't know, people don't pass out while they're over there from heat exhaustion. I don't know where I heard that story, kids, but I heard it happen. Wow. And, why not have the comic book people right next to them because, oh, look, I just bought Superboy Zero. Tom Grumet.
Did I just see his name? Now granted, you don't get any of that money. So that's why you don't do it, Fan Expo. And I understand the predatory nature. I appreciate it. I'm a capitalist at heart. I get it. But you could make a lot [00:26:00] more money if you put them all together like that. So people are right there and then you can put your Chick fil A over there and they'll go spend and you can get, you can skim off the top.
I mean, Even the mob makes money off weed. Okay, it doesn't always have to be heroin. They get, that's what you could do over there. Okay, so clearly Mr. Scott has some passionate thoughts about this. Well, I still love my hobby. Yeah, well, no, and that's it. I'm chuckling over here because for the last week, for this past week I think I've received at least three, it might even be four emails from Fan Expo.
Want your opinion? We want your opinion. I. And I got another email today and it was, a final request, it's like, almost like debt collection. This is the last time we're going to ask you for your opinion before we send the sticker again on my door. When did they come by it?
Yeah, before we send the bonus round. That's right. And I was, I don't I, surveys, God, man, you end up taking a survey for everything these days. I mean, I've been to restaurants, diners [00:27:00] where, , they give you the card, like, and a pen before you leave, and it's like, this is so scattershot.
You wanna have some fun? With that, when you go to a restaurant, if you go to Chili's and you take the survey and you say you had a problem, because they say, do you have a problem with your visit? If you say yes, by the time you're done, the manager is standing at your table. It alerts them. Oh, that's interesting.
I hit the button by mistake. And I just kept on answering questions. The manager is right there. Hey, what was your I understand you had a problem with your your dining experience today. I was like, what? You answered. Yes. That's a big confrontation. And I was like this, how'd you know that? Are you watching me now?
I got a free case out of it. It's a little, that's okay. So kids, if you want to have fun, y'all are chillies together. Just remember y'all hit yes at the same time and see where the, what happens to the energy goes. Oh, that's funny. Ah, pranks. I just don't care enough.
But on this one, I was like, no, you know what? I'm going to. And I was fair, but I had [00:28:00] some points to make. and they are Kind of what we're talking about here, but I keep going back to this What do I want now? I know this is my wish list, which doesn't necessarily translate into a successful vent business venture for anyone, but I think, first off, I'm a big believer that less is more.
Okay. So, what I learned on Saturday, because Saturday was the convention day for me. That's the day. That's the day. And it's the day to avoid if you don't like crowds. Yeah, gosh, man, you're not kidding. I mean, So we were there, so I was there with my two daughters, and I think we were there for like four and a half hours in total, something like that.
I know that conservatively, a good third of that time was spent knocking elbows with other people trying to get to me. to things because [00:29:00] it really reminded me of film footage of outdoor train stations in India, when the train there's one a week shows up and there's thousands and thousands of people trying to get on that train.
That's what it reminded me of, it was the London underground at during the rush hour and you just, you had to go with the, there were a couple of occasions where I felt like I'm a micro organism on a mighty wave and that wave is just going to take me wherever the hell it wants to go.
You know what, there are some people that really enjoy the Saturday experience. I got to sit and talk to a few of them while we're sitting here at the table. And it's a diverse group of ages, but like you, for me, especially when we used to take all the kids, if I could avoid Saturday at all possible, I would.
First off, it's the most expensive day if you're buying a one day ticket. And for the activities that my kids like to do, the photo ops, if it's the same [00:30:00] talent on Saturday that's on Sunday. Less people on the floor Saturday means less people in the lines on Sunday for the photo op. So that But yes, I entered I got in there, It is strange how people really love the saturday Let's get out.
No, I just yeah, there was no There was very little distance. I think that was what I mean the spacing between the exhibitors and the artist alley that we were just talking about. And There wasn't a lot of room, like they were very cramped in. It felt to me like they were very cramped in.
So you, it did not make for a pleasurable shopping experience, and it didn't make for a pleasurable interaction with the comic book talent. Now, my, my older girl, there was a guy there, Who there's a certain anime film that she's absolutely besotted with. [00:31:00] This is like her favorite thing.
And, There was a voice actor there who did the voice for the lead character in one of the movies. And she had a book that she really wanted this guy to sign. And it's, this is going to be difficult to describe. But, if you had ten tables, end to end, with ten talent people sitting behind them, who were doing autographs and stuff like that, you might think, ah, There will then be ten unique lines going straight out from those tables for people to get in line to meet the person that they want to meet.
No. Instead, what you got was this sort of, and I saw like there were bits of tape on the floor where they had, they were creating this sort of, [00:32:00] minotaur labyrinth of twists and turns so that they could fold these different lines in on each other so that they wouldn't spill out too far and it would keep them compressed.
I'll tell you what it made me think of and I appreciate this is a bit highbrow. You're using my word. I am using your word. I think it was in I went to France years and years ago, when I was young. That's highbrow automatically. And I think it was in Chartres. There's a, there's an old cathedral.
And carved into the stone of the floor in this cathedral is a maze. And I have this vague memory of somebody saying, Oh, so what, like the monks, Cause I, cause you're looking at this maze. It's incredibly small and narrow. And you're like, well, it's not much of a maze. Because. You step into a maze. You could figure out, Oh, I'll make that left [00:33:00] turn, I'll make, Oh, I'll go right, and then I'll go left.
Because you're seeing The whole maze. The whole maze. It's not like, Danny running away from Jack and the Axe in The Shining. Okay. This maze, it's just literally, just, the boundaries are just carved out of the stone. I have this vague memory of somebody, like a tour guide or something, saying, Oh
the monks used to get down on their on, like, their hands and knees on their haunches. So that you couldn't actually see. You couldn't pre plan where you were going to go in the maze and this was a whole sort of meditative Thing like you're thinking about your higher power or you're trying to navigate this maze Hey, if that was the case, I give those, medieval monks or whoever they were Massive props you're making it feel like fun.
It's, so it's not all, doom and gloom and, candles and incense. There's a bit of fun in there as well, and who doesn't like a maze? And that's what you want in your monastery life. But yeah, well, yeah, that's [00:34:00] it, either that or learning how to make beer.
Yeah, which also or wine or what it was fryer tuck was my favorite tuck. Yeah, what was that? Was it? It's like benedict Something anyway, i'm getting off topic. I'm talking about alcohol. That's the other show but so anyway Where was I going with this about your daughter's experience with the lines for the japanese anime?
Yeah, and it was just it was it's insane because You We had to, we were trying to figure out, okay, so which, all these lines are ending within, like, grabbing distance of each other. So we had to figure out which line she should get in. And, Some of the people I tapped on the shoulder like, Are you in line to see so and so?
And the response I got was I hope so. Like, okay, well, Well I guess we're all gonna find out. I mean, hopefully she's gonna get the guy she wants. And not, some other guy who, does the voice for that character, that fish, that, [00:35:00] well, I would like to say hello to Jim Cummings, he was there.
Anyway, so it just was the fact that for a show of that size, for the amount of space that they had, which was not used well at all, I'm like, there's actually only about 15, 20 percent of this that's even relevant to me. So it goes back to the kind of the question that I was angling towards in the beginning.
Is that, if you, how many comic book creators were in Artists Alley? Would you say, what, maybe three dozen? Yeah. Okay. If you took all those creators. And you rented out the community hall at the, Lutheran church around the corner. And just stuck them around the wall. Could you actually make for a successful show? You could if you're only. Just based on that. If your only business there was to get their autographs. Like Postman Pat, that was his entire thing. He got there Friday when no [00:36:00] one was there, got everything handled. What's also sometimes frustrating. Now once again, I'm going to go out on a limb and say, I still enjoy the Dallas Fan Expo.
I enjoy the convention because I like being out there and every convention could be run better. So when I'm bagging on these, it's because I'm disappointed in what I've encountered before because sometimes it feels like they go backwards. The convention center we're at has two more floors above the convention center that are in use for Legos Other panels that may or may not be there Yes, yeah, there's I mean it's Irving convention the Irving convention center does a very good job of they utilize all three floors They do have an artist alley, but they will rotate the artists every couple of hours.
So you'll get up to the third floor where the stage is, and the two guys that were crammed, poor Art Adams and Jeff Loeb debacle that were stuck right next to each other, [00:37:00] might have a chance to go up there. and breathe a little more and they move people around. But yeah, there's two other floors that they, in fact, if you look where they have the cosplay judging contest and some other things, they were going up the escalators.
Over there. And then there's a whole horse arena at the far end where Lian and I got to take our photo op of William Shatner a couple of years ago and Hayden Christensen, because it was such a massive crowd. Now, granted, if you have access to that, you have to pay for that. So, financial is renting, I get the, also get the biz, but you know what?
I might pay an extra 10. Yeah. Yeah. And you can roll your eyes when I say 10, but if 40, 000 people showed up, I bet you. Yeah. And here's the fun part, kids. In 2026, they're going to be demolishing part of that convention center to rebuild it. Oh, wow. To expand it. So, what are you going to, what are you going to do [00:38:00] there?
I don't know. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed going. Okay. Despite. Some of the hiccups that we had along the way. And there's quite a few. I'm not downplaying it. I know you're not. I know you're not. And we could, we can actually talk about this for a very long time. And trust me, every podcast complains about their conventions.
If you listen to them, no one is happy. Oh, that's interesting. About, well, about any of them. That's interesting. As far as, and it's always going to be, Now granted, I'm not going to complain about how long I had to wait in line for David Tennant to get a photo op because it's David Tennant.
I'm sorry, I got my beating on the table. You're making my point. It's a great sight gag. To, when they're grouping photo ops and I use that experience more than anything, cause that's why I have the most experience with it, Fan Expo. Right. Every group usually has about a hundred people in it.
Well, William Shatner was on group seven Friday when the convention's only open for four hours. Wow. That's 700 people that were going to see him after his panel Wow, and he's charging [00:39:00] 145 bucks for photo ops And he gets 80 percent of that I don't know why the irs hasn't set up shop out there and start shaking hands with the talent Always wonder that because they're walking out with bags of cash.
Right. And but yes, there's two whole floors they could have utilized much better. Yeah. And I'm just going to say, just flip the comic book stands over by the comic creators and I don't need etched glass. That's, I mean, that's good. That's like a bodega art festival. And it wasn't like it was.
Oh look, there's an Etch Glass of Superman or Batman. It was why are you, now granted you paid for that booth. Yeah, and they paid a pretty penny for it as well. Yeah, about three grand. Yeah. But, if I'm a comic book convention, and I care about the comic book talent and granted the Super A, when you look at these, It'll say feature gas.
Yeah. Special guest. Sure. The feature guests like the Kuberts and stuff, they had to stand downstairs, but then they had [00:40:00] another place somewhere else where you could go as well. So they were rotating those guys. Right. But, Jeff Loeb and Art Adams were at the end and they snaked Loeb's line right in front of Art Adams table and he couldn't get anyone to, I mean, it is, I'm surprised Art didn't stab somebody.
Yeah and no doubt that also contributed to why, although he was on my list. On Sunday, Art had enough and pulled it, pulled it down. And I understand. Although, I wish I could have seen you, Art, but, okay. Well, I did see him. I saw him through Jeff Loeb's crowd that was standing in front of the table and I waved.
I didn't see him. I bet you if you, I bet you, If you just stuck a book in front of these guys trying to get to him, he might not have charged you anything, just because he's happy. Someone handed him something to do. You don't ask for a stand up. Look right here. Someone moved. There's a moment, and I've had this moment, and I suspect you have too.
Where you've gone to a comic show. And they publish the guest list, and sometimes you're all focused on that one person that you really didn't [00:41:00] consider the other person. And then you get there, and they've got a little display behind them of things, and you're like, Oh, shoot. It's that guy who drew that.
Yeah. Oh my gosh, and then you could say, hold on a second and turn around and within a reasonable, like, six steps, there'll be a guy selling back issues and you can quickly start. Okay. Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it. The big bang theory thing, find it. Aha. They've got one and then run back to get him or her or they.
I was thinking about this because Carl Potts was there at Fan Expo. And you had such a lovely time with him. It warmed my heart to hear these stories. Carl Potts was an absolute delight. He was so interesting to talk to. He's got a, he's got a graphic novel coming out, based on his grandparent's experiences in the Philippines during World [00:42:00] War II, that I'm, I can't wait.
I'm, I will, I'm gonna snatch that puppy up, because , he was telling me and my daughters some of the stories that kind of feature in this project that he's been working on. And I'm a big fan of the sort of, first person sort of storytelling, World War II.
There's so many interesting stories and we need to keep these kinds of stories alive because they are very important. But anyway. Behind Mr. Potts is a selection of prints because that's, a lot of these artists that's their bread and butter is they have print them and get them signed.
And actually I remember chatting with a couple of Marvel people many years ago. who were telling me about Marvel's program where they print prints for artists now. Because they got tired of going to shows and seeing artists who had got prints made and they're just [00:43:00] really terrible quality.
So Marvel was like, look, we've got access to this. We have a print shop somewhere, don't we? We could do it for you, which I think is brilliant. So, He did a cover for New Mutants, which is Kitty Pryde in a sexy space suit, floating in space with Lockheed the Dragon. And he said, do you remember that cover? And I said, actually, I do, because I'm a huge New Mutants fan. He's like, Do you remember it well enough to know how different it is from how it looked on the cover?
And I'm like, no. And he had a little picture of it and like, the printing techniques have improved a lot since comics were made 40 years ago. Yeah, but the colors really pop in this print in a way that they didn't on the cover. And I had this thought like, Because I bought the print, I'm like, I have to buy the print, and he autographed it, and I'm like, I'd really like to go and get that book.
Because that would be fun to put next to [00:44:00] it. But I'm like, I'm not going to schlep all the way back over to the other side of the show to try and find that book. And some things happened and got in the way of that. But the, just the point being is that why don't you, why don't you have all the comic people in the comic section and you can have the artisanal glass and potted plant vendors in another section and the leather key chain, wood burning, phone cases.
The phone cases, the tattooists, I mean, spread these people out a bit, because although you might think that while young Mr. Steve St. James is on his way to get his comic book signed by so and so, he's gonna pass the homemade candles vendor and think, Oh, no, and kids fan expo doesn't market like walmart.
They don't care If that vendor makes it so yeah, it's not even strategic on their part. No, why do you just [00:45:00] shoved in? so There you go. There's two old men complaining about convention. What this boils down to kids is that we need new knees. And if you would donate to our cash app, get Stephen and Scott new knees and cartilage. So we can jog through the convention instead of bumping into. Oh man. Because there was a whole row of dollar boxes at this one vendor. I was like, that means I got to bend over. Oh yeah. No, I'm not done. There was too many casualties already on the ground. Too many guys. on the ground there that couldn't get back up.
So, and look, I am, I have an enormous, I have buckets of respect and admiration for the cosplayers because there wasn't as many out there. They weren't, but you know, you, the these people, I mean, look, I've seen photographs. I've been to conventions in the 80s. Cosplay used to be like, Okay, well, I'll take dad's old shirt.
And sew these socks on there. Mom's, that [00:46:00] pair of naughty tights. That, or whatever. Yeah, there's some cinema level cosplays. Yeah it's extraordinary. Well there, but I think you need to be able to read the room because there was this one woman there this past weekend. I don't know what she was, but let's just say sexy orange demon girl
And she has these massive bat wings. Like every good demon girl should have. And she was, like, walking around with her arms stretched out in an almost, sort of, crucifixion pose. While she, and gripping the edges of these wings. Because I think if she didn't, those wings were going to get ripped off by the crabs.
That's a lot of work that was going to go down the toilet. Yeah. Also carry off a couple of kids with them as she's working like a snowplow. There's a lot of a lot of time and a lot of skill goes into these. Not that's necessarily required to make an impression. I still remember going to That [00:47:00] dragon con 20 years ago, where there was the girl there and she was cosplaying as Mystique the Rebecca Roman and Stamos Mystique from the X Men, and basically she was walking around with a thong.
And that was it. She painted herself blue. And I was like I, hold up. I believe I'm actually staring at her naked breasts. Yes. Yes. As she's walking around. And and I was. God bless the misspent youth. That's it. Hey, but anyway, so yeah, it's, it was interesting, but I have, I still have that itch.
Like I want to go do a more. Comic centric thing. Yeah, I wish I could find one. Well, my eldest daughter she just moved to Washington State and next year she wants to go to Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. And I've heard very good things about that because. It pulls in that Portland comic community quite a bit, so.
Oh, maybe this time next year we'll do what we thought of, what we thought of. Yeah, that's it. [00:48:00] So, anyway, that was your on the floor report. And from Fan Expo. Yeah. And if y'all are listening hit me up. I'll bend your ear a little bit. That's right. And one of these days I'll tell you why they couldn't have the convention at the University of London.
That'll be the next one. Yeah, that was a doozy./
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