SCINTILLATING SOLILOQUY OF STUNNING STORIES, SAGACIOUS SAGAS, AND SENSES-SHATTERING SUPER-HEROES!

If you happened to miss last week’s blog, o’ fearless ones, don’t despair, I didn’t write one. I was waiting ‘till I came back from out of town to delight all my faithful followers of flighty blogness.

I’m just bustin’ to tell you all about the fun and excitement of the coolest comic book convention of them all. Fallcon 21 was held in mirthful Minneapolis this weekend and a blast was had by all.

I have to admit tho, the first of the 2 day con was looking like it was gonna stink worse than a week old road killed skunk! The merry madcaps that had my comic “Starbomb”, had car trouble, and weren’t going to make it Saturday. The winsome wife and I already made hotel reservations, so we were going no matter what. At any rate, I figured I’d go to the show that first day and be in all my geeky gloriousness and just be a regular Joe and buy comics all day long.

Dann with artist Jose Luis Garcia Lopez

Gotta tell ya….money flew outta my pockets faster than a speeding bullet! Between buying a copy of the “Savage Tales of Kung-Fu” from Marvel Comics and a way cool Robin glass for my bud Derek, I had a chance to hobnob with some legendary comic book pros like Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Kevin MacGuire and writer Gerry Conway! All cool guys!!     

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Dann with artist Kevin McGuire

One thing about cons tho…and everyone should remember this…when getting comics autographed try to keep the amount of books to a minimum. Case in point…Gerry Conway, creator of the Punisher and writer for most every comic at one time or another, was signing and an over-enthusiastic fan drops at least over 50 comics on Conway’s table and wanted them ALL signed. Conway was nice enough to do it…but, seriously…the people behind the guy were pretty annoyed having to wait over a decade for their ONE comic. And speaking from experience here, signing all those comics cramps up the hands…and Conway isn’t a spring chicken anymore! It was ridiculous when it was obvious the guy was just going to turn around and sell most of the copies on eBay…greedy creep! I think someone put a hit on the fella later that day!

After the show that day, the wife and I, whom I’ll affectionately refer to as “CARA”, went out to eat. Now, usually when I travel, I like to go to a place we don’t have at home. So when we venture forth into the Minnesota Wild, (and trust me…that’ll be the last sports reference you’ll get from me here.) I decided to find a nice “different” restaurant. First we passed by an Indian place that really looked good, but Cara wasn’t interested. Then we saw a Greek place by the name of “DINO’S”. Looked promising, but we decided to go deeper into the city. Soon we came across a great pizza joint called “OLD CHICAGO”. Sounded fantastic. This was our place. We go in and immediately we’re told there’s a 30 minute wait. ARRGH…I was hungry….I couldn’t wait an eternity to chow down! As we sadly walked outside, we smelled the most wonderful of all culinary scents…BBQ!! I’m a big fan of the BBQ so we went across the highway following our noses. When we got there and got in, only then did we realize we were in a “Famous Dave’s” restaurant. Now, anyone who lives in this general area knows, Famous Dave’s is about as common as baby bunny rabbits on Easter weekend!

Sigh…we were hungry, so we said “screw it”, and went inside and gorged ourselves!

Sunday was rolling along as planned at least! We showed up and met with Rascally Rene Castellano at the Instant Press table. And, on the table, were multitudes of copies of my comic “Starbomb”!

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Instant Press’ Rene Castellano and Dann

The day was slow at first…people weren’t piling in droves like the day before…common on a 2-day con. But as the day went on, I was pumping out sketch after sketch for my amiable art lovers. At one point, I did get a little worried as one small kid…no more than 6 or 7 years old came up to me wanting a sketch. “Fine” I said, “Who would you like?”…and his answer… “Anyone from South Park!” 

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I was kinda thrown off when he then changed his mind. Okay…I figured maybe he’d beg for a Batman or Hulk or someone, but instead…Freddy Krueger! Then he again changed his mind and asked for Jason from Friday the 13th!! This kid was going to grow up either very scary or dangerous…or both! Sheesh.

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The rest of the day went well…there I was, Dilapidated Dann Phillips, drawing, selling and just being the idol of Millions! (Sam Millions  actually…nice guy from the Bronx…but a bit of a stalker).

I had fun; Cara had fun…we all had a blast! I’m not sure which show I’ll be at next, but I do want to thank all of you that came and visited the table…it was good meeting everyone!

And for the record, I wound up buying over 400 comics that weekend! I told you I overspent!

Dann

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