more from heroes~!

okay...

the truly great thing about going to heroescon is the people and the positive energy and the celebration of comics! yes, there are new faces, new perhapa-fans to be courted, but charlotte, to me and craig anyway, represents family and seeing the same people year after year who, despite that familiarity, are always just so happy to see us! and we them...! having taken last year off, it was great to see those smiling, friendly faces and to catch up a bit...

there were many high-points over that wonderful weekend, but here are a couple that i caught on film...


apologies, apologies, warren, for the fuzzy photo...
here, my friends, is our own warren newsom, decked out in his perhapanauts big t and his perhapanauts hat--easily making him the ULTIMATE PERHAPA-FAN! way to show your colors, warren--


and here, i proudly present warren's winning piece in the con's quick-draw competition! again, sorry for the blur, but i think you can see it if you click on it and enlarge it.
warren confessed that, going in, he had no idea of what he was going to draw when he was suddenly inspired by a little boy reaching out to and comforting his father. a very sweet and poignant moment. i don't remember all the details--warren, could you tell it again...?


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now, everybody knows our pal nick cardy~
here's a picture of him (with a doesn't-know-she's-in-the-picture sharon behind him). i made sure to capture that twinkle in his eye to support what happened next...




so, you remember that absolutely stunning wonder woman i posted the other day--a particularly beautiful cosplayer who's real name is miracle (hi, miracle~!)--who was kind enough to pause before our table for a picture...?





looking up from the sketch of wonder woman he was doing, nick was instantly struck dumb by her beauty, his dentures dropping to the bottom of his mouth, that small part of him deep inside that he had thought was now little more than a spark suddenly flaring up to a flame, a short, sharp "unh" the only thing he could produce. but only for a moment. his brain quickly firing as fast as it could, our nick, stammering and stuttering, called this majestic princess over...
(sorry, matt, for the bad photography. i should be shot for missing this one...)



true miracle that she is, miracle was kind enough to engage nick in some play, immediately wrapping him up in her golden lasso--(you do know that wonder woman's creator, william moulton marston, was also the inventor of the modern polygraph--the lie detector, don't you...?)




conscientious about his now loose teeth, it took us a couple of shots to finally get nick to smile...




...and though he's looking down in this one, trust me, miracle left our boy nick smiling for the rest of the day~!

thank you, miracle!

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and yet, as wonderful as that was, my absolute favorite moment of the whole show was courtesy our good friend--and perhapanauts contest winner--ernie cooper~!
pictured here with gal pal, ash--i mean, megan (hi, megan~!) and, sorry, i think his name was dave but we'll just call him 'hapless victim'...ernie is one of those people i love to see each year at heroes and chat about life and work and writing (you need to write more, ernie...!) ernie is the manager of a local movie theater and has often set up special midnight showings of the big blockbusters for guests of the show in the past~!




so.
okay...
having met up in the little 'green room' that the show had made available to the con's guests that was supposed to be stocked with various sodas and snacks--but was not--artist/legend/pal joe staton and i were walking back to our respective tables when we passed a display of all the enormous movie canvases promoting next week's green lantern film. i, personally, can't wait to see the movie 'cause i've always loved the character and especially the multitude of weird and wild alien green lanterns that have been introduced over the years--many of them co-created by, yep, joe staton. and particularly my favorite, kiliwog.

as joe and i paused to take in the majesty of the poster, joe told me that, kiliwog is actually his favorite too, that he's always loved his polar personality, and that, as co-creator, he actually get points on the character--royalties for toys and appearances, etc. mostly , he said, he loves that poster and would love to have one...
you can see where this is going, i'm sure.
sure enough, when ernie swung around my table later that day, i asked him if he had the banners at his theater, if they could keep them or had to send them back, and if they could keep them, would it be possible to buy one...
ernie just smiled and said, "see ya tomorrow."

the next morning, he and megan showed up with a long cardboard box and another smile. i ran them over to joe's table where he just happened to be visiting with family that had come to see him and his lovely wife, hilary, and introduced ernie who p[resented joe with the box. joe is a very happy, very personable guy--maybe a bit quiet--and so believe me when i tell you how shocked i was to see him sprint around the table and give ernie a huge hug (he's never hugged me...), thanking him profusely and calling him his new best friend. my happiest moment at the show was seeing joe that happy and it's all because of you, ernie! thanks so much!





that's a long post~!
now go take a look at "Tales from the Perhaps!" for part 5 of rich and jason's "SAINTS AND SINNERS!"
smell ya later~!
todd