There's no keeping up with it, so best just to take it in and appreciate it as immediately as possible.
At this point in the day, it's enough. It's been so beautiful outside, and now Jenny and I are laying on a blanket. She's reading, while I'm restless and exhausted. Before that, we enjoyed the UW campus. Her friend Lisha introduced us to the library; to the Largest Book In the World. We walked under cherry blossoms, and we admired Mount Ranier.
We had burritos, and I remembered the first time I settled for Chipotle, in Tucson, with Scott. And I missed Blue Coast Burrito, as I always do when I have to settle for Chipotle.
- -- --- ---- ----- ---- --- -- -
It's earlier in the day, and I'm timid. I'm embarrassed and I'm shy.
I'm walking around a room filled with tables. At each table, there is a person. Some people are getting attention; indeed, there are lines of people waiting to see them. Other people, at other tables, are looking neglected, or are drawing, or are both. I don't allow myself to make eye contact. I want to talk to them about their comics, but I can't. I don't know their work. I know four of the people, and there are lines at their tables. Of course tere are--EVERYBODY knows THEM. Mike Mignola, Tim Sale, David Mack, Rob Liefeld. Rob Liefeld... is it worth it to stand in line to spit on someone? I decide not.
I'm walking around, outshone by the knowledge and confidence of all these comic book fans. I never knew how little I knew about comics until now. I was not worthy to pay the admission price but, generously, they took my money. And now I'm in so over my head. A glance to the left breaks my shoe-gaze, and it catches my eye: a tattoo, and one I know.
Her name is Lyxzén Suicide and Erica Danger, and she is tiny--a full foot shorter than I might have guessed. I've seen her naked; I've seen her six friends naked too, but this is the first time I've met them. Still embarrassed and shy, I shake their hands and we all introduce ourselves. I manage to compliment Lyxzén's tattoos, to let her know they're, I think, the coolest tattoos I've ever seen, and she shakes her ass, tells me she's wagging her tail because I've made her happy, and I'm soooo out of my element. I buy a DVD (which the girls all autograph, even though
some of them were minors when the DVD came out; even though none of them are featured on it), a deck of cards, and I leave.
I return a moment later to ask if I might take a photo.
Soon after, I leave the Emerald City Comic Book Convention altogether.
Next week, Jenny and I will return to the convention center, where she'll be as embarrassingly excited over Dragonball Z relics as I was of exclusive Hellboy and Heroes artwork.
- -- --- ---- ----- ---- --- -- -
Good morning.
I love you.
Good morning.
I love you.
4 comments:
C, I had no idea you were into comics! They are, for me, something which I always wished I had gotten in to, but never knew where to start. With decades of back-story to these worlds, it seemed to me, like starting a TV series in the middle of the third season. I have a similar feeling about learning to skate(board). I wish that I had, long ago, but honestly couldn't now afford any broken bones!
Regarding comics, I've recently begun watching iFanboy (one of many great video podcasts on Revision3), and they've been so kind as to mention things like when a comic/universe had a reboot. They taught me the term "omnibus" (a whole storyline for one comic, packed into a nice, big hard cover), and made me drool a little bit. They also mentioned that book, Local, that I recently mentioned to you.
They also mentioned (and I may need to double-check the name) something called...Anthology(?), which was a collection of artists, writing/drawing stories based on (or influenced by) Tori Amos lyrics.
I've only really started watching in the last few weeks, but I've already caught up with months of their episodes. I feel like I can maybe, finally, get into comics. I'm eyeing the Captain America omnibus for my next purchase, but they've mentioned some really great non-superhero comics that I want to get eventually, as well.
I'm not really INTO comics, I suppose.... it's more that I KNOW ABOUT comics. When I worked at Doubleday, in the Bellevue Centre, one of my coworkers and I talked comics a lot (she was INTO comics), and ever since then I've always had my ear close enough to the grapevine that I know when something big happens. And I know the histories of things, enough to watch movies and know when they've got something wrong.
It's like when I was in school and hadn't done the assigned reading. Just by paying attention in class, I was able to know the book well enough to get a high grade. THAT's what I'm like with comics--I know a lot, while reading little.
I always wanted to be Robin when I was a kid, so I started reading when he got his own series, and I read another Batman spin-off, Azrael. When I was little, I'd read Daredevil, and the occasional Spider Man.
Now what I read are the trade-paperback collections of things like Fables and John Constantine: Hellblazer (which was the source for the movie Constantine). If you haven't read them yet, I recommend The Sandman comics, by Neil Gaiman. Don't start with the first one (Preludes & Nocturnes); books 1-8 work just fine no matter what order you read them in, since they skip around in time, anyway. The Kindly Ones (book 9) and The Wake (book 10) should be read as the last two.
Oh, and the Tori Amos anthology is called Comic Book Tattoo. We had it at B&N around the holidays--it's big & heavy!
Oh, I've definitely read (and own) nearly everything Neil Gaiman's written! Even a couple of his kids books...
A friend showed me Sandman back in...'94 or so, and I've shown them to many more people, over the years.
Along with Local (which I'll probably be resuming tomorrow, and will get back to you on), the iFanboy guys mentioned a 3-part series called "Essex County," that I want to get soon. It's another non-superhero comic, and they were all thrilled/moved by it.
Post a Comment