Well, we made it. Ten of us from the Wheeler-Nicholson family are here at the giant ComicCon 2008. It is the first time for any of us to attend this event. What can you say? If you haven’t been it’s almost impossible to describe. San Diego is a beautiful city. We’re right here looking out at the boats and the water and the minute you step out of your hotel room you are in a Hollywood set. Sister Christine has been madly snapping away with her camera at all the near naked ladies and gentlemen wandering around in costume as well as the Ninjas, and the Shreks and Superman and Wonder Woman–oh my!
There are literally thousands of people dressed in all kinds of amazing and inventive costumes. It is a world unto itself.
Cousin Tina’s son Buster, at 20, the youngest of our group is beside himself with excitement. Nothing like going to the biggest show on earth and for a topper having your great-grandfather getting an award. It’s wonderful to see his enthusiasm. The 80 year old of the group seems to be holding up well and people are beyond thrilled to meet him. He’s having a ball and the rest of us are in a kind of daze.
Most people don’t have a clue who we are and don’t really care that much but the real hard core comics fans are completely welcoming to us. There are people whose comics history scholarship I have been admiring for the last 10 years or so whose names I have come to recognize and respect and I’m getting to meet them and talk with them and that is the most thrilling part for me. It feels in some strange way like old home week getting to visit and talk with people like Mike Catron and David Armstrong who has been interviewing so many of the older guys here at ComicCon for such a long time. We also met the terrific guys at Metropolis Collectibles, Inc. and had fun giving them the surprise of the morning and captured Uncle Douglas on film with an early cover of Action when the Major was still around. Very nice guys and it’s clear they know what they’re doing.
Uncle Douglas and I sat in on a panel this afternoon thanks to the generosity of Mark Zaid. It was a room full of very serious comic collectors who came to hear about some of the ins and outs of comic book collecting and they very nicely included us. Susan Cicconi of The Restoration Lab in Newton, MA spoke articulately about the work she does and really impressed us. J. C. Vaughn of Gemstone Publishing was also on the panel and had some very knowledgeable and passionate remarks about the future of comics. Thank you to all these great people and especially to Mark Zaid of Esquire Comics. So we’re gearing up for the awards ceremony. I think we don’t come on until almost the end and in a way that might not be so bad because perhaps it will be the real hard core comics fans left at the end and thus not so scary. We’ll let you know how it goes. We’re having fun!
Pictures in this post copyright Christine Quigley.