Comics, New Orleans and long time friends—Is there anything better than this? I spent the past weekend in New Orleans staying with my childhood boyfriend and his superlative wife whilst attending Wizard World ComicCon New Orleans. CBF and I have been friends for a very long time since our early summer days of swimming, sailing and the like on Perdido Bay next door to one another in our grandparents’ beach cottages.
Danny Fingeroth, one of the great moderators of all time was our fearless leader for a fantastic event. Dr. Travis Langley, Batman historian and his cohort Eric Bailey, a seriously smart guy and second to none along with the marvelous Marv Wolfman and I managed to do our very best in a couple of panels talking about our favorite subject—comic book history. But you knew that didn’t you.
I love New Orleans. It’s my city and I’ve been there all my life so it was especially fun to be there with pals from my “other” life. We got excellent recommendations from my New Orleans friends for places to eat and ended up Saturday evening at one of those–only in New Orleans–family restaurants called Tommy’s Cuisine. Of course the food was delicious.
I also managed to sneak in coffee and beignets at the Café Du Monde, corny and touristy as it is. I swear there is no better café au lait anywhere. Sorry Starbucks. I got in a good sugar rush from the beignets and that fueled me back to Perdido Sunday morning. Walking around Jackson Square hearing the bells ringing from Saint Louis Cathedral was the perfect end to a fun comic con in New Orleans.
I was somewhat nervous about my panels as they were a little out of my usual area but Danny and Travis are excellent moderators and kept things moving along. Thanks to the fantastic Caitlin McGurk at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University, I had some very cool copies of the Major’s early comic books to show the guys. Travis is doing an amazing job of getting the word out about Bill Finger’s contributions to Batman so I learned a lot as always. It was great having Marv Wolfman there with his long time experience writing for Marvel and DC. There’s nothing like hearing authentic experiences of someone like Marv.
And I sold books! Danny left me in charge of his table and a couple of fans got some really great deals on his books—Sorry about that Danny! I had the first books available of the Major’s Adventure Stories The Texas-Siberia Trail just published by John Locke of Off-Trail Publications and I even had some fans that came from Gulf Shores who knew I would be there. That was a first time for me. It was fun to see everyone on the floor with a lot of terrific costumes. It certainly wasn’t anywhere near the madness of SDCC or NYCC but it was Super Fun and of course, southerners are incredibly polite. There was also the usual go cup carrying on which you certainly don’t see anywhere but in New Orleans.
My favorite moment of the entire event was a little boy about 4 years old in a Superman Tee shirt and red cape running around whooping it up. I didn’t take a picture because of the weird things that happen these days so I leave it to your imagination. Let’s just say it was a real schmaltzy and lovely moment.
Thanks Danny for having me be a part of this wonderful event. See you in Pensacola at Pensacon on Friday, February 21st at 4:30. David Earle, Jeff Shanks and I will be talking about the Pulps to the Comics and yes, I have books!
