Tampa Con 2002 Report
On Saturday, my son, Mike (far left), AC Comics CEO, Bill Black (second from the left), John Beatty (see him?) , and I drove to Tampa for a small comic convention. The main draw was Marty Nodell who created The Green Lantern but John Dell, Rick Magyar, Derek Aucoin and others were also scheduled to attend.
The con was on Sunday, but we went down early to avoid a long drive on the same day. The trip was a blast. We entertained each other with stories, and literally laughed the whole way.
The rest of the evening was spent laughing and planning things that will probably never take place [short films, comics, etc.], debating the difference between a farmer and a cowboy [Clint Eastwood vs Roy Rogers for example], watching Evander Hollyfield turn an opponent into the Elephant Man, and basically acting foolish. What a great time… it was after 1 AM when we finally called it a night. I can’t remember laughing so much or so hard in recent years.
We were up early for the show which was well attended, but very hot. A tightly packed room without any place to sit and talk made it seem even hotter. Marty was there and swamped by fans looking for original art, autographs and pictures. The other artists came in, but only one was sketching. I enjoyed talking to John Dell, Derek Aucoin, and Rick Maygar [who may do a Stallone piece!]. I also met Randy Martin who had several really nice sketchbooks full of commissioned sketches of Edward Scissorhands! My son found a few comics for his collection. At around 2PM we decided to head home [after a brief stop at Bill‘s to check out his autograph collection]
It was a fun weekend, but anytime Mike, Bill, John and I get together we have a great time. Oh, and in case you’re wondering… John isn’t the guy in the Spider-Man suit… John took the picture.