Monday, November 13, 2017

A Weekend Jaunt to KC

Saturday, Alex and I drove out to KC for the Kansas City Comic Con. That went pretty well. I had worried it was going to be another disaster weekend. The track record for when Alex and I make plans is pretty lousy. But no, Saturday went very smoothly all around.

Alex was excited at the prospect of meeting Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith. He did get to meet Mewes, and it went really well from what he said. Alex paid to get a picture taken with him on his phone, and they ended up taking, I believe, 23 photos. Most of the time it seems like you're lucky if they'll give you a do-over if your eyes are closed on the first. I think Kevin Smith was showing up about the time we left, but I imagine that line would have been long.

I tried to convince Alex to buy some of the art he saw he liked, but he kept insisting he still needed to buy frames for all the other art he's bought he hasn't put up yet. I told him to get a portfolio to keep them in until then, which is what I do, but he hasn't yet. So he didn't buy any art. I bought 6 or 7 pieces from a few different artists. No commissions, just prints. I didn't expect we'd be there long enough to go through my decision process*, and we weren't.

I've never really been a big fan of Ghost Rider as a character. In theory, sure, cool concept, but it's never gotten me to buy his titles for any extended period of time. But damn does he make for a cool visual on prints. I own at least 5 or 6 different prints of various Ghost Riders.

Oddly, not many of the artists I bought from included any kind of card. Which is too bad because it means I can't remember what most of their names are. One issue I have with the program the folks behind the con put together is the map of all the booths is absurdly small. The booklet is 5.5 x 8.5 inches. The map is one-half of one page, the other half being part of the listing of names. Which means I can barely read any of the booth numbers on the map. Good luck trying to remember which booth it was.

That bummer aside, it was a good. The KC Convention Center is a nice venue for my needs: Big, well-lit, lots of space in the aisles. You could easily stop at a booth and look things over and not get jostled by people walking past you. I didn't feel any of that usually creeping strain from being around lots of other people, although having Alex along probably helped. I would have liked to have a little more time to look around - I didn't even get to any of the vendors selling back issues - but it was probably better to not spend all my money.

* Find artist whose style I like, and whose commission rate is within my price range. Then figure out what to get them to draw. Then awkwardly try to engage them in conversation and arrange the transaction. Then wait. You need a lot of time for all that.

2 comments:

SallyP said...

I'm glad you had a nice time. I feel pretty much the same way about Ghost Rider... although I freely admit to being thrilled when he rode the motorcycle up the side of the building in the movie... because... well, it was cool.

CalvinPitt said...

That was pretty cool, although I really liked the parts in the sequel when he would use other vehicles and transform them into burning death machines.