Comicon and Me

2/9/2009 5:29 AM
I went to Comicon twice over the last weekend and had a smashing time.  It is funny how much you learn about yourself in unusual environments (More on that later).   Back to the quotidian, I went to an academic panel on Friday (as well as just walking around and engaging in my geekdom).  At that panel I learned about storyboarding and I got some great ideas about teaching comics.  I want to quickly write down the plan that I got (at http://dw-wp.com/).  They did a quick “story lottery,” where you have each student draw a picture (of the same character?) and then you through a voting system put them in order to make a narrative.  I think more about this can me seen on their website (and they showed a place where they had a completed random one done in a bookstore in Brooklyn).  I never did find their booth after the panel or the completed one in BK.
Comicon was full of the people I always wish that I could have admitted that I was when I was younger.  I loved being there and have to say that the excitement of the crowds when I went on Friday and Sunday was refreshing.

I saw myself over and over.
The self I wanted to be
The self I was
The self I am
I saw the Stafford that was
Who could never admit
That he loved Comics and art
When he was a teenager
And had to disco down and check
It all out
When I was into my comics’ renaissance
1987 was too old
To put my shoulder to the task
I was more a “mature guy”
Who just happened to read comics.
Needless to say, at 49
I am a mature guy who loves comics
I don’t think Ill ever be able to let my hair down
And dress up as a soul samurai or planetary assassin.
Sigh, when will I loose my reserve?

Other things that have been happening.  Old Friends including Henry Jackson have found me on facebook and I am really not free to be friends to more than my life right now.    Here’s a bit of odd confluence; at comicon I saw the vampyrella booth and they still use the design he did in the 70s for her costume.  I’ve also found my JH best friend Stephen Ferry.  Funny, I thought of him as I rode the bus up from comicon to meet Chandler at rehearsal at Hunter.  I googled him and found his website.  Sent him an email and got a response as I got off the crosstown bus. Quick.  He is a photographer based in Columbia and quite good if the time I spent on his site this AM is any indication.