Conned
 OK, I promise this will be the last word on comics here for a while. But we just got back from the annual San Diego Comic-Con and I need a day to decompress. We’ve been down there since Tuesday, which accounts for the blog silence, engaged in our usual orgy of indulgence in all things fun and fantastic. Here are a few of the highlights.
The Con this year was shadowed by the passing in January of the great Will Eisner, who bestrode the American comic book medium like a Colossus. Quite a bit of the Con was dedicated to celebrating his life and work, including several tribute panels by his friends and colleagues, the screening of a handful of documentary films currently in production, the announcement of a major Hollywood movie based on his signature character, “The Spirit” (produced, encouraging, by the team responsible for “Batman Begins”), the announcement of a new Spirit series from DC, and a series of lengthy remembrances at the annual Eisner Awards, honoring the best work of the past year.
On Wednesday night, we had dinner with Denis Kitchen, Eisner’s long time friend, publisher and agent. As the man behind the underground “Kitchen Sink Press” in the 70s and 80s, he is a fount of comic lore, historical anecdotes and scurrilous gossip, and is still an active participant in all aspects of the industry. He’s also a terrific guy and great fun to hang out with. Developing these kinds of friendships is one of the enduring virtues of the comic hobby in general and Comic-Con in particular.
Another couple we’ve become friends with is Batton Lash, creator of the fiendishly-entertaining Supernatural Law series, and his wife, Jackie Estrada, one of the original denizens of the San Diego Con in the early 70s and now the organizer of the Eisner Awards. We saw them on Tuesday night, where they celebrated Eunice and my recent nuptials at a great seafood restaurant by the Bay. Batton and Jackie are inveterate party-hounds, and tagging along with them at the inevitable after-hours soirees has been a great way to meet many of the good and crazy folks in the business.
A third crowd we’ve come to enjoy at the Con is a group of old-time collectors and art enthusiasts, including my old high school classmate, Steve Stein. Art collectors are a strange bunch. A couple could themselves be characters in a comic book, if not a David Lynch film. But at San Diego, they’re in their element, able to indulge their obsessions to the fullest, brag on their collections, one-up each other in person instead of on-line, and drink like fish. Socializing with such folks is, to put it mildly, not everyone’s cup of tea, but it makes for some memorable stories.
For me, the highlight of the Con came shortly after the Eisner Award ceremonies. Michael Chabon was on hand to collect the award he won for the book based on his character, “The Escapist.” I had talked to him before and knew he was a friendly, approachable guy, so I walked up and introduced myself. He looked at my badge with a quizzical “do I know you?” expression, and as we began talking about the state of comics criticism, he suddenly looked up and said, “yes, I read what you wrote about that.” I was a bit puzzled and stunned. “I recognized your name – someone sent me that piece you wrote about my letter to NYRB the other day,” and proceeded to discuss it as if he may, in fact, have actually read it. If so, how very cool! And if he was just being polite to a random fan, well, that worked too.
The Convention itself was the usual insane sprawl, with several miles’ worth of dealers and exhibitors, fans wandering around in costumes, giant screens blasting out previews from upcoming movies, cartoons and video games, artists scribbling away at their tables, and every manner of things for sale. Came back with a fat suitcase and a thin wallet, as usual, plus an afterglow that will carry me through the rest of the summer.
12:32:16 PM 
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