The drive there and back went OK, although I'm really, really sick of road construction! I think about half of the trip was through construction zones, with the usual "lane closing ahead, so please be sure that you drive in it right up until it ends, as otherwise we'd never be able to get all these cars in the other lanes to slow right down to a crawl to let you in" shenanigans. It's stuff like that that reminds me there's nothing divine about humanity; we're just a bunch of evolved apes, looking out for ourselves at the expense of everyone else around us.
The convention itself was fine, although I couldn't get into it this year. Vicki probably enjoyed the show more than I did, which is strange when you consider that it's a comic book convention! I brought about 1/3 of my spending money back home with me - an unprecedented turn of events! - but did pick up a nice piece of Swamp Thing artwork (picture to be posted here sometime this week) and a mid-grade copy of The Incredible Hulk # 2, leaving me only the kick-off of that 1962/63 six-issue series to get for completion!
As for the Silver Age Trivia Panel, we once again - for the second year in a row - were pitted against members of the audience. This year's challengers were more competition than their predecessors, and by the time we got to the Lightning Round at the end, they were only about 130 points back (early on, they had actually lead by 10 points!) We kicked ass in the Lightning Round, though, as I think I personally accounted for about 4 of the 10 answers, and we pulled away. It was more fun than last year for me, however, as I was better prepared for the format. I came up with enough answers to satisfy my own feeble sense of pride on the subject matter, including:
- In what issue did the Fantastic Four first wear costumes? (3)
- In what issue did the Justice League of America have their origin revealed? (9)
- Who were the two boyfriends of Wonder Girl? (Mer-boy and Bird-boy)
- Which superhero debuted in a fight against the Living Eraser? (Giant-Man)
- What is the significance of the issue number 123? (Flash, intro of Earth-2)
- What is the significance of the issue number 327? (Detective Comics, intro of "New Look Batman")
- and a few more that I can't remember
[Update: I almost forgot to mention that I also visited comic book artist and all-around nice guy Gene Ha, at his table, and he was kind enough to sign my hardcover copy of The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lessons Learned in Going Agile), on the page where I credit him for providing the inspirational sketch of me... how cool is that?!]
With the rest of the week off, hopefully I'll get some good blogging in to start July off on the right foot. Or I'll sit by the pool the whole time...
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