[Groop]Big Apple Con Report

[Larry Steller]

"GREETINGS FROM NEW YORK CITY!!!" 
-Joliet Jake Blues, Briefcase Full Of Blues

I had a blast today, although of course this Con
couldn't be compared to the San Diego Comic Con, hey,
few can! I guess this would be considered a mid-sized
convention, the whole place can be easily browsed in a
half a day. I still wouldn't say The Big Apple Con is
anything special, but it was fun enough - after all,
it had Sergio!

I got there late (about 11:30) after long delays (I
just deleted the three paragraph long explanation -
YOU'RE WELCOME) and was trying to decide whether to
try to seek out Sergio in the 4th floor Artist Area or
in the Dealer's Room (where there was also some
Talent) when a guy in a Penguins Hockey Jersey
approached me and asked "Are You Larry?" "Yeah, hey,
Sean, right?" I guess my standard orange
GROOP@GROO.COM shirt was a dead giveaway!!!

Sean Ferris is a super nice guy (who is now in the
doghouse with his wife thanks to being muchos delayed
by me, Lia Bulaong and Sergio - SORRY!), and I hung
with him the entire day. Sergio's table was 2 in from
the elevator (YES!!!), and Sergio was, well, Sergio!
Do I have to rave on and on yet again about what a
kind, fun, down to earth great guy he is? You guys
know the drill, he's the best, 'nuff said.

(Aside to Azamin: I ERRED, I'M SORRY, the printout for
your email to Sergio is STILL on my kitchen table. I'm
too forgetful to be any kind of reliable stand-in for
Dessesbo!!!)

I asked Sergio about SERGIOARAGONES.COM. An
approximation of our discussion went something like
this (this is from memory, and we had this
conversation about 10 hours ago, so I apologize for
any inaccuracies...)

LARRY: So we heard through Mark that
SERGIOARAGONES.COM is sort of in the works... 

SERGIO: Yes, Mark heard about a guy who registered
SERGIOARAGONES.COM., and we didn't like this.

LARRY: Yeah, Mark discussed this with the Groop.

SERGIO: We got it all settled and we'll be doing
something with it down the road.

LARRY: Does this mean you've entered the computer age
and are ACTUALLY online? 

SERGIO: No, no, no, not yet. 

LARRY: Is this something that is being worked on right
now, is there a general timetable that you'd like to
do this after you finish up this and this and this, or
is it more just that you have a general idea that
you'd like to do something fun at some time in the
future but don't really know yet?

SERGIO: No, we just know we want to do something, no
idea yet.

LARRY: How hands on do you expect to be. Are you going
to be trying to do any of this yourself, are you
planning on supervising the creation of the site while
looking over someone's shoulders? 

SERGIO: No, I don't know computers. Someone else will
help me with it. Maybe I'll see if my daughter wants
to do someting, I don't know.

LARRY: Does Christen know how to do web design?

SERGIO: No, but she's always on the computer...
(Pointing to the GROOP@GROO.COM on my DID I ERR shirt)
Tell me about this groop.com. How does someone go to
this? 

LARRY: Well, you can't just send email to this address
anymore, you have to go to GROO.COM and join the list.
We were starting to get SPAM sent to the list, but now
we rarely ever get SPAMMED...

SERGIO: What is SPAM?

LARRY: SPAM is junk email. People send you email
trying to sell you things... 

SERGIO: What people? Why do they do this? 

LARRY: Well, it's like getting junk mail, you get
messages from your friends and family, then you might
also get dozens of emails from people trying to sell
you things...

SERGIO: They can do this?

SEAN FERRIS: Well, you can set up filters like
spamguard that keeps people from sending you emails
that you don't want.

LARRY: Yeah, so now if someone wants to send a message
to the Groop, they have to join the Groop by going to
groo.com, so only people who want to be in the Groop
gets to send us email.

SERGIO: Groo.com? Do you need the "AT" What do I tell
people?

LARRY: It's easy, just tell them to go to www.groo.com
and look for the Groo List.

SERGIO: OK...

Well, I doubt I could transcribe everything we talked
about all day, and I doubt you'd all want to read all
of it if I could, but Sergio sends his regards to
everyone. I told him that I forgot to bring AZAMIN's
email printout, so he said I should send it to Mark
and Mark can print it for him. 

I wandered a bit, got a couple of sketches and
autographs, checked in on Sergio every so often, and
even got to watch his table again for about 15 minutes
or so while he got up, stretched his legs and wandered
around socializing. 

I sometimes wonder if Sergio EVER walks more than 20
feet without stopping to talk to someone!

I was on line waiting to meet Sal Buscema, when I got
another "Are you Larry?" "Oh! Lia (Bulaong), Sean
thought you had emailed and said you couldn't make it
because of family commitments!" (Actually, Sean was
thinking of George K, who had family plans for that
day).

Lia asked me to point her in the direction of Sergio,
and I showed her where to go. When Sean returned (we
were taking turns standing on the hours-long line for
Sal Buscema, who did an awesome HULK sketch for me and
an even more incredible STEVE ROGERS sketch for Sean;
Sal's a great guy to talk to, who cares deeply about
how today's comics have very little to entice new,
very young readers) I walked over to Sergio's table
and watched Sergio chat with Lia; he really had his
CHARM turned up to 11 on a scale of 1-10! Lia is a
fun, cool person, so Sergio took to her right away! 

We wandered and hung out some more, Sean brought
Sergio a much-needed bottle of water, and when it was
time for Sergio to go, we walked him out, with Sean
carrying one of his boxes...

(...Notice, incoming Grooism...)

Forgive me if I screw up the times, but it was
something like 5:00 and Sergio had to get to Newark
Airport by around 6:20 for an 8:20 flight home (or
something like that). Since Lia, Sean and I were going
to grab a QUICK bite to eat (Sean had promised to be
home early; like I said, he's now in the doghouse),
like I said we walked Sergio out, headed to 7th Avenue
and figured we'd hang a bit and help him flag down a
cab... help him flag down a cab...taxi? Taxi? Heeeeere
taxi?

This was one of those classic New York moments, when
you really need a cab right away, you are just so
doomed. I enjoyed watching Sergio try to teach Lia the
classic "hey taxi" type of whistle. We eventually
split up, took different corners, ran down side
streets, and Sergio even wandered up to motorists
stopped at the traffic light to see if he could pay
someone to take him to the airport (...and me with my
car in the shop! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!) It was hopeless! The
four of us could not find a cab to save a life, but
were doomed to play out a frantic Marx Brothers-esque
scene! 

Finally, Lia picked up some sort of free newspaper or
flyer or something out of a stand ( I was diagonally
aross the street) and flipped through till she found
the number for a car service, called on her cell
phone, and we had a car there in 10 minutes!!! Only 2
months in New York, and she's already got this city
down! 

Now to our post-con meal. None of us quite got around
to lunch, so we were all quite starving! Lia had a
great restaurant in The Village to take us to (the
name escapes me), which was a bit of a hike but well
worth the walk if, ummm, if it were actually open!
Seems they close one day a week, SATURDAY. DID WE
ERR???

So now we had to find a new eaterie; of course, in
Greenwich Village, there is no shortage of
restaurants, that's for sure! We settled on a cute
little Spanish Restaurant called CAFE EL ESPANOL that
also serves Mexican food, figuring it was appropriate
for the obvious reason... 

And they all lived happily ever after - even if Sean
DID get in trouble for getting home 3 hours late... 

The End


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-Larry "Mr. Grooism" Steller

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