[Groop] PreConReportTeaser AND Con report???

Tue Apr 5 22:08:51 PDT 2005

I sent this to the Groop last Friday or Saturday night, but it looks
like no one got it. This is somehow appropriate! Therefore, I'll just
attach it to the front of my actual Con Report.

 --- Larry Steller <mrgrooism at yahoo.com> wrote:

> OK, I know it's weird to give a Con Report BEFORE I actually attend
> The Big Apple Comic Con, but I was talking to George K this
> afternoon,
> finalizing plans for a mini Groop breakfast (, okay, it's just us),
> when he mentioned a very cool Sergio encounter...
> 
> However, I'll let him tell it!!! 
> 
> -Larry "MrJealousOfGeorge-ism" Steller

Got it?

Okay, well I guess you STILL hafta wait for George's Con Report,
because it's his story.

My Big Apple Con report includes, of course, a Grooism, and a
pretty-damned-cool-but-still-not-as-cool as-George's Sergio encounter.

I had to work open-to-close both Friday & Saturday, so the only day I
could attend was Sunday. That's just as well, as the Big Apple Con is a
pretty minor con in the grand scheme of things. It's mostly just a
haphazard array of dealers, some pretty cool talent in artist's alley
(hey, it IS New York) and one room in the basement  for panels, most of
which apparently  centered around the old Dark Shadows gothic soap
opera.

San Diego it aint!! Frankly, it's also not the Mid-Ohio Con, or Motor
City Con, or, well, you get the picture. That's not to say there isn't
fun a-plenty to be had, but you can easily walk the entire con in two
or three hours, and there just aren't enough panels to make a three day
pass reasonable.

Anyway, first my Grooism!

I worked for 10 years at Macy's on 34th Street on the 17th floor as an
advertising copywriter. (Well, not in a row, 10 years in an 11 yaer
period, 4 and 6 with a year off for good behavior). The Con was held in
the Hotel Pennsylvania a couple of blocks from Macy's, so I know this
neighborhood like the back of my hand.

April 3 also happens to be my nephew Billy's 9th Birthday, and I had
hoped to take him with me to meet Sergio, but that was nixed by my
sister, as we were also planning to take him to the Yankees-Red Sox
Home Opener at 8:00 that night, and with school the next day, well,
he'd never last! I did have Sergio sign a copy of The Groo Adventurer
for him, so Billy was there in spirit.

Now, as I live just outside of the Lincoln Tunnel, I could easily have
taken a bus into the city for a $2.10 each way, then taken the subway
to and from Yankee Stadium for another $2.00 each way. However, even
though I haven't worked at Macy's for 3 years, I know the hood pretty
danged well. One of the best kept secrets in NY is that on certain
streets near Macy's you can park for free all day on Sunday, so since
Sunday bus service tends to be irregular and I was meeting George for
breakfast at 8:00, I figured, what the hell, I'll pay the $6.00 toll
and the $12.00 to park at The Stadium and drive in!

Ahhh, a decision was made, could we be finally heading towards the
Grooism part of the Grooism?

Will I err?

As I approached the toll booths I suddenly realized that I forgot to
stop at the ATM the night before, and I had only $1.00 in my pocket! So
I zipped off the last exit before toll, called George and told him I
was running late, found an ATM, paid the $2.00 service charge and got
cash.

Zat all? Come on, you know me better than that!

I pulled up to my fabled free parking and saw an interesting device I
had not previously encountered in the neighborhood called a muni-meter.
It's sort of a parking meter for the whole block where you buy time and
print out a card and stick it in the window. It was like $9.00 in
change for  a maximum of 3 hours (I had no change), and the signage
didn't say anything about parking on Sundays!!!

I called up the number noted on the sign about how to get your car back
if/when you're towed, and actually reached a human being, who informed
me that muni-meters ARE active on Sunday!

Ahh, well, I know of a parking lot on 9th Avenue where you can park for
just $10.00 a day!

Ummm, except  there was a little handwritten sign posted over the fee
notice saying EVENT RATES IN EFFECT TODAY. 

Oh. 

Car Show at Javitz Center. 

Did I Err? 

Yup, it'll now cost me $30.00 to park for the day!!!

When I told this tale to George over breakfast, which he insisted on
paying for as I was now $30.00 poorer, little did he know that there
would be more to the Grooism! Or did he know me well enough to figure
out that the fun never ends?

*sigh*

While talking with a vendor, there were announcements over the
loudspeaker about folks who had parked on the street needing to move
their cars. I mentioned that I almost parked on the street but ended up
having to pay $30.00 to park, gave him the story so far, and he looked
at me oddly, saying "Buddy, you were right the first time, THOSE
muni-meters ARE free on Sunday, that's where I parked. I even double
checked with the local cops, if the sign DOESN'T say anything about
Sunday, you're fine!"

All together now...

DID I ERR???

I told this tale to Sergio, and he agreed that this was mighty Grooish
behavior!

Ahhh, Sergio, Remember Sergio? This is a song about Sergio...

I found Sergio easily enough, chatted with him for a while, had him
sign Billy's Birthday Present, then wandered the con for a bit.
Commissioned a cool Irwin Hasen Green Lantern sketch to compliment the
first sketch I ever got, which was a 1992 Irwin Hasen Green Lantern
sketch form the same con I first met Sergio at. I also commisoned a
Fairly Oddparents sketch for my nephew.

I was done with the con pretty quickly, so Sergio invited me to his
side of the booth to hang. As always, it was fun watching the Maestro
in action, and I spent the whole day at his side, sort of helping in
the little ways I could like getting coffee and watching his stuff
while he wandered. It was great chatting with him about NON-Groo and
NON-Mad stuff, although I did manage to get some interesting
Groo-related stuff out of him.

As previously announced at other cons, the Dark Horse reprints are
still on hiatus, as they want to reduce the books to digest size and he
doesn't want the art shrunk down. I'm glad he's sticking to his guns
and insisting on quality reprints, but I wish DH would give in
already!!!

Also, work continues on both the Groo screenplay and GROO VS CONAN.
Sergio says we are definitely in for a pleasant surprise with the
format for GvC, it's NOT going to be your standard crossover template,
as I'm SURE you all already figured. Sorry, no details forthcoming,
which is as it should be!

Oh, hee hee, a number of folks kept asking me if I was Sergio's son,
and while he was gone briefly I had three different people tell me how
much they loved my body of work (I guess mattress and cookware ads CAN
be fascinating). Can't imagine why, or , uhhh, could it have sometihng
to do with the fact that I'm, ummm, errr, well, in the process of
cultivating a handlebar mustache?

It's funny, I really started growing it out to add a little fun to the
Civil War Reenactments I do occasionally, but I guess in this setting
it really looked like I was trying to mimic The Maestro. Sergio and I
had a nice laugh about it, and for the rest of the con he kept giving
me advice on mustache maintenance, proper twirling techniques, and
such, LOL!!! It was hysterical watching him take his already impressive
facial adornment and curl it into a real twisted corkscrew!

The booth next to us was supposed to belong to Roy Thomas (another hero
of mine!!!), but he just stopped by a couple of times and signed things
from the fan side of the desk. He never actually occupied his booth,
which unfortunately led to quite a number of fans to assume I was Roy
Thomas, and kept asking me to sign their comics!

Okay, as little as I look like Sergio, except for the cheesiest of
mustaches, I look absolutely nothing like Roy Thomas! Lucky for these
fans I don't have a mean bone in my body, or else there'd be a whole
lotta books out there with my valuable signature in them!!!

The other cool part of the con for me was chatting amiably with Marvel
Mainstay Jim Salicrup, who was doing sketches all day next to us of
Marvel characters in the Powerpuff Girl Style!

These were so much fun I finally HAD to buy one he did of The Invaders,
because as funny as it is to see Captain America looking sort of like
Bubble, it was even funnier to see how he interpreted Namor as having,
instead of the rounded-head and large oval eyes, a pointed triangle
head. It totally works! To top it off, he wouldn't take my money, even
though I spared him the story of my $30 Free Parking Grooism.

That's it! I had a wonderful, wonderful time hanging with Sergio and
Jim, it really was too cool! 

See youse guys in San Diego!!!

-Larry "Mr. Grooism" Steller, Mendicant Second Class 

Favorite Links:
NEWS FROM ME: http://www.newsfromme.com/ 
POVONLINE: http://www.povonline.com/ ; 
FORGOTTEN NEW YORK: http://www.forgotten-ny.com/
ODDBALL COMICS: http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/oddball/
PENGUIN PERSPECTIVES: http://janetharriett.blogspot.com/
DEFECTIVE YETI: http://www.defectiveyeti.com/

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