[Groop] Calgary Con Report(& card prices)

[Janet Harriett]

Just comfort yourself knowing that Sergio has been doing cons for so  
many years now, you can't possibly be the most idiot-sounding person  
who has approached him. Alternatively, practice saying "Hi. I'm a big  
Groo fan" until you can say it so confidently that you mutter it in  
your sleep and your wife wonders if Imabig Groofan is an old  
girlfriend or something.  Of course, my approach with dealing with  
folks at cons is to say "HI" and see what form of idiocy my brain  
decides to spew out afterwards.  A few gems:
"You were my favorite recurring character on NightCourt" (to Brent  
Spiner)
"Do you need some duct tape?" (to Garrett Wang, whom I didn't  
recognize until later)
"You know, if you say you're DB Cooper in certain parts of Washington  
State, you can get free drinks" (To Adam West, whose agent or Bat- 
wrangler or whomever had to remind him he did a one-off guest shot on  
NewsRadio in which he claimed to be DB Cooper)
"You were my first Goa'ould, and the episode was so weird, I almost  
stopped watching Stargate after that first episode" (to Cliff  
Simon...that conversation was saved by the fact that we both own the  
same t-shirt that we can't wear in public outside of cons)
"So, you said in the panel that you've sold everything you ever wrote.  
What's the secret of not writing crap?" (to Jim Shooter, and if I had  
known at the time who he was, I probably would have not dared open my  
mouth, or at least undone the Leia cinnamon bun hair before going up  
to his table)

See...there are much bigger idiots at cons than you. Especially if I'm  
around.  Although in my personal experience, the best icebreaker with  
Sergio is to show up at his table dressed as Chakaal. Not sure if that  
is as effective for the guys, though.

Janet

>
> I think I'd be at a loss for words if I ever met Sergio myself.   
> Heck, what would I say?  "Uh, back in the 80's I drew Groo on a  
> piece of graph paper and used it to write out a program in BASIC to  
> create an image of him.  ...   Uh, I'm on the Groop.   ...Uh, can  
> you sign this old, torn up copy of Groo #1 Marvel/Epic that I pulled  
> off a comic stand when I was 11?  ...Ok...well take it easy."
>
> Of course it would probably sound like this:   
> "Argh...yargh...uh...daaaaaa...sign this.  thks."
>
> Then I'd spend the next month trying to convince myself that I  
> didn't sound like a complete idiot in front of him.  After giving up  
> on that I'd tell myself that ok I did sound like an idiot, but he  
> probably didn''t even remember the event.