Neil Adams always has a huge table at this show so I walked over and spoke to him for a few minutes and told him I wanted to take a picture for my friend Howard so here it is!
But the main reason I went on Sunday to this show was to hear Ernie Colón speak about illustrating The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation
So I lucked out and found Ernie at his table signing copies. I hadn't had a chance to buy one before the show so it worked out great. I asked him about the project and told him how glad I was to see this sort of thing out there in a format everyone can read and understand. I tried to steer Ernie into politics to see where he stood and as I did that the fellow sitting next to him started talking to the both of us. I got into a terrific discussion with this guy and about 15 minutes into the conversation I realized I was talking to the great Howard Chaykin! Howard Chaykin is an amazing person with intelligence, passion and in my case tremendous patience! We somehow got talking about movies that can never be filmed (Or something along those lines....I really have to just keep a recorder running on me anytime I go to a show like this!) and I brought up a conversation I had with director Kevin Conner at the 2000 Space 1999 convention. In that conversation Kevin and I were discussing Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination". Howard agreed and began disecting that book in front of me. Throughout this I convienently forgot that Howard Chaykin did A GRAPHIC NOVEL of The Stars My Destination. I realized this in the car on the way home! So this became one of those events in my fannish life in which I meet a terrific writer or artist and am totally unprepared for the experiance. Yet the experiance has a huge impact on me and I count the days until the next convention where I can see this artist again. Somehow I missed seeing Howard's name in the convention guestlist and I'm kicking myself for not being more mentally prepared for it.
Howard Chaykin and Ernie Colón
Howard kept recommending books for me to read during our political discussion which I wrote down. So I reproduce that list here for the happy few who read this.
Captain Phil's reading list
as assigned by Howard Chaykin
City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940's by Otto Friedrich
The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage by Todd Gitlin
and
An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood by Neal Gabler
During all of this excitement the local news station, NY1 was hovering around and interviewed Ernie and Howard. I was standing there during this and they interviewed me as well. I don't get NY1 where I live (We're DirectTV subscribers) so I missed out on seeing myself. After I told my wife I was interviewed on TV about the 9/11 book she boosted my ego by proclaiming how wacky my eyebrows looked! I hope they can fix that in post!
The NY1 action news crew (One guy with a big camera, mic and tripod)
After this excitment I wandered up and down artists row taking some pictures and eventually went downstairs to listen to Ernie Colón get interviewed by the show, "Nuff Said!" The Big Apple Comic Conventions are nice little shows and everytime I've been to one it's been worth the trip. This time even more worth it. They'll be having another show in November which I'll probably be going to. After we left the convention hotel we came across a small film crew making a movie. I have no idea if this was for an independant film, or television or whatever but if you recognize anyone in the picture below...
...let me know. (Note the Air America ad on the bus behind the crew!)
Lastly, it was a beautiful September day and when I looked up into the blue sky over New York City I saw an airplane. A chill went through me as I remembered what the weather and the color of the sky was like that day 5 years ago. Weird how life changes you, isn't it?
You can't really see the plane so I put an arrow where it is.
