Saturday September 5th, 2015:
Convention Saturday had arrived! It began at 8:15 with a McDonald’s breakfast: sausage McGriddle for me, and sausage biscuit for Beka. The breakfast of champions!
Arrived at the convention by 9:00am ready for the Vendor Rooms! After waiting in a steady moving line for an hour we made it into the rooms. DragonCon’s Vendor section is truly a paradise for nerdy collectors like me and my wife. Every interest imaginable has at least one booth, with all manner of trinket and nick-nack one could desire! Needless to say…we spent too much money.
Took an hour and a half, but we managed to make it through one entire floor and half of the remaining floor before needing to leave.
Noon found us in line at the Hyatt International for something I’d been excited for since it was announced: S.T.E.R.A.N.K.O.: Declassified, an hour panel with legendary comic artist: Jim Steranko! About fine minutes before the panel started, we were still unseated and a sizeable line had formed behind Beka and I. An elevator opened and out stepped the Man himself! I was taken aback a bit by the sudden celebrity appearance. There was Jim Steranko, no taller than 5’3″ dressed in grey: suit coat, pants, turtle neck with black shoes and sunglasses. And I’ll say it here: if I make it to 77 years old, I wish to have hair as awe inspiring as Steranko’s! He explained later that the shades were for an eye condition he has making his eyes sensitive to light, but allowing him to see in the dark like a cat! Cool!
Mr. Steranko made his way to the front of the line, stood beside the entrance and struck the same pose as his Wikipedia page…you know this one:
I aspire to be this cool!
At this point they began letting us inside, allowing Mr. Steranko to shake hands with EVERY person who entered thanking them for attending. Class! Once we all had seats {Beka and I lucky enough to be front row again}, the moderator introduced Mr. Steranko, drawing a standing ovation. Steranko walked into the room waving to us, not slowing down as he neared the three foot off the ground stage. Without breaking stride Mr. Steranko put one foot on the stage and leaped onto it with ease…77 years old people! Don’t believe me? I took pictures! Had to be seen to believe!
Nearing…
And He’s UP!
Once on stage this became the most interesting panel at DragonCon! He talked about his career in comics, magic, film and life in general. Was nice to hear his biggest inspiration for his art was film. He referenced one of my favorite film noir titles as an inspiration which made me smile! {It was “CROSSFIRE (1947)” by the way}. I had no idea he was involved with both “RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)” and “FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA’S DRACULA (1992)“! He talked about how Stan Lee is just the sweetest man in the world and what you see from him in interviews and Marvel cameos is exactly who he is. Glad to know.
He ended his panel with a story about an old motorcycle he owned back in the day. He’d modified it to fire gasoline from the exhaust, which mixed with the steel heeled boots he had made would spark making flames erupt from his motorcycle!…making him the inspiration for Ghost Rider!
After the awesome hour with Steranko, Beka and I made our way back to the Vendor room to spend more money. Once we’d cleared every booth to buy from we realized we were close to Artist Alley, which not only housed cool own-able art, but the talented artist who made them!
There was so much beautiful art in that room it was breathtaking. One artist we bought from did posters of famous characters done in old comic/old magazine covers. The two best examples of what I got from him was a detective magazine cover featuring the original Robocop, and a trashy romance cover featuring Power Girl.
However, I came to Artist Alley with a purpose: to meet Yale Stewart, creator of the amazing web comic: “JL8“! For those who don’t know JL8 is a web comic about the entire DC Comics Universe as 8 year old children. Still in costume with powers, but children. It’s amazing, you need to check it out.
His booth was smaller than I’d expected. And the fact nobody was stopping by surprised me more! This just made my mission more important. I stopped and bought every item he was selling: a 7 flair button set with the faces of his 7 main characters, and a 7 picture set of the same main characters. Got the pictures signed too! As he was signing, I thanked him for his comic, and creating a moment so powerful to the Batman Mythos that it brought me to tears. He was glad to hear his work made that kind of an impact and asked what the moment was. After I told him he said that moment had gotten a lot of praise recently from other fans, which made him as well as I very happy. We shook hands and I left him smiling.
Walking away from Yale Stewart I saw Jim Steranko’s booth, so I made my way over. So much amazing art on that table, but one piece caught my eye:
Cover Art for The Shadow!
This piece is one of my favorite pictures of The Shadow ever captured; and there is was in a frame-able format!
“And what can I do for you?” came the voice of Jim Steranko, now directly in front of me. I hadn’t noticed that he’d finished telling another amazing story to another fan a few feet away from me, leaving just Steranko and I at the booth.
I asked him if he’d be willing to sign the art I was about to purchase, and he said: “I think I can make that happen. Want your name on it too?”
“Sure, my name’s Hunter!”
Steranko stopped and looked at me with a smile. “Really? I like that!”
Steranko studied the picture for several moments, still smiling. “You know Hunter, the model for this picture was based on my girlfriend at the time.”
I answered with the most honest thing I could: “You were a very lucky man, Sir.”
“That’s one word for it!” Steranko said with a wink.
Steranko signed the picture in the upper left-hand corner, so not to disrupt the beauty of the classic piece of pulp art. I paid him for his time and art, and held out my hand. I told him: “thank you Mr. Steranko, it’s been an honor to meet and speak to you.”
Steranko grabbed my hand with one of those old, mobster-style double hand handshakes. I felt like I was shaking hands with Sinatra! Shaking my hand, Steranko smiled at me, pulled me closer and told me: “Give her a good home, Hunter!” I told him I would and he let go of my hand.
Coolest meeting of my life! In fact: Coolest. Man. Alive!
Walking away from the Steranko booth I found Beka looking at me. She said I was grinning like a fool. I told her about the best experience I’d had at the convention as we made our way back to the Marta Station.
After a short train ride we arrived back to our uncleaned hotel room. We laughed at the mess and complete lack of towels! We closed out our evening with bacon cheese burgers at Crackle Barrel after I’d retrieved fresh towels from the hotel management.
Best day so far!
~_M.H._~
Follow Me on Twitter: @MHSmith22
The Pork-Chop Express 