Sunday, May 03, 2009

Fun at FCBD and Showering the Baby

Yesterday was action packed until about 5:30 or so.

We picked up Jason before 11:00 and headed down for Free Comic Book Day at Austin Books. This year they'd set a tent up outside the shop to sort of artificially create a lot more square footage and keep the aisles in the store open and free from the line of people who could have made it tough to walk around and browse the store.

We stood in line for a short while, and it sort of had the same spirit of camaraderie that I've seen at opening night for sci-fi movies, etc... Jason and I wound up chatting with a really nice guy about everything from The Flash to Star Trek (Jamie went inside for air conditioning after a few minutes in line).

There was this guy hanging outside in a cape and goggles, whose get-up I immediately admired. He even had a teen-age side-kick with him, and went by the name "Lord Vile". I admired Lord Vile's wardrobe, as well as his snarkiness. If you're going to be a villain, you might as well have banter, says I.

I picked up some interesting stuff. Love and Rockets. Blackest Night. Love and Capes. Bongo Comics. Stuff like that. And I did grab Peabo's copy of the "Cars" comic.

Also picked up my most recent two week's worth of titles and the 4th volume of "Queen and Country".

Inside Jason and I queued up to meet "The Defuser", Austin's own superhero and winner of Season 2 of Stan Lee's "Who Wants to be a Superhero?".

The Defuser is a local Austin police detective (no, really!), who is using his alter-ego to raise money for "SCARE for a Cure", a cancer awareness charity. I picked up a signed copy of his comic from Dark Horse, and a signed picture, which I will find a home for in The Fortress of Ineptitude (as Jason suggested I call my office).

I have to admire The Defuser. The man is already a police officer, which is reason enough to think a guy is doing something with himself, but he spends his weekends dressed as a superhero raising funds of cancer charities. Say what you will about dudes in tights, but when you can do a little good with what you have on hand, that's something I can support.

There was also a group of guys who showed up as Cyclops, Professor X and Banshee (and someone else, but I forget who).

I was digging through back-issues of Action Comics and overheard the Statesman reporters who were there talking to each other about how exciting all of this was, but they weren't really sure why, or even what was really going on. Neither had any familiarity with comics, and I heard them trying to decipher why people were into comics.

I do think that one of them sort of hit the nail on the head in realizing its a storytelling medium that's visual and readily accessible. She was also pretty clear that it wasn't all Superman and X-Men, as she mentioned Archie, etc... so I hope they picked something up to look at before leaving.

Never saw the story show up, though...

In the afternoon, Jamie and I attended a babyshower for League Pal's Letty and Juan (and, one would assume, the baby-to-be). I had never been to a baby shower, and I actually breached Baby Shower protocol at least twice (I grabbed a champagne glass for lemonade and wandered off before a champagne toast), and probably did several other things wrong.

But it was good to get together with Letty and Juan and wish them well as the baby is coming.

I think rightfully so, they've sort of passed the "oh, we've got a baby coming!" point in the pregnancy and are headed toward figuring out logistics, etc... around having a child.

The event was held at author Stephanie Klein's home. I admit, I have not read Klein's work, and don't really know much about her, but she and her husband were extremely gracious. It was nice of them to have all of us hanging about and trashing their place. I have no idea how Letty and Juan know Stephanie or her husband, so don't ask.

On top of that, we didn't get too wound up to do much else.

Supposed to see Wolverine today. I suppose I shall report out.

2 comments:

J.S. said...

I understand how those reporters felt. I get excited at Free Comic Book Day, too, but I'm not exactly sure why.

Nathan said...

At the shop near the radio station, they limited folks to only 4 titles. I spent two of my four on "Cars" for the kids.