Home from Heroes
Note to self: Do not book travel in the late afternoon during the summer. The potential for thunderstorm-fueled delays is huge. Although we’d wanted to get home fresh and rested for Monday morning, instead, while everyone else was enjoying the legendary Heroes Con dead dog party at owner Shelton Drum’s store, we were sitting on the tarmac wondering if one of the massive bolts of lightning surrounding the area would strike our four-hour-delayed flight when it finally launched to the skies, sending us down just as quickly.
Another note: it really does pay to check flight status when you’re close to the airport. Instead of sitting in the airport fretting out the long delay, like poor Mike Dawson and Vito Del Sante, Future Mr. Beat and The Beat sat in the bar at the Westin watching the Euros and checking flight status on the JetBlue website thanks to the free wifi.
Sunday was petty quiet up until then. We had coffee with Tom Spurgeon and negotiated a non-aggression pact that should last for six months. Actually, it was really nice just to sit down and talk about all kinds of things — Tom is a capital guy.
Speaking of Tom, he has an exhaustive rundown of everything we would have noticed if we had more focus. So go there for your HeroesCon wrap-up.
Speaking of the wrap-up, one thing jumped out at us, this funny photo
with this caption:
* Tim Hodler of Comics Comics later told me that he tried to keep people from being able to read his disappointment if not slight dismay over the direction of the conversation during the journalism/criticism panel. On behalf of everyone in comics, I’d like to invite Mr. Hodler to attend poker night any time he wants.
I feel bad that Tim felt bad…I hope he reams us all a good one on his blog instead of feeling sad that he couldn’t get the other side heard.
We’ll have some more links and news analysis throughout the day. Big thanks to Shelton, Dustin, Doug and everyone else from HeroesCon — honestly, these guys are so nice and friendly and helpful it makes a street-savvy New Yorker feel like a cynical hater. It’s of of he reasons why HeroesCon continues to be such a popular stop on the convention circuit. We can’t wait to go back, although next time we’ll scope out some more butter-free dining options, if such a thing is possible in the South.
06/23/08 at 1:16 pm
What issue did Tim Hodler have with the direction of the journalism panel? I thought that the panel was a really interesting panel from beginning to end, and covered an awful lot of ground.
And it was nice to finally put faces to the names of all the comics bloggers I enjoy reading everyday, and even get to sneak in my question (the manga-related one) in right at the end.
06/23/08 at 1:19 pm
Why would you want to eat food without butter? It makes everyting taste ten times better. I like a half stick melted on top of my salad, mmmmmm, delicious.
06/23/08 at 1:29 pm
Free butter? Yes. Butter-free? That’s just crazy Yankee talk. Next thing you know people will be asking for un-sweetend tea.
06/23/08 at 1:53 pm
I guess on your trip to England you tried to order meals without so much spam in them.
06/23/08 at 4:35 pm
One of our worst flights ever was in Charlotte during the summer. IN the amount of time we waited to land, waited during pre-boarding, waited on the tarmac and finally got in the air, we could have driven back to Virginia Beach in less time (6 hours).
06/23/08 at 5:10 pm
I’m guessing. Jason, that Tim had an issue with it being a journalism/criticism panel that you just remember as a journalism panel, seeing as how he’s a critic and all.
But maybe there was a lot of talk about criticism. I don’t know, I wasn’t there.
06/24/08 at 6:44 am
my flight was at 9:55pm. i hit the dead dog party for about an hour or so and headed to the airport. and yep….my flight was delayed to that massive storm. though nowhere near as long as yours. (only about 45 minutes).
06/24/08 at 10:13 am
Heidi, you are absolutely correct to avoid travel in North Carolina on hot summer afternoons. That’s when all the meteorological mosh-pitting generally occurs, between 3 and 7, speaking as a mostly lifelong North Carolinian. Next time you come to HeroesCon, I strongly suggest you stay through to Monday morning–if nothing else, it would have given me more time to say more than a quick “hello” to you while scurrying hither or thither during the convention!
06/24/08 at 6:31 pm
[…] Random Comics News Story Round-Up * Heidi MacDonald speculates on Tim Hodler’s frowny face from HeroesCon; Hodler offers the hint of an explanation and some background on what he was thinking at the time. * Paul Gravett writes on propaganda and the superhero. * the NCS is helping to sponsor an overseas trip for several of its members to visit wounded soldiers in military hospitals. * on being plagiarized. * finally, the Association des Journalistes et des Critiques de bande dessinee (ACBD) has released a summer 2008 essential reading list, going back to November 2007 to name 20 of the 2200 books published during that period. Included are Exit Wounds, Breakdowns (which Art Spiegelman released in France before the English-language edition planned for later this year), and Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting. […]
06/25/08 at 7:05 pm
[…] Collective Memory: HeroesCon 2008 Links to stories, eyewitness accounts and resources concerning HeroesCon 2008, held June 20-22 at the convention center in Charlotte, North Carolina. This entry will continue to be updated for as long as people ***** Institutional Convention Physical Location Host City Blog Entries Chris Pitzer Chris Sims 01 Chris Sims 02 Comics Comics D Morris Jeff Parker Jim Mahfood Shannon Smith 01 Shannon Smith 02 The Beat 01 The Beat 02 The Beat 03 The Beat 04 The Beat 05 The Beat 06 The Beat 07 The Beat 08 Message Boards and Chat Rooms News Stories and Columns ComicMix Audio The Dollar Bin: Covering Comics The Dollar Bin: Collaboration and Storytelling The Dollar Bin: Jimmy Palmiotti The Dollar Bin: Laura Martin The Dollar Bin: Mark Waid Photos Chris Pitzer Comic Related 01 Comic Related 02 Comic Related 03 Comic Related 04 Comic Related 05 Comic Related 06 Comic Related 07 Comic Related 08 Comic Related 09 Comic Related 10 Marc Arsenault Mike Rhode Videos ***** ***** ***** ***** […]
06/27/08 at 7:07 pm
[…] Collective Memory: HeroesCon 2008 Links to stories, eyewitness accounts and resources concerning HeroesCon 2008, held June 20-22 at the convention center in Charlotte, North Carolina. This entry will continue to be updated for as long as people ***** Institutional Convention Physical Location Host City Blog Entries Ben Towle Chris Pitzer Chris Sims 01 Chris Sims 02 Comics Comics D Morris Dr. K 01 Dr. K 02 Dr. K 03 Jeff Parker Jim Mahfood Josh Latta Paul Maybury Rich Vining Rob Ullman Sabrecat Shannon Smith 01 Shannon Smith 02 Submarine Submarine 01 Submarine Submarine 02 Submarine Submarine 03 The Beat 01 The Beat 02 The Beat 03 The Beat 04 The Beat 05 The Beat 06 The Beat 07 The Beat 08 Thought Balloonists 01 Thought Balloonists 02 Thought Balloonists 03 Tom Neely Message Boards and Chat Rooms News Stories and Columns ComicMix Audio The Dollar Bin: Covering Comics The Dollar Bin: Collaboration and Storytelling The Dollar Bin: Jimmy Palmiotti The Dollar Bin: Laura Martin The Dollar Bin: Mark Waid Photos Chris Pitzer Comic Related 01 Comic Related 02 Comic Related 03 Comic Related 04 Comic Related 05 Comic Related 06 Comic Related 07 Comic Related 08 Comic Related 09 Comic Related 10 Marc Arsenault Mike Rhode Videos ***** ***** ***** ***** […]