Fanboys On The Loose

The San Diego International Comic Con.
The single largest gathering of pop-culture fans in the world. Nowhere else will you find a more concentrated collection of nerds in a single place than this convention. And when I say "nerds," I don't necessarily mean people like myself who have a deep interest in comic book culture. I'm talking about a group of people that judging from their outward appearance alone, look as if they may have come straight out of "central casting."

I remember tellling someone just before heading down to San Diego to cover this year's convention for CNN, that the whole idea made me a little nervous. Whether it's a comic book convention or a simple gathering of geeks on Wednesday night at the comic book shop when the new shipments arrive, mixing with my fellow fanboys has always put me off. Because while I may share their enthusiasm and interest in the fantastic four-color universe of comics, they don't necessarily share my interest in normal social interaction, physical activity and general hygiene.

This being my first trip to Comic Con, I wasn't quite sure what to expect and for the first few moments when I hit the floor, I was so overwhelmed with the onslaught of sensory overload, it took me a few minutes to realize the full spectrum of the crowd. Once I managed to turn my attention from the displays of intricately sculpted action figures and rows upon rows of vintage pulp, I began to sense what I had gotten myself into.

The full reality of my surroundings didn't actually take hold until I joined my friend Doug, who was accompanying me both as a co-worker and fellow comic book fan, at a panel featuring legendary illustrator George Perez. The 56 year old artist has lent his talents to just about every single super-hero in both the Marvel and DC Univeses. So, naturally, he's managed to cultivate quite a fan following. Now, I'll admit it. I'm a fan of Perez's work. There's nobody working in comics today who can cram as many different characters into a single panel and do it stunningly sharp detail. His work is fun to look at - over and over again - because it's always revealing something new.

However, the particular fans that would attend a panel at Comic Con with the hopes of asking the great George Perez a question are something else entirely.

Within the first few minutes of Perez's panel discussion, he gave the audience the low-down on what he's currently working on. It was interesting... I'm excited to see what his new work will be like. I honestly could've left as soon as he finished his update. What followed however, was as fascinating as it was boring.

As fans lined up at a microphone placed in the center of the room, I couldn't help but think of that old episode of "Saturday Night Live" where all the trekkies line up to ask William Shatner incredibly stupid and esoteric questions about "Star Trek." And then it happened, life crashed headlong into art. One particular fan began asking Perez about the first color comic book he had ever done pencils for, Marvel Comics "Avengers", issue 141. As Perez waxed nostaligic about his past, the audience was absolutely enthralled. And the questions kept on coming...

"George, we met back in '79 at a convention in Houston... "
"Are there ever any characters you wished you never drew?"

I looked at Doug, looked at my watch, looked at some horrifyingly mutated nerds in the row across from me, looked at Doug again and said, "dude, we're out of here."

He apparently shared my feeling about the trekkie connection and we began to laugh about the Avengers #141 question. So much so that as we descended the escalator and crossed paths with a pair of girls dressed up like Japanese animated porn stars, we decided that it would be our mission for the weekend to locate and purchase a copy of Avengers #141.

During the next couple of days, in between dodging the sweaty masses while trying to carry out our business of shooting footage and conduct interviews, I managed to steal some time to rummage through the countless boxes of vintage pulp on display at the convention.
Finally, after two days of nerd-overload and spending way too much money on selfish indulgences like the first 4 issues of Jack Kirby's "The Eternals," I found it: Avengers issue 141, penciled by George Perez.

That afternoon, when we reconvened at our hotel to compare notes on the day, I showed Doug my prize. He laughed as he told me of his chance encounter with none other than George Perez. Apparently, they had shared an elevator ride in the hotel and discussed of all things, the panel. It was at this point that my inner-geek took over.

"Dude," I said, "you should call the hotel operator and have him paged in his room! See if he'll sign the cover!"

Within minutes, we were racing down the hall to catch an elevator up to the 14th floor to meet George Perez in his room just so he could scribble his name on the opening splash page of Avengers issue 141 for us. Much to my enjoyment, Perez had a great sense of humor about the whole story of seeing him at the panel and hunting down the issue and he was very gracious about signing it for us. Our meeting ended quickly as he left us with some parting wisdom, "be sure you take that out of the plastic and enjoy it. "

What fanboy in their right mind wouldn't?