92615_RAA_LooseCannon_Text_R1_PROOF

It…

…and I felt just a little bad about that because I, for myself, was secretly looking forward to it. The End Of Comics As We Know It can’t come soon enough for me, what with its implied promise of a new system… and it seems that we’re almost there. Last year’s WonderCon was a mess and a shambles and sparsely attended. This year’s WonderCon was an orgy of appreciation for comics. Upbeat, friendly, skies-are-gonna-clear-up-put-on-a-happy-face; the whole place was awash in good tidings. Michael Chabon had won the Pulitzer for The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, fans prowled the aisles with fistfuls of cash, previously ignored books were in the limelight, deals were being made, hands shaken, contracts signed… and the whole thing paled in comparison to the smorgasbord that was Pittsburgh. Last week, I attended the Pittsburgh Comicon for the first time. I thought I had become a little jaded with the whole con thing; after all, I’ve been attending shows for an embarrassingly long while…

…but I’d never been to Pittsburgh.

My old pal Pat Donley, general manager of the superior chain of comic stores, New Dimension Comics, picked me up at the airport, wearing his official AiT/Planet Lar shirt and carrying a sign with my company’s logo on it. In addition to making me laugh my ass off, I have to say ol’ Pat warmed the cockles of what’s left of my heart with that one. I felt like Mick Jagger, there, for a moment…

…until we made it to the Comicon the next day…

…where I was treated like visiting royalty.

I went up to the administrative table to pick up my badge first thing Friday morning, and when I introduced myself, Renee George, the VIP liaison for the show, beamed me a thousand-watt smile and handed me my badge and said, "Oh, yeah, Larry; I know that name! Here you go, welcome to Pittsburgh, happy to have you here, hope you enjoy the show."

I defy anyone to have a crappy time after that sort of welcome.

I went to the New Dimension Comics booth, where the lads had set up a little pocket of AiT/Planet Lar goodness, along with their superior selection of Golden Age books, the "men’s magazines" from the Fifties (that seemed only to attract Charles Burns, Joe Linsner, and the Hernandez Brothers),

55