Motor City Comic Convention 2010

The Motor City Comic Book Convention in Novi, Michigan. Or, as my friends and I call it: Novi.
This year I went with Matt and Libby, we spent quite a bit of money, probably over $400 among all of us, and spend the better part of Saturday there.
First of all let me say the place was PACKED. I've had to wait in line there before but NEVER was the line this long. I swear we were in Canada for a few minutes. The good thing about it was the line moved very fast.
This only happens at a comic convention.
So we paid our fees and got in easy as anything.
With the crowds it was kind of hard to move around but, as is the norm at these things, people were pretty polite about it and there really wasn't much bitching going on. Another REALLY good thing I noticed is the near total lack of body odor. Normally I end up looking through some boxes next to someone who apparently allergic to soap and water but that really didn't happen this year.
People were out in droves and many wore costumes. I wish I had taken more pictures of the costumes but it wasn't easy keeping together with Matt and Libby, so much to look at and really so little time


For me, personally, I was thrilled to meet, again, E.C. Legend: Al Feldstein. He worked on such books as Tales From The Crypt and was an early editor of MAD Magazine.
In hindsight it was probably not a good idea to wear the Comics Code Authority (CCA) t-shirt to meet a man whose career was badly damaged by the stupid thing but what better way to show the overall stupidity of the CCA than to slap it on a shirt and take a picture with it and a man who outlived it.
I also got my EC ARCHIVES: TALES FROM THE CRYPT, VOLUME 1 signed by Mr. Feldstein and a printed signed as well. He was a nice man but seemed a bit bitter over all the jerks who get him to sign something and then toss it on eBay to make money off it. I can promise that will NOT happen to MY items.
Also, this year, I got World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide signed by Max Brooks. The only thing about that that sucked was he was at a panel and I missed it. Ah, well, I still got to meet him.
I told him the Survival guide, while I LOVED it, has pretty much ruined all my favorite zombie movies...he was proud of that. I love a guy who isn't afraid of his work and it's impact.

I didn't do the meet and greet with former WWF Diva Lita though. She was charging $20 for a picture with MY camera. What the hell is THAT about? Lillian Garcia was doing the same thing. Kind of sucked because I was really hoping to meet them.
Another let down was, and this was because of all the people there, the lines for that artists were insane! I would have spent most of my time waiting to get sketches from some of these guys and would have gotten very few and it wasn't worth it so while I had my sketch book I didn't get any sketches this year. This means NEXT year I gotta double the amount of sketches I have.

Beyond the large number of people and something of a let down with the celebs I wanted to meet, Matt and I tried our damnedest to find the lead figures we collect. Not a single one was to be found in the entire show. Guess we'll just have to keep getting them from Nostalgia, Ink. It's worked out pretty good for us so far at least.
Matt DID happen to notice a really cool sword while we were waiting for Al Feldstein. The Sword of Omens from Thundercats. Naturally, Matt had to have his picture taken with it but I was to easily distracted to get my picture taken with it and by the time I realized this it had been sold. But at least ONE of us was able to hold it. And it was very cool.

So, after a long day and a LOT of walking we realized we were running out of money and decided to call it a day with just an hour to spare. But before we went, I just had to make a final purchase. A few years ago there was a Motor City Comic Con Lady Death Exclusive cover and, being the old school Lady Death fan I am (I go back to the Chaos! Comics days) I had to have it. So, since they had another Exclusive this year I decided to grab it as well. IRON MAN #25 was this years book and it's kind of an Exclusive Variant of a variant...really interesting but sadly I was on my way out and didn't get it signed by the cover artist. Ah, well, I got the book at least, right?

So, the day came to an end, we learned it is much easier AND cheaper to bring food, it was nice to sit outside, chat, share are take and relax a bit between runs up and down the isles. I was also very surprised as to how easy it was to get there and back. Tradition holds that we get lost one way or the other. It didn't happen this year. Kind of cool.
Also, I continued by new tradition of getting nothing but trades again this year, with the exception of the Iron Man comic, though next year I think I'm finally going to grab those Marvel Zombies variant covers I need.

So, here are the books I grabbed this year. the Annihilation trades were ALL $5 each! So were the Infinity trades!  So much money saved!

Annihilation Books 1-3
Annihilation Classics
Annihilation: Conquest Books 1 & 2
Arsenic Lullaby: The Donut Cometh
Essential Doctor Strange, Volume 2
Essential Marvel Two-In-One, Volumes 1 & 2
Essential Nova, Volume 1
Essential Spider-Man, Volume 9 $5
Essential Thor, Volume 2
Infinity Crusade, Volumes 1 & 2
Infinity War
Iron Man Vs. Doctor Doom
Spider-Man 2099, Volume 1
Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt