It took me three weeks due to vacation and illness…and prepping all the images, of which there are many…but here is my summary of FallCon 2005. Sorry it’s a bit late, but I think it’s worth it. FallCon is the annual October two-day convention held at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul, MN, by the Minnesota Comic Book Association. They also hold a one-day MicroCon in the spring, and I attend those as well.

I’ve been attending FallCon for at least 8 years now, and now that I’ve been to several mid-western conventions I think I can safely say that it is the best by far. I hope you…yes, specifically YOU, dear reader…will put it on your calendar for next October. It’s always well-attended, and yet it really deserves to have about three times as many people there.

This was a bittersweet convention for me because it’s the last one I’ll be able to attend with my regular artist, Phil Meadows. Next year, Phil will be living back in Alabama and won’t be able to attend. This was also the first con where we had copies of Metro Med #0 to sell, though I’m sorry to say we didn’t attract enough people by our table. It didn’t help that I spent too much time away from my spot due to… well, let me explain.

Shortly after I had my table set up, I realized that I was missing Tom Nguyen’s showing of his new DVD in the exhibition hall. I only got to see the ending, which is pretty hilarious.

Next, the highlight of the programs for me, Professor James Kakalios giving his lecture on superhero physics. Since I’m writing a comic book medical drama where practical applications of science mixes with the superhero world, I found it quite interesting. Professor K has been featured in numerous magazines (usually headlined with the gratuitous “Zap! Pow!” before delving into the seriousness of the text). He has used superheroes to explain scientific principals to students; he has also entertained scientists with this fun application of physics. Remember that Mark Waid issue of JLA where The Atom used a cutting edge physics experiment to stop Julian September? Those physicists were delighted to find out in his lecture that their work had been in a Justice League comic. The lecture is essentially a quickie spin through his book, “The Physics of Superheroes,” which I bought right away. The prof and I had a nice chat later that day, too, and he perused a copy of Metro Med.

Then I again stayed in the lecture hall for the presentation of the Uptown Girl movie. Uptown Girl is a hot local comic by Bob Lipski that has grown rapidly in just a couple years. It’s gone from a monthly mini-comic (28 issues so far) to a trade paperback compilation and now a half-hour-long movie.

Honestly, I was prepared to suffer through a bad movie. Nothing against the source material, but doing a video adaptation of a small press comic just gave me a sense of foreboding that it would be self-indulgent and exclusive of non-readers. So color me surprised when the movie was funny and approachable, with competent direction, a surprising use of animation and skilled acting all-around. (There’s more bad acting in “Clerks” than in the Uptown Girl movie!) The Plot: the cheery Uptown Girl and her friends Rocketman and Ruby Tuesday go out to a club, where Uptown Girl spots the gloomy Sulky Girl and resolves to brighten her day. Plus, on the way home, spotting three homeless partiers, Uptown Girl tries to find them a place to stay by fobbing them off on her friends. Chaos ensues. I laughed a lot at the movie. Afterwards, the cast and crew took bows and answered questions.

Erik Burnham and Phil Meadows are shown working furiously sketching for their anxious public. I’ll admit, I’m jealous of artists. Why? Because artists can sell sketches and thus make attending conventions profitable, but nobody ever asks me to write anything for $10. You know how many comics a guy has to sell to pay for the hotel room and gas? Now you know why I sell T-shirts and tote bags and mugs at conventions, though even there the profit margin is thin.

So I’m thinking…maybe at my next convention, I’ll sell bad sketches. I mean, I’m a writer, not an artist, but if someone wants to see how badly I can draw Green Arrow in exchange for $5, I could do it. And since I’m not an artist, it’ll be even more rare. I mean, tons of people have Warlord original sketches by Mike Grell, but a Warlord by Michael Hutchison? Hard to find!

Okay, maybe not. But I might do it just to convince Erik to start charging more for his art than I’m charging for my bad sketches.

Speaking of selling original art, we sold a large full-color Erik Burnham Captain America vs. Predator piece to a person who was excited to own it. So Sunday morning, as we enter the con we see the artwork lying on a front table! Flipping it over, we see a huge tire tread across the back of it. The FallCon organizers tell us that it was found in the road; apparently it had been dropped and the owner hadn’t noticed. We never saw the guy on Sunday, so I have it in my tote. If you are the owner, please contact me (I’ll ask you a question that proves whether you’re the buyer and not a con artist).

I spent the rest of Saturday selling comics at my table and taking pictures around the con. Some examples:

Gene Ha was not weird at this convention. I don’t know why. Maybe he was not feeling well?

UPDATE: Gene Ha has sent me photographic proof that the above is not true. If I am allowed to post them, I’ll add a link here.

This is me, excited. Well, excited and fat.

Space Sheriff and Happy Space Boy. Justin Cermak actually has a Flash video game in addition to the comic books. (I mean, it uses Macromedia Flash; it isn’t OF the Flash.)

You may find this surprising, bu I’ve never commissioned a sketch before. Never have. I certainly couldn’t see myself spending $40 for a sketch. But..but this was JOE STATON! I had to do it! Joe was a delight to talk to. He also willingly signed my copies of Green Lantern that I’d brought, including the extra-large Green Lantern #198 where Hal Jordan gets his ring back.

Staton’s sketch of Elongated Man.

I spent WAY TOO MUCH at this con. More on that later.

Saturday night, we went to the convention’s official late night party and hung out with Gordon Purcell, who couldn’t tell us how much he won on “Millionaire.” Animal Man artist Chaz Truog was also at the table. Gordon kept pointing out that we were missing what was sure to be an historically bad episode of Saturday Night Live (Ashlee Simpson was the musical guest). We went back to our hotel and caught most of it. Gordon was right.

“Oui. I am French film star Jean Reno.”

“No, wait. I’m Chaz Truog!”

On Sunday, I spent a lot of time (probably too much time) away from my table because I was buying cheap comics. Managed to get a bunch of Robins and Green Arrows on my want list. Also found a ton of Bronze Age comics for a buck each, so I bought ten of them and then told Phil (who collects DC Implosion comics) where they were. Phil bought up most of them, I think.

Sunday afternoon at 2:30, Erik watched the table while I ran off to the art auction. Every year, they hold an auction to benefit the Lupus Foundation and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Usually, Nick Post of the Minnesota Comic Book Association runs the auction, but this year he turned it over to a woman from the CBLDF so she could talk about their efforts to keep semi-porn comics legal. (That’s actually what she said, it’s not me opinionating.) Actually, I know the CBLDF is a valid organization that helps creators and dealers in trouble, and I wish they’d trumpet that more instead of focusing on the cases where some comic shop owner doesn’t know his community’s standards. My guess is that fighting blue-nosed censors makes for better press than assisting an artist in a contract dispute.

I wish I’d caught her name; as I recall, she’s the daughter of the Mile High Comics Guy. I’ll call her Mile High Lady.

The auctions are fun to watch, although I don’t usually bid. As I said, I’m not even a sketch collector. However, there were just tons of merchandise up for auction this year, and it looked intriguing. Original art from big name pros and rising stars, signed copies of collectibles, donations from artists all over the country, pages of art and more. I also saw a yellow sealed box that said “Stealth Batwing” and I wanted to see what it was. (See it below the clown background, right there?)

The auction started, and Mile High Lady said she was going to be running it because she liked to talk. She was right. Still, I figured the auction would run over an hour, so I’d duck out in a while and head back to my table to hopefully sell copies of Metro Med to those people who pass by with $2 left and decide to give it to me.

The pieces for sale were displayed in a glass case for the whole weekend, so that hopefully people could peruse the items for auction…but I am betting that many of the bidders, like me, hadn’t done so. The art was also layed out at the stage for people to look at before the bidding began. Still, many in the audience wanted to see the pieces up close, which entailed a FallCon henchman henching the art up and down the aisles for everyone to see before bidding would even begin. So, a minute or two or three was spent henching before starting the bid on almost every piece.

It doesn’t help that Mile High Lady is taking her time to start the bidding on most of the items. People in the audience started chiming in with opening bids before she said “start”, just to try to get her to go faster.

After a half hour of this, I realized what they need to do next year. Surely someone amongst the volunteers has a video camera and a tripod. And as a screen was used for several of the events, getting one for the use of the auction shouldn’t be a problem. So all you’d need is a digital projector, and if there isn’t SOMEONE on the MNCBA’s massive mailing list of technogeeks who owns one or could procure one, then it could be rented from somewhere (or perhaps some company would allow its use for charity in exchange for a mention). Voila! Put the art in an easel, or just hold it up in front of the camera, and bidding can commence.

So, the auction is fun, but it’s dragging. Then I made a fatal mistake. I bid on Gordon Purcell’s art and no one outbid me. Now I had a piece to pay for. That means I have to stay until the end, no matter how long the auction is. And Gordon’s a good friend, and I love his art, but I really should have looked at the page first. Turns out it doesn’t feature any of the Star Trek characters on that particular page!

Bob Lipski contributed a fantastic full-page sketch of Uptown Girl dreaming she’s Supergirl and her cat dreaming, in a separate balloon, of being Streaky. (It’s in the lower left of the image below.) I bid on that one all the way up to $70, and I regret not getting that piece…though as you’ll see, I only bid that high for speculative purposes.

I bid on and won an Angel Medina full-page comic page. I have no clue who this character is, but since it’s well-done and he’s a hot artist, and I got a relative steal (don’t tell my wife it was over $100), I’m hoping I can resell it on eBay someday. Rest assured, I’ll announce my auctions on Monitor Duty if/when they happen.

Finally, since my credit card still has room, I bid on a real winner. It may not look it, but here’s the story:

This is a “The Batman Strikes” poster commissioned by Campbell’s Soup for a contest and signed by the artists. There were only 115 of the posters printed, with five apiece given to artists Christopher Jones, Terry Austin and the colorist. Now, 115 is a very low print run, making it already rare. The remaining 100 are given out in a contest open only to kids aged 4-15, which means that many if not most of those 100 will be taped or pinned to walls, manhandled by Oreo-encrusted mitts, shoved into backpacks to show friends, etc. At best, all 100 will be in the hands of 35-year-old collectors lying about their ages, and it will STILL be rare enough. (But there’s a risk to lying about your age; the winner gets drawn into a Batman comic book, so if you’re balding your picture may give it away that you lied.)

OK, I’ve spent $200+, and I still have that Stealth Batwing thingus to bid on. The auction’s dragging on and on. I don’t wear a watch, but the people around me tell me that the auction’s gone on for over two hours…and there’s STILL a huge pile of pieces to auction off. And I really, really have to use the bathroom, but I know that Batwing will get bid on the minute I leave, so I have to hold it. Finally, Mile High Lady announces that it’s 5PM and the show has ended, so they have to end the auction despite all the remaining items! (I’m guessing they’ll be held over for the next auction.)

I never got to see what that Batwing was!

Everyone lines up to pay…and it’s a long line. I still have a table to break down, and I’ve missed everyone who came by our table at the end of the show. AND Joe Staton is still waiting to show me his sketch and get his $40 for that. And I really, really, really have to use the bathroom. So I duck out of the line, run downstairs (getting a blast of heated air in my face as I cross the doorway from the frigid auction room to the hot convention hall) and see empty tables everywhere! It’s my own dang fault for not paying early and getting out of the auction.

Joe Staton is sitting at his table, all packed up, with nothing on his table but my sketch. I feel like a heel for making a legend wait for me to get my butt over there to pay for it.

Sorry, Joe! I mean, Mr. Staton. Sir.

I shook Joe’s hand and wished him well with the “Femme Noir” trade that will debut in early 2006. I can’t tell you how jealous I am of Christopher Mills that he gets to work with Joe.

I threw the rest of my stuff back in the tote (Phil had pretty much packed up to cover for me – I am REALLY going to miss having this gentleman with me at cons!) and ran back upstairs to pay for my auctions. Then it was a few goodbyes to everyone, a final thank you to Nick Post and the hardworking volunteer henchmen and we were out of there.

No, wait.

We forgot about the Shinders Inventory Reduction Clearance Sale which was being held across the street. Shinders is a newstand and comic shop franchise with numerous locations in the Twin Cities. I’d wanted to go before the con on Sunday, but they weren’t open yet. So we hurried in and looked around as fast as we could before they closed at 6PM. It’s the last hour of the last day so they’re taking nickels on the dollar for stuff. I found a Simpsons courtroom set for only $5 (I wonder how many sets I could have gotten at the beginning of the sale?) and a huge CBG Price Guide for $5. Then, leafing through various Role Playing Game sourcebooks in vain hope of finding a DC Comics one, I find Chuck Dixon’s “Invasion ’55”, a trade paperback I’ve meant to buy for some time. It’s the only TPB I’ve found, so I have no idea what they’re charging for it. I check out, and the clerk rings me up for less than the sticker price on almost everything…and then gives me the Dixon book for 25 cents!!!

I’m feeling pretty good, until I see Erik come out and they shut the doors behind him. He has a comic book shortbox that’s been taped shut. “What is that?” I ask. He said there were piles of sealed comic boxes for $15…and they only charged him $7.50!!! He opens it up, and it’s full of 1990s Batman and Superman comics. Sure, they’re not valuable, but he could sell them for a quarter apiece and make a profit!

I wish I’d seen those. I’d have bought a couple of them. If anyone from Shinder’s reads this…e-mail me and we’ll make a deal! Otherwise, I’ll see them next year and hopefully I’ll keep my dang eyes open.

I just love FallCon. Hopefully I’ll see you at MicroCon and FallCon next year!

P.S. I went home and found that same sealed Batman logo box that says “Exclusive Stealth Batwing” on eBay. No description, but I figure it’s an action figure vehicle. Curiosity is killing me. No one on eBay will show the box opened because that decreases the value! So I bid on it, win, and get it home. I slice the tape open just to peek inside. You know what it is? A flippin’ LEGO SET! OK, not LEGO but one of those pseudo-lego lines, C3 Minimates. I didn’t know what “C3” was. I hope this is still worth $16 if I’ve peeked in the end of it. Or maybe this will become a Christmas present for some lucky kid. Or maybe I’ll hang on to it until I have a lucky kid. Or maybe I’ll just rip it open and play with it, and be the lucky kid.