Todd Terwilliger

It was inevitable that, having compiled a list of events at comic con that I most wanted to attend, I would actually participate in almost none of them. Inevitable, perhaps, but not tragic. The convention grounds were so carpeted with pageantry, pomp, and circumstance, the air so thick with geek pheromones, that the panels and screenings, not undesirable by any means, were out of sight and thus out of mind.

Uncle Bob, having swooped down from upstate while I was at work, was already firmly entrenched at the con when I met him at the Marvel citadel Friday afternoon. At this stage, a raw initiate, it took all my weight to keep from capsizing in the sea of geekery. The sight of slight teens in gravity-defying wigs sauntering down an aisle with giant blades strapped to their backs has broken greater men than me. I had to steel myself. I had to maintain. Fear is the mind-killer.

At Marvel, I met Bob’s old friend Kevin Grevioux, comic writer, film writer, actor, and more. We talked football (he’s a Vikings fan) and this was immensely comforting. Bob and Kevin are real comic book sages. In their presence, I felt smaller than Antman. Or Yellowjacket.

It was late in the day and I could sense, even in my troubled state, the waters receding, the great schools of geeks heading out to the deep open waters for the night. Spaces around the clustered booths opened up like exposed sand bars. I took the opportunity to buy several cheap kung-fu movies and one luchador epic: Blue Demon Contra El Poder Satanico. I could not resist the masked wrestler’s call. There are few who can.

The Javits Center is uniquely positioned to be about as far away as possible from all subway transportation along 34th street. I suspect collusion with the taxi and limousine industry but, at this time, I can prove nothing. The con had just begun and it had not yet worn us down so we were able to march to 8th avenue, to the subway, and, through those tangled labyrinthine ways, home to Brooklyn.

To be continued (including pictures and more harrowing tales of the land of nerd.)

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