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Howard the Duck #7
December, 1976
This issue is divided into two separate chapters featuring two different stories.
Credits: Steve Gerber, writer; Gene Colan, illustrator; Steve Leialoha, inker; Archie Goodwin, editor; Jim Novak, Letterer; M. Severin, colorist
Chapter I: The Way the Cookie Crumbles!
Synopsis: This chapter picks up where issue 6 leaves off—immediately after the giant gingerbread man that budding mad scientist Patsy bakes comes to life. While Patsy jumps up and down in total joy like a child her age would over a major accomplishment, the adults cower in fear as the living cookie monster starts to move towards them.
Howard and Beverly attempt to sneak out the door where they originally came in only to find that it is locked. Howard comes up with another idea where he jumps on the cookie monster, crawls down to the monster’s right leg, and starts eating through it until the leg is completely severed. The giant gingerbread man crashes into Patsy’s jury-rigged electrical system and starts a fire.
Howard and Beverly find another doorway with a set of stairs leading to the top of the tower. They climb up the steps and crash through the window on to the rooftop. The pair slide down a gutter drain pipe until they reach the ground. At that point they run a few feet away from the house then hit the ground right at the moment when the house explodes.
Howard and Beverly inspect the rubble of the destroyed home but there is no sign that any of the other people have escaped, which implies that they are the only survivors of that blast. As they talk about what happened to young Patsy and debate how could such a young girl could become a mad scientist at such a tender age, Howard and Beverly decide to head towards the nearest gas station to freshen up before resuming their hitchhiking travels.
Chapter II: Get Down, America!
This is the beginning of the story arc that would lead to another high point of the original comic book series when Howard the Duck runs for President of the United States of America. This story begins sometime after Howard and Beverly cleaned up in the gas station’s restrooms and resumed hitchhiking until someone picked them up. They end up traveling to New York City in a Rolls Royce with the famous country music star Dreyfuss Gultch.
After Beverly finishes telling Dreyfuss Gultch the story about how she and Howard escaped from Patsy’s cookie monster right before the house exploded, she asks Dreyfuss why a country music star like him is heading to New York City. Dreyfuss tells the pair that he is scheduled to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the All-Night Party’s political convention. The All-Night Party is meeting in New York City in order to select their candidate to run as President of the United States under its banner against both the Republican (the then-incumbent President Gerald Ford) and Democratic (former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter) candidates. Beverly ask Dreyfuss Gultch about her and Howard getting jobs at that convention so they can earn enough money to get an apartment. Dreyfuss Gultch uses his celebrity to get the Chairman of The All-Night Party to give Howard and Beverly a room at the Plaza Hotel where the convention is being held at as well as temporary work at the convention itself.
Beverly works as one of the Hospitality Girls who greet the nearly all-male delegates and other convention-goers. (There are no women depicted among the delegates or other party faithful.) Howard gets a job in security. Their work uniforms are delivered by a bellhop that also includes a cryptic note that only says that the mix is in the pan and it’s signed “A Friend.” Howard is puzzled by that note but he shrugs is off because it was time for him and Beverly to report to their jobs.
Howard arrives at the security office only to see the head of security is busy making out with one of the other Hospitality Girls. The security head tells Howard that he’s too busy and he suggests that the duck just walks around the hall. He listens in on one of those backroom conferences where the party members are loudly debating about what is The All-Night Party’s stand regarding the CIA. Sample argument: “I’m afraid Mr. Sangor’s animalistic conservatism and Mr. Langor’s jellyfish liberalism both fail to address the real issue, Mr. Chairman! We’ve got to get the dumb people out of intelligence!” The party members spot Howard looking in on the insanity and they ask him for his opinion. Howard asks them bluntly if they know anything about intelligence. The men in the room look on Howard blankly then the duck suggests that they tell the truth that they don’t know much about intelligence but they will educate themselves on this issue as much as possible.
Later on Howard meets up with Beverly, whose butt has been pinched by the male convention attendees so much that she has to lay down in the hotel room. When the pair reaches their room, they find another cryptic note from “A Friend” saying that the ice cream is on the cake.
The next day Howard patrols the convention floor where a near-brawl breaks out over whether the party delegates should vote for either of the two similarly-named candidates: Wauldrop or Wauldrap. An exasperated Howard suggests a method of deciding on a candidate to vote for by tossing the placards with the candidates’ names on them up in the air then letting them drop to the floor. At that moment Dreyfuss Gultch catches up with Howard and invites the duck to have a night on the town with himself and some of the party bigwigs.
Howard, Dreyfuss, and the party bigwigs end up in what looks like a strip club. Howard gets a bill from a waiter who looks suspiciously like that bellhop at the hotel. That bill has another cryptic message signed “A Friend” that says that everything is in the oven. The next day Howard tells Beverly about that message and Beverly said that all those notes sounds like a recipe for a Baked Alaska. At that moment Howard realizes that it may be a cryptic message about a bomb being planted on the convention floor. He tries to tell his boss, who’s way too busy partying with the Hospitality Girls to listen to Howard’s warning about a potential bomb at the convention.
Howard remembers the clues in the cryptic messages he received and realizes that it may have something to do with the Alaska delegation. He sees smoke coming out of the Alaska standard so Howard grabs that standard and smashes it into the special Bicentennial cake that was especially made for the convention. The cake explodes all over the convention floor.
Wauldrop, one of the candidates who is speaking on the podium at the time decides to withdraw his nomination on the grounds that he feels that running for president is too dangerous. At that moment the delegates decide to nominate Howard the Duck as The All-Night Party candidate for the President of the United States—despite the fact that under [Get Constitution Amendment dealing with being a native born American] Howard would be ineligible for that office on the grounds that not only was he born outside of the United States but he was born (or should I say hatched?) on a different planet to parents who are also non-U.S. citizens from a different planet.
Topical 1970’s References: The second chapter deals with the 1976 U.S. presidential elections while also mentioning the Bicentennial that was celebrated that same year.
The scenes dealing with Beverly having her butt constantly pinched while on the job while the security head frequently makes out with the Hospitality Girls while on the job are reminiscent of a time when sexual harassment of women on the job was not only accepted as a part of doing business but women had no recourse for dealing with this. I remember when sexual harassment was starting to be discussed in the media in the 1970’s and it has led to new laws being passed that forbids that type of behavior. While sexual harassment sadly still goes on, these days employees who are affected by this have legal recourse (ranging from filing a complaint with human resources to actually suing a company for sexual harassment) so workers no longer have to just sit there and take it from others on the job.
The Bottom Line: The first chapter does an excellent job of concluding the story about budding mad scientist Patsy and her giant cookie monster gingerbread man. The story literally ends with a bang. The second chapter is a hilarious send-up of political conventions and all of the backroom shenanigans that frequently goes on behind closed doors. It provides a very promising beginning to the story arc about Howard’s run for the White House that is a high point of the original comic book series.
Marvel Treasury Edition #12: Howard the Duck
1976
Judging from this comic book’s original table of contents that’s reprinted in Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection, Volume 1, it looks like the Marvel Treasury Edition was one of those extra-long comic books that was more expensive than the usual regular comic book but also provided a lot of bang for the buck. This issue had one previously unreleased Howard the Duck story (The Duck and The Defenders) along with reprints of the duck’s first appearances (Adventure Into Fear #19, The Man-Thing #1, Giant-Size Man-Thing #4, Giant-Size Man-Thing #5, and Howard the Duck #1) and dispatches from Howard the Duck’s political campaign. (These dispatches are reprinted in the back of Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection, Volume 1 and they basically consist of one page of a text interview between Howard and writer Steve Gerber along with one mostly text page of other Marvel superheroes and Marvel publisher Stan Lee weighing in on Howard’s presidential campaign.) For the person who was relatively new to the comic book series, this Marvel Treasury Edition was a good bargain in that the person was able to read about the original origins of Howard the Duck without having to pay huge prices for the original issues on the comic book collector’s market. I’m sure that fans who had followed the duck’s story from the beginning were probably miffed that they had to shell out extra money for an issue featuring reprints of comic books that they already owned just so they can get the one new story that was published in that issue.
The Duck and The Defenders
Credits: Steve Gerber, writer; Sal Buscema and Klaus Janson, artists; Steve Leialoha, inker; Joe Rosen, Letterer; Marie Severin, colorist
Synopsis: The story begins with a Prologue that’s subtitled “Five Villains in Search of a Plot!” Four people wearing costumes are in Central Park in New York City roasting marshmallows over an open fire after midnight. One by one they introduce themselves. Sitting Bullseye is an ex-CIA operative who infiltrated the American Indian movement until the native people discovered that he was a mole. They retaliated by tattooing a giant bullseye on his chest, which resulted in his being fired from the CIA since he could no longer go undercover due to that tattoo. Tillie the Hun introduces herself with no backstory but she looks like an overweight version of Valkyrie (who shows up later in this story). The Spanker was once the headmaster of a prestigious private school until he was forced out due to his excessive use of corporal punishment. The Black Hole was a normal human until some dwarf star matter had somehow landed on his chest, which created a giant black hole in his chest that Black Hole can open and close on command.
The police arrive on the scene because these people had violated local laws by being in Central Park after 10 p.m. and holding a bonfire. When they attempt to arrest these wacky costumed people, the villains manage to defeat them, especially after Black Hole uses his power to suck two of the cops into his chest. At that point a fifth villain emerges from the bushes. He is Dr. Angst, Master of the Mundane Mysticism, and he is the one who called the other four together because the five of them, despite their various powers and abilities, have long been overshadowed by other superhero and villains to the point where they are obscure. Dr. Angst proposes to fix that by killing the newly minted All-Night Party presidential candidate Howard the Duck.
The main part of the actual story begins when Howard and Beverly are thrown out of the hotel they were staying at for non-payment of their bill. Apparently the All-Night Party assumed that Howard was rich like so many other politicians of all persuasions so they stopped paying for his and Beverly’s accommodations. Beverly said that two of her old high school friends from Cleveland are currently working as stewardesses and sharing a home in Greenwich Village. She suggests taking the subway to the Village and see if her old high school friends can give them a place to stay.
When they arrive at Greenwich Village they promptly become lost because both are unfamiliar with New York City and, apparently, neither one of them have bothered to pack a map or even buy one at the many different stores that sell maps. They decided to ask someone for directions so they turned to a young couple who are obviously going on a date. The man of the couple turns out to be none other than Peter Parker, whose superhero alter-ego is Spider-Man. His girlfriend, Mary Jane, gives Howard and Beverly the directions to the street where Beverly’s friends live.
They follow Mary Jane’s directions until they arrive at a mansion. (It’s never clear if Mary Jane gave the pair bad directions or if they mis-heard her directions or if Mary Jane gave the correct directions but Beverly had the wrong address for her friends.) Both Beverly and Howard are skeptical that two stewardesses could afford to live in a mansion in Greenwich Village but they decide to ring the doorbell anyway. Nighthawk answers the door and Beverly remembers him from seeing his photograph in the newspapers.
The others who live in that mansion soon arrive at the front door. It soon becomes apparent that the mansion is the living quarters for The Defenders, a loose alliance of superheroes just like the more popular Avengers. In addition to Nighthawk, The Defenders consist of Valkyrie, who’s one of the ancient Norse goddesses who traditionally accompany the souls of men who fall in battle to Valhalla; the Incredible Hulk, whom I don’t have to describe because chances are that you have already heard of him—even if your knowledge of him is limited to the 1970’s TV series and/or the various Hulk movies that have been released over the years; and Dr. Strange, a sorcerer who’s a master of the mystic arts. Dr. Strange instinctively suspects that Howard is not of this planet so he takes the duck upstairs so he can learn more about him.
Meanwhile Dr. Angst is holding a meeting with his own band of misfit villains in his tiny place. Dr. Angst makes a deal where he gives the villains mettle spheres cast from the otherworldly alloy promethium for them to swallow so their powers can grow exponentially. The villains begin to feel the effect of swallowing those spheres as they begin to feel more powerful. Dr. Angst says that the spheres’ effect doesn’t last a long time but he has offered to give them more spheres for them to consume in exchange for helping him find and kill Howard the Duck. Dr. Angst uses his mundane powers to look into a shoe (which he calls a “pedestrian prognosticator”) where he finds that Howard is currently with Dr. Strange at The Defenders’ mansion.
After talking with Howard, Dr. Strange concludes that the duck isn’t a mystic like he thought. At that point Howard asks Dr. Strange if there is any way that he can use his mystical powers to send Howard back to his home world. Dr. Strange attempts to use the Orb of Agamotto to see if he can locate Howard’s planet before using his magic powers to send Howard back to where he originally came from. At that moment a bunch of tennis balls shoot out and one of them knocks Dr. Strange unconscious.
Beverly and the other Defenders hear the commotion upstairs. When Nighthawk tries to use the stairs to investigate, he’s stopped by a white picket fence that suddenly appears. The other four villains who are helping Dr. Angst kill Howard suddenly crash into a window all prepared for battle. In addition the mansion is enclosed in a giant cereal box so no one can escape. Dr. Strange appears to Howard in apparition form where he tells Howard he will give the duck a portion of his mystic powers while guiding Howard telepathically to where the super villains are located so Howard can use these powers to take them down. Howard, under Dr. Strange’s guidance, goes downstairs and magically sends Beverly, The Defenders, and the villains to Shea Stadium where they can battle amongst themselves.
The Defenders and the other villains battle each other in Shea Stadium. Initially The Spanker starts to spank Beverly on her rear until she is rescued by Nighthawk. She subsequently stands off to the side since she has no superhero power at all. When Black Hole attempts to use his power, to suck the Incredible Hulk, the other Defenders, and anyone else who happens to be in Shea Stadium at the moment into his body, Beverly stops him by grabbing his arm and shoving it into the hole. This action triggers the Black Hole into consuming himself until just a black hole remains on the ground.
Meanwhile, back at the mansion, Howard meets Dr. Angst, who had placed a mask over Dr. Strange’s face so he can’t guide Howard telepathically. Howard manages to still have some of Dr. Strange’s powers so he uses it to defeat Dr. Angst and free Dr. Strange from that mask.
Dr. Strange uses his powers to suddenly bring everyone else from Shea Stadium to the mansion. The defeated villains said that they didn’t care about killing Howard the Duck. They only went along with Dr. Angst’s plan because he promised them more promethium spheres so they can continue to keep their enhanced powers. Dr. Strange tells them that the promethium spheres are little more than the mystic world’s equivalent of a sugar pill placebo so any effect of feeling more powerful than before came from wishful thinking instead of the spheres actually doing anything. Dr. Strange uses his mystical powers to revive the Black Hole from his self-consumption then free the police officers who were sucked into Black Hole’s black hole during the prologue of this story. The police officers arrest the villains and take them away.
Dr. Strange offers to teach Howard the ways of the mystic arts because he feels that Howard has great potential in that area but Howard turns him down. He offers to help Howard locate his home planet once again. But then the duck sees Beverly, who’s so glad to see him that she hugs him very tightly, and he has a change of heart. He tells Dr. Strange that he would settle for some fare money so he and Beverly can ride the bus uptown.
Topical 1970’s References: Sitting Bullseye’s origin is a reference to the time in the 1970’s was when Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act where journalists and other interested parties can have access to unclassified government documents. In the wake of that law being passed, journalists started to read government files where they discovered that the FBI had infiltrated various 1960’s political dissident groups like the Black Panthers, Congress of Racial Equality, Students for a Democratic Society, and various Native American civil rights groups. Those FBI moles would whip up dissent among these groups which led, in many cases, to people fighting among themselves and having local chapters of these dissident groups ultimately implode.
But that wasn’t all. It turned out that the CIA did similar things as well, except they did their tricks in foreign countries. For example, the CIA helped in the overthrow of democratically elected governments in Iran and Chile and replaced those leaders with dictators.
The Spanker’s origins is also a reference to the issue of schools and parents using corporal punishment on children, a controversial issue that was so hotly debated in the 1970’s that it led to many school districts outlawing the practice and many parents also began to adopt nonviolent forms of punishments for children (such as having time out corners in their homes).
The Bottom Line: This story is okay and it has its moments but, compared to the previous storylines about Patsy the child mad scientist creating her giant gingerbread cookie monster and Howard winning the All-Night Party’s nomination as president, this one is nothing special. Superhero fans will definitely enjoy seeing The Defenders take on those villain misfits in Shea Stadium but, for others who just like Howard the Duck for the satire, this story just lacks the cutting edge humor of the previous issues. Modern racism alert—There are times when Sitting Bullseye refers to the Native Americans, whom he infiltrated only to turn on him, as “Injuns” and “Redskins.” (Yeah, I know that the latter term is the name of a certain Washington football team and, living outside of DC, I hear that name all the time. But there is currently a concerted effort to get that team to adopt a new name but current owner Dan Snyder refuses to even consider it despite the fact that a judge has recently decided that the Redskins can no longer be trademarked due to the fact that many Native Americans consider it to be a racial slur.)
These issues were reprinted in Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection, Volume 1, which can be purchased online at AbeBooks, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BookDepository, Google Play, Half.com, IndieBound, Indigo, Powell’s.
The Howard the Duck Series
Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection, Volume 1 (1973-1977)
The Early Stories
Howard the Duck #1-3
Howard the Duck #4-5
Howard the Duck #6
Howard the Duck #7 and Marvel Treasury Edition #12: Howard the Duck
Howard the Duck #8
Howard the Duck #9-11
Howard the Duck #12-14
Howard the Duck King Size Annual #1 and Howard the Duck #15
Howard the Duck #16
Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection, Volume 2 (1977-1979)
Howard the Duck #17-19
Howard the Duck #20-22
Howard the Duck #23-25
Howard the Duck #26-28
Howard the Duck #29-31
Howard the Duck Magazine #1
Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection, Volume 3 (1979-1980)
Howard the Duck Magazine #2
Howard the Duck Magazine #3
Howard the Duck Magazine #4
Howard the Duck Magazine #5
Howard the Duck Magazine #6
Howard the Duck Magazine #7
Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection, Volume 4 (1980-1996)
Howard the Duck Magazine #8
Howard the Duck Magazine #9
Marvel Team-Up #98 and Bizarre Adventures #34
Howard the Duck #32-33
Sensational She-Hulk #14-17
Marvel Tales #237 and Spider-Man Team-Up #5
Howard the Duck MAX (2002)
Howard the Duck MAX #1-2
Howard the Duck MAX #3-4
Howard the Duck MAX #5-6
I was on a trip to Target recently when I saw some interesting things for sale. When I went down the cereal aisle, I saw an entire row of cereal based on movies. Seriously!
I saw a couple of robots on sale. One is the MiP robot, which has been out for over a year. The other is one I hadn’t seen before. It’s called a MiPosaur and it’s a robot dinosaur with a soccer ball!
Last, but not least, is this doll I’ve been hearing about on the Internet. She is known as a My Friend Cayla doll and she is the same size as an American Girl doll. Except she has something extra. She can connect to the Internet and she can carry on a conversation with a person. One can interact with her using a smartphone. She can speak either English or Spanish depending on which language app you download to your smartphone. This doll reminds me of the Japanese anime series Chobits. 
Here are some more comic book coasters that I made using my ex-husband’s comic book collection, recycled tiles from Community Forklift, cork that I purchased from the local Staples, Modge Podge, and polyurethane varnish. They will be on sale at this Saturday’s Greenbelt Mini-Maker Faire.
I’m debuting a new craft at this Saturday’s Greenbelt Mini-Maker Faire—comic book coasters. Here is some background.
I read comic books as a child until I reached a certain age and thought of them as “baby stuff.” I remember reading Archie, Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch, Ritchie Rich, Little Lulu, Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Batman, and Superman. My mother would periodically throw away my old comic books as part of a general decluttering.
I was eventually reintroduced to comic books as an adult. My ex-husband started a comic book collection during his undergraduate days at Oberlin College and he continued reading them when I met him at the University of Maryland (I was an undergraduate student and he was a part-time graduate student who also worked at NASA). While there were a couple of DC Comics issues (like Batman and Superman), the majority of them came from Marvel. He was especially a fan of The X-Men. He got me to read that comic and I found it very well-written and the artwork was fantastic. During the early years of our marriage we used to go to the now-defunct Geppi’s Comic Book store in Silver Spring, where my husband kept a box subscription.
In time there were spin-offs of The X-Men (such as The New Mutants and Alpha Flight) as well as guest appearances in other Marvel titles (like Spider-Man) and appearances in special limited series and, well, the number of comic books that one had to buy in order to keep pace with the general storyline of superhero mutants who were discriminated against by regular non-mutant humans grew exponentially to the point where we started bringing home at least 20 different titles each month. As time went on and there were other things going on in our lives (like jobs), we had less time to do that much reading.
But what really killed our enthusiasm for comic books were the price hikes. I’m old enough to remember when comic books used to cost a quarter an issue. By the time we quit reading them, the price of each issue had spiked to $1.25. Nowadays a single comic book issue costs $3.99. Granted the newer books are printed on better quality paper that makes the color pop out very brightly but it’s still pretty expensive. While I recently purchased the first issue of the rebooted Howard the Duck, I think that one is the only Marvel title I would stick with these days because I’m not really made of money.
Despite the fact that we had quit collecting comic books, my husband was still very good about preserving the ones we already had. He purchased sturdy cardboard long boxes in order to house the collection. He encased each issue in special plastic sleeves in order to preserve the comic book then stored it upright in those long boxes. He even showed me how to read an issue in such a way that would reduce the possibility that the pages would be crumpled or folded in a corner (which would reduce its overall value). My husband used to tell me that comic books are the one collectible that goes up in value, especially if they are in very good condition. He dreamed of a time in our old age where we would sell our collection so we could make a very comfortable living in our retirement.
But then he suddenly walked out on me, filed for divorce, then marry the woman he left me for. He took the bulk of his comic book collection with him except for one long box. He never came by to pick it up and it’s been sitting in the bedroom for the last few years. Recently I decided to try my hand at selling them just so I can get rid of them and make some extra money. I tried selling them to one of the few remaining comic book stores that’s still in business (there used to be more of them years ago but many of them have long since gone out of business) only to be told that they no longer deal with used comic books. I was advised to try selling them online.
I did some research and I discovered this one sad fact: Most comic books are no longer worth anything, especially ones published after 1985. That was because it was about that time when there were stories about people selling comic books from the 1940’s and 1950’s for a lot of money (especially for hundreds of dollars). Starting in the 1980’s, a lot of collectors started buying new comic books to preserve in the hopes of getting a huge payout in the future. Unfortunately so many people did this that there is now a glut in mint condition modern comic books that are literally worth next to nothing because they aren’t rare. Compare that to the older comic books, when people had the attitude that they were only for children and there wasn’t an awareness of the possibility that they could be worth something someday so many of them were simply thrown away. That’s why the 1940’s Action Comics #1 (which included the debut of Superman) will always be worth a huge pile of money while the most recent issue of The X-Men probably won’t be worth anything for at least 100 years or more.
On top of it, more and more people are opting to read comic books digitally either through authorized websites or through illegal torrent sites. Until about 10 or 15 years ago, if you wanted to, let’s say, read an old issue of The Fantastic Four from the early 1960’s, the only way you could do so would be to go to a comic book specialty shop, go through boxes of used comics looking for the issue that you want, hope that it wasn’t one of those comic books whose value had gone up so much that it was out of your price range, and buy it. Nowadays, a person could simply do a Google search for the issue in question and read it online without needing to buy a used comic book for a possible inflated price.
So I decided on another creative way of getting rid of them by recycling them into coasters. (I first learned about how to make coasters when I attended a hands-on event during Community Forklift’s Green Friday event last November.) I got the tiles from Community Forklift, a hardware store that specializes in used hardware supplies that were rescued from demolitions and remodeling projects. These tiles were originally used in someone else’s building project and were rescued from being sent to a landfill. I purchased the cork backing from Staples, which sells cork by the roll. I had some Modge Podge and polyurethane varnish on hand. All I had to do was just search through the old comic books looking for some frames suitable for coasters and cut them out.
I chose my comic book panels based on the quality of the artwork and any interesting speech balloons. I also looked around in the local big box retailers since I’m seeing more and more comic book spin-off products (like clothing and toys) due to the influx of movies based on comic books that have come out in recent years. Basically I focused only on the comic books that seemed more popular (such as The Incredible Hulk) while ignoring comic books that seem relatively obscure today (such as Power Pack, which was a comic book series about four siblings—ranging in age from 6-12—who were suddenly imbued with super powers). My ex-husband also left behind issues of Marvel Comics’ mid-1980’s adaptation of Star Trek (yes, he was a major Trekkie) so I went through those issues and cut out panels that focused on Mr. Spock (mainly because of the recent death of Leonard Nimoy) figuring that he would appeal to the general public as well.
Here are some of the coasters I’ve made and will be on sale at this Saturday’s Greenbelt Mini-Maker Faire.
Yesterday I checked out the second annual Awesome Con DC. There are definitely changes from when I attended that event last year. First of all tickets have doubled in price. (Last year I paid $15 for a Saturday-only pass while this year I paid $30 for the same type of pass.) Awesome Con DC has definitely doubled in size from last year and it was definitely more crowded this year. It took me twice as long to get a pass. Even though I purchased a ticket online I still had to stand in this long line just to get a wrist bracelet that said “SATURDAY ONLY” on it.
When I got out of the Metro station I was greeted by this sign, which was a foreshadowing of what I encountered next.
Lines, lines, and more lines of people waiting to get in.
When we got inside there was yet two other lines—one for those who had pre-ordered their tickets online like did and the one for those who didn’t. I noticed that the latter line was way longer. But it made for a very crowded experience.
The next photo shows the cover for the official program guide, which I thought looked pretty nice.
The next photo shows inside the program guide, which has a price list for the major media guests, all of which was pretty pricey. I noticed that there were separate pricing for both photo-ops and autographs, which indicated that if you wanted to get both an autograph and a photo-op from Billie Piper (best known for playing Rose Tyler for a few seasons on Doctor Who) it’ll cost you a whopping $100.
Billie Piper was giving a Q & A at 1:45 p.m. and I made every effort to get there in time only to get held up by both a Metro ride where the train remained in one station for a long time before it moved on and having to stand in that totally long line. By the time I arrived there was that really long line that stretched down the hallway (similar to the one in the photo below) where the Q & A took place and I gave up out of frustration.
In fact it seems like Awesome Con DC this year is getting to be like Otakon was last year where, unless one stood in a line outside the room at least a half-an-hour before the event, there would be no seats left. This is what one room looked like when I made an ill-fated attempt to go to a Steampunk Show and Tell.
As a result of the crowds I spent most of my time at Awesome Con DC perusing the Dealers Room and Artists Alley while taking photos of various cosplayers. (I saw a lot of women dressed as either Anna or Elsa from the hit Disney movie Frozen.)
Like I wrote earlier, there were a lot of women who were dressed up as either Anna or Elsa from the hit Disney movie Frozen, such as these two who were among the four people trying out the Microsoft XBox Kinect version of the video game Just Dance.
I even shot a short video of this.
There was a local DC organization, called R2DC Builders, that is dedicated to building their own replicas of R2-D2 from the Star Wars movies.
I even shot a short video showing R2-D2 in action.
There was this puppeteer in the Kids’ area who performed with a sock puppet.
I even managed to shoot a short video of this performance.
There was a long line of people waiting to get inside a replica of the Tardis from Doctor Who, which was really a photo booth. The resulting photos were shown on the screen outside, which was just as well because I really didn’t want to wait in yet another very long line. I later learned online that this Tardis photo booth can be booked for parties and special events.
Another area of the Dealers Room that also drew a large line was this opportunity to get an autograph and a photo taken with actor Ernie Hudson, best known for appearing in the Ghostbusters movie. It cost money to meet him so this photo was the closest I ever got to meeting him. (That’s him way in the back—near the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man—wearing a Ghostbusters t-shirt while shaking the hand of a lucky fan.)
One of the few events that wasn’t quite as crowded so I was able to find a seat was at a movie I had seen before a few years ago at the Utopia Film Festival called Every Other Day is Halloween, which is about the career of local legendary DC horror movie host Count Gore De Vol. Here he is signing a DVD that I bought from his booth.
Before I left for the day I spent some time in the Video Game room but that one was also crowded so I just took photos then went on the Metro.
This last photo is of a lovely sunset I saw while I was riding the Metro back home.
I’ve been attending a lot of local conventions lately and I found another one that seemed interesting to me. I originally considered going to it on Saturday because there would be special sceening of the animated movie Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie which would include not only the movie but also a live appearance by Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes that will include a Q&A that would be part of a live podcast. The only reason why I didn’t go was because of the price. A one-day Saturday pass cost $25. That’s not so bad except the Jay and Silent Bob event cost extra. The Saturday pass did not automatically give you an admission to that event yet if you wanted to buy the pass for the separate event, you were required to buy the Saturday Comic-Con pass as well. The regular Jay and Silent Bob pass cost $40, which meant you had to pay a total $65.
But that’s not all. There was a "Super Groovy" ticket for the Jay and Silent Bob event that cost $75, which not only netted you an autographed print but it enabled you to enter the event first before those who purchased only the regular $40 pass. Since the "Super Groovy" ticket also required that you purchase a Saturday pass for the rest of the Baltimore Comic-Con, anyone who wanted it had to pay a whopping $100.
I not only wasn’t crazy about paying extra fees but I had an issue with the idea of people who paid more for the "Super Groovy" ticket had the right to cut in front of people who could only afford the $40 pass. I was personally more in favor of the usual first-come, first-served policy that usually accompany a movie screening where people who line up early had the right to get good seats over those who arrived later. With this two-tier pricing, one who arrived very early to get in line but paid only the lower $40 price would see later arrivals get into the theater before that patient person simpy because the later arrivals had deeper pockets and could afford the higher ticket price.
On top of it, I was still smarting from having to pay a very high $1,600 health insurance bill. (Here’s some background. As a spouse of a federal government employee, I had long enjoyed being covered under my husband’s generous health insurance benefits. When my husband succeeded in his quest to divorce me, I filled out a form with the federal government in order to continue being covered under my ex-husband’s health insurance since I’m currently seeing a therapist and I also want some kind of insurance in case something unexpected happened to me. The federal government takes up to 90 days to review my request. In the meantime I would remain covered, I assumed that they would continue to deduct some of my ex-husband’s pay to keep me covered while the govenment reviewed my case. Imagine my surprise when I got a notice saying that I would continue to be covered but I needed to cough up $1,600 for the 90 days I was covered while the government reviewed my case.) I really didn’t feel that I could afford to be extravagant so I decided to skip the whole Jay and Silent Bob event and attend Baltimore Comic-Con on Sunday, when ticket prices cost only $20. Besides, the one panel that I was interested in (besides the Jay and Silent Bob event) was held only on Sunday.
Normally when I attend an event at the Baltimore Convention Center, I usually drive my car to the North Linthicum light rail stop then take the train to the Convention Center stop because it’s the cheaper option. However the one panel I was interested in was being held in the morning and the light rail system tends to start later on Sundays and I was afraid of missing that panel. So I ended up driving the car into the city and parked at one of the many parking garages. I arrived early enough to park in this one garage that had a special rate: If you leave before 4 p.m., you only have to pay a $15 parking fee. (The full price is $20 per day.) On top of it, that garage was just a short walk from the convention center, which was great since it ended up being so hot and humid.
I knew I was at Baltimore Comic-Con when I arrived at the Baltimore Convention Center and I saw all kinds of cosplayers waiting outside in line on a bright sunny September day that ended up in the high 80’s along with very high humidity. (It felt more like summer than fall that day.)
In the lobby of the convention center was this really awesome life-sized balloon sculpture of Dr. Who and a Dalek that was done by Starkey’s Balloons.
Everywhere at the Baltimore Comic-Con there were cosplayers and staffers wearing these interesting looking t-shirts.
I managed to make it to the one panel I wanted to attend. Toy designer Paul Harding and comic artist Mark Buckingham gave a very interesting presentation on the topic "Toy Design: From Paper to Plastic." It was a demonstration on how an original 2-D illustration gets translated into a 3-D statue and action figure. It was a very interesting topic that I enjoyed while I ate the lunch and drank the sodas that I brought with me from home. (I brought my own lunch rather than buy any of the overpriced food and drinks sold in the Baltimore Convention Center.)
They had some real-life models based on the characters Snow White and Bigby Wolf from the comic book Fables.
I spent the rest of my time in the Baltimore Comic-Con in the Artists Alley. The high point was seeing this framed The Amazing Spider-Man comic book that once belonged to actor Nicolas Cage on sale for $250 on one of the vendor tables.
The rest of the area was a whirlwind of vintage comic books, dolls, costumes, t-shirts, vinyl figurines, DVD’s, and stuffed animals while various cosplayers were walking around the area and the various comic book artists and writers signed autographs for fans. There were some strange stuff on sale like a Jerry Garcia action figure (I’m old enough to remember when Jerry Garcia was alive and The Grateful Dead used to frequently go on tour) and Stan Lee Cologne (that’s right, you now have the opportunity to smell like the famous Marvel Comics comic book writer and editor <LOL!>). There was even a table that gave away free samples of PlowOn Energy Gum. (To be honest, I didn’t like the taste that much although it did a great job of keeping me awake since I chewed it at a time when I began to feel physically tired. I managed to keep on visiting every table in that room at least once. But I would rather drink Five-Hour Energy to stay awake than to chew PlowOn Energy Gum.) The next several photos should convey an idea of what the giant Artists Alley room was like.
I finished my day at Baltimore Comic-Con by sitting in on a cosplay costume contest for a few minutes. I didn’t stay long because, as you can see in the photo, the room was very crowded.
Thanks to my decision not to skip the Jay and Silent Bob event the day before, I treated myself to a couple of items from the Artists Alley. Believe me, it took a lot of discipline to limit myself to just two items because there were a lot of stuff sold in that room that I felt tempted to buy but I didn’t because I didn’t want to go further into debt than I already am.
I found this really cute Funko vinyl figure that’s based on the character Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony.
I also found this DVD collection of vintage early 1960’s black and white episodes of Astro Boy. It’s definitely a blast from my childhood. (Astro Boy was definitely one of the first Japanese anime series I ever watched on TV but I was too young to realize that was anime.) Now I can relive my early childhood whenever I want.
September 8, 2013 turned out to be a momentous day for me and it’s not just because I attended the second and final day of Baltimore Comic-Con. When I came home I did the usually weekly Sunday cage cleaning of my pet hedgehog Spike. Little did I know at the time that this particular day would be the last day I ever saw Spike alive. When I finished with cleaning his cage, I saw that he went into the pink plastic igloo that he used as his bedroom. I never saw him alive again after that.
Sagittarius Dolly 
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