Conventions come and go, but hey free t-shirts and signatures (Rumiko Takahashi)

(tags convention, comic, game, San Diego, t-shirt, signature, nostagia)

My sister called me on the VoIP. We got to reminising then she reminded me that the San Diego Comic Con was on that weekend. Heh, I suppose that was my best Comic Con was the one in 1994, the 25th anniversary.

I got in for free because I spent the 4 days as a volunteer. I was a comic book nerd manga "japanimation" comic book nerd discovering the depths of my desire at the college anime club. The San Diego Convention Center had only opened a couple years back but the Comic Con started using it early. I remember rollicking and cavorting in free glee in the vast empty, not-yet-open hallways and helping kids (even in lackluster high-school French!?) find their way. And yes, I got that "red-ensign" t-shirt of Spider-Man there working all 4 days. I wasn't into Spider-Man, and I'm not into it now either. I just use the shirt occasionally whenever I feel extremly nerdy, so it's all faded and rotten now.

It was more memorable to me not because of the "platinum Archies" that me and my buddies invented but because I was able to get a Rumiko Takahashi (高橋留美子) signature on my copy of her celebrated manga series Maison Ikkoku (めぞん一刻). (Unfortunately for my boasting pride my friend got two (!) signatures from her, ho hum, and he travelled to San Francisco chasing her to get the other one.) I suppose she was there to collect her Comic Con Inkpot Award. It would be another 6 years before she attended the Comic Con again.

I remember there was a cadre of young ungrateful, perhaps asian, punks (I'm an asian punk too) waiting in the signature line before me. I think it was limited to 100 people. They didn't have a clue what they were waiting for, so I showed them, in full black-and-white manga glory. They took one look and hauled their high-glossy ooh shiny full-colored new-independent American bicep-junky fandom to another booth. Ha, get a clue punks, er I mean thanks for giving space to other grateful fans.

I suppose this is the part that burns my memory. I heard that she liked some Spider-Man and since I wasn't an artist and couldn't show her how inspired I was by her works, I bought a holograph card collectable of Spider-Man I think. In retrospect I should have done something different, anything but that. I should have showed her my Viz translated copy of The Laughing Target, or tried some lackluster 1st year Japanese. I suppose I was really star-struck but I can't even recall her face at all. She made this doodle on my manga which I find hard to believe to be a signature, but I suppose if you're the master of pen and paper loved by millions over, the medium bends to your will.

The only other people I can recall giving me autographs in person were Marina "Deanna Troi" Sirtis of the Star Trek Next Generation and Koge Donbo the manga artist, who among other things, is creator of Di ji Charat. Wait there was one time with animator Makoto Shinkai. Star struck, I can't recall their (real) faces at all.

Since then I don't recall going to or even volunteering at the Comic Con in later years. I should have blogged it, yea right especially in 1994. I suppose I moved onto more anime related events or quit the comic book parts of it. Would I go to it now? Yeah, if more gaming related news such as "Meet Mario in San Diego" and "Kojima at Comic Con" came out there, and if I was living in San Diego again.

(edit: added Makoto Shinkai to my star-struck list)