"It makes me wet"

Just to prove to you that I don't spend all my time watching television, this past weekend, I frequented the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle WA. Before you immediately assume I am a major geek (which I am not) and love to talk Trekkie or something (I've never even watched the show), rest assured, I am a very normal person who happens to like comics - as many of the people at the convention were as well. Some with funny costumes and big boobs mind you, but that’s for another blog. Besides, comics were a great read after years of studying business process management, quantum theory and algorithms, For those who have no idea what I just said, call it school 'stuff'.

Walking the floor of the cramped Seattle Convention Center is the equivalent to a human game of Frogger. People are moving a thousand miles an hour, in every direction, and you just want to move to the booth across the way without hitting an Ewok, Batman, or that Green thing with the cape. People stop on a dime and clog the aisles to take a picture of someone dressed up as a character from a movie or some super-hero. Reminds me of my favourite TV character, Johnny Drama from Entourage, who played the main Viking in some television show called Viking Quest, and wound up attending comics shows like the one I went to. Just normal guys trying to make a buck or grab some attention. "Victory!!!"

Commonplace at this show is the scent of BO, a few farts, extremely hyper sugared-up kids and a wide variety of butt cracks - not that I was looking for the latter, but its hard to miss Plumber Pete bending over to fish out his favourite Archie comic from a box on the ground. So needless to say, I tend to proceed with caution for both body damage and visual damage.

My highlight is visiting the tables where people are selling their comics. You've got the store-owned booths, who have chosen to bring a selection of their inventory from the store to the show. Everything is well organized and priced as a store might price, and the booth clerks are knowledgeable and helpful. Its a reflection of their store, so they tend to put up a good display. Some even take credit cards and offer money-back guarantees should the books be damaged. Pretty much a clean operation.

Then there are those other vendors - call them the flea market vendors. Stuff is everywhere, nothing is sorted, prices are listed for some stuff and not others, overall, kind of chaotic. Not only are they non-professional vendors, but they struggle with the volume of people who are perusing their stuff. Not all of the flea market vendors are like this, but many are and I love these guys. Why you say? Because this is the reality of comic buying for me. People who have accumulated a lot of stuff over time, hoping to unload it to other people still accumulating, all in a frantic forum. This kind of absolute chaos works for me. You could go to the same booth 30 minutes apart, and have the prices completely changed for unknown reasons, whereas the booth owners look more disheveled by the minute.

At one table, a father had clearly brought in his cherished collection of comics he had collected as a boy. He had brought his loving wife and son to help him in his booth. Now I happened to be nearby and heard the following conversation:

Dad: Honey, I'm going over there to check out that booth (walks away)
Customer to Wife: How much does this book cost?
Wife: I don't know.
Son: I think my Dad said that one was $10
Customer: Seems kind of high
Wife: I'll sell it to you for $2
Customer: Done
Wife to Son: I don't care what your father says, we have got to get rid of this crap now so I can have my basement back! If you tell you're father, no cell phone for you!

A different time, I heard one seller tell his partner "It makes me wet". Now I have no idea what they were talking about, and maybe best I never know. Needless to say, that guy is passionate about his comics as many of the people at these shows are. You hear a lot of interesting stuff and see a lot of interesting behaviour.

Bottom line is if you're looking for something completely different, I recommend you attend one of these shows. Maybe you'll see me walking around, or at least my butt crack.