puppetmaker | Sometimes my life is just cool

Peter David and Stan Lee

Last night Peter and I went into the city for two functions connected to the New York Comic Con. One was for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and was held at a rather interesting venue. The other was connected to the convention itself and it was held at the Virgin Mega Store in Time Square.

At the first we stood around and spoke to all kinds of people in both the publishing and comic book industry. Neil Gaiman and I finally got about 5 minutes to talk with each other and I got my long promised hug. In return I finally got sometime I made for Maddy to Neil to give to her. Jeff Smith told us about his new series now that Bone is done. Colleen Doran was there with some really cool artwork she had done recently. Paul Levitz and I caught up on what each other's children were doing and a couple of things going on in the industry. Charles Brownstein was his usual wonderful host being pulled in many directions. There were some other people I recognized but couldn't put a name to them. I probably will once they are wearing name badges at the ComicCon. It was fun chat and a good muchie spread. They had a very good bartender according to others but I stuck with water because I was a little peckish after grazing and we still had a long night ahead of us.

We then walked to the Virgin Mega Store for the first New York Comic Legend Award which was being given to Stan "The Man" Lee. Peter had been asked to speak at the event so while we walked over, he finalized what he was going to say. I got to say hi to a number of people I hadn't seen in a while. I also met Larry Lieber and his lovely wife. Larry is Stan's younger brother. I got to have a short conversation with Joe Quesada, editor and chief at Marvel Comics. And Paul Levitz was there. I figure that Paul Levitz is everywhere by this point. (side note: Paul Levitz is the President of DC Comics and on the board of directors for the CBLDF).

Peter made his remarks about Stan and what Stan meant to him. He told some rather strong stories about how Stan affected his life. Stan then told the crowd that they should hear Peter at a roast. So Peter obliged Stan by telling two of his Stan Lee tales that had Stan laughing and groaning at the same time.

Afterwards we had to walk the gauntlet of people between us and the exit which was exciting in itself. Peter would get a step and then stop and talk to some one. He would finish up that step and then there would be another person who wanted to talk to him. Which was fine. We were both expecting this. So we took our time and Peter got to talk to a lot of people. I had fun talking to people I had met before and meeting some new people who read this blog which was really neat. I like to meet the people who read this from day to day.
Finally we worked our way out and picked up a CD for Ariel which was her payment for watching Caroline while we were in the city. We ate at Virgil's BBQ and then listened to that insane Mets game on the way home.

All in all a good evening.

I am grateful for experiences like this.