There is something magical about a comic convention … a real comic convention.
Over the years, Dallas has been lucky to be home to many different sizes and types of “comic conventions” and, between the Super Kaiju staff members, we’ve probably been to all of them. And that’s why it is such a refreshing breath of fresh air to go to North Texas Comic Book Show, a show that focuses on the talent behind the comic (and not necessarily the cast and big name actors behind the big budget adaptation of that comic).
The amount of comic heavy-hitters that lined up by this incarnation of NTX was the biggest I have seen in town in a long time. Names like the rare Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck got me excited initially, rounding out a Secret Wars reunion that made my first appearance of Black Suit Spider-man even more special to my collection. From Mike Grell (Green Arrow) to Michael Golden (Micronauts), I spent all morning pulling my bags and boards, trying to pare down the amount of comics I was going to bring to get signed. It was legitimately surreal to just walk right up to Jim Starlin (the father of Thanos), shake his hand and get him to sign my copy of Infinity Gauntlet #1
All of the creators were kind and generous with their time, telling stories (Joe Rubenstein discussing the character models for Wolverine #1 was a definite highlight), cracking jokes (Rags Morales showing off the inside jokes and references on his Action Comics #1 cover) and showing off some incredible works of art. I am always more than willing to pay $5 to one of these legends for a quick scribble on one of my key issues than, say, $60 on an 8×10 (although, I have been known to do that too, from time to time).
Between this show, Dallas Comic Show and the Infinicon run of conventions (as well as the gargantuan Fan Expo shows), Dallas fandom has never been in better hands.
