DrunkWooky’s Salt Lake Comic Con Day One Wrap Up

Hey, CHU! It’s DrunkWooky giving a short rundown of Salt Lake Comic Con 2015 Day One, Thursday, September 24, 2015! While Anthony is getting ready for Baltimore Comic Con, I am already on the floor of Salt Lake.

First and foremost, happy birthday to Bob Layton, who is spending it with us at Salt Lake Comic Con and plans to visit his favorite restaurant, Valter’s Osteria today to celebrate. Bob entertained me with great stories of a restaurant run by a lively white-haired old Italian man and taking Edward James Olmos and 16 others to Valter’s on his last visit to Salt Lake. Happy Birthday, Bob! To us fans, no matter your age, you’ll be timeless!

Ok, on to the con floor!

Thursday was all about securing some of my coveted signatures.

First, I visited Todd Nauck and had him sign my Deadpool #45/250 Phantom Variant. Now, many might be worn out on ASM 300 homages, but Todd let me know that his Carnage ASM 300 homage cover has just been announced for ANAD Carnage in October! Keep an eye out for that. He also told me that he has a 7th, as yet unannounced ASM 300 homage cover. For those still interested and collecting the ASM 300 homages, this is great news!

Second, I visited artist and up-salesman extraordinaire, Greg Horn. No news from Greg on new exclusives coming out, but still just a great guy to chat with. Had him sign my Death of Wolverine #1 Salt Lake Comic Con Exclusive.

Third, dropped in on the hilarious Geof Darrow. Nabbed a Shaolin Cowboy signature and spied Geof drawing something crazy detailed at his booth. That guy is a hoot.

And finally, the man himself, Bob Layton! So, most people from outside of Utah may not know the Salt Lake Comic Con reputation. However, Bob put it perfectly when he said that SLCC has a reputation as being a “celebrity-centric” con. To put it shortly: you are more likely to run into 60% of the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 than to land a signature from the artist of one of your favorite covers at Salt Lake Comic Con. The reputation is bad enough that one of our local mainstay patrons of the sequential arts, who will remain nameless, chooses to peddle paperbacks at Baltimore Comic Con instead of staying so close to home. So, I ventured out into artists alley to find some of the few legendary guests that SLCC managed to have the wisdom to bring in to our city.

After looking for Bob to no avail at “Burgundy 16″—a shoebox of a booth wedged between some steampunk artists and an artist seemingly obsessed with My Little Pony—I ventured out into the writhing masses shuffling through the artists alley. I made my way past Tyler Kirkham’s massive corner booth and thought to myself “Bob must have a space at least the size of Tyler!” Lo and behold, Bob was set up with a great corner space near the entrances of the convention floor. The convention-runners had the decency to move him to a respectable space. To give a creator so integral to comic book progression, for so many years, a space smaller than the nefarious Arthur Suydam should be a cardinal sin.

Bob sounded like a good sport about all of this, and was generally in high spirits. I had him sign my favorite cover of all time, Iron Man #128 “Demon in a Bottle.” Bob said that if it weren’t for his favorite restaurant, Valter’s Osteria, being located in Salt Lake, he may not have attended. However, seeing as his birthday is today, he decided to fly out, meet some friends and say hi to Valter! So, again, happy birthday, Bob! Happy to have you spending it with us in Salt Lake, and we sure appreciate you coming out!

As I was leaving, Bob said that it seemed the con-runners were moving in the right direction as far as comic creator invitations went. “They’ll figure it out” Bob optimistically declared.

Funko’s POP! LIFE WORLD TOUR had a stop in Salt Lake Comic Con also. They were showcasing exclusives from around the world at their booth and selling the Salt Lake Comic Con Exclusive C-3PO. As the figure was $80.00 and I’m not a Funko collector at all, I gave it a pass. If anybody wants to spend $80.00 on a C-3PO Funko, though, I’d be happy to try and pick one up and help you spend that $80.00. Having said that, Funko had an impressive booth! Highlights are below!

Thanks for reading CHU! Come back tomorrow for another SLCC2015 update!