Hello from Super-Con in San Jose, where I spent the day Super-Conning, which mostly meant sitting next to Mark Waid in the exhibit hall and signing whatever comics he didn't write. There were one or two of them. Mark and I did a panel together and I also moderated a panel of Playboy cartoonists that consisted of Ray Lago, Russ Heath, Doug Sneyd and Dean Yeagle.
Nice to be at a comic book convention that's almost wholly devoted to comic books. There's nothing wrong with all the multimedia content that one now generally finds at something that is ostensibly a "comic book convention" but I'm happy the old-fashioned kind still exists.
This is my first time ever in San Jose and as with too many cities where I've attended conventions, I will go home having seen almost none of the town. When people ask me if I've ever been to, say, Houston, I'm not sure what to say. I was physically in Houston once for a convention…but all I saw of the place was the airport, a Marriott, a few restaurants near the Marriott and the freeways between the airport and the Marriott. Is that being in Houston? I guess so but if I say that, the next question is always either, "How'd you like it?" or they tick off a list of great places to visit that I didn't visit and ask me which ones I went to. (Answer: None.) This is true of perhaps a dozen other locales. I should try to stay an extra day or three in these cities and at least walk around but it never quite works with my schedule.
Years ago, there was some convention that kept inviting me and the dates never worked out. But once when I was considering making them work, I told the con organizer that I might want to stay an extra day or two and see some of the area. He said, "We were hoping you would. The day after the con, we're taking all our guests white-water rafting." If anyone ever asks you what activity you're least likely to catch Evanier doing, white-water rafting would be right up there between hang-gliding off Kilimanjaro and modern interpretative dance. I didn't even want to explain to the others why I wouldn't be joining them for the white-water rafting so I passed on that convention.
Some time later, one of the fellows who worked on that con was telling me it was great, that everyone had a good time, etc., and that I should have come and gone white-water rafting with them after the event. I said, "I notice you didn't take your guests white-water rafting before the convention," and he said, "Of course not. After the con, it's not as big a deal if someone gets hurt."