Kansas City, There I Went

I was pleased that Chris Jackson invited me to PlanetComicCon. It’s been quite a few years since I was at his show in Kansas City, but I was pleased to see how PlanetComicCon had grown and prospered over the years.

He warned me that the convention had been a much smaller operation years ago when I was last there. Now it was in the Kansas City Convention Center and it is enormous. The charming Selina, who walked us to our table, told us that the room the con was in is the size of six football fields, and the amazing thing is that there are no obvious interior supports. No columns, no walls, just lots of big wide open space. I knew there would be a big presence of “celebrities.” Cons have gotten engulfed in “pop culture” in recent years and the audiences are more interested in photos and autographs of media guests than comic books and their creators. Sometimes this leads to comics guests being relegated to basements and drafty corners. Not so in KC, where the different groups were separated very pleasantly in the long, long space. Media stars were at one end of the building and comics people were far away in their own space. Between them were dealers for toys and books and gaming materials and cosplay supplies and repair sites. The space was very well thought-out.

To the right of our table was Chris Claremont, always good company. Chris is quite a draw and I was a bit wary that his crowds might get out of hand. However, there was no reason for concern. Once things got moving, the con provided well-trained volunteers with signs, keeping lines in order and headed into waiting space. Chris had mostly well-behaved fans. Other shows with good draws need to take lessons from PlanetComicCon. Maybe the volunteers could find jobs in line-control at DisneyWorld.

On the other side of Hilarie and me, was my old buddy Rick Burchett and his longtime friend Don Secrease. I’ve known Rick since back in the 80’s when I was Art Director at First Comics in Chicago. Part of my job was checking through the packages of art samples that came in. Work that looked promising, I passed on to the Managing Editor, Mike Gold. Rick was the first artist I called back as soon as I opened his package. We’ve worked together off and on since then, but I don’t often get to see him in person. It was great being next to him and catching up. It was also great to go out for barbeque with him and Don, even if the first Uber driver dropped us off at the wrong barbecue restaurant location. One thing that came out in our conversations was that he and Don were active in St. Louis comics fandom in the 1970s, only slightly after I was in St. Louis SF fandom in the late 60’s. We must have just missed crossing paths.

We had a good flow of friendly fans coming by our table but there were a some fans who stood out. One guy named Marc came by the table and very politely asked how I pronounce my name, was with a long ‘A’ or a short one? So, it’s a long “STAY-ton”. He was pleased and said he thought we might be related. He had driven from Oklahoma to find out. I have met other Statons in OK, in Tulsa. I remembered that when was growing up my uncle Harvey lived there and I think he had been around other Staton relatives. Marc looked something like my cousin Jonathan, so we finally decided we were, in fact, related. I’ve run into other Staton relatives at cons, before. Thanks for dropping by, Cuz!

Then there was a nice young couple who came by the table. The guy, Wes, was acting a bit ‘discrete’, trying to chat with either Hilarie or me, but without the lady, Whitney, listening too closely. His secret was that he wanted to commission a drawing to use to ask her to marry him. He wasn’t entirely sure what image he wanted, but Batman and Catwoman were a definite

possibility. He also left a photo of himself and Whitney but left the final choice to Hilarie and me. They went on their way, eventually coming back near the end of the day. I passed the completed sketch to Wes, but the drawing was face down. Whitney was a bit confused until Wes flipped the page over, got down on his knee and she suddenly understood. I had drawn a

princess who looked very much like Whitney with Wes putting a big diamond ring on her finger. Right in front of us, she said “Yes!”. They were very sweet. It was the first time I assisted in an engagement. And we wish them the best married life!

So PlanetCon, Kansas City turned out to be a fine show. Interesting venue, good guests,

lots of friends, nice fans, plenty of barbecue all around. I’d recommend it, if you get the chance.

It was kind of a surprise that we had such a good time, considering our start. We left from NY City’s La Guardia just a few days after a plane collided with a firetruck on the runway. This had led to people’s travel schedules in disarray, long lines for TSA (even for those of us with precheck), unpaid TSA workers, not to mention random armed ICE agents. And coming back home our regular driver wasn’t available (we live 2 hours from the airport), so we got a cab to Port Authority, where we caught the bus to Kingston. Once there, we found out there ARE UBER drivers in Kingston, too. So we got home after our slightly discombobulated travel! That’s the only airplane travel we have planned this year….but we wish the best of luck to those of you who still have flights to make.

But, as I said, the show was very good! We made it there and back again….and would be pleased to go again!