The 2007 Big Apple Con was held on November 19-21 in the Penn Plaza Pavilion located across from the landmark Madison Square Garden in the heart of New York City.

However, as the Friday of the convention approached, it was a huge question mark as to whether I would finish the inks on Iron Man/Doom #2 in time to make the show.  Fortunately, I was able to get the job done in time and make that flight from Tampa to New York to attend the con.  However, it proved to be a horrible day to travel, with high winds delaying my flight for over three hours.  By the time I arrived at LaGuardia, it was close to 12:30 a.m.  I got my bags and rushed outside--only to find the cab stand backed-up nearly a hundred deep with passengers waiting for a taxi. After about 40 minutes, I had finally made my way to the front of the line.  Suddenly, I noticed a somewhat-agitated woman talking on a cell phone a few yards away from me.   To my surprise, it was the actress Mira Furlan (Lost, Babylon-5) with her son Marco. I had met her a few years before at a Florida MegaCon.  The convention had arranged for a car service for her, but it failed to appear to pick her up and it was waaaaay after 1 a.m. by that time. Since the cab line was 100 deep and  I was now at the head of the taxi line, I gave her a shout-out and asked her to share a cab with me into the city, which she graciously accepted.

We actually had a good time during the ride into Manhattan, laughing over convention and hotel horror stories and such.  We also spent a bit of our conversation grousing about the current Screenwriters' strike--which has affected both of our careers.

Unfortunately, she had left the show before I had a chance to say goodbye on Sunday. I had given her my business card during the cab ride in and, to my surprise, Mira was thoughtful enough to e-mail me a 'thank you' once she returned home.  I was glad to be of service and very pleased to meet and chat with her.  She's one, classy lady. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a clue  from Mira about what's going to happen on 'LOST' this season. 

Sorry, folks!

After a very short night's sleep, it was up-and-off to the convention, where I had a meeting with Valiant Entertainment's P.R. exec Chip Carter at 9a.m. to map out the strategy for the announcement of my return as writer/inker to X-O Manowar for the new, collected edition.  We decided to wait until the Valiant panel was almost over, before I made an entrance with Chip to spread the news. (you can read more about this by clicking on the December news banner on my home page.) At the panel, I had the extreme pleasure to hook-up with a plethora of my former Valiant stalwarts--from former Shadowman and Freemind illustrator Bob Hall, 'Call Me Freedom' writer/artist Matt Gasser, 'Parade(with Fireworks)' writer/artist/colorist Mike Cavallaro, my former right-hand man and current filmmaker, Kevin VanHook, Inker extraordinaire Rodney Ramos, X-O writer and colorist Jorge Gonzales, Harbinger colorist Maria Beccari, former editor Jeff Gomez, to my personal pal and production wizard for both Future Comics and Valiant--Scott Friedlander, just to name a few.

Downstairs, at Artists' Alley, the entire Valiant crew got together, along with a mob of faithful Valiant fans, to sign books for charity and assemble for the fun group shots you see below.

I also had a few moments to make some new friends--like Marvel penciller Ron Garney and the irrepressibly-brilliant Darwyn Cooke. Both were terrific and a lot of fun to get to know.

Later that Saturday, I was ushered across the street to a private location to participate in an on-camera session for a documentary for the STARZ TV CHANNEL! (once again, you can read more about this by clicking on the December news banner.)

Back to the convention and about a bazillion sketches later, it was closing time and you know what that generally means in 'convention language'. However, I blew off the festivities, opting to spend some quality time with my two favorite protégé's from those  halcyon days of Valiant, Sean Chen and Bernard Chang (or, as I loving refer to them as , 'my two Valiant sons').

Sunday turned out to be relatively-slow compared to the day before.  However, being somewhat sleep deprived, I welcomed the change of pace.  I had an early flight back to Tampa, so I took advantage of the situation to spend a few moments at the con pressing the flesh with fans and get reacquainted with some old friends, like my childhood idol, Jim Steranko.  It was great to spend a few minutes with Jim--since we haven't crossed paths in nearly 15 years. For those of you not familiar with the genius of Jim Steranko or how he revolutionized modern comic art storytelling---start Googling  right now!

I'll wait.

For the rest of you, have fun perusing the photos from the con .