Ayyy, two thumbs up for Fonzie at Comicpalooza

As I write this, Comicpalooza 2015 is in the final day of its four-day run.
No, I am not there. I was on Saturday and Sunday. Today is Memorial Day and I am at work, writing this column and preparing to cover the program at the American Legion. You can see my Memorial Day coverage on the front page of this week’s paper. Here on this page, I feel like talking about Comicpalooza.
There were many surprises there this year – some good and some not so good. The one that caught my totally off guard what how amazingly inspiring and entertaining Henry Winkler is. If you don’t recognize his name, you’re probably too young to be reading this column. Go Google him and then come back. It’s OK; I’ll wait here for you.
Winkler came into my living room every week during most of my teen years dressed in a black leather jacket and white T-shirt with his perfectly coifed hair and answering to the name of Fonzie. I rarely missed him and the “Happy Days” gang when they came on TV.
I hadn’t thought much about him in the last 30 or so years since the show went off the air. As a guest at Comicpalooza, he wasn’t even in my top tier of celebrities to see. He was the first one I saw and was by far the best one I encountered all weekend.
When I first arrived at the George R. Brown Convention Center Saturday morning, I strolled through the nearly empty autograph room to stake out where certain celebrities would be camped for the weekend. To my horror, I saw signs on many of their banners with a picture of a camera with a big red circle with a line through it and the words “NO PHOTOS.”
What’s up with that? Certainly they don’t include the press in their photo ban, do they? I asked. They do. No photos by anyone unless the celebrity says it’s OK.
That’s where Henry Winkler entered the picture. He was one of the first to arrive. When I came up to ask, he greeted me with a handshake and a warm smile and said it was fine to take a few pictures. A few minutes later I was getting pictures – with permission – from Marina Sirtis and Linda Blair.
Then my luck ran dry. I started hearing “no” a lot. Some of the A-list celebrities were sequestered in a corner and had a brute squad circling them, moving people along and getting in their way with stern warnings whenever anyone even hinted they were about to raise a camera or cell phone. It got so ugly it was comical.
You could take all the pictures you wanted when they held their panel sessions and Q&A talks, but you couldn’t snap a shot while they sat at their booths.
I went around the show, taking hundreds of pictures of people in costumes. Every so often I would troll the autograph area looking for celebrities who would accommodate a press photo. I found a few more, but for the most part I had to limit my A-listers to their Q&A’s in the main events room.
By this time I was really missing the early days of comic and sci-fi conventions when you could get autographs for free (or no more than $5 or $10) and they would pose for photos with you and I could take pictures to my heart’s content as they signed pictures and things. (Now you pay an average of 40 bucks a pop for pictures and autographs.)
Those days are gone. But on Sunday, Happy Days returned. I went to Henry Winkler’s Q&A. As press, I got the front, center seat. Winkler was funny and inspiring. He shared many anecdotes about his career. Mostly he talked about his struggles in school and how he later found out he has dyslexia.
“School doesn’t define you,” he said.
He said finding what you like to do and then working hard at it is what will define you. Winkler urged people to pursue their dreams and then work to be the best at it. As a dyslexic, he just authored his 30th book. Not bad for a kid who could barely read in school.
There was no shortage of people to see and things to do at Comicpalooza. There will be plenty to see and do there in coming years as well. For now, however, I’m content with my experience with Henry Winkler. Happy Days are here again!

#Comicpalooza

Geek out at Comicpalooza

May is National Geek Month – at least it should be here in southeast Texas.

By the time you read this, three significant events will have passed with one giant one approaching. On May 1 the long awaited movie “Avengers: Age of Ultron” was released. May 2 was Free Comic Book Day. May 4 was Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you).

If you happened to miss all of those, fear not for one of the biggest geek events in Texas is approaching at the end of the month in Houston. Comicpalooza is held every Memorial Day weekend (May 22-25) at the George R. Brown Convention Center and this year is a four-day festival that features some of the biggest names in the sci-fi/fantasy entertainment industry.

Comicpalooza (aka the Texas International Comic Con) was started by my friend, John Simons, in 2008 as a simple celebration of comic books held in the lobby of the Alamo Drafthouse Theater in Katy to coincide with the release of “The Dark Knight.”

The next year – my first – it was re-imagined as a two-day comic book festival at West Oaks Mall. It featured comic book artists and creators and included panel discussions and a charity art auction.

It was in 2010 that Comicpalooza came into its own. It moved to the massive George R. Brown Convention Center and became a multi-format convention celebrating comics, sci-fi and fantasy, horror, steam punk, movies, film, cosplay, gaming and more. This is when movie and television stars began headlining along with comic book creators and artists.

The event has grown exponentially since then both in terms of offerings and attendance. Roller derby and professional wrestling have now entered the ring along with artists, writers, animators, celebrities, voice actors, film makers, scientists, astronauts, musicians, athletes, performers, costume designers, prop makers and more. Last year more than 30,000 people attended. That number will undoubtedly expand this year with the lineup already announced.

Among the celebrities attending are comic creator and Marvel mogul Stan Lee; from the Avengers and other Marvel movies, Jeremy Renner “Hawkeye,” Hayley Atwell “Agent Carter,” and Cobie Smulders “Maria Hill”; Peter Meyhew “Chewbacca” from Star Wars; Henry Winkler “Fonzie” from Happy Days; George Takei “Sulu” and Marina Sirtis “Troi” from Star Trek; Linda Blair from The Exorcist; Barry Bostwick and Nell Campbell from Rocky Horror Picture Show; the cast of Gotham; wrestlers Sting and Ted “Million Dollar Man” DiBiase; musician Marky Ramone and many more guests than we can name here.

The festival will use 1.1 million square feet of exhibit and event space, have more than 2,000 hours of programming, and run each day from 10 a.m. until 2 a.m. It is the largest pop-culture event in Texas after Austin’s SXSW.

If you still don’t get it, this is one of those events like San Diego’s Comic-Con where fans come in costumes (or not) and mingle with celebrities, get first looks and insider information on upcoming projects, buy merchandise, compete in contests, play games and just generally have a mind-blowing experience.

I began attending these kinds of conventions back in the early 1990s when they were still primarily Star Trek conventions. I had the honor of proposing to my wife while we stood in line at the first Star Wars Celebration, held in Denver in 1999. Over the years I’ve met and seen more celebrities at these things than I can recall.

I miss the early days when the cons weren’t so big and most celebrities didn’t charge for an autograph and posed freely for photos. Now that is how they are largely compensated for their time.

Still, if you are a fan of the genera, Comicpalooza and other like conventions are a great way to share with likeminded individuals and to meet the stars and creators of your favorite comics, movies and television shows.

Like I said, May should be National Geek Month. And if you happen to miss Comicpalooza, set your phasers for fun on July 24-25 at NRG Center when Space City Comic Con beams in William Shatner as one of its guests.

Line to see Astrodome wasn't worth the wait

Disney World was never this bad.

Before April 9, the longest line I can recall standing in was at Disney World and it was just over an hour. On April 9, I stood in line with two of my sons, Luke and Colton, for two hours. Only there was no exciting thrill ride at the end of this line. It was all for a chance to spend a few minutes gawking inside the world’s largest storage shed – the Eighth Wonder of the World – the Houston Astrodome. Fifty years ago it was the most amazing building on the planet – a marvel of modern architecture and engineering. Today, it reminds me of a wino in need of a shower, shave and breath mints.

Growing up in Colorado, I never really paid much mind to all things Texas. Still, you couldn’t help but hear about two very important buildings – the Alamo and the Astrodome. I’ve been to the former a number of times, most recently just a few weeks ago. The latter I had only seen from the outside. It closed a couple years before I moved to Texas.

For some reason I’ve always been interested in sports stadiums and arenas. As we stood there for 40 minutes just waiting for the line to budge, I couldn’t help but think of the other sports venues I’ve driven by or been to. There are lots of them. With my parents having season tickets to the Denver Broncos for more than a quarter century and me having very brief employment with the Colorado Rockies (ticket taker), I got to know Denver’s sports venues real well inside and out.

The first Major League game I ever saw was in 1987 in Minnesota at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. The Twins beat the A’s in the game that was Reggie Jackson’s last in the stadium. It was amazing to be in a building with an inflatable roof. You literally got blown out of the building when you left. I returned for lots of Twins games and even a few Vikings games. Fun stuff. Still, as interesting as the stadium was, it was ugly and lacking in character.

A couple years later came a move to northeast North Carolina. I saw a lot of East Coast stadiums from the outside. I was at the fourth game played at the new Camden Yards in Baltimore. I even detoured once to see Foxboro Stadium near Boston. When we went to the ticket window to ask if they gave tours, the lady gave me look like I was the biggest moron on the planet. I stole a quick look inside and left.

By the time I moved to Texas in 2005, the Astrodome was shuttered. Minute Maid Park took in the Astros and the new Houston Texans set up shop in Reliant Stadium – a new domed stadium with a retractable roof that dwarfs the Astrodome next door. I’ve been inside the new stadium – now called NRG Stadium – numerous times. Every time I went to the new place, I could not help but look at and wonder about the dilapidated hulk next door.

The debate has been raging for years about what to do with it. It’s historically significant as the world’s first domed stadium, so it should be saved. Yet it serves no purpose and costs millions each year just to maintain. There are factions that would tear it down in a heartbeat. Can you imagine the discussions held about preserving the Alamo 50 years after the battle? It’s no different here.

As my boys and I slowly inched our way in the line, we saw Harris County Judge Ed Emmett sing happy birthday to the building. We heard him give a speech about how important it was to Houston and how he would like to see it repurposed as an indoor park. I think it’s a great idea.

As we moved along, my boys were bored, tired and starting to nag me. New arrivals tried to cut in line. (Have you ever seen the resolve of people who have stood together for nearly two hours as newbies step up thinking they can walk in shoulder-to-shoulder with you? It ain’t pretty.) We started on the north side of the new stadium and wound our way to the east side of the old one.

When we got to the entrance, I asked a guy working a clicker what number we were. It was 2,434. Finally, after two hours we entered the gray, dank place for one of the biggest letdowns of my life. Most of the seats have been ripped out and are stacked on the field. The old Astroturf was sitting rolled up on racks. There were a few historic photo displays and Orbit, the Astros’ mascot, posed for pictures.

Other than that, we were ushered through like cattle, given only a few moments to take photographs. For one evening the Astrodome became the selfie capital of the world. Then the line before us ended and we were back outside. By now the line behind us ran back to NRG, down the walkway between the two stadiums, and crisscrossed the south ends of both.

I later learned that 25,000 people went through. They stayed open past midnight to let everyone in. For many, it was some trip down memory lane. For some, it was just a trip. I had no memories of the dome until that night. I can’t say they’re pleasant memories. I hope to return someday, though. I want to see it repurposed and returned to its former glory. The building has meaning and value. It just needs a purpose and maybe a breath mint. Then it might be worth standing in line for.