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