Beaming up fun at Space City Comic Con

One of the perks of being the editor of the newspaper is assigning yourself some really cool event s to cover.

I decided to assign myself to cover the Space City Comic Con held last weekend at NRG Center, in the same Houston complex as NRG Stadium and the Astrodome. Yeah, I know it has nothing at all to do with Sealy, but who knows, maybe someone from Sealy went to the event. Maybe I’ve got an opportunity to show and tell you something new and interesting.

After a less than stellar experience a couple months ago at Comicpalooza, I was feeling jaded toward the whole comic con thing. I’ve been to more than I can count. The whole thing has become institutionalized with celebrities charging for pictures and autographs, people dressing in costumes and the same overpriced merchandise being hawked from vendor booths.

Space City Comic Con, however, surprised me.  No, it still had the same trappings as all the other cons, but this was smaller and had a more intimate feel to it. With very few exceptions, you could mingle with the celebrities at their autograph tables. Even if you didn’t buy an autograph, most were willing to shake your hand, visit and even let you shoot their picture. It was almost like being in the Golden Age of comic cons when you could really get to know the stars.

Even the vendor’s trinkets seemed to be more unique and better quality than what I’ve seen of late. You gotta love it when someone specializes in lightsabers.

My son Luke came with me on Saturday. He is a huge “Doctor Who” fan and thoroughly enjoyed getting to see actors Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan who starred as companions of The Doctor on the show. We did not get to meet them, but we did sit in on their Q&A panel. We also sat in on a panel with William Shatner, best known as the original Capt. James T. Kirk from “Star Trek.”

Seeing Shatner was incredible. I first saw him from a distance at Starfest in Denver more than 10 years ago. I honestly thought that would be the one and only time I got to see him in person. This time we got to sit in on his talk and take some pictures. He was really funny and not afraid to lampoon himself. As a life-long “Star Trek” fan, it was a dream come true.

We also got to see several members of the “Star Trek: Voyager” cast. I saw Kate Mulgrew and met Tim Russ and Garrett Wang for the second time each and met Ethan Phillips and Robert Picardo for the first time. Robert Beltran was supposed to be there, but I never did see him.

One of the thrills for me, however, was getting to meet Gil Gerard, best known for the show “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.” He was there with Felix Silla, who played the robot Twiki on “Buck Rogers.” For those of you old enough to remember, he was Cousin Itt on “The Addams Family” TV show.

Of all the stars, however, one in particular made me feel star struck. I have wanted to meet Chad Michael Murray ever since he starred as The Lone Ranger in the ill-fated television program that aired in 2003 on The WB. As the owner of the Lone Ranger Fan Club at the time, I wanted to interview him and stalked him for years to no avail.

On this day I finally got to meet him in person. He was very kind and friendly. When I asked if I could take his picture, he was more than happy to oblige. He did request that he pose with someone, so Luke stepped in. I now have pictures of Murray with my son (and my wife is jealous).

With an experience like we had last weekend, I think I can shake off the jaded feelings and once again enjoy the madcap, star struck weirdness that is comic cons. If I’m lucky, I can test that theory the second weekend in August when Texas Comicon comes to the Alamo City. Darth Vader (David Prowse) is coming to that one. I can feel the force flowing through me already!

Brad Meltzer’s big secret REVEALED!

Brad Meltzer has a secret.
He has lots of secrets.
Secrets are how he makes a living.
He recently shared one of his biggest secrets with me. Before I tell you what it is, let me give you some background. Although I haven’t met Brad in person, he first called me several years ago while he was doing research on his book “Heroes for My Son.” He was looking for information about The Lone Ranger and at the time I was the owner of the Lone Ranger Fan Club.
Having never heard of him, I popped his name into Google and became an instant fan. Today we are friends. We occasionally chat by email and Facebook and last Friday by phone. Granted, it was set up as a media interview as he is on a nationwide book tour promoting “The President’s Shadow.” It’s the third book in his Culper Ring trilogy.
Meltzer is a prolific author with several thrillers, children’s books, non-fiction books, comic books and more to his name. This is in addition to being a television star who is working on his second series for the History Channel.
Meltzer is America’s nooks and crannies historian. He has a knack for taking trivial bits of history and combining them with real, secret places in the Capital, White House and national monuments and telling wild, mind-blowing stories that blend fact and fiction and leave you wondering which characters you can trust and believe.
He does all of this by using mundane people like archivists and congressional staffers and aides. Using the first-person narrative for his protagonists, Meltzer is able to plant doubts and plot twists in unique ways. The main protagonist in the Culper Ring series is Beecher White who is an archivist at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Beecher joins the Culper Ring at the end of the first book, “The Inner Circle.”
The Culper Ring is a real spy network created by George Washington and used to help him win the Revolutionary War. In Beecher’s world, the ring is a secret society that serves to protect the presidency (not necessarily the President). Beecher’s exploits continue in “The Fifth Assassin” and again in “The President’s Shadow.”
The main antagonist is a would-be presidential assassin named Nico Hadrian. Like the real-life John Hinckley, Nico became a patient in a mental hospital after he was found not guilty by reason of insanity in an attempt to assassinate the President. He is accompanied by the ghost of the first lady, whom he did kill.
What makes Meltzer’s books so fascinating is his insider’s knowledge of the workings of the Secret Service and government facilities such as the National Archives and the White House. The degree of detail Meltzer uses makes it seem like he’s spilling national secrets. The truth is, the information he shares comes directly from the Secret Service and former Presidents.
“The Secret Service has been helping me for 16 years,” he said.
An army of professionals share “secret” details with him. He has forged relationships built on trust. They show him secret rooms and passages and share stories so real and bizarre that they become plot twists in the novels. An agent told Meltzer that the covert details in his books can easily be found by terrorists or any other conspiracy group out there.
“That’s their way of saying ‘you’re not that smart, Meltzer,’” he said.
He said in 16 years he has never broken his word or shared privileged information. He does learn the weird stuff by asking, “What’s the craziest moment that nobody knows about?”
“Agents are just like anyone else. They get tired of turning on TV or going to the movies and seeing it all wrong,” Meltzer said.
He carefully vets information with his sources to make sure everyone is comfortable with it before it goes to print. They always are because Meltzer’s novels are a work of fiction.
“A novel is just a lie that masquerades as the truth,” he said.
One of the underlying currents of the books is Beecher dealing with the loss of his father, just like Meltzer. “It’s not just Beecher’s journey, it’s very much my journey,” he said.
Fatherhood is important to Meltzer. It’s what led him to write “Heroes for My Son,” “Heroes for My Daughter” and his series of “I am …” children’s books based on different historical figures.
“I got tired of my own kids looking at reality TV stars and thinking that’s their heroes,” he said.
His books about Abraham Lincoln, Jackie Robinson, Helen Keller and others “always tell the stories of them when they’re kids – who they were when they were nobodies.”
He said it serves as inspiration. “This is what we’re capable of on our very best days,” he said.
On his best days, Meltzer is like Beecher, although “Beecher is far smarter than I am … more dangerous than I am.”
And that brings us to Meltzer’s big secret. The books aren’t about Beecher. They’re about a character introduced in an earlier fourth book called “The Book of Fate.”
“As for Nico, it’s always been the story,” he said.