I'm alive, I swear!
Been busy. The state of the union is that I MUST focus on this semester in order to graduate on time and without incident.
Work at the video store progresses. I have returned to my city to find it just as I left it and slid right back into my life without being culture shocked from being in NYC. S'not like the place was Europe or anything, but there were moments when I was worried I might try to catch the subway to get to campus on time.
Just trying to get through the day.
Other news:
*Column should be up on www.sequart.com by tomorrow. Please comment. It makes me look good.
*Started hanging out with Justin from West Linn High School again. Of all the people I'd see wandering PSU campus, THIS guy. S'nice to hang out with him again. 6 years can change people.
*Still working on finding post-graduatation work. It goes slowly.
*I <3 Comics.
I <3 Steve Wacker
So this trip would not be complete without a quintessential "Mike event" that I can talk to people about til they finally go, "Dude, you've told me this story, like, a million times!"
First, some back story:
"52" - A hugely ambitious comic book project by DC Comics (of Superman, Batman, et al) that attempts to tell a story of what happened in a missing year of their continuity through a weekly comic book. What's so ambitious about that? It's a weekly freakin' comic book! In this day and age of talent delays, where some books have 9 month gaps between issues, the idea of committing to a project like this is, probably, insane. DC, though, decided it was just insane enough for them. With four writers, a rotating team of artists, and central cast of no-name heroes, it's going to be quite the experiment. At the helm of this boat? An editor by the name of Steve Wacker. My new hero.
"NYC Kelly" - Yeah yeah, gimme shit about her being my dream woman or whatever. Regardless, I've had a great time hanging out with my sister's very good friend while I've been here. She's witty, charming, self-effacing, and uber-talented. Since this isn't a Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks movie, there were no magical revelations, but so far, we had fun being friends.
The Story Begins!
I'd read many articles about "52" over the last few months due to my obsessed and morbid interest in the probability of its success. Every time a bit of news dropped, Wacker was somewhere in the background, being painted as a silently stressed-out editor who may have bitten off more than he could chew taking on this assignment. Whether this was true or just being played for laughs, was trivial to me because when I'd briefly interned at Dark Horse, I'd been privy to how insane an editors life could get when working on a monthly book. I could only imagine what Wacker was going through. During a spate of momentary "Mikey has a wild idea" insanity, I called up NYC Kelly and had the following dialogue:
"We should bring Steve Wacker flowers"
"Who's Steve Wacker?"
"The editor for '52'."
"Ha! So we should send them?"
"Nope. Deliver them. To the offices. In person."
She couldn't resist. We worked out the specifics of where the offices were in relation to the subway routes and how to coordinate her meeting up with an out of town friend with doing this as well. Every few minutes of holding our freshly bought bouquet of lilies, she'd look at me like, "How are we going to do this again?" "Trust me." I'd nod.
The DC Comics offices are located in the heart of Manhattan at the 1700 Broadway building. They are under tight security because, essentially, it's a Time Warner building. People can't just wander up and pretend they're supposed to be there. Security is kinda intense for a comic book company. We walked into the lobby and up to the front desk and asked if we could get these flowers sent up. Since we weren't a florist or delivery service, the guard was pretty much not about it at all. He did say that if someone wanted come down from upstairs and get them, that'd be kosher.
I called 411 and talked to the receptionist at DC and told her I had a flower delivery for Steve Wacker, but someone would have to come down to accept it. She said we'd send someone in a few minutes and Kelly began to get pretty freaked out. What the hell were we going to say?
Harvey Freeman, Steve's associate editor, came down and introduced himself. We explained that we weren't with a florist or a newspaper or were insane (that took the most convincing), but that we were just two fans that had read about "52" and thought the guy deserved some booze. Since we were too cheap for booze, we got him flowers instead. Harvey thought it was a pretty funny story and asked if we wanted to present them to Steve ourselves. I professionally and calmly responded, "Hey, sure, if he's not too busy." Kelly, at this point had stopped talking.
Harvey took us up to the editorial offices and we proceeded to locate Steve. He was in the copy room making roughs of "52" and seemed pretty tired. Apparently we'd made it just in time. He was getting ready to go on vacation THAT day and would've been gone for the remainder of my trip. He was pretty impressed and thanked us then asked if we wanted to see the book. Kelly still couldn't talk.
Wacker led us to his office and quickly cleaned up some of the spoiler-worthy pages for "52" and his other books and then asked if we'd step outside for just one second while he took care of something. We complied and stepped into Harvey's office and completely geeked out on his collection of vintage DC posters and autographed Eartha Kitt photograph. Steve called us back into his office and introduced us to the man he was on the phone with: Mark Waid. Mark Waid was the former writer of "the Flash," my favorite DC character and wrote one of the seminal DC graphic novels, "Kingdom Come," and also helmed my favorite run on the "Fantastic Four" while he was at Marvel. Suffice it to say, now we were both speechless. Mark was completely friendly and amiable and one of the most genuinely nice creators I'd met since Geoff Johns. Steve let us listen in as the two confirmed which DC characters would be getting origin back-ups in the "52" comics. It was a rare treat. After the call, Steve asked us where we were from and what the heck we were doing here. Kelly explained she was a musician and I was forced into admitting I was a writer (she describes this moment as having to kick me into admitting it). The three of us talked for a few minutes and I asked if I could get a few pictures. Steve complied and then asked if we wanted and free stuff? He gave us each three graphic novels from DC and his card if we wanted to email him sometime.
1. I am SUCH a geek
2. BEST COMIC BOOK MEMORY EVER!
3. In the end, no matter what else happens, totally fulfilled by my visit to NYC and a great experience with NYC Kelly.
