Conan Swag and Ernie Chan at the Emerald City Comic Con!
This past weekend was the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, WA. and I had a friggin BLAST! I picked up a fat stack of new Conan comics to fill in some gaps...
I finally found the final issue of Conan the King. I'd been looking for that one for ages! I even managed to find some of the old comic reprint paperbacks from 1979...
And there was one Conan item I managed to stop myself from buying, although I'm kicking myself now, I'm still glad I saved the $80...
But the highlight of the day had to be meeting Ernie Chan, one of the greatest Conan artist ever and longtime collaborator of John Buscema. I always thought they were a formidable team and their Conan issues are still the best.
I got to take a look at some original artwork, which was unbelievably beautiful...
And then I got into a conversation with Mr. Chan about the good ol' days of comics, working with John Buscema and how much Conan was a part of his life. Seriously, he was the nicest guy in the world.
I saw his booth empty when we first got to the con (I originally didn't know he was going to be there), and made a note to come back to meet him. Later that day, I remembered that I wanted to go see him, but didn't have anything for him to sign. I always remembered Conan the Barbarian #163 because it had one of the most beautiful covers by Ernie Chan, and I kicked myself for not bringing it. But then I realize that I was at a comic book convention! Duh!
I literally picked a comic dealer by random, went to the "C's", rifled through a few comics and BAM! There it was! I asked the guy how much he wanted and he goes, "A buck." DONE! So I pay the dude and head on over to Ernie Chan. After we talked a bit, he signed it for me.
Then later that day, I had picked up one of those giant treasury edition Conan comics and since it was too big to put in my backpack, I was just carrying it under my arm. As we were leaving, we walked past Ernie Chan's booth and I waved and he said, "Hey! Let me sign that one too! That's a good issue!"
So, all in all, one hell of a day for a Conan fan!
