Expo & Cons Motor City Comic Con by Tamie Wiggins

My First Comic Con Since....Ever

I'm pretty sure the Motor City Comic Con held this weekend (May 16th - 18th) is the first time I've ever been to a Con.

Pity I had neither the money (for tickets and hotel stay both) or the opportunity to go to the whole thing, but Friday was pretty good, though it probably would've been a lot better if I hadn't been so single-minded and fixated on one and only goal that I accomplished in the first two hours. Maybe next time?

I did have a few slight problems, some of which I know I could have handled better by paying closer attention to my camera--as mentioned when Mr. John Barrowman was signing my copy of Hollow Earth

Posing without posing by sidequestpubs

The camera kept switching modes on me (I suspect my camera bag was hitting the dial). But hey, it's a learning process, right? I just hope I wasn't causing problems for anybody else or annoying anyone.

And others were purely things I'd like to have happened but that nobody really had any control over.

For instance, I'd found a picture I would have liked to have him sign: him on the motorcycle at about 1 minute 6 seconds

but I couldn't legitimately get it printed because the video's copyrighted, and printing it from my own computer, on plain old printer paper, just isn't the same.  I've yet to find a similar picture, and since I'd basically picked that image on a whim, I didn't exactly have time to ask the charity for permission.

Still, I'd bought a hard cover copy of Hollow Earth weeks ago in preparation for the Con (having long before bought and read the first two in the trilogy on my Kindle), and I brought that in for an autograph.

And according to the lady selling photos and accepting payment for the autographs, I was the first (as of roughly 2:30 pm Friday, so the Con had barely started) person there to ask him to sign the book.

I kind of wonder if I am, and will be, the only one to ask, but the Con isn't over yet!

A couple of odd stories involving that book, though.

While I was waiting my turn to see Mr. Barrowman - which, thanks to the number of people wanting to see him, really meant while I was waiting to be allowed in the line - I was chatting up a few other people who were similarly waiting, and at least one of the volunteers.

The volunteer in question had apparently never seen the book before, and at one point she asked if she could take a picture of it for future reference, so she could remind herself later to buy a copy.

Another odd story happened well after the fact. The book was signed, I'd been walking around for a while, taking pictures of various costumes, and my dad and I decided to take a break and rest our feet.

The table we'd picked had two other ladies who had also gone to see Mr. Barrowman.

Somehow or other we got talking about his music, and I told them about the Freegal system (an mp3 system that works through various public libraries) that led me to my first experience with his singing voice: a Swings Cole Porter tribute album.

At some point after this I dug out my 3DS, which had another of his songs on it, the Amazing Grace/Loch Lomond merger that he'd done a few years back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG553_bRxL4

I started playing that one, and since the speakers on the DS aren't very loud, the two ladies put in a set of earbuds so they could both hear it.

But that isn't the odd part. No, the odd part is this: these two ladies were among the fans that were disappointed to learn that Mr. Barrowman was homosexual and married... because it meant he's unavailable. (I can see where they're coming from, but suffice to say, the last couple of paragraphs in my "you know you need a job when" journal describes quite clearly my personal interest, or rather the lack thereof, in that particular aspect of the actors' lives.) Then they went on about how much they wished he would've written something like "love you" or anything of that tone when signing the pictures they'd bought (one of which, so the lady told me, he'd proceeded to sign right after she'd bought it, even though she hadn't paid for an autograph).

And then, and only then, did I bother to look inside my copy of Hollow Earth to see what he'd written....

Comic Con Prized Possession: Hollow Earth by sidequestpubs

Coincidence, I'm sure, but it was a pretty amusing discovery following their comments. (I have a weird sense of humor, so yes, this amuses me.  )

Incidentally, this brings to mind another "I wish I could've" scenario: If there had been time, and if there weren't fifty billion fans waiting their turn, I might've asked him for something more personalized, preferably some kind of encouragement to an amateur author. But again, I know the time wasn't there, and this is awesome as is.

And one more story while waiting my turn: one of the people I was chatting up was working for a vendor at the Con.

She offered me a free pin from her store as thanks for keeping her company, and after getting my book signed, I looked through the pins she had available and picked out....

Comic Con Souvenir Pin: Stories by sidequestpubs

We're all stories in the end.

I thought, being both a reader and a writer, it was the most appropriate one to be found.

My only other souvenir from the Con was a Who-themed bag, which I bought less for the sake of souvenirs and more because I was tired of having to juggle everything, especially when attempting to take pictures.

To discover more about Tamie’s journey to Motor City, visit the link below for more pictures.

Photos used in article courtesy of SQPublications

http://sidequestpublication.deviantart.com/gallery/49548249/Motor-City-Comic-Con