Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I made my annual trek to the Charlotte Heroes Convention last Saturday, and spent the whole four hours I was there on the convention floor, trying to see every booth. Certainly a far cry from a couple of rooms in the Woodlawn Holiday Inn as it was in the beginning!

Of course, Charlotte being Charlotte, I found that the parking lot I had used for the last 10+ years was just a (deep) hole in the ground now, so I had to find another, which was luckily close enough to not risk getting lost.

I know Chris Claremont was there, but I did not make it to his (or any) presentations though I did see SC's Roy Thomas at a booth on the floor. Stan Lee was not there this year, and news stories suggest he's not doing very well unfortunately.

I think Harley Quinn continues to be the most popular costume, and of course where there's Harley, there will be Ivy as well. I saw one Mera whom I don't recall seing before (and with a fork for a trident). I didn't see any Groots or Gamoras this year...

Swag:

For the first time this year, I didn't see any booth with old pulp magazines (though I could have missed some), and very few with old paperbacks.

Anway..

Hartness was at a Columbia con a few years ago pushing his Black Knight Chronicles books, vampire action tales set in Charlotte. I found them entertaining, so I bit when he was there at Heroes Con with a new series about Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter, which is apparently also set in Charlotte and ties back into the original Dracula. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but it's on the list.

Crockett Johnson is remembered mostly today (if at all) for his series of children's books about Harold and his magical purple crayon. But before that, he wrote this WWII era comic strip about the put-upon young boy Barnaby who is dragged into all types of unlikely situations by his well meaning but incompent fairy godfather Mr. O'Malley.

"Cushlamocree!"

Don't know anything about these two, but one was pitched to me as Star Trek with funny animals, and the other was free.

This was pitched by the author who was quite enthusiastic and loquacious. I came away a little unsure if it was a fantasy of some sort or a period murder mystery. I'll find out eventually.

The pitch here was for "70s late nite drive-in vampire feature..".

I'm a sucker for anything with "Doc" in the title.

You will believe water can flow uphill..

Pirate booty! (Yeah, I think I used that joke last year..)

I'm a sucker for surrealism too, though the contents seem to be not quite what I expected.