Story time...
During the start of COVID-time, I decided to I wanted to re-collect some comics I had in the early 1990s. I didn't want reprints, I wanted originals.
I wanted to go through Todd McFarlane's Marvel work, starting with Daredevil #241 thru Spider-Man #16 (and then Image's Spawn #1-#25 plus the Violator 3-issue series)... and if you know about his run there, well... there were some pricy titles to collect. However, I wanted to do it, so I did it...
Also, due to COVID-time and my disability, I haven't left the apartment aside from medical appointments, voting and a few random times going out for food and eating outdoors [for the vast majority of the time]. We're both take it quite seriously because I really don't need to get any more sick than I am already. Yes, we're always masking when not in the apartment (and sometimes in the apartment when we have contractors coming in to do work). And we're diligent about as well. We haven't gotten sick yet.
(tldr; I basically haven't left the house unless I had to since Nov. 2020)
Fast forward to 2023 and after some life altering events, we decided to order VIP passes for Calgary Comics+Entertainment Expo, all 4 days. We figured with the early access our odds of not "getting sick" were okay. And also to save my leg from too much stress, we planned to rent a wheelchair.
Fast forward to 2024 and we have our VIP passes to the Calgary Comics+Entertainment Expo... and then McFarlane was announced as a late guest. I thought to myself, sure... I'll get an autograph. I can do that.
But as time ticked on, I felt like naaaah... there are bigger fans who could use waiting in line more than myself. An autograph would be nice but I didn't need one.
Then Fan Expo runs a VIP only context to win free autographs from him. Well then! That I could sign up for. My beloved partner, also a big comics book fan (more on the X-Men side of things [and she was able to get all of the X-Men '97 guests who were here, along with the original animated series Producer and Director autographs... and a selfie with Beast!]), also entered.
We both won (of course I'd get ticket 23... she got 24).
Now I needed to pull some "cool covers" so that we could make some choices (picture 1, above).
She chose Spider-Man #12 (and diligently read that 5-book series to get prepared for the day). I wanted to do Spider-Man #8 (for the very local tie-in) but we didn't exactly need two books signed from that series. So... what to choose, what to choose...
Amazing Spider-Man #311 (and it didn't even make the short list... not in the 1st pic) got the pick. It is a cool cover to be sure but I chose it for the nod to late 1980s Cowboy/Western fashion... and since I've grown up in Calgary, I was very aware of that reference (annual cowboy cosplay celebrations tend to do that... yay Calgary Stampede! [hey, if the comic+entertainment fandom has cosplay for CCEE, why not call the say the same sort of thing for the Stampede... this isn't a negative thing]).
When I told McFarlane why I chose the book I did, I got a chuckle and an "Oh wow!".
The only downside is that due to my disability I'm unable to attend day 4 but my beloved partner gets enjoy a day without pushing me around in a wheelchair (averaging over 9000 steps each of the 3 days)... give her arms and legs a big of a break.
But we did get quite lucky in our timings for things and we appreciated the experiences.
So long as we don't "get sick" and recovery time for this body o'mine doesn't take too long, then I think we can plan to attend again next year.
