Portland Comic Book Show

Well, as per my mission as assigned by Swinebread I attended the Portland Comic Book Show this morning, although I woke up with a sore throat and completely stuffed up head. I almost decided not to go, but if I didn't, I'd end up dead, (if you have a brother....you know what I mean). So after drugging myself sufficiently with cold medicine, pain medication, and vitamin C supplements, I headed off to the MAX to see the show.

As per Swinebread's Blog Entry on the last show, the creepy basement venue did nothing to improve my mental disposition. I paid my entrance fee and promptly noticed I'd forgotten the most important thing-the toilet paper. When you have a constantly dripping nose, nothings worse that being with out it! Fortunately, I was able to steal several napkins from the food vendor where I bought the ubitquitous Nacho Cheese chips.

In my drugged stupor, the things that caught my eye first were the huge psychodelic 70's pot posters. I quickly checked a couple places to see if they had the last trade paperback of Alan Moore's Promethea, (link takes you to my post on the subject as my alter ego, Hypatia); I have the first three, but not the wrap-up fourth. Nada, it's a couple years old and not on the top of the (mostly male) customer list.

Then I looked around the author tables and immediatly saw Trina Robbins, as she sports red curly hair, and was the only woman author I saw! I had to push through fan crowds of more famous artists, but got to Trina's table and was able to speak to her in person. She's fiftyish, VERY friendly and VERY enthusiastic! I bought two books, Wild Irish Roses (for me), and Eternally Bad Goddesses with Attitude (for brah). However, I was busy talking to her, so I didn't notice she signed Irish one "To H...", and the "Bad Goddesses" to me!

Oh well, anyhoo I then went to wait for the talk at noon, which PRAISE BRIDGID, lasted only 15 minutes. She had a really great slide presentation to go along with her talk, and showed many comic book pages from the various "Fly Girls". She started out with a little chit-chat w/the folks next to her, and compared Portland to San Francisco, and said what a wonderful town Portland is, how everyone who she knows moves here (or to Seattle), and that we have "the Best Bookstore in America, Powells!".

She first introduced the raven-haired "Jane Martin-War Nurse" who spent less time in her white nurses uniform and more in her aviatrix outfit flying behind enemy lines! Next up was blond "Flying Jenny" Dare, who was also drawn by women artists and the dialogue often makes references to the WACS.

Trina also showed pictures of two famous WWII women, Jaqueline Cochran and Nancy Harkness Love, as well as several women who died during their service (their planes crashed while they were transporting them). Trina also showed some other items, like fly girl paper dolls and fly girl fiction books a-la-Nancy Drew, which demonstrated that girls were part of the whole customer base in the 1940's.

The last American-heroine type girl was a Red Head, who I forgot to write the name of..in any case, she was a little different that her fellow flyers. She was a little goofy, didn't follow the rules, and often pulled crazy stunts (like smashing the controls with her high heel to fix them!).

Last but not least is the "evil" German Valkyrie-who switches to the American side as a double spy due to the "incredible" charisma of Airboy. In fact, Trina used the cover that appears on the Airboy link in her slide show.

Sadly, the "fly girls" genre only lasted a couple of years past the war; the characters were literally "decomissioned"-turned into airport waitresses, control tower announcers, and girl reporters. No flying allowed!

Since the talk ended quickly, I thought I might stick around for the Q & A period, but it was immediately taken over by some old guys arguing about women's flying clubs after WWII...and more about WWII. I was only interested in the comics, so I ducked out.

Trina has alot more to say about women and their "herstory" as you can read on her website. She was very upbeat and interested in everything all her fans had to say! You can also buy her books and other items on her site, check it out!

Portland Comic Book Show coming

I received an email about the up coming Portland Comic Book Show. Now I have some misgivings about the space as you can read about here, but I think I'm still going to check it out.

The next Portland Comic Book Show is on Sunday, November 11th at the Memorial Moliseum in the Exhibit Hall. The Memorial Coliseum is right next door to the Rose Garden Arena where the Portland Trailblazers play their home games. Directions to the Memorial Coliseum are available on our website www.portlandcomicbookshow.com

The Portland Comic Book Show will feature the creative talents of:

Brian Michael Bendis: Civil War, Ultimate Spider-Man, New Avengers, Powers
Writer

Howard Chaykin: Blade, Wolverine, Hawkgirl, Blackhawk, American Flagg
Writer/Artist

Clayton Crain: Sensational Spider-Man & Ghost Rider Artist
Steve Leialoha: Fables & Jack Frost Artist

Kurt Busiek: Astro City Creator, Conan,JLA/Avengers Writer

Randy Emberlin: Long-time Amazing Spider-Man Artist

Anne Timmons: Go Girl Artist

Brent Anderson: Rising Stars, Astro City Artist

Scott Allie: Dark Horse Writer/Editor

Brandon Jerwa: Battlestar Galactica & Highlander Writer

Jamie S. Rich: Love the Way You Love Writer

Trina Robbins: Comic Book Writer/Artist/Historian; GoGirl! Writer

Jason Martin: Super Real Writer/Artist/Creator

Jim Smith: Boris the Bear Writer/Artist/Creator

James Taylor: Writer/Artist/Publisher, Rorshach Entertainment

Richard Scott: Illustrator, Research Assistant/Writer

Joelle Jones: 12 Reasons Why I Love Her GN artist

Dealer & Artist tables are now on sale! Call Second Genesis at 503-788-1031 for a table packet. We're extending the $90. Dealer price until October 31. SmallPress/Artist tables are $45. until October 31.

At the show:
All day & time permitting: Scott Allie will be doing Portfolio Reviews. A rare chance for local artists to show their portfolios to a Dark Horse Editor.

At noon: "When Women Flew: Flying Women in the Comics of World War II and in
Real Life" a Slide Show/Discussion by Trina Robbins

At 2:30pm: "Ask The Writers Panel Discussion" attendees are invited to ask the comic book writers questions. Likely candidates for the Panel Discussion will be Brian Michael Bendis, Howard Chaykin, Scott Allie, Kurt Busiek, Brandon Jerwa, Jamie S. Rich and Trina Robbins. Paul Guinan (Heartbreakers) will moderate. Questions must be submitted by November 5 via email to portlandcomicbookshow@comcast.net
Please put "questions for writers" in the subject field.

Dealers Room:
There will be 165 tables of dealers and collectors with hundreds of thousands of comic books, we estimate that there will be 250,000 comic books at the show on Sunday! Plus Toys & Action Figures, non-sports cards, Anime merchandise, Star Wars & Star Trek material, videos/DVD's, Original art, posters, prints, Disney, TV & Film Memorabilia. Admission is $7. for ages 8 & up, 7 & under are free.
Hours are 10am to 5pm. We will put up a list of attending dealers the week of
the show.

Veterans:
Our show is on Veteran's Day this year, November 11th. We want to thank the Veterans who have served or Military Personal that are currently serving with free admission to this show. Just bring your Military Card AND Photo ID for free admission. If you have other people in your family or group they will need to pay regular admission.

That’s pretty cool about Veterans getting in free. I’m most interested in the woman fliers by Trina Robbins. Of course she will have to talk about Valkyrie so I’m excited about that. It’s nice to see a few events at the show rather than simply being a comic flea market. They still need to move to a better space though… grumble, grumble…

-swinebread