Weren’t You at Montreal this Weekend?

Yes, they speak French in Montreal, but they also speak English. And everybody at the comic book convention up in Montreal spoke English, except for one guy, and four little kids, all of which looked at me when I spoke to them. So I drew Batman for the kids, and I charged full price for the sketchbooks. Now that was a mistake, because it was Sunday, and Marilyn and Saori, Josh’s girlfriend, had decided that we should discount the sketchbooks on Sunday. So I took the guy’s money, and then I suddenly realized he had given me the full price. And when I looked for him, he had disappeared into the crowd. So there’s some French-speaking Canadian out there, that missed a discount cause he couldn’t speak English. Now in my book, that’s his cost for not learning to speak English. Now, I don’t want to get any letters from French-speaking Canadians, looking for that discount, and I’ll tell you why. I just made that story up, cause I think this French-speaking thing has gotten out of hand.

Outside of that, it was a great convention. Everybody was friendly, then convention went from 8,00o people last year to get this, 18,000 people this year.

Now you may ask, “How come such an incredible jump in attendance?” Well it wasn’t the French/English thing, that’s for sure. I’ll tell you what it was. It’s because my son Josh and I, went on Friday Morning television, and did the best damn interview you could imagine. Then that same night, I went on a rock station, and told everybody about the upcoming convention, and that most folks make-up stories about what they’re doing this weekend. And then come Monday, they didn’t do anything at all. But that this weekend, they could come right into the middle of the city, and they’d run smack into a comic book convention, and meet Sergio Aragones, Stan Sakai, Herb Trempe, and yours truly. They could buy comics and toys, see cute girls, and guys (I suppose), running around in tight superhero outfits, screaming things like “Avengers Assemble”, and strange Japanese words, and finally, they could meet Stan Lee.

Of course, I do have to admit, that the meeting Stan Lee part, was probably why a lot of folks came. Stan was at his best, and I have never heard the “Excelsior” repeated so many times in a 15 minute period, as on last Saturday.