It’s been more than a little crazy since I last posted on Pensacon 2023. There’s a entire litany of reasons for this, including home, health and personal stuff...and a trip to Singapore for one of the best convention experiences of my life...and landing and losing a gig to write a comic for an unexpected and unexpectedly difficult client. As my world settles down, I hope to finish my Pensacon 2023 report as quickly as possible. Here we go...
Pensacon 2023 officially kicked off on Friday, February 24 at 1 pm. This was the 10th anniversary of the event and the fans and guests were eager to be part of it. For the first time in the history of Pensacon, all three days were sellouts. It was so crowded that, for much of the convention, I couldn’t see the vendors floor from the third floor artists alley. But I’m getting just a wee bit ahead of myself.
The Hampton Inn Pensacola Beach offers a pretty good complimentary breakfast. It was on our way down to it when my son Eddie and I met Erik Estrada, best known for playing “Ponch” on the long-running TV show ChiPs. He’s also appeared in a great many other movies and TV shows. As you would expect of monster-loving Tony, I told Erik how much I enjoyed his work in 2013's Chupacabra vs. the Alamo. I think he was amazed anyone remembered the movie.
If you ever get the chance to meet Estrada at a convention, do so.He’s a friendly guy and a great conversationalist. We ran into him several times over the weekend and enjoyed our chats about nearby restaurants and show business. If I were ever to get into creating movies and TV series, he is definitely someone I would love to work with. He’s a very cool human being.
Mike Ensley is the face of Pensacon. I’m constantly stunned by the amazing guests he brings in for the show. This year’s event had a lot of actors from Doctor Who, more than I’ve seen at any other convention. Plus there were around a hundred other great guests from every corner of the pop culture world.
Pensacon has one of the greatest teams of staff and volunteers in the country. Their transportation crew, helmed by the lovable Maria Landy, efficiently got guests to the convention and to their off-site panels and presentations.
The Pensacon green room serves up some of the best food I’ve ever had at one of my appearance. I enjoyed a vegan Beef Wellington that non-vegan me felt was as good as any Beef Wellington I’ve ever had.Every day brought more delicious meals and tasty snacks, and, if a guest couldn’t get to the room, Pensacon volunteers would happily bring meals to them.
Everyone at Pensacon - the guests, the staff, the volunteers and, especially the fans - are as friendly as can be. It’s one of the main reasons I tell folks Pensacon is my favorite convention. I’ve been a regular for eight years in a row. As long they keep inviting me, I’ll be there.
My artist alley table was 15 North and, as always, I was surrounded by dear colleagues and friends. I’ll be writing about them as this report continues.
Friday’s biggest event for me was my exclusive private signing with Certified Guaranty Company. The way that worked was that collectors who wanted their Isabella-written comics signed, authenticated, graded and slabbed sent their items to CGC’s Sarasota headquarters.
The original plan was for me to go to their headquarters earlier in the month. However, it made more sense for me to do the signing at Pensacon since I was going there anyway. Less expense for CGC and
less travel for me.
Working with Logistics Coordinator Judson “Jud” Cressey III, it was mutually decided that Friday evening would be the best time for the signing and that it could be done at my table in artists alley. For the signing itself, I would be working with CGC representative Luis Rivera. I ended up signing over a hundred books.
Luis made the entire process smooth as silk. I can’t even imagine how I would have coordinated the signing. I think it was around an hour and a half to sign the books, which gave me plenty of time to
make sure my signatures were legible. As happens too frequently in my dotage, I was handed comic books I didn’t remember writing until I checked the credits. Sheesh!
This was a win-win all around. Fans who haven’t been able to see me at conventions were able to get their items signed. I made a tidy sum for pleasurable effort. CGC showed why it’s the leading outfit for this kind of thing. I hope we can do it again.
A special thanks goes out to Judson and Luis. They really did all the heavy lifting here.
One of the things I love best about Pensacon is chatting with old friends from my half-century comics career. Pat Broderick got into the industry around the same time I did. Indeed, I gave him one of his first jobs, illustrating a prose story for one of the various black-and-white comics magazines I was editing for Marvel Comics. It wasn’t long before he was drawing great-looking comic books for both Marvel and DC, including the Micronauts, Captain Atom, Swamp Thing, Firestorm, Batman Year Three and many others. He also drew the first Creature Commandoes story (written by J.D. DeMatteis) in DC’s Weird War Tales #93.
The Creature Commandoes will be an animated feature under the new James Gunn regime. As co-creator, Broderick is getting some richly-deserved recognition and the occasional check for his participation in the fan-favorite series. Hopefully, there will be a whole lot of cool Creature Commandoes merchandise to go along with the animated feature and more checks to my pal.
Coming soon will be a Kickstarter campaign for Bronze Star by Mike Baron and Pat Broderick. It’s described as “a dark, violent and fun weird western about love, revenge and supernatural terror from the minds of two legendary comic creators.” I’ve seen some of the mind-boggingly amazing art for this graphic novel and plan to be one of the first backers once the Kickstarter is launched.
Pensacon Day One ended at 8 pm. Eddie and I were both pretty tired and didn’t want to hit one of the many fine restaurants that were near our hotel. Big mistake.
Since it doesn’t have a restaurant, the Hampton Inn Pensacola Beach has opened a pizza delivery outfit right in the hotel. We ordered a pizza from them. Big mistake. It was expensive and not very good. Rest assured, sub-standard pizza didn’t remotely diminish our love for Pensacon. Next year, we’ll push through any fatigue and go to one of those many fine restaurants within a brisk walking distance of the hotel.
Coming soon: my report on Pensacon Day Two.
© 2023 Tony Isabella
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