Here’s a site you should visit, read and leave comments on the posts. Just don’t tell the writer that The Masked Blogger sent you.

You don’t look too bad at all…for 231.

But on a sadder note; this will be the  first Independence Day in 66 years that America has no national superhero, after Marvel Comics killed off Captain America earlier this year.

“House of Ideas” indeed.

…at this unless you’re familiar with superhero comic books and superhero comic book movies,

Ok, that leaves you there, with the Superboy T-shirt that’s too tight (and NOT in a good way). Enjoy this look at the Marvel and DC superheroes when they get together after hours.

Oh,  and try not to rip that shirt by laughing too hard.

It’s a good thing I’m alone in the BlogCave, ’cause I fell out of my chair laughing at this one.

If you take the old Super-Friends cartoon show and recast prominent Republicans as The Legion of Doom and prominent Democrats as The Super Friends, you get the Challenge Of The Super-Duper Friends (along with a good laugh).

April is Autism Awareness Month. Autism is four times more common in males than females.

For citizens of the United States, midnight tonight is the deadline for filing Federal Tax Returns.

Click the image above to see how Superman dealt with the Taxman.

April is Autism Awareness Month.  Autism is more common than multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis or childhood cancer.

Late last year the United States Postal Service issued a sheet of 20 stamps honoring the DC Comics line of superheroes and featuring 10 of those superheroes, such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and The Flash. I bought 2 sheets of them at the time, one for myself and one for Mikey (which I haven’t given him yet because I want to place it in a protective cover for him). The art for each character on the stamps is usually by an artist that is most associated with that particular character. For instance, Curt Swan’s Superman, Neal Adams’ Batman and Green Lantern and Carmine Infantino’s The Flash. In addition, on the back of each stamp, there is a very brief biography of the character and a rundown of their powers. The remaining 10 stamps on each sheet are comprised of important covers from each hero’s history including Batman #1 by Batman creator Bob Kane, Green Lantern #4 by Gil Kane and Wonder Woman #22 by George Perez.

Later this year the USPS will release a sheet honoring the Marvel Comics line of superheroes which will showcase characters such as Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Wolverine and The Silver Surfer. This upcoming sheet will follow the example of the DC sheet, with the most associated artist portrait shots, small bios provided and classic covers with each character.. I’ll be picking up those for Mikey and myself as soon as they are available. No release date has been set at this point, other than sometime in 2007.

First, I want to thank Beth W. of MegaCon 2007 for issuing press passes to The Masked Blogger and his associate ZenGrrl. We enjoyed covering various aspects of the Con and the access that the press passes allowed us. I’m already thinking about adding video coverage for next year’s MegaCon. Thank you, Beth.

Here’s some final thoughts on MegaCon 2007:

Outside of a seemingly unending variety of Superman tee shirts (I wore 3, a different one each day, myself), there were 2 others that seemed to be very popular; the “Evil Keeps Me Young” black tee shirt with white lettering and the “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For Roslin” tee shirt which came in a multitude of versions.

But by far the one tee shirt I wanted to buy as a gift for a friend of mine (you know who you are, lol) was the one that proclaimed “Dip me in chocolate and throw me to the lesbians!” Too bad I’m so cheap.

The “celebrity” guests were a good mix this year. Noel Neill, Margot Kidder, Lou Ferrigno, Sean Astin, Kevin Sorbo, Mary McDonnell, and Jamie Barber on the media side and MegaCon Guest of Honor Dick Giordano, Adam Hughes, J.G. Jones, Adam Kubert, Amanda Conner, Barbara Kesel and perennial MegaCon guest, legendary artist George Perez, among many others, made for a slate of guests with something for everyone. I even saw Virgil from WCW and WWE Wrestling at a signing table, but sadly no one was in line to get his autograph.

Speaking of George Perez, the man is still looking absolutely fantastic following the diet and exercise regimen he’s been engaging in to control his diabetes. In fact, he looks like one of the superheroes he draws. And on a cool side note, I just noticed that on his website he excerpted part of my blog entry from my Saturday post.

I believe this is the first time ever that I have attended all 3 days of the Con, usually I have attended either the Friday and Saturday shows or just the Saturday show. Maybe next year I’ll be able to take part in some of the after hours events as well.

I do have to say I was disappointed in some of the disorganization that was apparent. MegaCon is a huge event and the bigger something is the more of a chance there is that something or somethings will go wrong. I thoroughly understand that some guests have to cancel at the last minute, especially when there are blizzards grounding flights. I have no problem with that. I understand that not all of the volunteers will be well informed and so won’t be able to answer your questions, even simple ones. I know that sometimes, last-minute sessions will be thrown together and that, subsequently, presentation media equipment will not be on hand or in working condition. I can see where someone responsible for scheduling a panel session may not know how popular the guests might be and would hold the panel in a room much too small for the eventual throng. I’m aware that programs are printed at the very last minute, in order to be as current as possible, and that as a result there is an increased chance for typographical errors that will list incorrect rooms or times for panels and sessions. I even recognize that someone responsible for printing an official sign may not be educated enough to use the proper form and spelling of a crucial word. But when all of those problems, mistakes and errors (along with some I’m sure I’m not aware of) come together at the same time and location, it can prove frustrating to attendees.

My hat is off to the organizer(s) of MegaCon. As I said, it is a HUGE event and undertaking and it would be impossible for everything to go exactly right. But it seemed that there was a higher incidence of problems at this Con than those I’ve previously attended. MegaCon is such a prestigious convention that I would prefer to see as much of it go right as is possible.

If you’ve never been to a MegaCon, you should definitely make plans to attend. Next year’s MegaCon 2008 takes place on March 6th through the 8th and I’m sure it will be one of the best MegaCons ever.

Today was the final day of MegaCon 2007. As predicted here yesterday, today’s crowds were much smaller. When Michelle and I arrived at 10AM, we had no trouble parking and upon entering the 3rd level of the “C” hall we could look down on the Dealer Room and actually see open floor instead of a solid mass of people.

We decided to take advantage of the relatively quiet Dealer Room to finish our shopping. Michelle wanted to pick up a couple of things for her friends and I had some final things to pick up for family. I limited my shopping to family members who would enjoy the unique offerings of MegaCon and did not even buy anything for myself (though I was sorely tempted to do so) because of trying to save money for our upcoming trip to France. I just kept repeating, “Remember France, remember France” every time I was tempted to pick up a comic, graphic novel, artwork or piece of memorabilia. I also picked up a LOT of freebies, like posters and promotional comics, for Mikey to enjoy.

Frugal shopping caused me to miss a seminar I wanted to attend, “Anatomy of a Pin-up”, and to be late arriving at Mark Simon’s “Thriving Artist” class, but it put us in the room early for the Kevin Sorbo Question and Answer session that was scheduled at the last minute late last night or early this morning) by MegaCon. Thankfully we had checked the update bulletin board (actually looking to see if anything had been cancelled, not added, lol) and found out about the former “Hercules” and “Andromeda” star’s appearance.

Mr. Sorbo is a very personable actor who enjoys making puns at every opportunity. The audience was mostly composed of females who no doubt used to watch “Hercules” to see Mr. Sorbo’s muscular physique which was often showcased on the show, or gaze at his handsome visage. But he proved to be more than a pretty face with his quick wit and detailed answers to questions that were posed. Personally I only watched perhaps 3 episodes of “Hercules”, which I found to be more or less silly, and despite my best efforts I could never develop an interest in “Andromeda”, though I thought Mr. Sorbo was excellent in the late Gene Roddenberry’s story that was originally written back in the ’60’s. As he put it, “I went from Herc to Kirk”. All in all, this was a very enjoyable question and answer session and it was kind of Mr. Sorbo to agree to such a session without it being previously scheduled.

Then we moved to the room next door to watch “Arne Starr Presents”, which is Arne’s regular offering at every MegaCon. Arne is a working actor, comic book writer and artist and regularly shows the latest trailers and previews of upcoming films. as well as sharing news about current industry news. Here’s a list of the trailers we got to see during the 90 minute presentation:

Bug

Dead Silence

Disturbia

Black Snake Moan

Grind House

The Reaping

Are We Done Yet?

Pride

Hot Fuzz

The Lookout

Zodiac

Reno 911

Ocean’s 13

TMNT

The Kingdom

Live Free or Die Hard

The Number 23

The Invisible

The Last Mimzy

Sunshine

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

300

Ghost Rider

Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer

Transformers

Spider-Man 3

Rather than take the time to link each of the above titles, I’m going to suggest you Google them if you want to check the official movie sites. Some of the trailers I have already seen in theaters or on TV, but many of them I had not and there are now a few extra films that I plan to add to my movie-going schedule.

After that it was time for me to say “Goodbye” to MegaCon 2007, while Michelle remained to check out the final panels and do an interview with Lloyd Kaufman of Troma fame. I’m sure if you check out her site or Orlando MetroBlog, you’ll find her latest views on MegaCon 2007.

Tomorrow I’ll have some final thoughts about this year’s MegaCon. Hope to see you then.

MegaCon 2007 opened yesterday at the Orange County Convention Center and runs through Sunday at 5pm. You can get my take on the first day here, and ZenGrrl’s here over on Orlando MetroBlog.

As expected, today is a madhouse! Saturday is always like this. Friday is light because it’s a workday, Sunday because things are winding down. Saturday is most people’s favorite day to come. It began with the line to get into the parking lot stretching out to International Drive (when are they EVER going to build a parking garage for the West, or “old” concourse?), the long walk from the satellite parking lot that we had to be directed to because the regular one was filled and they no longer offer a timely shuttle service from that location, and then the shoulder to shoulder crowding within the “C” Hall as thousands of fans, many of them adorned in costumes of their favorite character from comic books, movies, novels and video games.

We finally made our way to the room for the first panel we wanted to attend, “Not My Character” which featured Brian Pulido, Mike Carey and my favorite, Barbara Kesel (I thoroughly enjoyed her panel at last year’s Orlando Comic-Con) speaking and answering questions about how they, as writers, take on a character that was created by someone else and move the character forward. They offered some very interesting insights into the process and their thinking on what works and what doesn’t.

After that was the “Marvelous Men” panel in the same room (no fighting the crowds) that included Steve McNiven, Mike Perkins, Tim Townsend, David Finch and, sitting in the for the absent Jimmy Cheung, Brandon Peterson, talking about what is happening within their own titles and across Marvel Comics as a whole. I stayed for almost all of this one, then ducked out early to attend the “What’s New In The DCU” panel right next door (again, no fighting the crowds) that was run by DC Comics Senior Editor Mike Marts, writer Jimmy Palmiotti, and artists J.G. Jones and Ethan Van Scriver as they discussed the possible ramifications of the “52″ storyline and it’s follow-up, “World War III”, the All-Star line and some of the non-superhero genre books (specifically Palmiotti’s Jonah Hex western).

After that I fought the crowds to go downstairs to the main dealer’s hall and there had to be 10 times more people there than the previous day. It took short, shuffling footsteps and was so crowded that I thought some people should have at least asked me out to dinner first. After scoping out the celebrity area I shuffled my way back out to the front hall and took several pictures of fans in costume. I was hungry but the food court area was completely filled (so much so that people were sitting on the floor in the front hall trying to eat) and I really did not want to eat at a place that serves worse quality food than the theme parks at even higher prices.

It’s 2:30pm now and I’m sitting in a chair in the front hall that I grabbed as soon as someone moved their ass out of it so I could write this and not have to sit on the floor. I’m watching a man inventory a pile of comic books he just bought, checking them off of a list he brought with him that he undoubtedly printed at home. I know, I’ve been there and done that. (Hey, I’m wearing my “Say No To Kryptonite” tee shirt! I know I’m geeky.) The crowd is mostly younger adults in the 18-35 year old range, but there are also younger teenagers and senior citizens in attendance. People in costume continue to stream through the entrance doors and make their way to the dealer’s room area. From my vantage point I can see the attendees of the Orlando Trucker’s Convention lined up at the hall entrance next door, staring at the parade of what I am sure they regard as weirdness (and let’s face it. it is) walk past them. Of course the sight of so many shapely young women in various stages of undress who are not asking them for a lap dance might be appealing to the majority of them.

Time has passed for me, but not for you unless you got up and stopped reading after the previous paragraph.

I went back to the first room we had been for a “Special Panel TBA” which turned out to be a tribute to MegaCon Guest of Honor Dick Giordano. Mr. Giordano has been in the comic book industry since 1951, working as an artist and inker, then serving as Editor in Chief of Charlton Comics and later as the Executive Editorial Director of DC Comics. In recent years, he and his creative partners formed Future Entertainment, a multi-media company. Comic book luminaries and legends such as George Perez, Adam Kubert and Brian Pulido, among others, took to the dais to honor Mr. Giordano. As a crowning touch, a proclamation from Orange County Mayor Crotty was read, designating February 17, 2007 as “Dick Giordano Day”.

The surprise tribute was over just in time for me to then head over to the “2007 Web Cartoonist Choice Awards” presented by CCA. A list of the nominees and winners can be found at their website. An interesting situation has occurred. I grabbed a chair and table at the back of the room after the Web Cartoonist Choice Awards ceremony was over to do some writing. The next event had been cancelled because the guest who was scheduled to appear was stuck up north due to the blizzard. In the course of 45 minutes 20 people or so have approached me while I’m banging away on my laptop, apparently under the impression I am in charge of something. Fortunately, I know what is going on and what the schedule is so I can direct them to the correct room or give the information they need, but it kind of troubles me that I LOOK like such a huge geek, LOL.

Time has passed, I hope you’re still here.

At 5pm, I joined Michelle for the “Meet The Stars” panel featuring a question and answer session with Battlestar Galactica stars Mary McDonnell and Jamie Barber. I don’t watch the show (I know, sacrilege. I’ll catch up by watching the DVD’s one day) but my friend Kirk is a huge fan so I was wishing he had been there to enjoy the interaction between the show’s stars and fans. I thoroughly enjoyed both of these performers and watching them and listening to how passionate they are about their show makes me want to watch it even more than before.

See you there tomorrow?