The 2013 Lexington Comic & Toy Con

The Second Annual Lexington Comic & Toy Con took place this weekend, and it was a glorious event. Less Power Ranger-heavy and with cooler guests, this year’s show was a total success. Kudos to everyone behind the scenes that put this together.

Clearly, my high point was meeting the towering and iconic, Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), and expressing my lifelong geekpreciation for his work. Regulated to a wheelchair, Mr. Mayhew was a warm gentleman that insisted I stopped calling him sir and Mr. Mayhew. Class act and then some. My newly autographed copy of The Empire Strikes back has never been more bad ass.

I had the pleasure of talking to Margot Kidder for a few minutes, while I was low on autograph cash by the time I ran into her, she was nothing but classy as well. I heard Billy Dee Williams was charging $50 for the autograph and photo, so eff that intergalactic Uncle Tom. I wouldn’t even pay 1978 Cheryl Ladd $50 to autograph my penis. $40 maybe. I shook hands with Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, who was very warm in signing my 8 x 10 and making small talk about wrestling in the Midwest circuit that allowed me so many opportunities to see people like him live. I got an autograph from Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake for pure nostalgia, good thing too; guy was a total prick. I was the only person at his booth and he still barely managed to look me in the eye for longer than three seconds. When I asked him to pose for me, he sighed and told me to “Hurry up before people want more photos for free.” Screw you, Beefcake. You were a shitty wrestler, you might be a shitty person as well.

Lexington, well, Richmond technically (it’s like 30 minutes away), is home to the talented Image Comics horror-king, Mark Kidwell. He did an interview with my site back in my opening months and I’ve always liked him for it. He was very warm and engaging, happily signing a copy of ’68 to creepy Fister Roboto. I’ll have a lefthandhorror.com and Amazon review of his novel, Bump, up in a couple of weeks, so stay turned.

I scored some nice new shirts and the last remaining figure I needed to complete my Playmates Simpson collection, the hard to find and usually overpriced, Frank “Grimey” Grimes. $20 bartered down to $10. Oh, yeah, and some asshole ran me off the road on the way home and my new car ran headfirst into a tree. The driver fled the scene, but witnesses got his plate number. Fuck that guy and take a look at my totaled Nissan. let’s hope next year’s con is all upside! Enjoy the pics!