Superman Day

Not exactly a convention this weekend, but still an event. We had hoped to get out to the event at the Akron library, but knew we couldn’t hit both that and Superman Day at Carol and Johns. It’s jut to much driving. So we went with the closer one.

Superman is very special to me. You may notice in Violent Blue that Taylor is always wearing a Superman shirt in the comic shop and occasionally around the house. Superman has been my hero since I was a child watching suprfriends on Saturday morning and teh old George Reeves shows with my father. When I rediscovered comics in my teens, Superman was one of the first ones I picked up and what really drew me into the genre. There’s something just special about Superman. He does teh right thing just because it’s the right thing to do. Not out of revenge, like batman, not out of guilt, like Spider-Man, not because he’s bored like Iron Man. There’s no other hero who has that kind of purity. I think that’s soemthing we genuinely need. An aspiration figure like that, and that’s prehaps why he’s always been my favorite hero.

The girls and I got ready. There’s a bit of a problem when you have two little girls and only one Supergirl outfit…we ended up making one for Lydia with what we had available. I grabbed Maddie’s cape from her She-Ra costume, and the boots from her Supergirl costume (she wore her She-Ra boots instead) and put those on Lydia. Then I printed out Superman shields (with clear contact paper over them so they didn’t get ruined in the rain) and added them to the cape and her top. Finally I printed out a yellow strip of paper with a small “S” shield for the belt which I tucked into Lydia’s belt loops on her skirt.

After the endless lines and outages on Free Comic book Day I decided we should arrive a little early. We got ther about twenty minuets early and the lines were already begining to dform, thoguh not nearly as long as FCBD. We found ourselves about one door down from the shop’s entrance. That line would form behind us as the clock ticked down to noon and by the time we entered, it was about 2/3’s down the block.

Knowing the attention span of my children, I brought us something to do while we waited. Maddie and I sat down on the sidewalk and played UNO with Superman cards. Lydia wasn’t in the mood to play, but as we sat, guys fro the shop came by and loaded us up with comics and she took one of those to read while we watched to the store’s 12:00 opening.

Carol and John’s loaded the girls up with stuff; comics, superman cookies and a special commemorative coin they had made up just for the occasion. As the gentleman came by with the box of coins and handed them each one their eyes little up and they each breathed a soft “woooow.”. the coins fascinated them, like a treasure coin just for showing up in costume.

Once inside we were treated to Superman cartoons on the TV and coloring pages for the girls. I let them each grab something out of the Superman back issue box. In the side room, there were large fats set up displaying variant covers that local artists had done for Action 18. The girls each got a bunch of raffle tickets and entered in drawing s for their favorite covers.

All in all it was a really nice event. Carol and John’s is a particuarly family friendly store so I like taking my girls there, even thoguh it’s a little far away. While I’m sure there will be some Batman anniversary relate thing going on next year, it just won’t be the same as a Superman party!