Yesterday's Con

I was cleaning out the trunk of my car yesterday which has mostly remained undisturbed for ten years. I've used it just as storage all this time--among all the pre-prequel Star Wars books, various sketchbooks, and presumably destroyed Nintendo games I found this;

It has some water damage on the upper right but otherwise it's in decent condition. 1995 might have been my first Comic-Con, I'm not sure. I've gone annually for at least ten years but it was sporadic before that. In 95 I was a sophomore in high school. I have no memory of what I did at the 95 Con. It might've been one I went to with some friends from school, in which case I'd have spent most of my time in the anime theatres. I remember relatively clearly seeing Tenchi Muyo for the first time at the Comic-Con.

Inside the book is the usual rundown of special guests among whom we find a youthful Neil Gaiman;

Youthful--wait a minute, I'm 34 now. Damn.

The only other names among the guests I recognise are Harvey Pekar, Stan Lee, and Sam Keith.

Every year, the Comic-Con book has a lot of full page artwork from various comic book artists celebrating whatever anniversary it happens to be that year. In 1995 it was the 100th anniversary of the Comic Strip, the 40th anniversary of Mad magazine, the 50th anniversary of Katy Keene, and for some reason the year was a celebration of villains;

Here's why superheroes should never take sculptors into their confidence;

This was by an artist calling himself "Dire Wolf". I do wonder what became of most of the artists who contributed work.

Here's one by Vampirella co-creator Trina Robbins;

Twitter Sonnet #516

Questions arise when arrow magnets burn.
Box shaped hearts confound love's comedian.
Melted plastic hammers drip on the fern.
Broken glasses grant blurry Albion.
The butterfly broccoli crawled out of sight.
A styrofoam scalp tore from chopstick plugs.
Soggy takeout trickled a soy sauce blight.
Stone and steel don't love you as much as pugs.
Isolated icicle socks can't chill.
Ornate network cables adorn the king.
Senate pastry chefs chose to sign a bill.
The Gingerbread House is softly blinking.
Nine pale tomatoes stacked across space-time.
Eyeball business brought toucan crinoline.