200 Words with Paul Dini #23 – Comic Con Corroboree, Part Four

Late Sunday afternoon in San Diego and malaise starts to form over the convention center, rather like the logy feel of a Christmas dinner that has dragged on too long. At his spotlight panel, a golden age inker admires his Inkpot award and thanks the faithful few for the honor. White-covered tables begin to dot the convention floor, not unlike toadstools on an untended lawn. An art dealer has lowered the price a thousand dollars on that Hulk cover Mandel and I looked at on Thursday. There are no takers. Waiting by the trolley stop, two Stormtroopers shed their helmets to smoke. At the hotel valet stand, pros and fans wait for their cars, averting their eyes now that the safety zone of the signing table is gone. I head to the Westgate toting some comics I think I already have (somewhere) and a print I mean to frame as soon as I get home but know I never will. Crossing the street, I wait as a train rumbles by. A kid inside me grins as I note the names on the side – “Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey.” How fitting; one circus packs up as another pulls in.

Paul Dini is the Emmy and Eisner Award winning writer of Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Detective Comics, Countdown among many, many other things. You can find him online at either kingofbreakfast.livejournal.com or http://www.jinglebelle.com/.