After Heroes

Suze and I had a great time at Heroes a couple weeks ago. I'd intended to do a huge write-up because so much fun had ensued. But, due to some health issues*, I've had to put it on hold and will keep it fairly brief now.

It was great seeing Todd, Sharon and Craig and finally meeting the talented Eric Henson (who came all the way from Germany where he's stationed and is now part of the 'Haps crew.) It was also a thrill to finally get to meet (and get books signed by) Walt Simonson and Mike Zeck, two artists whom I have admired for as long as I can remember.

But the best part of the show for Suze and me had to be getting to meet the previous and current recipients of the 'Ringo Scholarship, Nicky Soh and Eric Donovan. It may seem strange but Suze and I sort of look at the recipients as our kids in a way (which will tell you how old we feel) and we could not be more proud of these two young men. We found ourselves unexpectedly selecting a new recipient this year after Nicky was chosen last year, not because of anything negative but because Nicky is so darned awesome he ended up getting a full scholarship this year. Last month, out of an amazingly talented group of finalists, SCAD and our panel of judges chose Eric to receive it in the coming school year. Meeting these two guys was such a pleasure. They're both incredibly polite, down-to-earth and talented. And Suzanne just about melted when we found out Eric was getting married two weeks after the show. I guess that's already happened, so congratulations Eric! Thank you to Shelton Drum for once again having us at Heroes, to Trey Alexander for allowing us time before the art auction to introduce the recipients and to SCAD for sending them to the show. I like to think Mike would be really happy with all the "kids" who have received his scholarship so far. They've certainly made an impression on us.

During the show we became painfully aware of how little work I've done to promote the scholarship and produce any sort of materials for it. When we got back, I immediately started work on business cards, a brochure and a website. I'm hoping to have all these available before Baltimore in September. The website is almost ready. I just have a couple of technical things to deal with that are over my head. As soon as those are worked out, we should have an official website up and running. I also have an idea for something cool that would give us something to sell at shows that's Mike-related and would not get us into any sort of copyright problems with publishers. I'm excited about it but it could get expensive and will take some time. Wish me luck.

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* "Health issues." That sounded ominous didn't it? Sorry about that. The surgery I described a couple posts back has resulted in some complications. The dissolving stitches came loose after the Dermabond came off and the larger of the incisions has reopened. Rather than perform more surgery, the doctor has decided to confine me to the house and have nurses stop by every day for wound care. It's a nasty business and I won't go into it. But the process is pretty painful and I'm pretty miserable not being able to leave the house or have any sort of activity. I'm turning into a slug and that's not good. Anyway, I'm looking forward to having this over and done with, though it sounds like it could be weeks. Crossing my fingers.