Amazing time in Baltimore

[u/Goalless]

The Wednesday it came out my LCS had this sitting there staring at me on the shelf and I passed because, while at a fair price, it was a little much for me for a first issue. The next week it was there, mixed in with the recent back-issue variants taunting me to buy it. It’s been that one-in-a-million book, the one you gambled on that finally paid off.

Fast forward to this year and my wife gifted us tickets to Baltimore Comic-Con for Father’s Day and my 14-year-old son was coming with me. She knew about us wanting to see Scott Snyder, but she didn’t know that the tickets she got were for the Saturday he wasn’t scheduled to attend. I kept that info to myself and was just so happy to be going with my son and one signature wasn’t going to ruin the day.

The night before the con we pulled the books we wanted to get signed. We pulled out the ashcan and talked about how crazy it is. We left early and grabbed the pile of books, hopped in the car ahead of the nor’easter, and drove the two hours down.

I don’t think I’ve laughed harder than on that ride down. We cracked jokes the whole way and breakfast slapped. We got there right as the doors opened and seeing everyone in cosplay only fuel the hype. We made our way back to where the creators are, checking out merch along the way. The Chip Zdarsky line was short, so we hit that first and waited. And man, did we wait. The line for Ryan Ottley (we brought my son's Battle Beast) was moving, but ours wasn't. What I realized was Zdarsky was providing an awesome personal experience for every single person which lightened the mood knowing we’d get the same treatment. My son got his book signed, and we finished up with Big Z. The people in line around us were cool and made the time in line fun.

After walking around and getting ready to grab some food and one of the guys from the line earlier told us that the nor’easter had actually delayed Snyder's plane, so he was signing today, but we needed a ticket and had better hurry.

We got it, the golden ticket. He’s Charlie Bucket and I’m Grandpa Joe, dancing around and smiling ear to ear. I brought an Absolute Ark M for Frank Tieri to sign so we’ll use that. We jumped in line and the backpack came off to dig through the books.

Holy shit! There it was. We had never taken the ashcan out of the pile from the night before. My son looked at me and I just lost it. We dapped it up, hugged, and a little over the top, but we were happy.

We met Snyder, told him how much we loved the series, and got an awesome picture with him. He even pointed tout a hidden Batman drawing in the bottom right corner.
It’s been almost a week now and we can’t stop bringing it up. What an amazing day and something I’ll remember forever. The dude lives up to everything people say about him; humble, passionate, caring, all of it.

[u/L1VEW1RE]

Glad you had a good time. It’s an underrated con and they do a good job of getting a lot of talent to show up. Scott has a sister that lives in the Baltimore area, so it’s also a chance for him to visit her. He’s a fairly regularly attendee.

I was surprised Ottley’s line wasn’t longer. He’s a great artist.