I taught in an inner city alternate high school for 8 years where all of the students had failed out of and/or quit the regular high school and were coming back to try to get diplomas (not GED's), many of whom were forced into being emancipated minors because there was no family there capable of providing any kind of support (or were incarcerated or dealing with addictions or...) or were over 18 and were trying raise their own family at the same time as now finishing high school, where I was told by students on more than one occasion the only reason they were there was because it was a term of their probation or that they were there to meet girls and sell drugs not to learn anything so don't hassle them (those found their way out of the program fairly quickly), and it was still easier to be "on" there on a daily basis than it was at some of the cons I attended as a guest. I know the mantra, never let them see you having a bad day, and I was mostly successful doing that teaching no matter what the environment; it was much harder to do that when doing appearances at cons. I managed, but it took a lot more out of me to do so. You also had the benefit of several years of training and education to prepare you to be in those situations-undergrad classes, possibly grad work, student-teaching, evaluations and feedback from admins, CEU programs, workshops, in-services all designed to help you be better in those situations. Creators are trained(if they have training) in creating stories and art, not in public relations and are usually thrown into the fire without the benefit of having had an prep in being a public figure and have to learn it on the fly. Some may have years of experience doing so after being in the biz for a while, some may not.

And many creators are at conventions because they have to be, not because they want to be, or because they are paid to make an appearance but would rather be somewhere else as well. They are there because it is their job to be there and often a requirement for the field they work in whether they chose to do the appearance or not.

All I am saying is there's a lot more to it than what the fan sees that goes on behind the scenes and that creators have to deal with.

People assume teachers have it easy with weekends off, work ending in the early afternoon, and summers off; they have no clear picture of what actually goes on and assume form those things it is easy to do it-after those that can do and those that can't teach--right? Don't make the same assumptions about how easy it is to be a creator at a con that people do about teachers.

-M

I'm not. If anything, I think my experience makes it easier for me to understand how trying it can be for them. My point is that I reject the idea that it's perfectly understandable for them to be rude to fans who are not rude to them.

I definitely liked him on Doom 2099.   IIRC, he did New Warriors for a while.    There was definitely a time when he was 'hot'

My one and only trip to a major comic book convention was that very 2003 Chicago Comic Con. I went on Friday and met Mark Waid, Alex Ross, Mark Millar and Brain Bendis. It took very little time because everyone else was in line to meet Jim Lee and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sadly, George Perez had to cancel.

GUEST LIST

I was there for five hours after that and bought over 500 comics for about $500.

I went by a large booth filled with Godzilla merchandise, but I successfully avoided it for the rest of the day to keep my comics budget up.

My bad, you were right and I apologized for making a comment that I met George Perez. But, I did win his artwork of the Justice League at that time. I saw the large group of Godzilla stuff and I was tempted to buy some of it too.

Were you a jackass?  Inquiring minds want to know.