posite. We actually got a minute or two to speak with Danny, and then we were off to the rescheduled Anthony Michael Hall photo op. Hall is a veteran of Saturday Night Live and stared in many an 80’s teen film includ- ing The Breakfast Club and Weird Science. He played Wynonna Ryder’s asshole boyfriend in Edward Scissorhands. He cur- rently stars in the Netflix movie War Machine with Brad Pitt. Hall smiled and commented on my Creem Magazine baseball cap. “I re- member them,” he said. To which I replied, “My all-time favorite music magazine.” (Sadly, I lost that cap at the Gov’t Mule con- cert in August, somehow.) As an aside, some time later in the day
when Eric and I were in two different places on the convention floor, Eric saw Hall signing autographs and went up to him and told him he had forgotten to give him one of the Navy Chief coins. Michael was very happy to re- ceive it and started telling Eric about the War Machine film. Then he pulled out a movie poster and signed it to Eric. Of course, Eric told him about me, and that I was a writer, etc and asked Hall to sign the 8 X 10 photo we had recently shot of us and him. Very thoughtful. Thanks Eric and thank you Michael. It was time to meet Jon Berenthal, who
recently debuted as The Punisher on the CW, and has now been given his own series. Of course, I was a fan of his character Shane in the first seasons of The Walking Dead. Shane was among the first in a long line of primary characters to be killed off on the show. He seemed to be a cool guy. Spinning in circles we were off to meet
the “Supernatural Duo,” who were Osric Chau (Kevin Tran) and Curtis Armstrong (Meta- tron) from the most excellent Supernatural TV show. Oh, and many folks remember Cur- tis as “Boger” in Revenge of the Nerds. Of course, it was “hello goodbye” as the powers
that be showed us the door the instant the shutter clicked. Time for a pretty lady! We met Karen
Gillian, former companion to Dr. Who, and currently Nebula, she of the blue head, in Guardians of the Galaxy. A very charming a lovely young lady for sure. From there it was off to our final photo of the day, with Andy Trudek (star of Firefly, Serenity and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). Andy appeared to have the largest group of fans at Comicon. Truly a well-loved character actor. After one more pass around the floor to
see if there was any swag either of us just couldn’t live without, we were out of there. We went to our friends Dave and Ray’s house for a drop-in party. Met some nice folks too. Ray was grilling all sorts of meat, but we didn’t eat. It was my final night in Arizona, and I knew just what I wanted. A third trip to Akai Hana for sushi! The next morning came quickly. Eric
drove me to the airport and I was off. What an ordeal. After the flight to Atlanta, I was to have
a 90-minute layover. Wellsir, major storms in the area caused my plane home to be diverted to Birmingham. They said it would be another hour. When it came close to time for the hour to be over, they announced another hour delay. It became a pattern and eventually, the 90-minute delay became a nearly five-hour delay. We left Atlanta at 10 pm and got home about 40 minutes later. My friend Steve Flacy picked me up and drove me back to Spartan- burg. I had a head full of happy memories that no flight delay could crush. A dream come true for a 59-year old nerd. •
Special thanks go out to Eric, Dave & Ray, and all of the nice folks I met while in Phoenix. And thank you to the “stars” who don’t suffer from over-blown egos. Y’all make it all worth the trip.
50Michael Buffalo Smith and Tommy Talton at the Douglass
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