Yesterday's Heroes!

Florida Supercon kicks off today with tons of guests from all different facets of pop culture. They really do have something for everybody at this show and the level of celebrity in attendance is rather impressive. But while everyone else is clamoring to get the autographs of Leslie Nielsen, Shaft, The Iron Sheik, Tia Carrere, and the guy who played the "These aren't the droids we're looking for" Stormtrooper from Star Wars, I will be seeking out the guests with more roboplastilogical accomplishments.

ALL THE FAMILIAR PENCILS

In a robotastic stroke of luck, Supercon has landed two comic book artists who made huge contributions to the Transformers comic I grew up reading in the 80s. They'll have Bill Sienkiewicz who did the covers to the very first Transformers comic and all four issues of Starriors and also José Delbo, the man who drew most of the issues of Transformers from #36 through #67 during a span of three years from late '87 to early 1990. There were many milestones in that run including issue 50 where Starscream killed everybody, Bob Budiansky's departure as writer, Simon Furman's debut as writer in the U.S. and of course, my letter getting printed in issue #42. Delbo's run saw Transformers transition from a light hearted action adventure book to a more serious science fiction epic. It would be really incredible if he'd be willing to talk about his Transformer experiences but sometimes artists hardly remember what they did 20 years ago. Mr. Delbo also has numerous other accomplishments in comics for which he's highly regarded, like his 70s run on Wonder Woman and other DC titles. For some comic artists, working on toy robot books was just a job they did and it may not be exactly what they'd like to be remembered for. I guess we'll find out when I attempt to create the world's only copy of Transformers #42 signed by Bob Budiansky, José Delbo and Evil King Macrocranios.