"And you believed me?"

So much for getting back to this blog in a timely manner this week.  Last weekend was the Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois.  This is more than just a vacation for me, being the Kryptonian fetishist that I am.  It's more like an annual pilgrimage for me and a few thousand other people.

Aside from meeting celebrities from film, TV, comics, and other creative venues, it's a chance to rub elbows with like-minded pop culture fans.  And many of us have become close friends. 

It seemed that my weekend mantra became, "I used to come here to relax!"  On Thursday night, I lent my backstage assistance to The Metro Players, our performance group.  Since 2008, a group of us have been putting on various skits to launch the Celebration and we're kind of a tradition now.  This year, writer/director John Gleckler put on the Captain Marvel uniform opposite Michelle Lyzenga (Lois Lane), Steven Kirk (Perry White), Dough Hubler (Black Adam), and Josh Boultinghouse (Superman).

Then it was off to the bowling alley to welcome our Super Friends to Metropolis.

On Friday, I was asked to moderate a Q&A session with actors John Rockwell and Gerard Christopher.  Rockwell portrayed Superboy (the teenage version of Superman) in a 1961 unsold pilot produced by the production team that did the George Reeves series.  Christopher was the second actor to portray the Boy of Steel in the second through fourth seasons of Superboy (later, The Adventures of Superboy), replacing John Haymes Newton.  Starting with season three, Christopher began writing and producing the program.  Later, he would audition for the role of Clark Kent in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman but would lose the role to Dean Cain when the producers learned Christopher had already played the famous dual role.

The audience had some great questions and I managed to sneak in a couple that the actors hadn't received before.  If I interview you and you tell me, "That's a good question," that's as good as a paycheck for me.  The interview can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dm2Z2RZ7k4

Friday night, I unveiled my Uncle Marvel uniform to my friends.  For the uninitiated, Uncle Marvel was a member of the original Marvel Family from the Golden Age of Comics.  The group consisted of Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel, Jr.  Dudley was a lovable con man who claimed he couldn't access the powers of SHAZAM because of his "Shazambago," but the kids allowed him to hang around because they liked him.  Well, the costume (that I unveiled here last week) was quite well received, especially by artist Trevor Erick Hawkins (www.popimages4u.com) who had been relentlessly lobbying, shall we say, for me to construct the uniform.

One of the comic book guests, George Perez (who has drawn probably 99.9% of both the DC and Marvel Universe characters) leaped out from behind his table, leaving a line of well-wishers to take my picture.  I asked him, "You take my picture?  Shouldn't that be the other way around?"

Saturday, as part of the annual Auction, a group of us re-enacted segments from the classic episode of I Love Lucy called "Lucy Meets Superman."  In this, Ricky tries to get "Superman" to attend Little Ricky's birthday party, but fails.  To make up for it, Lucy puts on a mock Superman disguise, complete with plaid boxers and a football helmet.  The presentation was a combination of showing the original on video and interspersing it with a group of us performing it live.  It was spearheaded by Keith Howard, who portrayed George Reeves/Superman with able support from Tiffany Kresse (Lucy Ricardo), Steven Kirk (Ricky Ricardo), Ashley Bayles (Ethel Mertz), and even me as Fred.

Then the next day, it was back to Uncle Marvel again for the Costume Contest before changing into Perry White for the Closing Skit with Josh Boultinghouse as The Official Superman of Metropolis and Michelle Lyzenga at Lois Lane.  With that, the 34th Annual Superman Celebration came to a close.

While down there, I wrote not only my own presentation for the costume contest, but entries for a couple other people as well as the Closing Skit, which I also directed. 

And if I mentioned all the most excellent Super Friends of Metropolis, this blog would take a month to type up.  Let's just say I'm glad you CAN choose your family after all.


So what does this have to do with our usual theme of creativity?  Years ago, I was just another tourist.  But as I got to know who was who in Metropolis, I just started talking to them and we all became friends.  In time, I let them know that I was a writer and actor and interviewer.  This year, I left Metropolis exhausted, but you can see how many stories came back with me.

Outlets for your creativity are wherever you can find them.  And "networking" is nothing more than talking to strangers, turning them into friends, telling them what you can do to make their lives easier/profitable/more fun, and waiting for the door to open.

So how have you networked your way into creative gigs?  I love your comments so leave me a lot of them. 

"Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' ... into the future."

This week's gonna be a little light.  All the cool kids will be at the Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois from Thursday, June 7 through the 10th.  Special guests will include John Glover and Cassidy Freeman from Smallville, and the Superboys of two generations -- John Rockwell and Gerard Christopher -- along with comic artists George Perez and Terry Beatty as well as other writers like Bruce Scivally and painter Trevor Hawkins and many, many more.

There will be parties, Q&As, autogrph sessions, auction, costume contests, re-enactment of the radio program, live skits, and more.  For more information, head on over to www.supermancelebration.net and I hope to see you there.

Anyway, as a result, I'll probably only have one blog entry this week.  I'll be back to two or more next week when I've recovered.

One thing that impresses me when I go to Metropolis is the range of creativity in its myriad forms.  First of all, it takes a lot of creativity to assemble one of these affairs.  Guests have to be selected, contacted, cajoled, negotiated, and then imported to this town of 6,500 that'll several times that number of people during the best four days of the year for some people.

Then there are writers who've done historical books on Superman and other pop culture icons or the writers of the comic books and movies.  We've also gotten artists who've worked on the Superman titles or used him as a muse for their own work.

A large draw every year are the actors.  Since I've attended the Celebration since 1999, I've met actors from Broadway, TV, and the films as well as actors who've appeared in other shows such as Batman, The Incredible Hulk, and SHAZAM! 

I'm not above dropping names of the amazing creative people I've met ... however, I would regret omitting any names.

One demographic that seems to be taking over the Celebration, much to my delight, is the growing number of costumers who spend a lot of time and re-creating the look of their favorite media heroes or heroines.  I've read many times where some Hollywood designer, with millions of dollars at their disposal, might claim that a comic book or video game costume might be impossible to recreate and not look idiotic.  Then on any given weekend of the year, there's a costumer who's replicated the look flawlessly and for a fraction of the price.

(An aside here: in reading about the costuming community, you may have heard the hobby referred to as "cosplay."  My friend Ned Cox once explained to me that he viewed the replicators of the Oriental manga and anime [their comic books and animated shows ... see how educational this blog can be?] as "cosplayers" while the more Western world-based characters were portrayed by "costumers."  It seemed like a reasonable idea at the time and I fully concur with it now)

And not only do the costumers take pride in their threads, they also make sure they, themselves, stay in shape to resemble their favorite characters.  Also, a great many of them visit hospitals, military bases, and appear at various charitable functions in costume.  To me, that's a whole different level of heroism that we all should aspire to.

But I will say that the costuming bug may bite anyone ...

  

 Uncle Dudley Marvel ... real and unreal!

 So if I don't blog at you later this week,I'll continue my dissertation on creativity next week.  

So what's your next-favorite creative outlet?  Discuss!