MichaelMidnight.com

Standing outside of Meltdown Comics, I stood next to a man who was shaking uncontrollably, slurring sounds from his mouth, and clutched a tall can of an energy drink at his side, all the while spitting like a mule every few minutes.  This wasn’t the sort of character I was expecting.  As I waited for the midnight hour for when we would get to meet Guillermo Del Toro, get his book, and get it signed by the man himself, I expect the people outside waiting to be a mix of comic book fans, Del Toro fans, and most especially vampire fans.  What I wasn’t expecting was this peculiar cat spitting and trying to form words and sentences.

“So is he,” he spat, “excuse me, can I ask,” he spat again. “Yup,” I said, looking at him but not really because he gave a scent of someone who knew the discomfort of the cold, cemented sidewalk. “Is this for Benicio?” he finally asked.  When I told him no and that it was someone else, his head tilted to the side, he shifted his body and started to spit again.  His eyes began shuffling as if the inner him was stuck inside his brain, trapped by a sea of mess trying to form a question with this new bit of corrected fact.  “So are you,” he spat “I’m sorry to bother you,” he spat twice and I felt my eyes widening wondering if I’ll be stuck in line with the curious and stinky fellow for two hours.  “Are you a fan of Panders Ring?” he asked.  Searching my wits about me, another man came by the line, saw my predicament, and stood a bit away from us.  Oh how I envied him.  “Oh you mean “Pan’s Labyrinth”" I corrected him. “Ya, ya,” he spat.  And for awhile we continued this sort of conversation and added the second guy to the mix.  Every so often, the other guy and I would exchange glances that spoke “what is up with this guy” and wondered how the night was going to end up.  And after a while, it was silent.  I thought the end was here and I started to take out my ear phones, a nonverbal cue indicating that I didn’t want to talk, when the spitting fellow walked away.  HE WASN’T EVEN IN LINE FOR THE SIGNING!  I guess he was walking when he saw the line and stopped where I was at the end and just hovered there as we chatted and the line grew longer.  Surprised, the second man and I talked about how funny the whole exchange had been and was thankful “our friend” wouldn’t be joining us in line and for the wait.

Whereas I was baffled with the exchange with the spitting fellow and was ready to plop in my earphones and drone everything and everyone away, the second man and I struck a great conversation that made the line and the wait go by quickly.  The second man, Mario, lived in the area and was a fan of Guillermo Del Toro’s, and he and I struck up conversations stemming from comic books to movies and scary scenarios concerning the recent downed and missing French airliner in the Atlantic.

Coming into the signing, I envisioned it like other signings where we would come in, get our book signed, and possibly get a picture and then leave.  But the night went far better than I had anticipated.  About an hour into waiting, people from Meltdown came out and gave us cans of iced tea while we waited.  Strangely even though it was June already the day was cold and so was the night so that I was able to wear my Death sweatshirt and not even beat a sweat.  And to be giving an iced drink, it only endeared me the more to Meltdown.  But I’ve been at their other events and they have always been friendly and nice.

As midnight came, I expected the line to go in quickly and especially so because Mario and I were a good distance at the start.  But they only let a few people in and I was baffled.  Letting small groups come in made waiting even harder especially as we got close to the windows and wondered what was going on.  All through the night a lovely blond headed girl was coming out to check on the line and get peoples names to get their book personalized.  Walking outside to meet us, she beamed and said, “If you are willing to wait, Guillermo will sign every book.  He’s just taking the time to talk to people and draw cartoons on each book!”

Surprised at this, it softened the blow of waiting and made me long to meet Del Toro.  Some time after this, the musician turned actor, and now newly turned comic book creator, Tyrese, came out and talked about getting his book signed by Guillermo Del Toro and also talked about his new comic book coming out and his own event at Meltdown in a few weeks.  And after chatting and taking pictures with the crowd, Tyrese left and we all went back to waiting in line and peering through the window into Meltdown.

As our time came and in I went inside to meet Guillermo Del Toro, I wasn’t sure what to ask him.  I told him I was fan of his work and how my friend introduced me to his work via Blade 2.  He quickly told me that he couldn’t do all that he had envisioned with the vampires in the movie but met most of his goals with the book and that all three books were in good development.  He noticed my Death sweatshirt immediately and told me he and Neil Gaiman were working to get a Sandman film in the works with Gaiman himself directing.

And before our time was up, I gave him one of my calling cards and he actually liked it.  It’s card done up like a name tag and it reminded him of “Shaun of the Dead” and how he gave people funny name tags.  And he even took a picture of it with him.  Del Toro made a great impression on me.  He was incredibly friendly and approachable, and when he talked or chatted with people he sounded as if he was talking to an old friend he hadn’t seen for quite a long time.  Though the only sad thing really was that I missed out on the speech he gave out at the start of the signing and I would have loved to have stayed and seen what he did with the last person in line, I truly had a fun time.  I had a great time chatting in line with Mario, continued my streak of attracting crazy and interesting people to my person, and picked up the last Sandman t-shirt they had in the store that actually was my size!

It was an awesome cold, June, midnight wait.