JoeFest 2023 – The Real American Book! Convention Report / Part 1 of 3

-It’s hard to expose for skin tone backlit by an illuminated sign-

All pictures from here on, click to enlarge…

If this is to be a year to re-engage with working on my G.I. Joe history book, and my schedule is clearer for not teaching, then this is a year to check out several Joe conventions I’ve long heard about. These smaller, regional shows are particularly important in the continued absence of the official G.I. Joe convention.

Truthfully I hadn’t much tracked JoeFest. I had heard good things about it, but I also conflated it with Joelanta, since both shows are in Georgia (and Joelanta itself has grown into two different toy shows). JoeFest is also a young show — did someone tell me this was the fourth year?

Thursday

If you can swing it, arriving the night before a con starts is advantageous because you can see any early set-up if you find that interesting, you can get the lay of the land, any travel delays don’t impact the event itself but rather your buffer time, and there’s more time to socialize if others are arriving early.

Flying to Augusta meant an airport connection. For both my flights I was mysteriously bumped to first class, which seems great except that these were short flights, and I was in the first row, so I couldn’t have my backpack in front of me for takeoff or landing. Also, the overhead space was near gone when I boarded, so my gear was stowed many seats behind me, not too accessible during the flight. All I had to distract me was what I carried in my hands — a tiny shopping bag with the G.I. Joe Deck-Building Game. (You may recall me writing about this for my Assembly Required blog posts.) I’ve been meaning to play this again since November, but haven’t (even though there’s a one-player mode!), and had been concerned I’d forget the rules. With not much else to do heading to Augusta, I read the rule book front to back three times in a row.

After landing, I was greeted inside at my gate by a display case with James Brown clothing. It’s nice to have my G.I. Joe tunnel vision disrupted by something broader, like art or local culture. I noted how tiny the airport was. This wasn’t ATL, after all. Was going to catch a cab, but started looking for people who looked like they were heading to a Joe convention. Obvious signs might be a Joe hat or shirt, but you get pretty good at picking out likely suspects regardless. There’s a line of action figures in the modern 2007 G.I. Joe style called Marauders, which I’ve shown here at A Real American Book! before, and the guys who produce those toys exhibit at cons, so it wasn’t a surprise to see someone in a Marauder t-shirt looking like he knew where he was going. This would be Marauder Matt, pointing out the Marriott shuttle, cheaper than a cab! On that minibus, I chatted with a doctor in town for a medical conference. He grew up in the ’80s, knew G.I. Joe, but didn’t know there were conventions, and said he might stop by. It’s a fun idea that I or we could “convert” a civilian spur of the moment. Another gent on the shuttle had slept one hour the previous night, having flown from Los Angeles, and was here to sell t-shirts at JoeFest. He said he needed something else to do at a con besides merely attend it, and I knew that feeling! After spending all my money in the first two hours attending my second Transformers convention in 1995, I decided I’d be a dealer at the following year’s.

At the Augusta Marriott I saw pal Chris Murray in the lobby. He’d just gotten married (hooray!), but had also had a bumpy May-June, possibly precluding his con attendance (boo!), so it was really good to see him here. (Longtime readers of this blog will recall I visited him in Texas once, and he’s a fixture at Joe conventions.) Another pal, Patrick Stewart, was also in the lobby. (Fans will recognize him from the Articulated Points video podcast/more on both these guys later.) Here’s Stewart, later in the weekend:

Stewart pointed to the hotel revolving door and said there was a main street with restaurants two blocks away. That was key, because sometimes at a con the only food option is the hotel, and then you’re competing with 200 people all trying to eat and order booze at the same time, an unfortunate bottleneck. Food would come later, as after a day on a plane, I needed to exercise, so I did. Next to the lobby was the Marriott hotel bar, and its cheese pizza was pretty good. But I made a promise to myself not to repeat this the next day — part of the charm of travel is trying different restaurants, and if there were options within easy walking distance, I would take advantage! Met Kenny Keopnick, here helping Roma Collectibles, and chatted with pal Sam Damon, who owns Joe Declassifed. Sam and I talked about the last few years of X-Men comics. One of us is a fan, and one is not! He mentioned Talking Joe, that G.I. Joe comics podcast I co-host, to Kenny, who said he’d check it out. That sounded like a mere pleasantry. Here’s me, Damon, and Keopnick:

Went to sleep late, which is normal for a con.

Oh! I think the first night in the elevator I saw this, which reminds me of BotCon in the ’90s — What toys might be for sale?

I love that this isn’t electronic or online. That it’s on hotel stationary is even better.

Friday

Penguin Random House was having a small sale on a small slice of books, so still in my hotel room I logged on and placed an order for my shop back in MA. Went for a jog. This was also a way to see downtown, which was centered around Broad Street. Visible were many reminders that James Brown grew up here:

This one is two-in-one. I’ll move in closer.

Saw tattoo parlors, banks, and a few newer, hipper restaurants. Hey, Joe fans, do you sort of see what I see?

I had heard that a Facebook Group of Joe fans was going to meet at this pizza place for dinner, and made a mental note, if I figured out the group, and joined it, and got invited, I’d head back here:

Of note, a 100+ year old department store that looked locally owned. This was in back.

My grandfather owned a department store (both long gone) and we’re probably all aware of Sears and JCPenny and the like vacating our malls and our lives this past decade, so I was struck when I saw a simple, old-fashioned window display facing the street. More on this below. Distressingly, there were many shuttered businesses along Broad Street and one block off it. I’ll guess that’s partly the pandemic and partly the larger issue of American downtowns struggling, Amazon and big box stores killing local businesses, and people moving to bigger cities. I live in a small downtown with a lot of development and gentrification. This here in Augusta was the other side of that coin.

I sure would like to browse in a music shop, a coin/camera shop, and whatever that last one was!

This is a cheap target, but I don’t know the world needs one more of these–

–to turn into any more of these:

Ugh, this is getting depressing. Let’s see an uplifting mural!

Seriously, though. I believe in the power of public art, and murals. So imagine my surprise when two blocks over, I saw some teens painting a mural.

But downtown has to be doing at least partially okay, because it’s got two theaters across from each other.

Let’s take a look at the box office:

Totally awesome. And the other:

Back to the shops, there was a by-appointment-only dime museum, which looked like one part freak show collection and one-part candy and junk store. I was disappointed I couldn’t go in!

Found a great brunch place called the Brunch House. When I travel, what I really want in the morning is eggs and pancakes or eggs and waffles. If the hotel stops serving breakfast too early, or there aren’t any eggs-and-pancakes places, I am grumpy. I never want lunch for breakfast, you know? Here was a tiny diner that was open ’til 3pm — perfect! Also, Sgt. Slaughter was inside enjoying a meal.

Now, this shouldn’t be a surprise. The Sarge was a guest at the show, so of course he might be out and about away from the hotel. But it’s still always funny and exciting to see a celebrity out and about during the course of a show. Of course Sgt. Slaughter might step foot away from the Marriott, and of course celebrities are just like us and need to eat. But there’s still a fun, dopey feeling of the celebrity sighting — Hey, there’s Sgt. Slaughter four feet away on the other side of that glass, eating eggs! And then, in the same moment of jogging by, trying to cull as much information as I could: Who’s the gent sitting across from him? Collared shirt, clip board, probably a manager, or someone from the convention? And: Is this really Sgt. Slaughter? He’s not wearing his hat or sunglasses, that could be another big guy–oh, his shirt says “Sgt. Slaughter.” Yep, that’s Sgt. Slaughter.

I’m not a wrestling fan, and I don’t have much urge to stand in line for autographs, so this celebrity-sighting-in-the-wild, a delight, was going to be my closest thing to meeting the Sarge at JoeFest ’23. I also wondered about logistics: Had the Sarge arrived the night before, like me? Did he have a busy summer con schedule? Were there WWE events he’d had to attend recently? (He’s an ambassador, right?) If I was to burst in there, what would I say to him? I jogged back to the hotel to clean up and properly head back to Broad Street to actually start the day, camera in hand.

Crossing the Marriot/convention center parking lot, I saw a dozen-plus vans, trucks, and vans-or-trucks with U-Haul-type attachments, and people pushing boxes on dollies. Why, it’s load-in! I sometimes forget in my book-networking and friend-catching-up that a weekend like this is about making money for the dealers. They might own a shop, online or brick-and-mortar, and drive all over the region, buying collections, inspecting flea markets and thrift stores, looking for finds. And it all comes together at a show like this. But the actual garage door in was small, and there was space in front of it for only one or two vehicles, so this was a bottleneck. David T. Allen, who hosts the G.I.Joe New News Review podcast, and who I enjoyed chatting with at Assembly Required in November, was in fact the point person here, coordinating all the dealers.

I wondered, walking around downtown, if Augusta had a comic book shop. When my wife and I are driving through a suburban shopping area, or a downtown, I’ll sometimes say “they should have a comic book store here,” as if the 3000+ comic shops in America could actually always be just around the corner. According to my phone, there were three stores nearby, but 4 miles away, so I wasn’t going to make that on foot. (Also, it turns out, one was exhibiting at JoeFest.)

My favorite find of the morning’s exploration was this Canada Dry ad, which looked like it had been painted many years ago and then fixed up more recently.

Correct!

Near that, look at this great neon!

Note: I didn’t remember to return that night to see if the sign was turned on. It didn’t look active anymore, though.

Sat at the tiny counter at the Brunch House–

–and ordered, thank goodness, eggs and waffles. An old man sat next to me. He asked if I was an actor, which I thought was sweet. I don’t think I look like an actor, but I think he was responding to my red glasses and something general about my look that read “not from around here.” He was 95, and was born here in Augusta, but spent two years in the Air Force in Japan, and lived for a year in New York, and 35 years in California as a reverend after grad school for theology. He asked for my address, that we might be pen pals. Every so often I get into a conversation with a nice old man, like while waiting in line at the post office, and I hope when I’m old I can get into nice conversations with young people. We chatted a little about his travels, his family, and his faith. I figured he was a regular at the Brunch House, but it turned out this was his first visit, that he’d read about it in the paper and wanted to check it out. He was warm and kind, and had an impish sense of humor, using a lot of acronyms for idioms, like spelling out “Y-C-T-I-W-Y,” and then explaining that “you can’t take it with you.” I devoured my food, and a little of his, too. As much as I want to have a dozen G.I. Joe experiences at my special G.I. Joe weekend, I’m also aware of the rest of the world having a decidedly not-G.I. Joe weekend. And for a year stuck inside around 2020, there was little chance of meeting a nice old man at a diner in Georgia. So this was lovely. He headed out, and I’m happy to report that three weeks later, around my birthday, I got a card in the mail from him.

Stopped at the above cool book store. Hey, they have graphic novels, because all the Dog Man books were on display in the window! Went inside, what a lovely store. Bought a book. (It’s a nice feeling to buy a book from someone else’s shop even though I can order books at my own shop. Yes, I’m paying cover and not wholesale, but the pressure is off.) Was struck by this display on the second floor:

Firstly, it reminds me of what we did at my shop after our renovation, with several prominent shelving units displaying books face-out only. But also, I live in Somerville, MA, which is about 75% white. Augusta’s population is more than half Black. And a display like this gives me some pause about what books are face-out at my own shop back home. And I’m aware that the number of books featuring people of color on the covers has increased in the last few decades, that a display like this might not have been possible 20 years ago. I wondered about some kid browsing the children’s section of this shop, and perhaps seeing themself in all these covers.

Of skin tones, the book I bought features a blue-skinned Chiss on the cover.

Passed that department store and realized they sold hats. I had just lost my hat. I don’t mean baseball caps, I mean hat-hats. My wife really wants me to wear hats as some protection against the sun. I thought this was probably a sign that I should go inside. Wait, is that a child-size metal mannequin/also a lamp in the window display?

Why yes, yes it is.

Inside was a little like a time warp. The cash register didn’t print a receipt on thermal paper, but rather, someone wrote it out on carbon paper and I got the yellow copy. Three employees helped me. Did you know there are winter hats and summer hats? I did not. There was plenty of stock, and not just hats. I hoped this place would stick around! Except for a friendly shop cat named Mr. Candy, no one else was there. But before I paid for my new hat, a man arrived looking for a new vest.

I started walking to the record store when someone called out my name. It was Justin Talton, from whom I bought some art a few years back, and from whom I need to borrow another piece for my book. Talton attended the G.I. Joe convention on the Intrepid in ’94, and attended the Christie’s auction that weekend. Here in Augusta, he and his pal Jason were finishing lunch outside at a pizza place. I was trying to go with the flow and let the day guide me, rather than forcing myself to get back to the hotel and convention center, so I sat with them and we caught up. This was the first time I’d seen Justin in person in… six years? So it was a nice surprise. (We did email a bit during the pandemic.) Here’s Talton at his booth from a little later in the convention:

I resumed my heading for the music shop to buy a CD (remember those? I still buy them), but instead met up with Larry Hama. He wanted coffee, so we found a cafe two blocks from the hotel, where we caught up a bit and he mused on the Writers Guild of America strike. Hama has family that works in the entertainment industry, so this was more than just speaking from the point of view of an audience member. My pal/editor/business partner Nick Nadel is also in the Guild and has been picketing, so I’d been getting photos and updates. Hama and I also talked about how his new G.I. Joe plots were going (at that time on #304 — the official Skybound announcement for #301 wouldn’t arrive for a few days), as well has his busy summer con schedule. Here’s the cafe exterior:

It certainly used to be something else, like a machine shop or a garage.

It was time for him to grab his stuff and set up at his con table, so I helped Hama carry some sellables into the convention center. (Of note, some gorgeous prints of the cover to 1986’s G.I. Joe Special Missions issue #1, probably re-scanned from the original art and newly recolored by Mike Zeck himself. Hama explained they’d both been at a show, and Zeck didn’t want to lug them back home now that he had retired very far away. I don’t buy prints, but this one was tempting.)

Then I wandered the con hall, looking at dealer tables and saying hello. Chris Murray was manning the Joe Declassified booth, a shifting, changing museum of rare Joe stuff that exhibits at many Joe shows. Josh Blaylock was sitting at the After Action Report table, and I introduced myself. We had briefly crossed paths at BotCon 2003 or 2004, but there was no reason for him to remember that. But more importantly, podcaster Mark and I conducted a big interview with Blaylock two years back for Talking Joe, and I wanted to sell hello and thank you in person. Blaylock has kindly answered a few email follow-ups since then, too, and recalled the interview fondly. Here’s Josh Blaylock with Roger Taft:

I was thrilled to see four or five different vendors selling comics, three of whom were only selling comics! G.I. Joe conventions are heavy on toys and tend to be light on comic books. I was actually shopping for a few issues for pal Nadel, who after all these years still doesn’t have a complete run. At the ROMA Collectibles booth I saw two long boxes and one short box, but all of out order, Special Missions mixed with IDW variants and European Missions and regular Marvel G.I. Joe. How was I going to efficiently comb through them? And wouldn’t it be satisfying to spend 20 minutes properly organizing them? Yes, yes it would. Twenty minutes later, ROMA’s Aaron Derrick gave me a discount as a thank you.

Nick, did you want the newsstand edition or the Direct Market edition of this series finale? They’re the same price.

Turned a corner and witnessed some quintessential G.I. Joe convention commerce.

At Justin Talton’s table I bought some paperwork that I might blog about or incorporate into my book. A chap cosplaying as Night Force Chuckles found me and asked if I’d sold those comic sets yet. I said no. I should explain: A few days before the show, I posted to social media that I’d be bringing a set of IDW’s final ten issues of G.I. Joe, and the ten issues before them, and sell them for about cover price to whoever found me. But the buyer would also have to give me a drawing related to Eco-Warriors. We still have stock at my shop, and with the end of G.I. Joe at issue #300, and the imminent official announcement of a new publisher picking up with #301, I figure there’d be a small groundswell of fans who’d dropped the comic series now wanting to get some issues they’d missed. And I wanted this to be a chunk, and those final 20 issues have not been collected in trade paperback. But I’m less interested in a flipper just putting these on eBay, so I thought that by making a weird, fannish hoop to jump through — a bit of original art for the trouble of lugging these to Georgia — that I might filter for a reader who wanted these comics to read. Night Force Chuckles and I made loose plans to meet up later when he had the money in hand. Here’s Night Force Chuckles with other members of The Finest:

Chatted with Carson Mataxis about his G.I. Joe art book, which had a successful Kickstarter campaign a few months prior. He’d printed samples of every page to display at the Joe Declassified booth. There’s an image I have in my book that Mataxis also has, but his is of higher quality, and would he send me a scan?

At 5pm, a loudspeaker announcement kicked off the show as the doors opened to attendees who’d paid for early access. Gosh, I had done a lot of purchasing and socializing in those dealer set-up hours! Via text, pal Nadel had asked me to get a lot of good photos, but this is always a challenge at a convention. Shoot far away to take it all in, and everything becomes a menagerie of dots of color. Shoot close up and while one or two toys are clearly visible, you lose any sense of a vendor’s scope of merchandise. Shoot close and far and everything between and you come home with 200 photos, which I don’t wish to sort through! I think this is why people shoot video at cons. Also, there’s a real feeling of you have to be there, that any number of photos aren’t going to capture it. And that even if I’ve seen or owned much of this stuff before — loose toys and boxed vehicles — there’s nothing quite like being washed over by wave after wave of nostalgia. My first cons were all covetousness — I want this, I want that, take my money! But now that I’ve acquired most of what I want, much of the feeling is just seeing it all, and chatting with friends. (Although the new 6-inch Classified Alley Viper figure is really cool, and even though I’m not collecting that line, $20 is a good price, maybe I should buy one toy for myself?) Also, should I take photos of only G.I. Joe toys, and only the best ones? Should I swerve left and focus on non-G.I. Joe items? Might I focus on oddball surprises, and maybe they’re not even toys? I made a mental note to take a few fun pics for Nadel, and to populate these blog posts, but to not miss out on experiencing the show, to not wander through the weekend with a camera in front of my face. Hey, here’s that 1989 glow in the dark Robocop figure!

There were no panels in the three hour window of con floor early access, so I could just look and shop and chat. At 8pm the room closed, and everyone slowly headed out. Back in the Marriott, one of the three elevators was out of service, so it was slow going to get back to your room or down to the lobby all weekend.

Hama called and asked if I wanted to join him and Keone Young for dinner. You might think they know each other from conventions, but they met in the ’70s in New York. Back then, Hama explained, all the Asian and Asian-American actors knew each other because there were so few. Readers of this blog may know of Young as the voice actor who portrayed Storm Shadow in the ‘80s G.I. Joe cartoon, but he’s also been onscreen and behind the mic for loads of other shows. We ate at the hotel restaurant. (That place again! But my promise to myself–!) Young described eating at fine restaurants when he travels, a hobby for him and something of a profession for his wife, and I noted there’s a well-regarded restaurant next to my shop. He said he likes comic book shops and that he’d be in Massachusetts soon (although I note, 90 miles away). Larry mused on some 1970s NYC nightclubs, and that topic of topics, the WGA strike. The food was good, and I was pleasantly surprised there wasn’t a big bottleneck of people trying to get tables. I also silently renewed my one-day old pledge to eat somewhere else the next day. But I’ll happily eat anywhere Hama wants to, and I certainly understand the convenience of that bar/restaurant next to the lobby.

I stayed in the lobby for a bit talking to a few of those pals I’d spoken to earlier in the day or the day before. Kenny Keopnick told me that he’d in fact listened to half of the newest episode of Talking Joe since we met the previous night, and that he liked it! So he wasn’t just being polite!

To be continued in Part Two (Saturday) and Part Three (Sunday)!