Legos aren't cheap, folks. The Texas Lego User Group who was kind enough to chit chat with use revealed that the display was the work of several different members who collaborate to build the landscapes, and that the total cost of building something more massive than the bedroom we grew up in was easily within six figures. He actually began to say seven figures, but stopped as if that numbers was somehow embarrassing. He needn't have worried. If we had a million dollars to spend on Legos you'd never read another story from us again.
We made a quick stop by the booth of Red 5 comics to say hello to Scott Chitwood who we had made the acquaintance of earlier in the convention. Scott was away from the table, but it did give us the chance to see something we'd missed the first time we'd been by. He had an iPad set up on the table displaying his comic Atomic Robo. The colors were so crisp and clear, even more alive than they were on the printed page.
It reminded us of another conversation we'd had with Terrance Zdunich, the creator of Repo: The Genetic Opera the day before on why he wasn't releasing his new comic The Molting on Kindle and other digital formats.
"I like the tactile feel of comics," he said. "But ok, if you're going to do digital comics, why are people still wedded to this page layout? Why are they this size? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there is an artist out there exploring the medium to its fullest potential, but the static digital transfers I'm seeing just seem... I don't know, disposable. Single use."
Remembering Zdunich's words made us make our way over to the celebrity side of the room in hopes of catching him again. He wasn't there, and Peter Mayhew was missing as well. Rumor was he was ill. Turning back we saw a poster that couldn't possibly fail to catch our eye. A fist raised against a Texas flag, tattooed with a bar code across the wrist. The tagline read, "How do you fight a state with God on its side?" That's how we met Gary Watson and heard about After Twilight.