Today, Joe Swarctz and Ralph Greco Jr., our own dynamic duo of the Echo City Capers team, exhibited at Phillipsburg Comic Con. Now, as newspaper reporter, Phillipsburg was my home for many, many years. And the communities that feed the Phillipsburg area school district– Phillipsburg proper, Lopatcong Township, Pohatcong Township, Greenwich Township and its center Stewartsville, and the Borough of Alpha– still hold a place near and dear to my heart.
I’m going to babble nostalgic a bit here so if you want to get right to the comics, it starts after the video.
I covered the Phillipsburg before they built the new high school– a school that had been in the works for 20 years. The towns in New Jersey have their own elementary schools and feed into the school district for high school. And Phillipsburg was an Abbott district, one of the 28 poorest school districts in the state impacted by the Abbott vs. Burke court case that led to financial allocations and new rules to fund the poorest school districts to levels more on par with the rich school districts.
This was my first visit to the “new” Phillipsburg High School, but I didn’t really get to see much of it since it was packed full of exhibitors. But the school sits on top of a large hill in Lopatcong Township, overlooking Phillipsburg, billed as the largest city in Warren County. The much-needed school even has a ropes course– which made my daughter and I very jealous.
The Phillipsburg Comic Con started in 2015, and Ralph and Joe have been involved for quite some time. The school was packed with vendors, and the people kept pouring in. The students who run the event are gracious hosts, and feed the exhibitors all day long.
Next time, I’m bringing a budget. So many books, artists, colorists, fine artists, collectible dealers. I never would have expected so many options in Phillipsburg. It was a very nice event, with guests in costume and cosplay. It was friendly and easy to navigate. I can see why Ralph and Joe like to support it.
Ralph and I did spend a little time talking about our crush on Michael Keaton. The three of us are all very excited for the upcoming Marvel movie putting Keaton back in the bat suit.
The next comic convention in the area is Lehigh Valley Comic Con at Lehigh Community College in Schnecksville. The Echo City guys inform me that that event is the place to go for toys.
This all gets me thinking– I wonder if Joe would be interested in supporting me in developing an Echo City Capers hero for girls… maybe with a disability.
On another note, Ralph gave me a copy of Granfalloon from last summer that he guest edited and Joe drew the cover. I look forward for some naughty fun.
And since we’re talking about sci-fi, Orson Scott Card seems to have resurfaced. I can’t remember exactly what podcast I heard recently, ah yes it was Books N Betches, where they read Ender’s Game for the first time. I read the book decades ago and then found his horror novel, Lost Boys, which was very creepy. His writing in that novel had a lot of references to his Mormon beliefs.
The women on the podcast were surprised to realize how “problematic” Card is. As if that wasn’t a blast from the past, I received an email today that was a Quora digest. I don’t recall ever signing up for Quora, but occasionally I get an email and today’s featured a question answered by Orson Scott Card and some research revealed that it was indeed the Orson Scott Card.
Parisian Phoenix Publishing 