I Met THE FLASH... and THE FLASH... and THE FLASH'S DAD!
Galaxy Con was recently held at the Columbus Convention Center. After the wonderful time I had at Fan Boy Expo and the great time we had as a family at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, I wanted to give this one a try. I took the boys with me; the girls enjoyed CXC, but were okay with not going to this one.
The most difficult thing was deciding which celebrity I wanted to meet. There was a Smallville Reunion, the entire cast of Clerks, a handful of actors and writers from the various incarnations of Star Trek, and even a Disney Princess...
In the end, I chose John Wesley Shipp, star of the 1990-1991 television show The Flash. As seen in the photo, John played scientist Barry Allen as well as the titular super-hero. The line to meet him was very short, with just one person ahead of us. When it came time to meet him, Mr. Shipp introduced himself as John. He was very warm and friendly. I had him sign my copy of The Flash TV Special, which I've had in my comic book collection for decades. He shared that it was, at the time, one of the few photo covers DC had done at that point. He personalized the autograph and drew a little lightning bolt.
Sadly, John's Flash series only lasted one season, due in part from competition from shows on other networks in its various time slots. (Ever heard of a cartoon called The Simpsons?) There is good news, however. In a bit of inspired casting, John played Harry Allen, the father of Barry Allen. in The Flash, a long-running (sorry) series starring Grant Gustin, who was born in 1990. In later seasons, John would play the Flash of Earth 3, Jay Garrick (the Flash of Earth 2 in the comic books) and the Flash of Earth 90, the same character he played in his 1990s series.
In the booth next to John Wesley Shipp was the lovely Amanda Pays. She was a favorite of mine in the late '80s and early '90s, starring as Theora Jones in Max Headroom and Christina "Tina" McGee in The Flash. Like Shipp, Pays played a version of the Tina McGee character on the Grant Gustin Flash series. Though we did not get to formally meet Amanda Pays, we did see her from a short distance and also did some gawking at William Shatner (Captain Kirk), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), and David Gerrold (writer of "The Trouble with Tribbles") of Star Trek fame; Tom Welling (Clark Kent) and John Glover (Lionel Luthor) of Smallville; Brandon Routh, who has played Superman on the big and small screens as well as Ray Palmer aka The Atom; Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid.
Comic book artists and writers who do charge for autographs generally charge less than the "celebrity guests." I enjoyed talking with and meeting Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, Mike Grell, Denys Cowan, and Michael Golden, who all did work for DC in years past. I had a random issue of Bizarro in my files that just happened to be drawn by Gustavo Duarte and Rafael Albuquerque. Both autographed the cover of the book for Nick. Jon was especially excited to meet an artist who draws Charlie the Tuna. He was incredibly nice and did sketches for both boys. The boys watched a screening of Muppet Christmas Carol with commentary by one of the puppeteers who worked on the film. Later, we learned one of the students from Chillicothe High School (who has performed in dramatic productions with CHS and Paper City Players) had her own booth there as a celebrity cosplayer! We are already looking forward to GalaxyCon Columbus 2023!
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