The Grandma Issue

Last weekend, Becky and I attended the inaugural Wizard World Toronto comic convention. It was her first con, my umpteenth, and it was something we were looking forward to attending.

There were a number of celebrities there I was hoping to meet, for work, of course. David Richmond-Peck from V and Jessie Sulidis from The Bachelor were there, and I managed to get some photos and some face time with the pair of them.

For non-work fun, I sought out Jewel Staite from Firefly and Becky was good enough to point out Cosplayers for me to snap photos of. See what I mean here.

I had one item I wanted to get my hands on at the show, and that was a copy of Invaders #31. For years, that book has been known, to me at least, as the Grandma Issue.

When I was seven, I spent a week with my grandparents up north. They owned a variety store, and I went into work with Grandma one day to help out. My definition of helping consisted of sitting on a green plastic milk crate, eating salt and vinegar chips and drinking Dr. Pepper while reading every comic on the spinner rack.

There was one book that I kept going back to read, the aforementioned Invaders #31. I was hooked by the cover...how could I not be blown away by Cap, Namor and the Human Torch fighting Frankenstein in a Nazi uniform? I read the issue so many times that the book became unsellable. She ended up giving me the book.

Grandma passed away in July 2008, two days after her 83rd birthday. I made it my goal to get my hands on this book, and I was thrilled to finally do so. Becky insisted on buying it for me, knowing how much the issue meant to me. No wonder I love her so damn much.

This one's for you, Gram :-)