Meet the new assistants to the assistant to the regional manager!
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
It’s that time again! This weekend my wife Anne and I attended the eleventh edition of the Indiana Comic Convention at the Indiana Convention Center in scenic downtown Indianapolis. ICC 2025 was another opportunity for fans to look at walls covered with old comics, build lightsabers, buy 3D-printed knickknacks, overstock on Funko Pops, respect the anime fandom whose population dwarfs us older generations, and navigate those vast crowds. This year the showrunners occupied more square footage than ever, and last year’s edition was by no means dinky. Geek life had more space to thrive and sometimes enjoy some breathing space in between some of the narrower alleys of thriving pop-culture commerce…
…which for us worked out to a fair mix of comics and celebrities, with light shopping in between. We’d met a number of the guest list’s highest-profile names at past cons, but a few newcomers to Indy caught our attention and lured us in, such as the distinguished content provider in our lead photo — a frequent podcaster, co-founder of an erstwhile interfaith networking site, author of three books, and three-time Emmy Award Nominee who lost to guys like Jeremy Piven and Jon Cryer, thus proving the Emmys are a corrupt institution no more reliable a barometer of aesthetic transcendence than the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, who likewise nominated and denied him.
We had to wait a while on that guy, though. All three actors we’d hoped to meet weren’t there when the festivities began Friday. Rather, once the doors were thrown open to us general-admission fans at 12:30 pm, our first stop was Artists Alley. The same was true for just about everyone — in one of this year’s best changes, that area comprised the very first booths up front at the Exhibit Hall’s main entrance at Hall J. You had to trip over Artists Alley to get in. This prime placement was a welcome contrast to other large-scale events that bury such areas — the very foundation upon which the “comic con” concept was built all those decades ago — out toward the horizon, near the fire exits and the storage bays holding stacks of extra chairs. In recent times ICC had stuck it in the middle of the show floor but blurred its boundaries, so it was tough to tell where the dedicated comics creators ended and the vendors began.
This year some of my hard-earned funds did indeed go to the works of Artists Alley participants rather than to hoarding extra cartons of eggs. First in line: Ben Percy! A writer in the field since 2014, he’s worked on several edgier characters at the Big Two — Green Arrow, X-Force, Ghost Rider, et al. — as well as his own creator-owned works Year Zero and Devils Highway. I’m surprised to admit my favorite to date is Predator vs. Wolverine, which turned what could’ve been an easy hunter-vs-hunter slashfest into a decades-long rivalry intertwining the histories of each respective IP in clever ways.
Curiously, he says Twentieth Century’s Predator custodians were against the whole “legacy” concept, which is weird considering the excellent Prey cemented that in canon. That’s film studios for ya.
At the table to his left: Jody Houser! The prolific comics writer and longtime RPGer has specialized in the transmedia universes of Star Wars (including adapting Timothy Zahn’s Admiral Thrawn origin trilogy), Star Trek, Doctor Who, Stranger Things, Critical Role, and more.
I started flashing back to my own weird history with D&D but managed to check myself before I rambled too much. I think.
The moment we stepped away from her table, a voice behind us beckoned to come check out his books. Admittedly for a moment I cringed a little on the inside — our early comic-conning days saw more than a few enthusiastic wannabe novelists whose huckstering skills exceeded their writing talents — but then my eyes focused and I realized the summons came from Keith R.A. DeCandido, and I sighed with relief. Same as Houser, DeCandido is no stranger to traversing the multiverse of tie-in novels, practically a grandmaster in that vein for some decades now. I recall seeing him on one of the earliest convention panels I ever attended of any kind many a moon ago, back in the ’90s. The time has indeed flown.
From his mountain range of offerings I picked up a Trek anthology with two of his short stories: one with Tuvok and Neelix, and one starring Discovery‘s President Rillak.
Not pictured (because we chatted with him for so long that we kinda forgot to do that part): Jason Douglas, a Detroit public schoolteacher by day and Ringo Award-nominated indie-comics writer by night. The hardcover collection of his latest book Jane American features a cover by Sina Grace and a foreword by Afua Richardson (a fellow guest at this con, though somehow we missed her). Their names plus the nomination label on his first book Parallel were definite eye-catchers. In a crowded Artists Alley, every bit of cred or flair counts.
The loot I ended up carrying around for the rest of the day. My shoulder feels much better now.
We spent hours wandering the entire length of the exhibit hall a few times, which extended from Hall J all the way down to Hall C, a considerable distance for us roly-poly middle-agers who did get in some extra walks around the neighborhood in the weeks leading up to this event as a nominal form of “training”, only to exhaust ourselves into oblivion in the name of geek fun anyway. We ended Friday with a panel not just because we were desperate for someplace comfy to sit, but because the subject matter sounded interesting to me: a revue of concept art and models for Return of the Jedi exhumed from the Lucasfilm archives by a pair of gentlemen with all-access privileges thanks to their respective careers.
Pablo Hidalgo! A lifetime mastery of Star Wars trivia and internet networking gave him a leg up into the professional world that culminated in a creative-exec role in the Lucasfilm Story Group.
Tom Spina! Founder of Regal Robot, a prop replica company, who’s cohosted similar presentations with Hidalgo at past Star Wars Celebrations and other events.
In their roles the duo have laid eyes upon a fascinating collection of artifacts from the days when George Lucas still had a personal hand in guiding the fates of that far-faraway galaxy. Their specific slideshow covered only the creatures from the first half of ROTJ, from Jabba’s palace to the battle over the Sarlacc. Some items have rarely if ever been seen in any of the various behind-the-scenes compendiums. It was a treat to witness the unfinished or abandoned handiwork of such artists as the great Phil Tippett, Joe Johnston, Ken Ralston, Dave Carson, Judy Elkins, and more.
Some examples by Thatcher, who’s best known to some SF geeks for playing the boombox punk from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Credited only as “Fat Dancer”, this character was named “Wiebba-weibba” in some old documents.
Among my favorite parts: right after they asked the crowd if we’d ever spotted Jabba’s tattoo in the film (not me!), they discussed a slightly smaller, 9-foot Jabba model of unknown provenance that was found in storage, until they eventually learned it was built for a Japanese commercial for an electronics company in which he cries at a Ray Charles song. Watch for yourself and be changed forever.
The most-mind-blowing revelations: Max Rebo plays his space keyboard with his feet and those “ears” are his flippers. Tippett actually confirmed this when they asked him.
…so that was a heck of a way to close out our Friday.
Saturday we were allowed inside the general-admission doors at 10:30 sharp, whereupon we bypassed Artists Alley and ran toward the autograph area on the distant end of the exhibit hall. A couple dozen fans, including quite a few with VIP fast-pass privileges, beat us to the booth of TV’s Dwight Schrute himself, Rainn Wilson. Of course he’s known for a variety of other works as well — starring in such overlooked films as Super and The Rocker as well as his short-lived drama Backstrom; memorable supporting roles in Juno, Galaxy Quest, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, and HBO’s Six Feet Under; and guest turns in such places as AMC’s Dark Winds, and Star Trek: Discovery, where he played a prequel version of Original Series nemesis Harry Mudd in two episodes and a short. And so on. He’s done so much more than merely star in one sitcom for nine seasons.
We whiled away the time chatting and resting and saying hi to a couple of fans we’d met in long lines at other cons, while we patiently waited for the arrival of literally the greatest actor ever to play a beet farmer in all of American history. And no, I do not mean Randall King, costar of the 1995 anti-racist beet-farming drama Friendship’s Field.
Fans who wanted him to include a Dwight quote with his autograph had to pay $25 extra and could choose only from this list of ten.
Wilson arrived at 10:53, which we’d call a better-than-average wait for a Saturday morning comic-con guest. He kept the line moving and didn’t linger, which is a good thing, because his line never, ever got shorter for the rest of the day. I asked him to sign my copy of his candid 2015 memoir The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith, and Idiocy and complimented him for a particular passage that resonated with me. Anne complimented him for something else and gave him a very tiny gift — a Fansets pin of his version of Harry Mudd. This isn’t something she normally does, and she was prepared for him to decline it or to toss it on the floor and never look at it again. Rather, he thanked her kindly and stunned us by immediately pinning it to his shirt. We walked away at 11:30 pretty stoked.
Our short jaunt took us to his next-door table-neighbor, Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green. She’s known to many as Sasha on multiple seasons of The Walking Dead and a recurring stint on Once Upon a Time as an anti-magic villain from the ordinary world, but to us she’s Michael Burnham, the only major Starfleet captain that Anne hadn’t met yet. Of all those captains — from William Shatner on up to Lower Decks‘ Dawnn Lewis — Burnham went through the most complicated evolution as a character, some of which Anne chatted with her about at the table. Like Wilson, Martin-Green signed pretty quickly and we walked away happy right around noon.
That timing worked out perfectly: Martin-Green was also the star of our first photo op of the day at 12:30. At this point in the day, the photo-op area was low-stress, nothing gone wrong yet. Spirits were high and the schedules on the monitors were updated fluidly on the go. Her ops began reasonably on time and we were out by 12:45.
O captain, our captain!
After lunch and some light wandering, we returned to the photo-op area at 2:38 for our 3:00 Wilson op. Now the place was overrun by hundreds upon hundreds of fans thronging outside the gate for their turns to line up for whichever stars. Seconds after we joined the masses, the announcer on the mic asked how many of us were here for Rainn Wilson. All of us raised our hands as a many-limbed hivemind. Eventually some space was cleared out in the middle lanes and we began flooding inside, a few dam-bursts at a time. The flow was vocally shut down for minutes at a time as logistics permitted or denied, on again and off again. By 2:50 Wilson’s op had five lanes, not including a separate lane for ADA-approved fans (or groups with strollers) and still another for VIP-passholders. By 3:00 we were up to eight lanes strong. I’ve no idea why we weren’t all staggered in assigned groups, as many other cons typically do for line management.
In the meantime, the area outside the gate refilled with hundreds upon hundreds more fans. Special guest William Shatner’s op was coming up as well and was in understandably high demand as well. (Thankfully we’d already met him — more than once, in Anne’s case, most recently in 2018.) Problem was, though they’d set up four photo booths — more than our other regular cons allot — there were only about 30-odd lanes total that had to be split between the four, and apparently the group photo op featuring three players from the Twilight movies was running behind and taking up lanes that were needed for Shatner’s people. I’ve no idea if the Twilight trio backup was their own fault or if some other op before them had gone wrong and put everything behind.
In the meantime, the area outside the gate refilled with still another couple hundred fans, this time for Katee Sackhoff of the Galactica and Star Wars universes. (Again, already had the pleasure!) Fortunately some space was available on the far right and they didn’t take nearly as long to herd up. With them cleared out, exactly 22 fans remained beyond the gate and waiting for other, less in-demand stars. They were easy to count because they were fewer and our own line hadn’t budged. It was something to do with my free time besides draining my phone battery. Well, that and try not to chuckle at the employee who kept referring to him as “Rainy” Wilson. In the time remaining, we ended up chatting for a few with the photo-op employees, who were high-fiving over their successful stampede mitigation.
Milady waits comfortably at the end of row 17 on her collapsible stool.
Eventually our lines moved and we had our next Rainy moment, in which he largely maintained an evenly Dwight-esque faux-dour mood with each fan, as seen in our lead photo. If you squint, you can see the Harry Mudd pin still affixed to his pocket. Somehow his photo-op line had, on average, moved more slowly than his autograph lines, but the important thing is we had yet another Rainn Wilson Experience
to cherish and were done by 4:00. Frankly, we’ve had far worse photo-op experiences. That doesn’t make us less anxious in such moments, though.
After 40-odd minutes of snacking, slightly more wandering, and resting against a convention-center wall along with thousands of other wasted geeks, we had one last photo op scheduled: actress Shantel VanSanten!
We know her best as Karen Baldwin, the astronaut’s wife turned aerospace entrepreneur on Apple+’s For All Mankind. I’ve also see her as Becca Butcher from Prime Video’s The Boys and, much longer ago, as Officer Patty Spivot, onetime love interest from season 2 of The Flash. I’ve also seen her in the opening carnage of the fourth Final Destination (the one with the NASCAR race) on YouTube a few times, but I’ve never seen the entire film, so that might not count.
As a former model, she still knows some moves.
She was punctual and her line was short; we were out by 5:10. As we headed toward the exhibit hall exit, I paused to buy one last book from my favorite comic-con vendor, Dayton’s own Gem City Books — a discounted copy of Grant Morrison’s leviathan Absolute Multiversity, which I’d skipped in all previous incarnations. At last I can witness his parting gift to the DC Universe that subsequent creative teams probably ignored ever since.
We ended our comic-con day once again with another panel. Check that: one-and-a-half panels. We arrived halfway through the Q&A for Sean Gunn, known in more recent times for roles in his brother James Gunn’s DC works — sidekick Kraglin in the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, the nonverbal killer Weasel in The Suicide Squad, and in the animated Creature Commandos as the voices of both the Nazi-killing G.I. Robot and of Weasel, about whom we learn Everything We Know Is Wrong. But before his entrenchment in the Big Two’s cinematic universes, he was best known on The CW’s Gilmore Girls as Kirk, the endearing oddball holder of a thousand different jobs. I may also be one of just six viewers who fondly remember his two-episode role on Bunheads, which I think scared him a little last time I brought it up.
Anne and I only got a few episodes into our Gilmore Girls binge before getting waylaid, but we shall press on someday!
The questions in the second half were split between Gilmore and the comic-book characters he’s played. Among the topics:
- Kirk wasn’t planned as a living running gag, but slowly became one. He was relieved when he was finally upgraded to main cast in season 3.
- He’s a big David Lynch fan and loves Mulholland Drive. Same likely went double for Kirk.
- Kraglin’s whistle-commanding of Yondu’s arrow is sound-effects movie magic, not him really whistling.
- He’s felt a huge difference between working for writer/creators such as the Palladinos (who insist every written word be performed as-is) versus greener or “more freestyle” directors.
- He was congratulated for winning at Celebrity Jeopardy!, which he’s well aware is easier than normal episodes, and yet, “That buzzer is no joke.”
- No, James doesn’t always write roles specifically for him, but often there’s a good fit, though he had to pass up such a role in Slither.
Sean Gunn looks puny before the might of MEGA SEAN GUNN on the simulcast screen behind him.
A couple minute before 6 came one last special guest: once more, with feeling, Rainn Wilson! You might remember him from such films as Sahara and Smurfs: The Lost Village!
Actually, his book contains a few Sahara anecdotes, including what it was like shooting in some of the same African deserts where Lucas shot Star Wars in his youth.
He declined requests to perform as Dwight for us (“I’m not a trained monkey”) but maintained the same faux-dourness as a sort of understood compromise, though not in the same stilted-dork accent.
Tidbits, Office division:
- “The Injury” was his choice of the moment for the obligatory “favorite Office episode?” ask.
- At the moderator’s request he retold an anecdote he’d used on a recent talk show, about sharing a five-hour flight from Boston to L.A. with a guy bingeing The Office through the entire flight.
- Unused Dwight quote from the writers’ ongoing whiteboard: “Fact: I am faster than 80% of all snakes.”
- If Dwight were an actor, his ideal role would be as the star of Timecop.
- He still does Fantasy Football with his old colleagues. Last time around, sound guy Nick Carbone won.
- No, he won’t be starring in an Office spinoff because they already tried that with “The Farm” as a backdoor pilot. Had it been picked up, the series finale would’ve had Dwight “gored by a bull and eaten by wolves.”
- Yes, he happily borrowed from Mackenzie Crook, who played Dwight’s predecessor Gareth on the original U.K. Office, and has personally thanked Crook in person many times.
- The best bear is a Tibetan sun bear.
Not once did he begin any answer with “FALSE.”
Tidbits, non-Office division:
- He still laments Backstrom‘s cancellation and most enjoyed working with Thomas Dekker as his brother.
- Rob Zombie, whom he worked with on House of 1000 Corpses, owns a goat farm in Connecticut.
- He engaged one youngster at the mic in what I can only call a “ponder-off” staring contest.
- Voice acting is in some respects easier than in-person acting, but he confesses he doesn’t have the more versatile skill set of professional voice actors, as he experienced on Adventure Time as he watched Tom Kenny create brand new voices from the weirdest throwaway descriptions.
- He once did a Peacock travel show called The Geography of Bliss, which might even still be on there along with The Office.
- His recent stage work includes Waiting for Godot last year at L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse.
- He had no anecdotes from his cameo in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen — he met Shia and Michael Bay, he “cashed the paycheck”, and he understands it’s considered the worst, but he wouldn’t know because he claims he’s seen none of them, not even that one.
- He appreciated a question about SoulPancake, his former interfaith community site that was bought by Participant Media and presumed dead after they went out of business. He confirms they’ve regained rights and may be revisiting some of their old videos and materials, as evidenced by recent signs of life on their Facebook page.
- He described a trip to the city of Rishikesh, India, whose tourists are Westerners and small-town Indians, and the latter frequently take pics of the former because that’s something they don’t see every day.
- He rather enjoyed making the film Hesher with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Natalie Portman, which I and several other hundred attendees had never heard of. As of this writing it’s also on Peacock. Yes, really, I just checked.
Wilson exercises his Phone-a-Friend lifeline.
My favorite moment: when another youngster asked if he’s still in touch with his old castmates, he responded by calling one of them and holding his phone up to the mic. They didn’t answer. He hung up and tried someone else. Creed Bratton answered because he is the sort of old person who answers a ringing phone. After Wilson described what’s going on, he responded, “Cool beans! DON’T BELIEVE A WORD THIS TALL MAN SAID,” and remarked about Indiana that he loves our “songs about corn” before Wilson hung up on him.
Around the same time, Oscar Nunez texted him: “At the movies. Call you later.” Wilson responded, “What movie?” If Oscar ever answered, Wilson withheld that potentially sensitive info.
The panel wrapped up at 6:45, whereupon we dragged ourselves and the seventy-six-pound Absolute Multiversity back to the car and drove away, leaving Rainy Wilson and navigating the rainy evening. We looked forward to going comatose in the comfort of our own home and successfully refused to leave the house all day Sunday, not even to step through the front door.
But wait! There’s slightly more! To be concluded!
When asked about his Harry Mudd pin, he confirms “someone” gave it to him earlier. Looks pretty cool.