If Anything Goes Wrong, Brian K. Vaughan Will Be My Constant

by Teresa Jusino

OK. Some of you might have noticed (from my bio, reviews, and the mentioning him even in articles that have nothing to do with him that I’m a huge fan of Brian K. Vaughan. After all the acting, producing, and entertainment PR jobs I’ve held in my life that have taken the luster off of meeting celebrities, he’s one of the few people left on the planet that gets me star struck, even though he’s not really a “star” per se. Leave it to me to be all twitterpated about the writers. It’s my way.

So after over a year of reading and reviewing his comics, watching his work on Lost, and being a regular visitor to his MySpace blog and the sadly defunct BKV Cabal message board, I finally had the chance to meet him on June 26th at Midtown Comics in NYC, which was to be his last signing this year. Can you guess how excited I was when I heard he was going to be in New York?

Answer: very.

One of the things I love about signings, though, is the standing in line, listening to and participating in the random conversations going on around you. Some highlights from the BKV line:

- I was compelled to tell this guy how much I loved his shirt. It read: MEAT IS MURDER. Tasty, tasty murder… (apologies to all the vegans I just offended, but that shirt was hilarious).

- two teenage boys behind me talking about their “histories” of reading comics, followed by the gentleman in his fifties behind them commenting on the fact that he’d been reading comics since before they were born

- as I stood at the head of the line outside Midtown Comics beside one of their employees, a woman approached me to ask what the line was about:

“It’s for a Brian K. Vaughan signing.”

*blank stare*

“He’s a pretty well-known comic book writer.”

*blanker stare*

“He also writes for the TV show, Lost.”

“OH!” the woman exclaimed, then walked away.

The Midtown employee and I exchanged a knowing glance and sighed.

“You gotta bring up the TV show…” I said.

“I know” he replied, shaking his head and smiling.

Once upstairs in the store, my stomach began tying itself in knots. Here I was, about to meet the man whose work I’ve read more than anyone else’s in the past year, and I had no idea what to say. Also, I didn’t want a repeat of what’s happened to me at other signings, where I’ve been rushed and barely given time to mutter thank you before I was guided away. I was able to watch two or three people before me approach his table, though, and this eased my nervousness. I watched as he took his time signing two capuchin monkey stuffed animals for a girl while asking her about the “zombie noir” she’s been working on. I watched him pose for several pictures. I listened as he asked a recent college graduate about where she went to school and how she liked it. He was actually interested in people, not just in how they related to him and his work, but as individuals. It was cool to see. Finally, it was my turn to approach, clutching my copies of Pride of Baghdad and the last issue of Y: The Last Man…

Before I get to that, there’s a smidgen of backstory. As many of you know, I was active during the WGA Strike this past year, trying my best to get fans involved in speaking out on behalf of the writers to the networks and their sponsors. I drafted a post that I put up on a strike blog I kept as well as posted on various message boards and forums I visited. I sent it to Brian via MySpace, because he’d been keeping fans updated about the strike via his blog, and I wanted him to know that some of us were trying to help. He ended up liking it enough to want to repost it. However, I need to stress that other than this brief MySpace communication, we’ve never actually met before.

Which is why I was surprised when, as I walked up to the table and before I could open my mouth, he greeted me with a Hey! How are you?

I glanced around to see if he had seen someone else he knows. Then I realized he was addressing me:

ME (shocked): Uh…good…

BKV: Yeah…Teresa, right? You write for that….that….Pink Raygun website, right? And you were really helpful with the strike and stuff. Yeah! How are you?

ME (bloody dumbfounded): Uh…woah! Yeah. That’s me.

BKV (shrugging): I’m really good with faces, so…

Clearly! Except that during the strike, my MySpace profile picture wasn’t of me, but of a sign that said “Real Fans Support the Writers”, and after that, my profile pic was of the side of my face as I read a Harry Potter book, so there must have been some looking at my profile pics going on, which I find very interesting. Even big-time writers waste time by pouring over the MySpace profiles of strangers! (Oh, man! Did he see the one of me in a red nightie dressed as a Skanky Devil Republican for Halloween?! Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod…)

ANYWAY.

ME (handing him my books): Aw, man! I came here all prepared to re-introduce myself and have you not remember who I am! You totally stole my thunder!

BKV (smiling): Sorry!

Then, as he signs one:

BKV: So…how’s things?

MY INNER MONOLOGUE: HOW’S THINGS?! YOU’RE BRIAN K. MOTHEREFFING VAUGHAN! THAT’S HOW’S THINGS!

ME (feigning nonchalance): Eh. Keeping myself busy. Trying to do more writing actually…

I told him that, in addition to the things I write for Pink Raygun, I’m also working on a collection of short stories. “Prose?” he asked. “Yup” I said. And he seemed really interested. I got the impression that prose is something he’d like to try sometime. You know, after he’s done with his creator-owned comics. And Lost. And his screenplays. He asked me how the work was going, and since he sounded like he genuinely wanted to hear about it, I told him. Honestly. I told him that it was hard, and that I’ve “been rejected by some of the finest publications in the country.”

BKV: Oh, yeah. When I was starting out, I used to take all my rejection letters and put them up on a bulletin board.

ME: Oh, I save mine, too. I have a folder for them.

BKV: Good! They’re good to save…

ME: This way, when I make it big, I can write back to those people and say Ha! Told you so!

BKV (smiling): Well, actually, I was going to say it keeps you humble, but…you know, whatever.

Humble. Riiiiiight. *hangs head sheepishly*

As we talked a little about writing, I got to thinking how strange it is that we were at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts at the same time. I was an incoming freshman in the Drama program when he was a senior studying Film and Dramatic Writing. Our paths might have crossed at 721 Broadway, or in Washington Square Park, and neither one of us knew it. And here, our paths were converging again. Who knows where the writing will take us, and whether our paths will cross again because of it? Life is funny that way…

Then I got to thinking I haven’t even had a chance to geek out about his work, because we’ve been too busy having a real conversation. Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever said anything to him about his work. I never told him about being so moved when I read the last issue of Y: The Last Man that I cried in my cubicle at work. I never told him that, even though I don’t write comics, his work inspires me and informs my own. But I don’t think it was necessary. I think he knows.

As I walked away from the table, I was interviewed by a reporter from PopCultureShock about my experience with BKV. I don’t know if I made any sense, because I was so jazzed by the meeting I couldn’t really use words. But I did have the wherewithal to plug Pink Raygun, so I guess my faculties weren’t entirely eroded. You can catch that video interview soon…

But I couldn’t have asked for a better first meeting with Brian K. Vaughan. He really impressed me with his politeness, friendliness, and his seemingly genuine interest in others. I wish him all the best with his selling out in L.A. And I look forward to reading some BKV prose someday. I’ll be gentle with my criticism. Promise.

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TERESA JUSINO was born on the same day that Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn’t think so. As a writer, her work has appeared in Elmont Life newspaper, and on the sadly defunct website, CentralBooking.com. She is currently at work on a collection of short stories. As a geek, Teresa loves Star Trek, Lost, comics, and anything Joss Whedon ever touched. Also, she has a fangirl *squee-ing* crush on Brian K. Vaughan, which is now being rivaled by her burgeoning crush on Robert Downey Jr. in his Iron Man suit.

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