It is perhaps a foolhardy admission that I am not a huge Super-hero fan. By this I mean I do not live my life on a countdown to the next film. I have not even seen them all and so I don’t understand each impact and permutation of each character arc and no part of me considers a midnight viewing of any film even if it features my eldest child. And although, from Captain America Civil War onwards, I have very much enjoyed the Avengers and their noble endeavours to save the world, the hysteria bordering on religious fervour has not infected me as yet and even with Tom now firmly on board.
But this is not unusual since I am usually a full decade behind most curves and trends.
So the Marvel mania still takes me by surprise, especially when men of my age gush about their devotion to the MCU and my son included – and this brings me to the phenomenon that is the Comic Con.
A convention centre dedicated to all things comics – the actors, artists, memorabilia and legions of said fans, many of whom are dressed as their heroes and some are tattooed, in a kind of competitive fan-off to establish the most dedicated of all.
I have been to only one Comic Con in my life – and this was only to accompany Tom. It was in Arizona, USA – an eye popping experience – and this weekend, with some trepidation then, I am appearing at the London event at the Excel Centre.
I am not being paid and not doing stand-up – but a Q n A about my oblique connection to the MCU and how a conventional family deals with what is not very conventional at all.
I should have the answers to hand since I spent five years writing Eclipsed which accounts for the process of how Tom has become a genuine ‘superhero’.
A book for this day and age?
What was I thinking? We now live in a time of memes, tweets and posts. People don’t have time to read a whole book – and so nowadays, the writer must become the story teller and in the literal sense of the word. A throwback to how things began when stories were told and shared by word of mouth – long before some clever dick invented writing – and books began their run.
With this in mind, I have plans to create an audible book of Eclipsed. Narrated by me and a few key chapters by Tom – subject to his fee of course, plus his availability and assuming I can negotiate my way through the labyrinth of his ‘people’. I should explain that this project is in the very early stages of development and this means that when it finally becomes available, it is highly likely that audible books will be over at this time; just another curve I am behind and boat I have managed to miss!
So, in the meantime, I continue ploughing my reluctant career furrow and I go in to the weekend with eyes wide open.
Maybe see you there. Have your questions ready. You can ask me anything.
Apart from what is Tom’s phone number, will he marry you, does he have a girlfr…
