July 28 - Joss Whedon (Dark Horse Booth)

by-Monique and Nathan (we both wrote in first person so it may get a little confusing :) )

My son Ronan is a cub scout.  He did a fund raiser for a womans rights organization: Equality Now. He raised about $450.  Through various channels, Joss found out about this and wanted to meet Ronan.  So he had his assistant give us a call and arranged to have us show up at the Dark Horse booth just before his signing. MIKE YOU ROCK!  We were given green wristbands and ushered into the backroom where each of us, including my best friend Heather, had a few moments to talk with Joss.  My youngest son started off by saying to Joss, "We need Equality, and Kinda Now!"  Joss bent down and gave him his full attention while he said it, and grinned a big Joss grin when he understood what Riley was saying, both of our boys really love Joss's Equality Now speech, especially the part where he talks to himself as a reporter, so our youngest, Riley, kept saying, "Do you like to talk to yourself? I think that's funny" and Joss just smiled at him confused so I explained.  Then Ronan stepped forward with the check for Equality Now and a comic book, he had made for Joss.  (Ronan makes his own comic books based on Sonic the Hedgehog.  In this particular comic, he cast Joss Whedon as a bad guy, and had Joss capture all the male characters, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, so that one of the supporting female characters had to save the day.  It was very cute but I got the feeling that Joss wasn't entirely sure what to make of it.  I could have explained it to him like I just did here, but I was a bit frozen and didn't think of a cool rational way to explain it till just about now.  I would have just babbled like an idiot had I tried it then.  Here see for yourself : Ronan's Comic.)So, then we did some pictures, and I reminded Joss that we had failed to meet on 3 seperate occaisions.  (My wife had gone to conventions and I had not, and at Wizard World, she actually had him tell me on the phone that I still wasn't getting to meet him.)  He smiled and said something like "It looks like you made it this time.  .. er what's left of you".  (I broke my clavical one week ago today, and am in a cast.  My right arm is almost completly useless right now.)  I told him it was a good thing he didn't need me to sign anything.  (NO I didnt but that would have been a funny thing to say.  stupid hindsight!)  I did thank him for Buffy and told him how it had inspired me to start writing again, and I found that I am generally a less grumpy person when I write.  He understood.  He said that sometimes he finds himself in a murderous rage, and suddenly realizes he hasn't written in a few days.  He likened writing to a drug.  (Not that he's on any medication, he was quick to point out.)  Indicating my arm I reminded him that I recently have developed a healthy appreciation for painkillers. That momenet right there between Joss and my hubby was so cool for me and made the whole trip, my hubby had always wanted to be able to meet Joss as a fellow writer and be accepted as thus instead of just another fan boy like the rest of us :) This moment was it for him, and because it was more than he ever dreamed, I am just so thrilled. Then I told him about my association with saveangel.org, and invited him to join.  I handed him the memory book, and press kit and asked him how he felt about an Angel movie.  I cannot emphasize enough that there are no direct quotes here.  But he basically indicated that he had finally managed to get Ripper greenlt, but trying to get David on board, was nowhere near the difficulty of getting a studio to back him at this point.  Least thats what I got from it.  Some of the other party members (wife, son, etc got there chance to talk now.) Heather stepped up and told Joss hello and got her picture with him and had him sign a picture she had purchased last year at B3 of Joss holding a pink backpack, I had the same pin and Joss Whedon and Mike had never seen the picture before and really liked it!  We got a family shot with Joss and then one each of Ronan, Riley and Nate, (Mikey and I had already had several pics at other meetings we were fortunate to run into Joss Whedon. We had purchased the posters from the Browncoat booth earlier and had Joss sign the Londinium as it was such a limited print :) He signed it:

"To The Darlings-

With much Thankage

-Joss Whedon

 As we were leaving Ronan said, Hey Joss.  We need... (He pointed to the word Equality on his shirt), and kinda ...(He pointed to the word Now).  We were wearing our Equality Now shirts at the time. It was the cutest moment ever.

Joss Whedon is truly an amazing man, he can make even the smallest thing seem so big and important, the smallest person seem like the most important in his eyes at that moment. Not one of us in that room will ever forget our encounter with Joss, and I hope that it enforces in my boys minds just what a blessing charity work can be. Thank You Joss Whedon, Mike, all our fellow Browncoats and friends.