Welcome home! Comic Con International 2009 is over and most of you are back home, sorting through your many treasures and trying to remember who that is in the picture you took. I have no memories of 2009 because I didn’t make it this year, even though I’m just a few hours away. But to celebrate in the coming week, I’m going to post a few pictures from my convention archives, pre-digital era. And yes, there will be some scanning involved.

First up are two photos from CCI back when it was called the San Diego Comic Con and back when the year was 1993. The girl in the top photo getting a surprise breast inspection is Lita Ford, once part of an all-girl group called The Runaways (with Joan Jett) and then a very popular and attractive solo act – managed by Ozzie Osbourne’s wife, Sharon Osbourne. Also, having met Lita, pretty darned cool, too.

Malibu Comics at the time had a short-lived imprint called Rock-It Comix, which had been sold to Malibu on the idea that the musician-based comics would definitely – oh, yes sir, it’s like money in the bank - have distribution into record stores (remember those?). That distribution channel never happened – because it turns out not to have been true at all, just wishful thinking said out loud and who could really guarantee something like that? Thus the line was only available in the Direct Market. You can guess how that went.

One of the books that was published, though, was Lita Ford and she generously agreed to show up at the Con for the day and be a good sport, which she was. The cardboard stand-up next to her, by the way, was illustrated by Jim Balent, who also illustrated the book.

And that’s Jim in the bottom photo. He’s on the right. Malibu Comics editor Roland “Mullet” Mann is on the left and Lita provides the filling for the fanboy sandwich.

Jim currently runs his own publishing company where he creates Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose (link may be a little NSFW, depending on where you’re working). The current issue, #57, goes on sale July 29th. Just a few short days away, but you can order in advance.

More photos to come.

[Fans of The Runaways already know that there’s a movie in the works, starring Dakota Fanning (as Cherie Currie), Kristen Stewart (from Twilight – she plays Joan Jett) and Alessandra Torresani as Lita Ford. MTV has more on the movie.]

[Photo © Tom K. Mason]