So many years ago – wanna say 2013 or 14, back when I was still living with my folks, my mom casually approached me and asked me if I’d ever heard of this thing called Comic-con. I, who wears my dork-ness on my sleeve, raised an eyebrow at her and told her that, ah, yes, yes I’d heard of it.
I froze in shock. Uh, would I like to go one of the most famous and coolest cons ever?! Yes. Yes I would. But me, failing in all social matters, had no one to go with, hence never attending. But with mom? Sure, why not! I even cosplayed as black and white Minnie Mouse. We had the day planned out in advance, and on the day of, I was initially having a blast.
Meeting my favorite comic book authors/illustrators? Seeing voice actors in the flesh? Buying rare merch? Seeing all these amazing costumes? I was in heaven. But as the day went on, I noticed my mom was… well, she was smiling, yeah. Nodding along, happy that I was happy. Content, perhaps, but that was it.
At one point, we were sitting at a Disney panel. They were talking about an upcoming movie (Tomorrow Land) starring George Clooney. The other stars of the movie were there to discuss, but Clooney wasn’t – if I remember right, he recently got married and was away on vacation.
As I sat there, glancing at my mother, a case of Bad Brain began to set in. Was she only here to indulge me? Was she maybe embarrassed, sitting next to a girl in her 20s decked in mouse ears and oversized gloves? How pathetic was I, dragging my poor mother to a place like this for hours on end? My usual self-loathing grew and grew the longer I sat there.
Meanwhile, one of the actors, Hugh Laurie, was playfully badmouthing Clooney. After the latest spew of insults, gasps and cheers began to start far over in the right side of the room. It was obvious what had happened, not that I cared too much. I like the guy, but I wouldn’t say I was a big fan of Clooney.
Let me preface that normally? My mother is a woman who doesn’t like too much attention on herself. She prefers things to be quiet and calm. There are times when I’ve been overly excited when she’s told me to calm down and stop making a spectacle. It takes great anger for her to raise her voice.
“IS THAT GEORGE CLOONEY?!” She screamed in a voice so loud I almost fell out of my chair. “OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, HE’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!” She frantically whipped out her phone. “WHO DO I CALL – NO, TEXT- I HAVE TO TELL – OH MY GOOOOOD!”
Suffice to say, I was gobsmacked. I have never seen my mother like this. I remember when I was little, I found what I thought was a photo of myself in my grandmother’s house in a dress I didn’t remember wearing. My grandmother told me it was actually a picture of my mother – apparently we looked a lot alike.
But now, for the first time, could I see my personality in my mother. Because this was how I reacted upon meeting comic book master James Silvani, voice actor legend Jim Cummings, and so on and so forth. My Bad Brain promptly vanished, and I wore a smile that lasted the whole con.
To this day, my mother giddily tells people she “met” George (she did not) , and until Covid came along, we made it a mother-daughter tradition to keep going to the con. We’ve had good times and bad times there, but I’ll never forget the day I found the fangirl side of my mother.
Apparently, however, my mother was.
So when George Clooney walked on stage, my mother, for lack of a better expression, promptly lost her goddamn mind.