Devotees flock to meet visionary mind behind 'Babylon 5'
Sunday, May 9, 2004
By SUZANNE TRAVERS
HERALD NEWS
HAWTHORNE - They met for the first time in person Saturday on the back steps of Hawthorne High School, but as fans of the writer J. Michael Straczynski, they've been online friends for years.
Aisling Grey, 41, drove up from Malvern, Pa. Jan Schroder, who did not give her age, flew up for a 24-hour visit from Orlando, Fla. They joined others from as far away as Quebec and Massachusetts who came to see the Paterson-born Straczynski, creator of "Babylon 5," the science-fiction television series that ran from 1993 to 1998.
"When I watched 'Babylon 5,' I was like, 'That's it,'" said fan Mickey Ellis, 34, who drove from Rochester, N.Y., and was inspired by the show's cosmic view of ethics, philosophy and mortality. "That says everything I've been trying to formulate for a few years."
Straczynski, 49, who also has written episodes of "Murder, She Wrote," "The Twilight Zone," and "Walker, Texas Ranger" and writes "Amazing Spider-Man" for Marvel Comics, was the headliner at Hawthorne High School's first-ever comics convention, organized by art teacher Allan Rosenberg and students in the cartooning club.
In the high school cafeteria, dealers stacked piles of DVDs, action figures, comic books and posters along the walls. Approximately 40 artists, many from New Jersey and New York, manned tables covered with pencil drawings and comic books. Not everyone was there to see Straczynski. Sisters Sarah Lagattuta, 16, and Tina, 14, of Garfield, said they came for the free drawing lessons and to see Japanese animation.
Tina said she loves the way comic-book storytelling combines words and pictures. As their mother Janet urged them to get in line for a Straczynski autograph, Tina narrated their actions, comic-book style. "And now the two siblings are being pulled away as the older sister hits the younger sister with the poster that she got for free!"
Passaic resident and cartoonist Howard Simpson said he enjoys meeting fans at conventions, and that he was glad to attend one in his own back yard. He draws for Disney, Looney Tunes and DC Comics. He drew a picture of Scooby-Doo in a sketchbook for Stephanie Sheng, 3, and her father Lambert, 38, of East Hanover.
"Drawing is a very solitary thing - not lonely, but solitary," Simpson said. "It's nice to get out and interact with the fans."
Organizers said the event drew several hundred people and raised thousands of dollars to buy supplies for the school's art department.
Straczynski was the big draw. More than 70 people attended an hour-long question-and-answer session with him in the afternoon.
Never mind that "Babylon 5" ended in 1998, said Grey, who described the online friends who communicate at rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.mod as a bunch of "deep thinkers."
"He really is one of the few writers who doesn't dumb things down, and that's why we like him. There's so much to talk about that six years after the show ended, we're still talking about plot points," she said. "Every time we watch that final episode, we know what's going to happen, but we weep."
Straczynski said he has not attended an East Coast comics convention in a decade and had not set foot in New Jersey for 30 years. He said he sent an online message to his fans telling them about the Hawthorne fund-raiser and promising that he'd be there.
His original plan had been simply to write a check, but after speaking with Rosenberg, he decided to help in person.
"If there is any purpose to my having celebrity - and writers have the most minor celebrity there is - it's to use it to do something good from time to time."
He said he raised more than $1,000 Saturday by charging a dollar per autograph. Normally, he limits them to five per person, but lifted that quota for the fund-raiser. He said one person presented him with 98 items and he signed them all. Later Straczynski wrote his own check for another $1,000 and presented it to Rosenberg.
Straczynski was born in Paterson in 1954 and went to elementary school here, though he said he can't remember where. Driving through Paterson to Hawthorne Saturday, he said he recognized parts of town near Broadway where he lived, and said the city "looks about the same, oddly enough." His family moved every six months or so, sometimes changing their last name.
"My dad had a unique economic philosophy - blow into town, rack up a lot of bills, and leave," he said. As a child, he also lived in Newark, Matawan, Chicago, Texas and Los Angeles.
Still, he said, being from New Jersey is a large part of who he is, and in his stories, he takes a good-natured potshot at Jersey "wherever I can - it's a nod to the old hometown."
Straczynski said he learned to read from comic books, and also gleaned his sense of ethics from them. Comic books taught him that "you get to be a hero every once in a while.
"I get to do that today."
Reach Suzanne Travers|at (973) 569-7167 |or
travers@northjersey.com.
