So I Met James Warhola and Didn't Realize It

I was at the After-life Launch for author C. J. Henderson yesterday, who was a familiar figure at Lunacon, where I could say that I knew "of" him more than I knew him. This CJ-Con was a party in his honor and a celebration of his life. I was hesitant about attending, but the family did want to see a nice showing of people and, unlike people who drove hours to be there, it was less than a mile walk from my house.

As could be expected, there were many other authors in attendance, many old friends who traveled the same con circuit and probably worked for the same companies at one time or another. I tried not to act the over-eager fanboy (it's been a long time since I was a "boy"). Any conversation should be about C. J. or movies or general topics and not, say, talking Patrick Thomas's ear off about Murphy's Lore.

Anyway, there was a facebook page dedicated to the event, and there were supposed to be live updates during the event for those who couldn't make it. (Technical issues, that didn't happen.) But I was looking at the pictures today, and there's a picture of James Warhola, standing in the Art Room, in front of illustrations he did for C. J.'s books. I had met him earlier, but didn't know who he was. He wasn't wearing a name tag (yes, we had those), and I felt odd just asking random people "who are you". If we had exchanged any words, it was probably about the food or where the nearest trash can was. Again, not to be a gushing fanboy, but I probably would have mentioned Guardians and enjoying his work. Granted, off the top of my head, I couldn't have named any cards in particular to claim as my favorite, but I would have said something. Not that I would've brought cards for him to have signed -- it may have been a celebration, but that still would've been tacky.

Photo by Michael H. Hanson Author-Poet‎, CJ-Con - The Afterlife Launch, 8/16/14
Originally posted publicly to Facebook.