Stan Lee receives award at Virgin store; "evil" writers not welcome

Yesterday marked the start of the New York Comic Convention, with a day of ICV2 panels for the press and industry, and of course, parties. Certainly the most elaborate party of the night took place at the Virgin store, where servers dressed in Spidey shirts and webbed arm coverings offered "Spidey juice" and tiny, elaborate snacks to the crowd, all to honor special guest Stan Lee, who was introduced by Peter David and given the sort of comics achievement award that you would generally expect Stan Lee to get.

In a normal and less hilarious world the story would stop there, but the NYCC circus rolled on. Remember my recent blog post about why celebrity creators are no threat to the livelihood of comics writers? Actually, maybe you don't remember it, since it largely consisted of observations and criticisms about celebrities as dilettantes and comics as movie storyboards that should come as news to exactly no one in the industry.

Well, it turns out that this criticism was SO upsetting to Virgin that I have been declared persona non grata at all Virgin events as a result. Shortly after entering the party, Chief Marketing Officer Larry Liebermsn walked up to me, called me an "evil writer" (yup!) and walked away. According to another friend nearby in the crowd, he subsequently went up to the employee he thought had let me in and started fingerstabbing the air and yelling that he'd made it very clear I wasn't to be allowed at any Virgin events, and that there was no excuse for this.

I am 0% kidding. This actually happened! So caveat scriptor, guys. Critical analysis of the Virgin business model means no Spidey juice for you. More amusingly, it may also provoke people to speak and behave like Dr. Doom, and for that reason is highly encouraged.