Happy National Gorilla Suit Day!

§ January 31st, 2006 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on Happy National Gorilla Suit Day!


Okay, it’s not about a gorilla, but I am finally the proud owner of Rudy in Hollywood, the only collection of William Overgard’s short-lived, highly regarded, and mostly forgotten comic strip about the talking chimpanzee trying to make a showbiz comeback. (I’ve discussed it previously here.) I managed to snap it up for under four bucks, plus another four for shipping…so it cost me less than eight bucks to get a copy of a book I’ve been trying to find, on and off, for the better part of two decades. Sorta anticlimatic, when it’s put that way.

Also, I’m not quite the proud owner just yet…I only won the auction on the eBay a couple days ago, so with any luck it should be in the tender mercies of the post office right now, winging its way to my waiting mail receptacle. Er, yeah.

However, I do believe I have an actual comics-related gorilla suit story to share with you. Former coworker Rob, pal Fred, and I all piled into Fred’s car one Saturday morning in the mid-90s, and drove up to San Jose for the second Alternative Press Expo.

We were at the convention pretty much from the moment it opened until they turned off the lights and kicked us out, but we did take the occasional break from the APE convention to wander the streets of San Jose and take in the sights. As we were leaving the convention hall on one of these breaks, we ran into the convention mascot…a fellow, wearing a gorilla suit, who was wearing a convention t-shirt over that. Well, by God, I needed to have a picture taken with this gorilla-suited gentleman, and, arm in arm, he and I posed for a picture. Afterward, we bid our tearful goodbyes to our gorilla-suited friend, and continued on with our comics-filled day.

Alas, there is a sad ending to this tale, as back in the old days, cameras used to use this thing called “film” that some of you younger folks may not be familiar with, and the problem with film is that, sometimes, it doesn’t always develop properly. Thus am I left with only my fond memories of that day, with no photographic proof of the event.

And that is my only comics-related gorilla suit story, as brief and sad, and mostly pointless, as it was.

Happy National Gorilla Suit Day.

Special thanks to The Ferrett for his timely reminder of National Gorilla Suit Day. Be sure to check out his new webcomic (with artist Veronica Pare) Home on The Strange.

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