Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson have been writing together for years. While you probably know then for writing very different books, The Bridge to Never Land is the 5th book in the Peter Pan mythology they created.
As they acted out a scene (wearing pirate hats and using fake voices) they entertained the small crowd. Their readers ranged from 10 to 40 years and a lot of their readers have grown up on these books.
After their reading they answered questions and the thing I noticed first is how much of an ’odd couple’ they are. Barry is very casual in white t-shirt and relaxed fit demin. Ridley wore a button down shirt and a sports jacket. Barry scanned the crowd and chose people to answer at random. Ridley methodically worked his way through the crowd. They talked about their writing styles and they differed drastically and you had to wonder how they could publish anything. Ridley plotted out the chapters and Barry wrote when and where the muses took him. Even before I saw them pick up their pens I knew which one was right handed and which was left handed. They were stereotypical left brain vs right brain people. Even with the differences mentioned, they seemed to genuinely enjoy each other’s company
Many parents accompanied their young adult children and expressed their thrill about the new book and the pleasure they had reading the stories. Repeatedly they were told how the children grew up with the books.
When they mentioned there might be a play made from the story I wasn’t surprised. Disney is the publisher of their books and Disney has had some success on Broadway. So that led me to my question: ComicCon.
They would be naturals there. They would have a huge audience and their reading would be very entertaining for the little ones. Disney also has a large presence at ComicCon so it would be a good way to get a feel of the public about taking this to the stage.
Dave Berry seemed to perk up. Ridley Pearson was concentrating on signing and the question seemed to bounce off him. Dave asked Ridley if he ever attended or heard of ComicCon. Dave excitedly tried to describe the convention.
Now you know me, I’ll talk ComicCon forever. If Dave was getting excited and wanted to talk I’d be willing to talk. As I was trying to wait for Ridley’s response and see where the conversation would lead, I had fleeting fantasies about Dave asking me for my opinion. Asking what they should plan for ComicCon. My fantasies grew to where I’d get backstage access and meet all of the stars that showed up.
Then the bubble bust and I heard the bookstore clerk ask me to move along. I never heard the Ripley’s reply and my fantasy ended.
And that’s how it goes. I was gumming up the works and the line needed to be processed.
AH
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