Special Moments at 2011 DragonCon

Long before H.o.p. was born I was taping those Ralph Bakshi episodes of “The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse” to make sure I had them when they were no longer airing.

Then here was H.o.p. and it was obvious he was on the art track. I pulled out those Bakshi tapes and made them a big part of his animation appreciation from early on. I put them on. Said, “This, now this is some great animation, courtesy Ralph Bakshi.” And he loved them, memorizing all the episodes that I had.

This was H.o.p.’s third year at Dragoncon. And who was there this year? Ralph Bakshi. Talk about dreams come true. All H.o.p. could think about was how Bakshi was going to be there. Every day was planned around when Ralph Bakshi would be presenting. H.o.p. had me sit down and watch “Wizards” with him in preparation. He made it an official, totally devoted screening of “Wizards” so we could discuss it together. He wasn’t going to let me be distracted by anything else. And discuss it we did. He kept stopping it to talk about it.

He was determined to buy Bakshi merch, too, to help support Bakshi’s new animation. H.o.p. has seen how we try to support in our little ways what other artists do, and I don’t know if that’s influenced him or if he’s a natural for it but all he could talk about was wanting to buy Bakshi merch to help out.

He did a drawing for Bakshi.

H.o.p.’s going to remember 2011 Dragoncon for a long time to come, as can be attested by this photo of him with Ralph Bakshi.

I had no idea those many years ago when I was taping those Mighty Mouse episodes that one day there would be H.o.p. and he would be a Bakshi freak, would meet Bakshi at 2011 DragonCon, and that Ralph Bakshi would turn out to be such a fantastic soul!!!

Thank you to Ralph Bakshi for such great, educational presentations and for taking the time out to give encouragement to a devoted Bakshi fan and hopeful future animator.

Wish I could have been there but DragonCon is expensive so H.o.p’s dad has always taken DragonCon duty for some good father-son time. Maybe next year.

P.S. You can order Wizards through Bakshi’s website. And the New Adventures of Mighty Mouse is now available at Amazon.