The "Thurkins" soap opera: Gotham Nights (Toonseum)

Saturday night Dave and I went to Gotham Nights, a fundraiser for the Pittsburgh Toonseum. (Current exhibits are for the Care Bears 30th anniversary and Batman.)

Scott McDaniel lent some of his original work on Batman comic books to the museum and it was really neat to see it on display.

We attended the VIP event, which started at the museum itself and Jim Krenn spoke for a little bit. It's the first time I've seen him in person (he's one of the people on the morning show on WDVE here in Pittsburgh).

Jim Krenn dressed as the joker

With Scott in front of some of his artwork

After Jim Krenn talked, we looked at some of the art and met some local and national celebrities. I'm not sure what ties George Takei had but he was there and we even got to shake his hand and talk to him for a minute.

with George Takei

with Jim Krenn, Sally Wiggin, Scott McDaniel, and Joe Wos

Rick Sebak and Rob Rogers were also there but weren't in any pictures with us. Although, we did get a picture of Rob Rogers similar to the one above but without Dave and me.

This is the mask that Christian Bale wore in the Dark Knight rises. It's hard to tell but it would be pretty big on me.

Then we moved over to the banquet hall for the Toonseum where they had a number of auctions and more food/drink.

Joe Wos and George Takei posing for the camera

There was a clown at a keyboard dressed just like the guys from the bank robbery in the start of Batman: The Dark Knight. I have to say, it was a little creepy to see him up there. You couldn't even tell who he was looking at because of the mask. Below is a picture showing where he is compared to everyone and then a close up.

Bane breaking Scott's back (like Batman in the comics)

They had a set up to make masks and pins. So here I am in a pin and a mask. Thank goodness one of the wives of the board members helped me make it. I'm terribly at that artsy stuff. I think this will be my Halloween costumer this year.

Do I look like Catwoman at all?

And they had a bunch of these posters with a cut out for a face. Dave decided he wanted to get a picture as the hulk. Rob Rogers actually took a picture of me taking a picture of Dave, but it was so dark in there I'm not sure how Rob's picture turned out. Everyone there was really nice and down to earth.

We bid on one of the items that was a night in a hotel; I can't remember if the one we bid on included dinner. It was a silent auction and we didn't stick around until the end to hear who the winners were. But we never got a call so I guess we didn't win. I also wonder how much all the auctions ended up going for. There were some neat prizes- some comic related and others not at all. One was a week in a condo near Disney along with 4 park hopper passes. Another was a cast Jim Krenn wore that was signed by a lot of Pittsburgh celebrities. And I kind of eyed up a Care Bear basket, although a lot of it was really for kids (backpack, flip flops, etc.) but it had two decent sized stuffed animals.