NOCC: Peter Mayhew Book Reading
Company: Wizard World Product: New Orleans Comic Con 2012 Coverage
Everyone's favorite Wookie, Peter Mayhew, was at this year's New Orleans Comic Con, and where most speakers took the the Q&A route, Mayhew and his wife, Angie Mayhew, performed a reading of one of the books featuring Mayhew, not Chewbacca mind you, but Mayhew. The book My Favorite Giant is a discussion between Mayhew and a little girl, Katie, where Mayhew teaches the girl about how people used to treat those that are different, but also how people can get past those differences and accept each other. Mayhew's book is a great message where he explains what it was like growing up and how he didn't really feel like he fit in until he got to play Chewbacca in Star Wars. On set, he met Kenny Baker, the man under the dome of R2-D2. It was the friendship of the little man, and many of the other people in the movie, that made him feel much better about his height.
Mayhew and his wife wrote both this book and Growing Up Giant. Where the first book was designed to teach acceptance in general, Growing Up Giant focuses on Mayhew's personal life and what it was like to always be the tallest kid in the class. While both have the same goal, the later book really goes into a lot of detail about Mayhew's experiences, while still remaining both kid-friendly and interesting for the younger readers. Both books are highly recommended for any Star Wars family with little ones around. While the reading was good, that wasn't all the Mayhews had to talk about. They were proud to announce that they were granted official non-profit status (501c ... yes 501st for those keen Star Wars fans out there) for the Peter Mayhew Foundation. While Angie and Peter are still trying to decide exactly what they want to do with the foundation, they feel it is a great starting point for many good deeds. In a similar announcement, they were able to finally claim the URL www.chewbacca.com which will tie in nicely with their existing website WookieeWarehouse.com where Mayhew regularly posts about his upcoming appearances.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
Related Links: Peter Mayhew on IMDb.com Peter Mayhew Foundation Home Page Chewbacca.com WookieeWarehouse Buy My Favorite Giant on Amazon Buy Growing Up Giant on Amazon New Orleans Comic Con Home Page
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