Nice Boy of the Week: Robert Buckley

You never know who you’ll bump into at Comic Con. Sure, geek icons like Joss Whedon and Brent Spiner are often spotted in the wild, but it’s the people you’d never expect to see there that give me the biggest thrill. Case in point: when Bethanne and I were waiting outside the Omni on Friday night, waiting for our ride to pick us up post-party (don’t drink and drive, kids), an attractive but tired-looking blond guy walked by hauling a suitcase and overflowing Dark Horse Comics swag bag.

“That guy looks familiar,” I inner-monologued. “Who is he? Blogger? Actor? Writer?” Unfortunately, I’m pretty bad with remembering names that go with familiar faces. I’d just mistaken a network exec for JJ Abrams, so I wasn’t feeling super confident. While I stood there trying to place him, he turned around and walked back into the hotel. Oh well. But then, a couple of minutes later, here he came again. I was ready this time.

“Psst! Who is that?” I asked Bethanne.

“Ohmigod! That’s Robert Buckley!” she answered.

“Of course!” I exclaimed. (We were speaking in exclamations by that point in the evening.)

I briefly debated whether to approach him, then thought why not? I touched his arm and said, “Are you in a hurry?”

“Yeah, sort of…,” he said, looking distracted.

“OK. I just wanted to tell you that we’re fans of your work.”

That brought a smile and a “thank you”. It turns out that he’d had the valet bring his car around, but took so long checking out of the hotel that they re-parked it. He’d finally ironed that out, so while he was a little harried and ready to head home, he spent a few minutes talking with us while he waited for them to bring it around again. We asked what project he was promoting at Comic Con (One Tree Hill hadn’t been there, so we were stumped), and he explained that he was looking for potential projects to option. Eying his giant bag of swag, we all agreed that he’s a big ol’ geek like the rest of us.

All too soon the car had arrived – darn those efficient valets! – but Rob saw us going for the camera and graciously offered to take a photo. For that and the lovely conversation, we bestow the title of Nice Boy of the Week on Robert Buckley.

One Tree Hill returns to the CW on Tuesday, September 14 at 8/7c.

You never know who you'll meet at Comic Con!