Thursday, April 24, 2008
Con Report Addendum
Those boys are handsome with their open line drawings.
I also saw Dennis Hopeless briefly. Other people I saw or met and enjoyed rubbing up against: Phil Hester, Robbi Rodriguez, Greg Thompson (though I never saw Jen), Paul Maybury, Tim Seeley, Dean Haspiel, Liz Gerhlein, Andy Serwin of Wizard, Sterling Gates, Mike Perkins, Marlin Shoop, John Lucas and Mindy (two of the absolute most amazing people associated with the comic books), Will Dennis, Pat Loika, Andy Schmidt, Lee Loughridge, Pornsak Pichetchote, Mark Sable, Alex Segura, Fletcher Chufong, Arvid Nelson, Josh Dysart, Chris Powell, Aubrey Sitterson, Josh Williams, Chris Burnham, Ian Sattler, Jim Valentino, Joe Keatinge, Traci Hui, Randy Jarrell, Joe Nozemak, Becky Cloonan (so damn good), Filip Sablik, Christos Gage, Phil Noto, David Gallaher, Rachel Gluckstern, Jeanine Schaefer, Nachie Castro, Ken Levin, and so many more.
Two regrets: I walked past Kerry Gammil sketching at a table, and wished I'd stopped to shake his hand and thank him for being nice to me when I was about ten years old at Dallas conventions. And Siuntres told me Irwin Hassen was there somewhere. Wish I'd had a copy of my Wildcat story to give to him. It's probably one of the first Wildcat stories in a long time to directly link to his original work...
A kind of Con Report
Jason Aaron
I owe Andy a script, and Ramon is doing amazing work on my Wildcat story for JSA Classified, and it was gratifying to have people come up to me all weekend and insist that we badger DC into letting us do a regular Wildcat book. Andy B. was doing his best to drink the bar dry before it was time to split. Before Remender, Hawthorne, Mike's friend Pierre and I left to go meet Ivan Brandon's crew at the Irish Rogue, Brian Azzarello summoned me over to discuss a "mystery authors" even we've both been invited to in November up around Milwaukee. Brian told me a funny story about how he "insulted" Fraction by asking if he was the guy who wrote Hawaiian Dick...
Azz
The Irish Rogue was a great time. Bumped into CB Cebulski (another one of the nicest guys in comics), Jade Dodge, Matt Camp, and the usual gang of idiots: Paul Azaceta, Ivan, Andy McDonald, Ivan's better half Kristin, Rick Spears (but no Rob G.)...Esad Ribic was with Ivan, along with Nicky Barucci (who regaled us with tales of his bowel movements). Spears and I vented about the industry, and then argued the Clash, before Ribic, Spears, Ivan, Remender and I started debating the music of the 90s. Those guys were all veterans of the punk wars, whereas I spent the decade on the fringes of every scene. For me the 90s were about Britpop (yes, I defenses Oasis), twee and emerging singer-songwriters like Elliott Smith.
Saturday was eventful. Shawn Crystal was kind enough to treat me to lunch at Burgers and Cupcakes. I always enjoy hanging with Shawn. Had a long conversation with Top Cow's Matt Hawkins, did a little video thing for Word Balloon's John Siuntres, and had a signing at the DC booth, followed by missed meetings and the Wildstorm panel. The panel was at six o'clock, and as a result a little lacking in energy, but I did get to meet and chat with Keith Giffen about a project, before listening to Keith mutter annoyed observations about the panel for an hour. I bumped into Larsen on the way back to the hotel, and asked who he had in mind to draw a recent Next Issue Project story that I wrote. I was kind of jazzed to hear him say he thought he might do it, although he hadn't read it yet, so...
Shawn Crystal
At the Wildstorm dinner that night, Haun and I sat with Tom Fowler (who's now doing regular work for Mad), and Glenn Fabry, whom I'd never met before. Glenn turned out to be a delightful dinner companion, and we discussed movies, television, sports, books, and, of course, art supplies, before Glenn and a number of other Brits wandered off looking for a pub to watch a boxing match. We soon ended up at another local bar, where we gathered Chris Neseman from Around Comics and KC homeboy Ande Parks, who joined our sordid crew. Ande later took Jeremy hat shopping. Ande is a man of fine tastes.
Ande Parks
After gathering Shawn Crystal and Andrew Robinson, we made our way to another bar (the Gaff?), where we found Doyle, Siglain, McKeever, Norton, and the Kids in the Hall's Kevin McDonald. Latour and his gal pal arrived before long, and we spent the evening drinking and debating (Latour and I ended up arguing politics, despite sharing nearly identical political views).
And that was my con in a nutshell.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
New York Comic-Con Memories
Sunday, April 13, 2008
NEW YORK COMIC-CON SCHEDULE
3pm-4pm: Signing at the Image booth (I'll have some book on hand to buy)
SATURDAY, APRIL 19th
1pm-2pm: Signing at the DC/Wildstorm booth
6pm-7pm: Wildstorm Panel (room 10E7)
SUNDAY, APRIL 20th
12pm-1pm: Signing at the DC/Wildstorm booth
Still trying to work out Image signing times.