Tuesday, July 29, 2008

SDCC '08 Recap


(Pictures by Charlie Chu)

SDCC Bullet points!

  • Roomed with Shawn Crystal (thanks, Shawn!), Jason Latour, Andrew Robinson (if you can score Andrew's ANDROX sketchbook, DOO EEET!), Hunter Clark and Johnny Depp.

  • Many meetings and greetings from Hollywood folk, in the wake of Billy Smoke, the Leading Man and Hawaiian Dick. Some renewed interest in Dick. Some possible interest in Jackie Karma from an interesting lead. Lots of genuine love, of course.

  • Ran into tons of old friends, of course. Flew out with Haun and Peck. Flew back with Peck and Parks. Also on the flight were KC con promoter Chris Jackson and Diamond sculptor Rudy Garcia. Seth Jones was on hand covering things for CBR, as was Mar Harris. Never did see Jonah.

  • Met J. Torres's baby, and, yes, it is the cutest thing in the world. Good to see he and his wife, Young. Missed Rick Cortes, though. Bummer.

  • Dinner with the Oni gang on Thursday, which included political chatter with Joe Phillips, and included a bunch of my favorite folks, from Chris Mitten to Rick Spears to Robbi Rodriguez to Chuck BB to Brian Hurtt to Cullen Bunn (and wife). And, of course, James Lucas Jones, Joe Nozemak and Randy Jerrell.

  • Special thanks to Oni's media mavens Eric Gitter and Peter Schwerin.

  • Fucked my knee up playing softball for DC against Marvel. Yes, we lost 16-6, but I was three for three with three RBI. So don't blame me.

  • Got to see Jai Nitz strike Joe Quesada out in slo-pitch softball.
  • Ran into Hawaiian Dick co-screenwriter Mark Swift and had a nice chat.

  • UTA party Friday night with many of the Oni folk (including Jamie McKelvie and Kieron Gillen). Sarah Silvermen, Stan Lee, and two Napoleon Dynamites were on hand.

  • Karaoke with the Wildstorm gang. Christos Gage finally drove us out of the bar.

  • Signed with Black Vault artist Nelson Blake 2, who's a great guy.

  • Nice meeting with my DC lifeline Mike Siglain. Hopefully things work out on THAT PROJECT.
  • Erik Larsen: "What you should do with your next Image book is think about what people want to read and do that." Thanks, Erik.

  • Lunched with Casey Blue artists Carlo Barberi and Jacob Eguren and editor Ben Abernathy. Again, great guys all.
  • Met Dan Curtis Johnson finally. Brain was scrambled by that point, though.
  • Also met Ryan Kelly for the first time. Been a fan of his since Local first debuted.
  • Had planned on chatting with Ben Templesmith about things, but ended up just bumping into each other on the con floor, as usual. Email it is.
  • Played softball with Randy Green, and ran into him several times (often with super nice guy Andy Yates). Good guy.
  • Found out Ted McKeever's a prince of a guy.
  • Chatting with Darwyn Cooke and James Sime together in the middle of the Hyatt bar was a high point. Darwyn's...well...Darwyn, and James greeted me with a warm hug and a high five. Love those guys.
  • Picked up the Pulp Tales anthology, which featured the debut of Bluejacket.

  • Saw John Layman stone sober on a Friday. Then I saw him on Saturday...
  • Someone remind Cory Walker that he's a genius, please. Also, he wrote a song about me.

  • Nick Derington's Tiger Fighter is genius.

  • Also thanks to the Top Cow gang: Mel, Filip, Matt and Rob. And Chas!

  • Ivan, Kristyn and Andy finally showed up.
  • Simon and Pat hanging in the Hyatt bar.
  • Chatted with lots of other good people I don't see enough: Josh Fiaklov, Andy Kuhn, Phil Hester, Kody Chamberlain, Francesco Francavilla (and his delightful wife), Joe Keatinge, Eric Stephenson, Jim Valentino, Jimmie Robinson, Mark Englert, Tim Seeley, Chris Burnham, Robert Kirkman, Jason Aaron, Fraction and DeConnick, Scott Kurtz, Neil Kleid, Marc Hammond, Chris Powell, Frank Cho, Jann Jones, Mark Sable, Ryan Ottley, Sam Humphries, Lea Hernandez, Chip Mosher, the Image office gang, and so on and so forth.
  • Comic Book Tattoo ruled the Image booth. Nice work, Rantz!

  • Chuck BB with the EISNER WIN! Followed by shots and pizza.
  • Oni PR hawk Cory Casoni and Shawn Crystal saved me from jail by getting me a new badge before I tried to punch out an over-zealous badge monkey on Sunday. Temper, temper, Clay.

  • Biggest moment for me was signing on Saturday afternoon with future Billy Smoke star Matthew Fox, who flew in to Comic-Con specifically to sign Billy posters with me at the booth. Great guy, and he's very into the project (his being there at all was proof of that). Eric and I are going to kick this thing in the ass and let Fox and his folks put together a killer flick. Also? Sitting next to Matthew Fox made me realize how out of shape I am.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Surely there had to be someone there that you could have stood next to for less than a minute and then felt better about the shape you're currently in?

If not, I'll try to help you with that next time you attend a con. If I'm not in bad enough shape to help, I'll locate someone who is. ;)

Joel said...

sounds like it was a really good time. i need to find an excuse to go

B. Clay Moore said...

HA! Yeah, I was feeling all right about my physique as I walked the con floor. Right up until t.v. boy and his zero percent body fat sat down next to me.

Scott Chantler said...

I've got a shot of you and Matthew Fox at the signing which I'll send you once I've got it uploaded.

Good seeing you, even if I was bleeding to death for a lot of the time.

CL said...

I'm very much looking forward to the film, Mr. Moore. And I LOVE TV boy. Not just because he's handsome, but because he has an awesome range. I really want to see him play Billy, such an exciting role! It's great that you're already starting to create buzz for the project at the Con. Hope it's a smash and makes you all LOTS of money

Ghost Image said...

damn... there are not a lot of stars that I would actually want to meet but Fox is definitely one of them. I am just a little jealous of Clay right now.