alxjhnsn

I'm a big fan of Sheldon Mayer. His Scribbly and Sugar & Spike work is legendary. He was also the first great editor of comics. He pulled Superman from the reject pile and influenced the creation of Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and The Flash. His accomplishments are (or should be) legendary.

I wanted a tribute to him and I thought that a theme of covers for the missing Sugar & Spike 100 would be appropriate. S&S reached 98 in its original run when Shelly had to stop due to eye problems. DC published a 99 years later, but 100 is still missing. I have two covers celebrating S&S #100

From Fred Hembeck comes a full on Sheldon Mayer tribute. Click the image to read the Description to find how clever Fred and I were in our work.  You can also see some colored versions in the Additional Images section.

 

The second is a cross-over between Katie Cook's Gronk series and S&S. If you don't know Katie's work, you are missing a treat. Her Gronk books are available from Action Labs. Her series Nothing Special is available on WEBTOON and it's free! Click the image to read a little more about it.

You may suspect that I'm a Legion of Super-Heroes fan; you may not know that I'm also an Archieverse fan.

In this commission, we have a universes collide image; it is a "battle" scene, but it's just the normal students versus staff situation - sort of.

Turns out I picked the right artist, Dan Parent is a Legion fan and an Archie artist.  It was inspired by image that was done by Mike Worley which you can see in the Additional Images.

17 hours ago, SquareChaos said:

More violent than Miracleman #15, more gore than an Avatar comic. I think I'm going to be sick!

I warned you! 

My wife commissioned this violent confrontation between the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Fatal Five. It might be tough to take for the squeamish.  Click the image to read all about it.
 

 

No clue why it's showing to images. Sorry about that.

I try to have a story for all of my commissions. I'm really not interested in a standard pose, I want a scene around which a story might exist. Of course, I often lack a really good idea.

I think I succeeded with this Howard the Duck vs. Donald Duck with Daffy Duck as the ref by Frank Brunner. The full story is in the Description on the CAF.

 

 

I bought my first comic as an 8 year old in the summer between the 2nd and 3rd grades. I got it from a vending machine at a Howard Johnson's in Brownsville, Tx as we returned from a driving vacation in Mexico. That purchase led to quite a lot of comics and art. Many decades later, my wife bought me a page from that comic - JLA 29 (first series). Click to embiggen.



The cover is fairly well-known and I've had it homaged twice - once by Todd Reis as a 3D shadow box (click to embiggen) and once by Scott Shaw featuring Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew plus the Justa Lotta Animals (click to embiggen).

Happy 35th Anniversary to me!

Kathy, my Wonder Wife, bought a Bob Bolling Little Archie cover for me as an anniversary gift. (Don't worry, she got jewelry.)

Click on the image to take a closer look and read more about it.

 

Happy 35th Anniversary to me!

Kathy, my Wonder Wife, bought a Bob Bolling Little Archie cover for me as an anniversary gift. (Don't worry, she got jewelry.)

Click on the image to take a closer look and read more about it.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m a Mike Kunkel fan and he recently ran a Kickstarter for a new art project. He wanted to try his hand a making an old fashioned block print. I liked the idea and signed up.

On 11/3/2017 at 12:33 PM, stinkininkin said:

Stupid, stupid, stupid. 

Scott

I've said those words more than once myself in the context of OA. You are not alone, Scott.

I think I have my grail .

I can't imagine a page or commission that I would trade for this one.

 

That said, I'd love to find the splash to my first comic (JLA 29, 1st series)


or the cover to that issue

or one of the best Legion of Super-Heroes group shots.

If you are looking for art, be sure to check the Comic Art Tracker site. It will search multiple websites for you.

http://comicarttracker.com/en/

I own two Archie covers.

Archie Andrews, Where are you? #31 By Dan DeCarlo (Jul 2008, $178) (click to embiggen)

I bought this one because it features so much of the cast.

 

Betty and Veronica Double Digest 14 (June 2015, $181) (click to embiggen)

This one I bought because it is the cover to the first comic that I ever bought my girls. One of them thought they saw their mom (Veronica) on the cover and who am I to argue?

Both have rather interesting descriptions so click the image and take a look.

For my eldest daughter's college graduation, I had John Sterling Lucas (Katy Keene) recreate and extend the scene to include my daughter, Katy, and Katy's sister (Sis).

 

A July purchase that I never could get picked up due to travel and other conflicts. But finally, Zoe from Rachel Rising has arrived. I hope I'm here tomorrow. Click to embiggen and learn more.

Zoe, Malus, and Jack (the knife) from Rachel Rising by Terry Moore.

If you have any, please contact Terry. Here’s the FB post:

His website: https://abstractstudiocomics.com/ and the contact form: https://abstractstudiocomics.com/contact 
 

I have corrupted my daughter.

She just bought a piece of art mail order from the artist. First, I gave her art for birthday, Christmas, or graduation. Then she started a sketchbook. And, now, this! I feel so guilty.

I know, I'll make it up to her by taking her on a vacation trip, e.g., Charlotte in mid-June. That should be safe, right? 

 

Click to embiggen.

The story with this piece is pretty good and the art is astounding. Click and read.  

On 9/5/2017 at 6:59 PM, RabidFerret said:

Long ago I got a gig as a Production Assistant on a movie shooting in Cleveland. Office work, errands, copying scripts, etc.

The movie was about a comic I'd never heard of called "American Splendor", some indie thing from the 70s that was big in Cleveland. The writer got on Letterman. Crumb did some art for it. The movie was gonna star Pig Vomit from the Howard Stern movie.

For a month of preproduction I did PA work, running errands, picking people up, and making photocopies. Mixed in, I doodled, constantly aping more of the Crumb art surrounding me. I drew office jokes. I added Crumbish Harvey art to dry erase boards and notices. It was like a theme office.

We began to shoot but hadn't worked out the legal stuff with Crumb and his art, so they had to hire someone to do props. Because everyone knew me and saw my Crumblike scrawls everywhere, I got the gig.

I ended up creating the sketchbook Crumb(James Urbaniak) draws in, the Big Yum Yum Book, and a bunch of Frank Stack's art too. If the actor is holding a sketchbook or drawing, it's my art you're looking at. Looking back it's not all that great, but for the brief moments of screen time I think it seems passable. 

It was a pretty darn cool experience for a young 20-something kid. My little scrawls ended up in the trailer, the movie, and I even got mentioned in the commentary.

It was a cool moment in my life.

Ever since that experience, I've wanted a Crumb original from American Splendor. Not only wanted, but almost needed. How many people can share this weird credit of doing fake Crumb art for an Oscar nominated film?

So for 15 years I kept an eye out. There weren't a lot of solo pages emerging, stories mostly travelling in packs. In 2016/2017 a few old Crumb collections slipped out, and while some art set records, Splendor stayed "cheap" and within mortal reach.

This is a page from "Standing Behind Old Jewish Ladies in Supermarket Lines", my single favorite Splendor story and featured prominently in the film. It's one of those great every day experiences about Harvey picking the right line at the supermarket. It was a short 5 page story, so finding any page is a miracle in itself.

Given that Crumb is known for his weirder stuff, finding simple blue collar storytelling is a nice change. It's a Crumb you can hang on the wall without feeling too awkward about. It's also at a much more mature point in time, past the eye of the fame hurricane, when he could be a little more patient.

I loved seeing a Crumb original too. A spiral bound page of bristol with the full title handwritten on the page. It's so quirky and cool and awesome, I can't even begin to explain:) Let's be palsy walsies!

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1419636

Best story ever! Congratulations on a stellar example that fits so well.

We were very, very, very lucky. Water in the street, a low spot in the back that pooled. I setup siphon hoses (5) to drain that out to the driveway. 

North on our street though are a bunch of homes that backup to Buffalo Bayou. They all were flooded to one degree or another. Some severely. My home, my mother's home, my daughter's home are all fine. Some of my daughter's best friends have severe damage. 

Pictures and text can be found here if you are on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alxjhnsn/media_set?set=a.10210043196460355&type=3&pnref=story

In summary, we are fine and most services around us are up and running. Now to help others.

On 8/29/2017 at 4:22 PM, williamhlawson said:

Are there any laws about taking an artist's original work...and say making it into a print, matting it...and then selling them by the ton on ebay... without paying artists or the companies?  Not sure if the individual I see doing this is doling out payments to companies and artists or not...but they won't answer my question personally.  Just seems really funny / shady to me.  All for only $24.99 per...?

Yes, lots, but enforcement is sketchy.

Copyrights - These are held by the person that created the image unless assigned by that person to someone else. Commissioning an artist does not give the commissioner copyrights. They have to be transferred explicitly.

Trademarks/Servicemarks - These are symbols used by a company to establish their brand for a product or service. Superman's S-shield is a trademark. No one, but the trademark owner can use that trademark unless a license is granted by the owner.

Companies are fairly aggressive about trademark enforcement. Artists are less aggressive about copyrights (cost of lawyers being a factor).

Ebay is lousy about enforcement unless the copyright holder or trademark holder themselves raises the issue.

 

Does this help?

Terry Beatty has long fought ebay based forgers. Today, he started a thread on how to detect forgeries. I thought it would be an interesting discussion to hold here.

 

Here's what he wrote, 

Quote

Linda Davies asks regarding the fake PEANUTS art from eBay, "Curious Terry, how do you know they're fake? I don't doubt you...I want to know so people don't get scammed."

That's a good question, and since the answer is lengthy and deserving of its own post, here we go.

I can see that the drawings are phony because I've spent most of my life obsessing over comic art, studying it, collecting it, learning to create it myself. Like a handwriting expert who has learned to ID various signatures, I've learned to identify many cartoonists' work at a glance. Composition, character construction, linework, etc. all add up to a unique mix for each artist, and my eye can spot their work -- or a fake -- almost instantly. I'm uncomfortable claiming to be an expert at anything -- but in this case, I guess the shoe fits.

There are still instances in which I'm unsure -- but if something about a drawing feels "off," I'd still steer clear of it.

None of this helps people who have not spent a lifetime developing this skill -- except that I use this odd ability to spot the phonies and pass the word along.

For less comics-obsessed folks -- there are clues to be found in these auctions. If there is any language along the lines of "in the style of the artist," or "sold as is," then walk away. If the seller only has sketches by cartoonists (and fine artists), but no comic strip or comic book page originals, that's often a warning sign. Real comic art dealers will have a good mix of both. If the seller has Van Gogh and Andy Warhol and Picasso drawings listed for a couple hundred bucks each -- well, common sense ought to kick in right there.

Hesitant "dead weight" lines often give away the traced origins of many fakes. Real cartoonists draw with a confidant line.

The forgers tend to fake artists with simple styles they think they can easily copy -- Charles Schulz, Dr, Seuss, Tim Burton, Matt Groening, LeRoy Neiman, Bruce Timm, Walter Lantz, Bob Kane -- if their list of sale art looks anything like this list -- beware.

You can also do a google search for the seller. "Fosworld" turns up MANY discussions of his forged art sales. Likewise the notorious "Ducoso." Of course newer sellers won't be found this way -- but it's worth checking.

Some of the slicker fakes come from overseas -- and of course there are legit sellers there, too -- but Hungary seems a source of many fakes -- and there are way too many LeRoy Neiman pieces offered from Peru at the moment.

You can also Google search "original comic art" and start familairizing yourself with what comic strip and comic book art really looks like. Many of these fakers don't even try. One of the phony Peanuts strips I posted yesterday was four panels stacked in a square -- and while the strip was published in that format in some papers -- it was never DRAWN that way. Some fakers will sell individual comic panels -- and strips were rarely drawn like that either. (There are some cases of artists cutting up strips and giving away or selling separate panels -- Hal Foster did so with Prince Valiant -- but they would not have a big fat blank border around them as most of the fakes do).

I'm sure there are other clues -- but that's what comes to mind right now -- and I have to get back to drawing my own comic strip -- digitally, with no original art to list on eBay!

I added check for comments about how the art was purchased that distance the seller from responsibility, e.g., I bought it at an estate sale/art market/flea market in NYC. 

What do you have?

 

Sigh...

Text and pictures here: https://www.facebook.com/alxjhnsn/media_set?set=a.10209896272387345.1073741866.1349825773&type=3

It's public so anyone with a FB account can read it.

------ Text Here, but not the 100+ pictures ---

 

Dates: Tuesday through Mon of July 19th to 23rd

Venue: San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA

Size: 
• Pre-function/lobby 284,494 sq. ft.
• Exhibit hall floor 525,701 sq. ft.
• Sails Pavilion   90,000 sq. ft.
• Breakout/meeting 123,414 sq. ft.
• Ballroom   80,700 sq. ft.
• Outdoors 184,514 sq. ft.

                                                     

Layout: 8 Halls on the first floor; Registration on 2nd Floor; Panels on 2rd Floor and Mezzanine
Here’s a map of the exhibit hall: https://www.comic-con.org/sites/default/files/forms/CCI17_ExhibitHallMap_Small.pdf
 
 
Telecommunications: I didn’t hear any specific complaints and no one seemed to have trouble taking our money.

Parking: I don’t know firsthand. We walked to and fro. 

Access: Just two comments:
• The side walk space in front on the convention center and the hotels is too small for the amount of traffic.
• They really need two more pedestrian bridges from the convention center to the Gaslamp side of the road; crossing over is more difficult than it should be.

Guests:
• Celebrities: Celebrities (movie and TV) are handled much differently at SDCC than other shows. They seemed to travel in groups and appear at their network’s booth (or their publisher’s booth) at various times. Most cons have them seated in a signing area. Not the case at SDCC.
• Writers/Artists: 
o Artists in Artist Alley – yep
o Artists in their own booths – yep
o Artists hanging around their publisher’s booth – yep
o Artists just attending – yep
Since there was not one master list, it was difficult to know where to find people. Experience at the con probably helps one know where to look to get schedules and such.

Tickets: 
• Exhibitor passes come with the booth and do grant early access
• Professional passes do not grant early access, but there was a professional lounge somewhere
• Attendee passes are the be base case and hard to get

Pros:
• The biggest pro is the sheer size of the event and the number of activities.
• Other things that I liked – signage, water coolers in all panel rooms, wonderful printed materials

Cons:
• Oddly, I found getting into the show to be among the most difficult parts of attending; I never did understand when people were let in and in what order.

Summary: We had a great time, but neither of us feels compelled to go again.

Impressions and Free Advice:
• If you are there to visit with artists and writers don’t rely on the SDCC materials by themselves. Lots of people are there who don’t have booths. Be sure to go to the publishers and check their in booth schedules.
• Other artists will be there in booths that don’t feature their names. Booths are shared and the name on the booth may not be indicative.
• The crowding was not as bad as I expected except when we were near a booth featuring actors; those situations cause real stoppages.
• It was hard to figure out how to get in; that surprised me.
• I’m not a big panel goer and after the SDCC ones, I’m still not. I’d rather shop and visit.

Goals: 
I had no real goals for this convention. My personal spending funds were relatively limited so my goal was to gather signatures in my Stan Sakai tribute book and visit the art dealer booths. Beyond that, my only task was to get a copy of the John Carpenter’s The Thing tribute book for an e-friend.

Details:

Last year – CBLDF Kickstarter for She Changed Comics was initiated. You should understand that I’m a bit of a sucker for Kickstarters and that I enjoy comic history and biography books. When I saw this KS, I knew I’d pledge enough to get a copy of the book. As I worked my way down the perk list, I noticed the last one – 2 chances to get passes to SDCC 2016 for a considerable sum.

You should know something. SDCC is great; the best even, but it’s too much hassle for me to get passes AND it interferes with our vacation on the Guadalupe River. That vacation is scheduled as soon as possible and we don’t skip it. For those two reasons, I’ve never tried to go to SDCC and really didn’t care if I never went.

That said, I decided to mention it to Kathy. She said, “Why don’t you ask if they can do it for 2017?” Huh! That’s smart, I thought. I then contacted the CBLDF about changing the dates and they said that they would talk to the con. They wrote back that we had a deal and I pledged to the Kickstarter twice.

As soon as possible, I booked tickets on United to San Diego and booked a backup hotel reservation (average $700 per night) at the Coronado Resort. The plan was to go through the hotel lottery and get a less expensive room and then cancel the Coronado.

When the Exhibitors had a chance to get rooms, my friend Thom Zahler of Love and Capes, Time and Wine, and more let me have one of his rooms at the Embassy Suites! It was relatively affordable, included a made to order breakfast, and was walking distance to the show. I cannot thank Thom enough!

So, long before the show, we were set – we had passes, airplane tickets, and a hotel room. Yay!

Oh, and we did shift the River Trip by a week to make SDCC possible. 

Weeks before the SDCC flight IDW posted a note saying that they were hosting a dinner with Walt and Louise Simonson on Thursday night. A mere $500 per person would result in dinner with Walt, Louise, and 25 of their closest fans, a copy of the new IDW Beta Ray Bill Artist Edition (stamped for the dinner and signed by Walt), a copy of the retail incentive (sketched in by Walt) edition collection of Ragnarok (Volume 2), and an 11x17 inked headshot by Walt of the character of our choice.

After a brief consultation, we signed up.

Tuesday – 18 July (Travel Night)
We’d returned from the Guadalupe River on Monday afternoon and used Tuesday morning to take care of various personal things. At the right time, we summon Uber for a ride to the airport – as usual, they got lost coming to our house. I need to send our actual address because the location beacon doesn’t cut it. 

We got the airport and settled into the most remote gate at the new North Terminal C which is bright and lovely. United upgraded the both of us to First Class and that was nice. Dinner was excellent. We were on opposite sides of the plane, but our marriage survived. 

We landed in San Diego a little early, Summoned the Uber genie and road to the hotel. San Diego like most airports has a designated pickup spots for shared rides and the fee wasn’t bad. 

I’d already checked into the hotel with the Hilton app and had a digital key. Kathy went ahead a got a physical one; digital keys are nice, but the real ones are faster.

After that we wandered down to the Convention Center to learn the way and we walked through the Seaport Village shopping area on the way out. On the way back, we stopped at the Baskin Robbins attached to the hotel for a bite of ice cream.

Wednesday - 19 July (Preview Night)
Wednesday, we rocketed out of bed about 8am. Got dressed and went down to breakfast: omelets, hash browns, bacon, OJ (for me), coffee (for her). It was good. We managed to catch Thom at breakfast, too, and thanked him again for arranging the room.

Eventually, we walked over to the convention center to pick up our passes. That was pretty simple. We found the right entrance (harder than it should have been), road the escalator up to the 2nd floor, following the crowds to the registration area. It was all quite painless.

At that point, we decided to do some exploring. We walked through the Seaport Village shopping area and then summoned Uber to the San Diego Comic Art Museum which is, as it turned out, attached to the IDW offices. They had an art exhibit for about 40 pieces of Walt Simonson’s work over the last 40 or so years. I especially enjoyed looking at his Manhunter story; that’s the story that made me a fan of his work.

The exhibit also had a nice selection of pages from Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer, one of the most beautiful comics ever done, and quite a few Jack Kirby pages, mostly from the70s, but also some 60s twice-up pages. Other exhibits included Archie and TMNT.

At that point, it was back to Uber and the San Diego Convention Center for Preview Night. This time we were a little confused about how and where to enter. We ended up going in the wrong door and landed on the 2nd floor. Eventually, we found our way down the stairs to the Exhibit area. 

It wasn’t packed, but it was pretty full. We were obviously late to the party – lots of people were lined up for exclusives which left areas without exclusive items pretty open.

Our first priority was to find Aaron Lopresti and ask him if he would put the first “Strong Woman” in Kathy’s sketchbook. We found him, discussed characters, and he agreed to do it over night. We then started exploring and looking for the people on my list to sign my Stan Sakai book.  There were lots of such folk at the show hand I probably missed as many as I found.

Let’s talk about the Sakai book (The Sakai Project – Artists Celebrate Thirty Years of Usagi Yojimbo) for a minute. A number of years ago, Stan’s first wife, Sharon, was dying from brain cancer. While his medical insurance helped with treatment, it didn’t over the home care that she needed and other financial impacts of her disease. Stan is one of the most popular cartoonists alive and is well loved for his kindness. As you might expect his artist friends (hundreds of them) teamed up and contributed artwork to create a fund raising book and auction. The book was published by Dark Horse. Not all the submitted art was published in the book, but all of it went to auction. I bid on a few pieces, but lost them all.

However, I was able to snag a copy of the book right after release at the Boston Comic Con in 2014. Stan was there along with a number of other contributing artists so I decided to have them sign it. For the last three years, I’ve continued my little scavenger hunt. I know I’ll never complete it – some of the artists have passed away, but it’s a fun activity that costs (almost) nothing. 

So, though I had no art goals for this trip, I did have some signature goals. I was able to add:

1. Adams, Art – I really enjoy talking to Art and looking at his work. He had giant posters of the FF 100 cover that he’d extended as a commission. It is incredible. While waiting, I showed it to Kathy and explained what little I knew and Art explained the rest. Basically, he’d been asked to add Galactus and then he got carried away. Joyce Chin, his wife, wasn’t too happy about the excess, but they’ll sell a lot of the prints. It is amazing. He mentioned that he’d been approached to come to Houston next year (I assume for Comicpalooza, but I don’t know). He’s a big paleontology fan and wants to go to Houston's Natural Science Museum.

2. Ba, Gabriel – I discovered that Gabriel and his twin Fabio Moon were signing and the line was reasonably short. We had a nice chat and Kathy bought me their book “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” as an early Christmas present. 

3. Baltazar, Art – For whatever reason, I couldn’t find Art’s booth with Franco, but a Thom Zahler told me where to look and it was quite visible. Anyway, we had a great chat and he and Franco are as nice as you could hope they would be. They even let me pick up their mini-series featuring Little Hellboy for free because I was a Kickstarter backer. Really great guys with a ton of talent. Read their books!

4. Brereton, Dan – Dan’s booth was easy to find and he gladly signed.

5. Brown, Jeffrey – Not half as demented as you might expect from the creator of Darth Vader and Son.

6. Campbell, J. Scott – Scott was signing a large stack of books for sale, but his brother was working folks like me into the process which I greatly appreciated. 

7. Casserly, Aidan – Aidan was in the small press area. I don’t know his work, but did buy a comic that I will read

8. Chin, Joyce – Art passed the book over to her immediately and she pulled Dan Panosian over to sign as well. Thanks, Joyce.

9. Cho, Frank – In a booth with Geof Darrow listed under some name that I didn’t know. I was pleasantly surprised to see him there and was glad to get the signature

10. Franco – Had a long talk with Franco and Art about their work and their Kickstarters. Good guy.

11. Gordon, Steven E. – Found him in Artists Alley. I wasn’t familiar with his work, but he was quite glad to sign.

12. Hughes, Adam – Adam was sketching, but his line was never long.

13. Jew, Benton – sadly Anson who is normally with him missed SDCC this year

14. Keene, Jeff - Jeffy from the Family Circle all grown up. We had a nice chat and he was very happy to sign.

15. Lash, Batton – He shared a booth with his wife, Jackie Estrada. Batton’s been fighting brain cancer and looks great. 

16. Linsner, Joseph Michael – I always enjoy visiting with Joe. 

17. Mack, David – No real conversation. The AA was getting crowded so I basically handed him the book and moved on. Seemed nice though.

18. Moon, Fabio – Nice visit with him and his brother at a signing.

19. Panosian, Dan – I didn’t know that he would be at the show, but he was in the booth with Joyce Chin when I came by. Joyce called him over to sign. Thanks, Joyce. I didn’t recognize him and wouldn’t have known to ask.

20. Richmond, Tom – Easy to find and quick to sign.

21. Scullin, Patrick – Sadly, I don’t remember getting his signature at all. 

22. Shaw!, Scott – Scott was great. He’d done a wonderful commission for me a few years ago when he was quite ill with complications from diabetes. Because of that, he was late and slow to communicate. Kathy was quite worried, but he did a great job and it was a terrific Christmas present. He apologized again for the delays and made no excuses and was a delight to visit. A little more below when I talk about Kathy’s sketchbook.

23. Sienkiewicz, Bill – Caught him just as he’s manager was getting him to leave. He signed and I’m grateful for his waiting.

24. Sohn, Alison – I love visiting with Alison and I admire her art. We had a nice chat about the book, her cover for the Hero Initiative, and other topics.

25. Staton, Joe – Joe and Hillary are sweet folk and I enjoy seeing him. 

26. Stout, William – I didn’t realize that he had a booth. So we got his autograph in the Autograph Area in the Sail Pavilion. No line.

27. Tucci, Billy – We had a nice chat about a Kickstarter that he’s going to do and the fact that I was there as a Kickstarter perk. He thought that was a great idea since he could buy some extra Exhibitor badges for his booth. We will see if he actually does it.

28. Velasquez, Salvador – Found him in AA without a problem and he happily signed.

29. Wyatt, Steve – I stopped by his booth just to introduce myself. He’d helped me get two Russ Heath commissions a few years ago. I’d forgotten that he was in the Sakai book, but he remembered! 

30. Yeagle, Dean – I got in line to get his signature behind Art Adams. Art was buying a new Mandy book and the three of us had a nice chat. I also met Dean’s daughter’s father-in-law. He was very friendly. I ended up buying a Mandy book, too.

The only one that I knew ahead of time that would be at the show that I missed was Jeff Lemire. All in all, it was a very successful scavenger hunt! Seventy-one down; 191 to go! Wow, I don’t know if I’ll live long enough to do this, but …

Of course, not all of these were Wednesday night, but I thought I’d get that out of the way at once.

Also on Preview Night, I had Art, Joyce, and Dan sign my index card autograph book along with Alison Sohn. From there, we wandered over to visit with Thom Zahler. He signed my book and agreed to draw in Kathy’s sketchbook. Wandering back through the hall we found the Abstract Studio (Terry & Robin Moore / Strangers in Paradise) booth and the Cartoon Books (Jeff Smith/Bone) booth. 

Terry and Robyn are from Houston and we know them a bit so we stopped to visit. I had Robyn sign my book. She asked why and I said it was simple, without her there were not Terry Moore books. I then had Terry sign the same index card. Jeff Smith had a brief line and we hopped in figuring that it would only get worse over the week. He recognizes us a bit from numerous shows. We visited a bit and he signed my book. I got the Red Dragon without a personalization. It’s worth a fortune. 

We wandered around a bit more and then the show closed for the night and we walked back to the hotel stopping for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Oh, I almost forgot as we were walking to dinner we ran into Richard Evans and Michael Steenbergen of my LCS, Bedrock City Comic Company – small world. We also met Craig Yoe on the way; I met Craig at Comicpalooza a couple of years ago and I really enjoy talking to him. Fun to see him briefly.

Thursday - 20 July
As on Wednesday, we rocketed out of bed and went to breakfast. Given that we had no significant goals for the show, we really weren’t concerned with getting to the show early, but we did get there before the doors opened. Again, we had some trouble figuring out how to get in. Someone mentioned that the started letting some people in at 9am and that’s why we were seeing people moving around. Anyway, we eventually got in.

First order of business was to pickup Kathy’s sketchbook from Aaron Lopresti. He’d drawn a fascinating Maleficent headshot to lead off Kathy’s sketchbook. From his table, we went to Michael Dooney’s. Michael had done a beautiful 11x17 Maleficent and Dragon for us a year or two ago. We asked him to put a strong woman in her book. He suggested either Wonder Woman or Big Barda. He really seemed to prefer Barda so Kathy went that way.

At that point, it was time for Craig Yoe’s Weird Superheroes panel. I’m not a big panel goer, but I like Craig and his work so we thought we’d go by and say hi. His panel was lots of fun and we learned a little.

After Craig was done, we wandered around the autograph area so that I could get Bill Stout’s autograph in the Sakai booth. He had no line at all so we visited for a bit. I’m not sure why he had a signing since he had a large booth in the Exhibit area. 

From there we wandered over to the San Diego Central Library to hear Richard and Wendy Pini. I bought the first issue of Elfquest (Fantasy Quarterly #1) at a con in Houston from Bud Plant’s table. I remember it distinctly. The cover printing was awful, but the image and art was really nice. The story looked interesting and it was only a dollar. So, I bought it. I figured I’d never see a second issue because the distribution was bound to be poor. I was sort of right – there was no FQ #2, but there have been 40 years of Elfquest stories since! The moderators did a good job and the conversation was interesting. I asked the first question of the Q&A – why the switch from FQ#1 to self-publishing and their answer was simple. The publisher’s printing was awful and that was quite true. Richard actually flew to MN (IIRC) to get the art to the first two issues back before they started printing the second one. 

After that we wandered over to the art show which had been moved from the convention center to the Hyatt. My friend, Todd Reis, had an exhibit of his 3D Shadow Boxes that I wanted to see plus we’d agreed to meet someone there at 1pm.

My longtime friend David Marler, his wife Sheila, and her son Chance had also traveled to Houston for the show. David and I worked together some 30 years ago and he’s the one that re-infected me with the comic book bug after a 10 year absence. You can read about the absence and my restoration to the tribe here: http://outside-affiliatelinksnotallowed.com/Crazy4Comics.  Anyway, David and Sheila are very active cosplayers (steampunk variety) and were featured in the San Diego newspaper and interviewed by a TV station both in 2015 and in 2017.

We found them in front of the convention center and we all walked over to the exhibit. Kathy, Chance and I wandered through the exhibit. David, still recovering from the removal of a bone spur under his Achilles tendon took the chance to sit and cool off. Sheila stayed with him.

I alerted Todd as to our location and he said he’d come meet us. In the meantime, I lobbied another visitor to consider Todd’s work while we stood in front of the exhibit. Frankly, I thought his work was the most attractive and interesting in the show. The three of us wandered back to the lobby to sit with David and Sheila and wait for Todd. Todd is, among other things, a professional magician and when he showed up, he demonstrated his skills. He’s quite good and is available in the SoCal area on Thumbtack.

From there we went back to the convention center and meandered over to Artist Alley. I wanted to get a couple of Katie Cook mini-paintings so I got in line. Kathy went to see if Michael was through with her sketchbook and she got back about the time I was to move into line. Kathy and I know Katie from many cons and a few dinners, but I’d never met her lovely assistant Ryan, her husband. So, we visited while Katie filled first my order and then added another strong woman (Hermione Granger) to Kathy’s book. Good folks, Katie and Ryan, and it was good to visit again.

We then dropped the sketchbook off with Joe Rubinstein. Joe is a friend from many a con and commission deal. He was very glad to draw in Kathy’s book and frankly he knocked it out of the park. His ink wash Electra is exactly what Kathy wanted. A physically strong woman showing self-confidence. She said that’s what she’s working towards with her early morning work outs.

After that, it was off to the Mark, Sergio, and Stan panel. It was good, but I wish I’d gone to the Bernie Wrightson one at the same time. The IDW panel that was the original pairing against M/S/S was cancelled and replaced with the Wrightson one. I knew that, but forgot.  Still, M/S/S did a good job.

After that, back down to the floor to gather more autographs and shop. One stop was at Scott Shaw’s table. We ended up leaving he book with him because he wasn’t happy with his work in the show itself. Scott was anxious to contribute a drawing because he’d been late on an earlier commission. We didn’t worry about it – he’d had serious health problems related to diabetes, but he really was unhappy with his delay. 

About 6pm, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner with the Simonsons at Fogo de Chao. We got back, cleaned up a bit, and head over in time to arrive right when dinner was to start. Only we were an hour late. I had the time wrong! Everyone had pretty much finished eating when we arrived. Scott Dunbier was kind enough to find us places together and get the waiters back into the room. We managed to get fed before Walt started passing out the artwork.

The presentations were fun. Walt did 25 pieces. IIRC, there were about 10 Marvel Thors and about 8 Beta Ray Bills. They were beautiful, but the ones that really caught my eye were the non-mainstream requests. These included: Maleficent (Kathy’s), a Fin Fang Foom, a Thor Frog (Throg), a Sif, Jyn Erso from Star War: Rogue One, an amazing Mjolner in flight, Odin (mine), Orion, Manhunter (Felix Lu), and maybe others that I missed.

The real treat for the evening was meeting and remeeting a few of the folks that I’ve corresponded with over the years. Because we were late, I didn’t meet most of the folks in the room, but I sat next to Trevor Pearson from Austin and Bill and Lou from NY State. My e-friends Ron Sonenthal, Gene Park, and Michael Finn all came over to introduce themselves for which I am very grateful. Thanks guys! Felix Lu was there and we spoke briefly. Kathy and I stayed to the end visiting with Louise and later Walt. They are wonderful folks and we enjoy their company. 

I don’t recall any Ragnarok Thors. That may be because we all received the 2nd collected edition of Ragnarok with a sketch of Thor in it. We also received the new Simonson Beta Ray Bill AE. Wow!

Kathy and I walked back to the hotel feeling that the money was well spent.

Friday - 21 July
The morning started a little later – we were on vacation. Breakfast as before and off to the show.

We picked up Kathy’s book from Scott Shaw. Overnight, he added Battlin’ Betty to the book and Barney had a bad day! He’d also skipped a page. 

We started exploring the con more systematically. I picked up a few autographs in both the Sakai book and in my index card book:
• Scott Williams was at his table and we had a nice chat. I showed Kathy his DPS from Hush that he had for sale and we discussed the piece for a while. I wish I’d thought to bring my Sgt. Rock jam. He could have finished the final figure. Oh, well, I’ll find someone. 
• Steve Wyatt was in his booth and I went over to say hi since we’ve worked on a couple of Russ Heath commissions. In fact, Kathy did one as a gift for me at the same time I did one for myself. Steve was really afraid that I’d ask for the same one that Kathy did. Luckily, I chose the other option. Anyway, he remembered us. He also pointed out that he was in the Sakai book something that I’d forgotten so he signed both it and my note card book. It was good to meet him.
• Joe Staton and Hillarie were both in their booth. We’ve met several times and I think he recognizes me as someone he’s seen before. 
• Juan Gedeon is drawing a book that I like (Horizon) so I made sure to go say hi and tell him so. Horizon is an interesting tale; humans are about to invade a planet and the aliens are working to ensure we stay stuck in our own mess. Nice twist.
• Jody Hauser (Faith) was working a booth in AA and I stopped by to say hi. I really enjoy her work.
• Ron Wilson was at his booth and I went over to thank him for all the good work over the years. Sadly, I missed Keith Pollard.
• I spoke to Jamal Igle; Kathy and I have met him a few times and he’s half the man he used to be. The transformation is incredible. I think a lot of his Molly Danger and look forward to the second story.
• Found Scott Koblish in the SF Cartoon Art Museum booth. We chatted about the museum and other odds and ends.
• After a search, we found Art Baltazar and Franco and got them to sign the Franco book and my note cards. I really enjoy their work. You should check it out.
• Craig Yoe was signing at the IDW booth and I got a signature and a self-portrait. Good guy making good books. I just wish the humor ones sold better.
• While visiting with Scott Shaw, comic book historian Bill Schelly came by the table and I got his autograph. I’m reading his biograph of Otto Binder currently and have a number of his other books. I was glad to talk to him.

In the afternoon, we went to Terry Moore’s panel to learn what he’s planning. The big news and it’s been mentioned before that Strangers in Paradise will be coming back for a limited engagement. We then went to David Petersen’s Mouse Guard panel. 

We met David and Sheila for an early dinner at Lou and Mickey’s. Nice, but I think the price was a bit high.

After dinner, we went to the Eisner awards with David and Sheila. It was a typical awards show with a few surprise presenters – Wayne Brady (actor and all around geek) and Jonathan Ross (TV personality and comic art collector). Overall, it was about what we expected. The surprise came when Walt Simonson was added to the Eisner Hall of Fame. It was fun seeing someone we knew getting inducted. The other addition I was glad to see was H. G. Peter, the original artist of Wonder Woman. I think he does not get enough credit for his work and this recognition was overdue.

A walk back to the hotel followed.

Saturday - 22 July
Saturday started like the others with a nice breakfast. Again, we didn’t rush to the show.

We did have a mission for the day – get to Charlie Holmberg and get her to sign her books. Her series (Paper Magician, Glass Magician, and Master Magician) follows the growth of a young woman of modest circumstances as she works to find a place in the world. The world is a fascinating mixture of Victorian England and a specific system of magic. I really enjoyed the books and wanted to meet her. It turned out that she’s quite nice, about the age of my girls, and very sweet. Sadly, they ran out of books to sell, but she offered to send us a book plate for the books that that they didn’t have. Sure enough, the book plate arrived at Kathy office shortly after we returned from SDCC.

We spend most of the day just wandering around collecting a few more signatures. Walt Simonson was signing at the IDW booth and I broke down and bought the Ragnarok portfolio. I also got him to sign my notebook with HOF after his name. Big leaguers often do that when they get in the baseball HOF so since he just got in the Eisner one, I figured he needed to do it, too.   He said I was the first to ask. I suspect I’ll be the only one to ask. 

Louise wasn’t there, but Walt told me I could catch her at the Hero Initiative booth; so we made that our plan.

We wandered around more and caught a few more people. Most of them have been mentioned, but James Tynion IV was captured. He’s the writer of the very interesting Boom! book, The Woods. Highly recommended.

Later, we attended Scott Shaw’s Oddball Comics panel. It was pretty funny. Kathy missed part of it due to a phone call from home – lost yard equipment, but it turned out well.

After Scott’s show, we want back to the hotel and actually ate leftovers from the Cheesecake Factory and snacks from the hotel’s evening reception.

Then we walked back to the Hilton for the CBLDF auction. You can find pictures of the art and the auction results in the photographs. There were three pieces that I thought I might like to add to my collection, but the budget we tight. The three I liked – Jeff Smith’s Fone Bone and Rat Creature with a quiche joke (inked on site and not personalized), Frank Quitely’s Superman, and Jill Thompson’s Wonder Woman. I knew the Jeff Smith piece was outside by budget, but it went for more than I expected - $4000. The Quitely Superman was more affordable, but I let it pass. The Thompson Wonder Woman came up and I thought I had it at $550 when someone behind me bid $600. Drat! So, once more into the fray. $650 took it home.

The big piece both in size and price was an image of Nancy and Marv from Sin City by Frank Miller. That thing looked as big as a windshield. It went for $17,000. The owner seemed happy with it, but he did say he’d come to SDCC for a DKR page, but none were available. [I was somewhat amused by the comment because Felix Lu’s podcast contains at least one mention of DKR per episode. It seems to be “everyone’s” grail.]

One more walk back to the hotel.

Sunday - 23 July
Sunday started as usual – full breakfast and no rush

We spent more time walking the aisles and more time apart. I spent most of my time looking at the art dealers and grabbing a few autographs from people that I didn’t realize were at the show because they weren’t listed in the program, e.g., Frank Cho and Geoff Darrow. They (and a number of other artists) shared booths under names that I didn’t know were theirs.

We did start with the Heritage and ComicLink booths looking at the stuff that was coming up for auction. Sigh…

Near the end of the day, we realized that we wanted pictures of Kathy and the artists that drew in her sketchbook so we went on a mad tear through the show getting those pictures.

I also visited with a few folks that I’d missed, e.g., Batton Lash & Jackie Estrada, Marguerite Bennett, Gabriel Ba, and Fabio Moon.

Eventually, it was time to leave. Kathy and I had a dinner date with Tony Fleecs and his wife, Shannon.  We met Tony at Amazing Houston Comic Con a few years ago when I bought a MLP DPS from him that featured every pony ever. It’s awesome.

Tony contacted us said that Shannon couldn’t make it; she’s back in school and hadn’t finished her weekend work. We told Tony to come on and let her study. He called us back and said that he had a replacement date – not as cute, but draws a better Batman. Kathy and I walked to the restaurant, Filippi’s Pizza Grotto.  The restaurant is behind an Italian food store and it’s small, but very tasty. There was a long line outside the restaurant so Kathy went across the street to shop at a cute store. A little later Tony showed up with his studio mate Chris Burnham in tow. We were seated shortly after Kathy returned and had a very nice meal, fun conversation and good food. Chris and Tony signed my book and Chris added a nice Batman and Robin sketch to it.

We walked home.

Monday - 24 July
Nothing exciting to report, we ate breakfast and took an Uber to the airport. We walked past Jeff Smith, waved and said hi. Flew home – in coach not first this time – and arrived safely.

It was a fun trip.

Pictures: are on FB.

 

Walt Simonson sent me scans of the pencils for our pieces from the IDW SDCC Walt Simonson dinner and I’ve added them to the Additional Images. Enjoy.

Odin: http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1410646 

Maleficent:  http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1410647