Emerald City ComiCon report Day 1 & after

[worldsbestcomics]

I drove up from Olympia to the con today with mixed feelings. I love going to cons but I didn't have much money for this one. My Canuck friends, Greggy and CrowsQB and fazybones, couldn't make it down but I was looking forward to meeting Designer Toast and seeing the CGC crew. Since it is Mother's Day weekend, I'm only going to go to the first day of the show instead of both days (more on that later) so I was feeling a bit shorted. But, I was also really looking forward to seeing a couple artists (Clayton Crain & Andy Runton) and having a drink after the show with Borock and the Sibra gang (more on them later).

 

I had an insanely good time.

 

I stopped by the CGC booth to drop off a few books for reholdering and three others for grading. I predict a 9.0/9.2 copyof Amazing Spider-Man 129, A 9.0/9.2 copy of Uncle Scrooge 179 and a 9.6/9.8 copy of Avengers 118 - which will complete my Avengers/Defenders War run I'll post the results in the This Week from CGC thread in General when they come back next month. I met one of the newest CGC employees - Ally. She is so pretty that you could easily miss the fact that she is also really smart and a nice person.

 

The next stop was to see Clayton Crain. If you haven't seen his work on Spectacular Spider-Man or Ghost Rider or X-Force then you are missing out baby because this kid has skills. Some of you may recall that I bought the Clayton Crain sketch cover copy of Ultimate Spider-Man 100 at the HERO Initiative auction at Emerald City last year. Well, young Mr. Crain agreed to do a back cover for me in exchange for another charitable donation and today I got to pick up the book. Some of you may also recall me doing a poll on the Boards last year about what Clayton should draw and you all chose Ghost Rider riding off with Mary Jane on the back of his bike leaving Spider-Man behind. The results literally blew me away. He not only put together a visually stunning piece with the perspective of Ghost Rider coming out of the book right at you, he painted it. It is easily the coolest comic I own. I am embarassed to admit that I gushed like a fanboy. I dropped the book off at CGC for sig series certfication and will post it in the Sig forum when I get it back. You guys will *spoon* when you see it. I also left my Captain America Fallen Son blank sketch cover book with him for another masterpiece (and he asked that I pay him via another charitable donation - this Crain kid has a huge heart) so I am already looking forward to Emerald City next year.

 

The next stop was Andy Runton. I have been joking with several of my X-Men and bronze collecting buddies over the past several months about how Andy Runton exemplifies the way my life has changed since the birth of my son 18 months ago. When Robbie was six months old, I took him on his first trip to the local comic store and jokingly asked, "What comic would recommend for a six-month old?" Three different people all said, "Owly!" at the same time. Owly? Never heard of him. Well Owly is a series of stories about an owl and his best friend who is a little worm. The stories have no words, just panels of art but Andy Runton's art is so expressive that you can follow the story easily. I read Owly to Robbie that night and we have both been hooked since. In fact, my sixteen-year-old daughter is also a huge fan. Andy Runton is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. He signed all four of Robbie's Owly books and added sketches including one of Owly dressed like Batman. He also signed a Free Comic Book Day edition of Owly for both Robbie and Madee. I decided to use some of my limited budget to get a sketch that I could frame for Robbie's room and he did a great drawing of Owly and Wormy and all their animal friends with Robbie wearing an Owly t-shirt. And I was totally excited about that. So you see how life has changed for this die-hard Marvel superhero lover...

 

By that time it was lunch and I met a young guy in the food line who was at the con selling his grandfather's comic collection (of several hundred thousand books) from when grandpa and grandma ran a comic store. He had a sweet 9.6 copy of Amazing Spider-Man 300 which my budget could not afford but I did get a pair of copies of Amazing Spider-Man Annual 21 which included the wedding invitations from Marvel. I found another dealer with a stash of well-stored copies of Uncanny X-Men 294/295/296 that I sorted through for potential 9.8s. I also found a guy selling his original owner X-Men run including some sweet books from 144-200 where he had two copies of each - the one he read and the one he stored away unread. I sorted through those for potential 9.8s too

 

Unfortunately, when I went to visit Designer Toast, I realized I had left behind his PM to me about which table he was at so I couldn't find him I apologize for missing you Royce and hopefully we can connect at the Portland show in November.

 

After the show, I met Steve Borock for a drink with Steve and Stacy Sibra, Dave Melvin and Steve Bialick. I really like these four people even though I see them only once a year. Steve Bialick (pronounced Blaylock) is my favorite Minnesotan and he was doing a psychic magic trick with Dave where Steve would pick out one toothpick from nine on the table and then concentrate on it until Dave could tell him which one he picked. Steve concentrated so hard that blood came out of his nose. But Dave went three for three so apparently golden gophers really are psychic. Steve Borock's face started to hurt from laughing so much. I met The Collector for the first time. Chris asked me my favorite question, "Do you have the world's best comics?" and I got to use my favorite reply, "I've got some of them."

 

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. My wife still thinks that I am going to Day Two of the Con. But instead, I am going to surprise her by making her favorite breakfast of scrambled eggs and chorizo and then tell her that I'm spending the day with the family. I had huge fun today but I probably won't even miss not being at the Con tomorrow.

 

 

[greggy]

I wasn't there so

[Designer Toast]

WBC,

 

Sorry I missed you at the show, I heard you stopped by the CGC table. Let's shoot for the Portland Show and good for you for surprising your wife. You'll have to show me a scan of that Crain book you got - that guy is an incredible artist! He signed my Trail of Tears HC and drew me "Toast Rider"

 

Have a great day with your wife and I'll catch you in Portland.

 

BTW, did you see JazzMan or anyone else?

[Fazybones]

Nice Report Steve! (thumbs u

 

I'm sorry I couldn't make it down another year.

 

 

Hopefully next year with any luck...

 

 

 

 

Fay

[MutantKeys]

Nice report, Steve

[DrWatson]

I found another dealer with a stash of well-stored copies of Uncanny X-Men 294/295/296 that I sorted through for potential 9.8s. I also found a guy selling his original owner X-Men run including some sweet books from 144-200 where he had two copies of each - the one he read and the one he stored away unread. I sorted through those for potential 9.8s too

Dibbs. (thumbs u

[aardvark88]

Here are some pics from Sat May10/08 from Seattle Emerald con. I overshot the exit ramp by 1 mile as u had to stay in the far right lane to get to the new location. Parking was expensive downtown core. I thought the sign said $7/day which was reasonable. The bill came to $14 for 4 hrs parking across from the new location.

 

Lots of 1 way streets were blocked off in downtown Seattle by police due to some children's event/jogging/race across from Macy's dept store.

 

1 day admission raised to $20 but still worth it. Got a 2 day dealer's pass for $20 from Castlerain Entertainment/Tim Vigil comics.

 

Saw nice prop of Silver Surfer:

 

 

John Hauser had some decent stuff in his $2 blow out boxes. Saw a collector snag some Barry Smith covered early Conans for $2 each.

 

Ronnie Murray was set up next to Harley. Ronnie only brought 3.5 boxes with him & was setting up slowly. My jaw dropped when he showed me a factory sealed FF #1 with record intact for $2,300. The blinding whiteness and reds on the record reprint blew away his Cgc 9.6 copy of the same.

 

I decided to buy a Donald Duck lp and scarce Wm Stout vinyl instead from another shop. Grabbed a Maus #1 h/c from Half Price Books in Capitol Hill area of Seattle. Bought my 1st Fox Giant obscure comic from Hauser's loyal sidekick. Big hi-light was having 2 Philippine artists sign Warren mags and a sci-fi h/c book (Sanjulian and Esteban Marato with 2 translators).

 

 

 

[JazzMan]

Hey boys, I was there on Saturday also and had an awesome time. I never got a chance to shoot a PM to DT and catch up with him, so I missed meeting all of the forumites that atteneded.

 

The good stuff:

 

- I finally met Steve Borock and I spent about 20 minutes with Borock talking comics outside of Sibra's booth. He's a great spokesperson for the hobby, indeed, and a great representative for CGC as a company - the nicest guy ever. And I have to give Kudos to all the CGC staff that was there - they were all super cool and got me the signatures, and my CS discount BTW, and witnessed the two sketched I commissioned. All a friendly bunch that made me want to move back to SW Florida again.

 

- Harley was there with some Primo books and we struck it up a bit as well and he recounted his trip to Australia and Russ and the gang out there.

 

- I got a couple of books sketched - One by Matt Haley (Captain Marvel & Ms. Marvel on a Secret Invasion book) and one by GW Fisher, a cool artist from Jersey who did a very nice Cap on a Fallen Son book.

 

- Oh yeah, there were comics too! I picked up some nice books, too. Teen Titans 1, ASM 121, Superman 21 , ASM 299, TTA 100 (dripping wet with color and gloss and flawless), GL 85, Marvel Preview 1 (bone white), Team-Up 1, and Green Lama 5 (great War Cover).

 

I held and admired a copy of AF 15. It was up for sale raw for $6,500. Someone bought it for $4,000. It really looked fantastic and the buyer got a steal. Although I had some qualms about it, there was an area that looked bleached or whited on the inside cover around the first A in Amazing, but otherwise that book was so solid that I'm positive it will earn at least a 6.0 restored or not - not a bit of Marvel chipping and there was not much wear, just was seamed to be tracing of the guys face and hand (the guy Spidey has under his arm). I met the guy who bought it at the CGC booth and he was excited, to say the least. He nervously filled out the paperwork while the CGC staff was doing their thing nonchelantly...just another day at the office for them!

 

There were a bunch of artists and writers there, but I didn't spend any time with them, except a little bit with Ed Brubaker. I was a bit disapointed though - I had my mind set on purchasing a CSS 22 but never could find it at any of the booths.

 

Well, that's about it. I'll post more stuff as they come back in.

 

[Mac Man]

Yeah... I heard there were some AF 15s at the show in mid-grade but none in low grade

 

Thanks for the report though! Always fun to hear what's going on in the comic world outside of Connecticut. (which is pretty much everything )

[aardvark88]

I had a brief look at the AF #15 asking $6,500 while it was still in mylar. The upper left hand corner colors looked funky like the front cover was previously submitted to an aqueous wash. Still a good buy for fine/fine+ range at $4k.

 

Saw a rack full of Hulk covers for the HERO benefit:

 

 

Saw some life size $75 Marvel hero and villian masks:

 

 

Their Josh Nedors charity auction was too disorganized during set up. They could have raised more $$ if they had written bid sheets next to each lot. There were twice as many donated items compared to the Emerald online pics. Many potential bidders could not stay til 5:00 pm for the live auction as it was, after all, Mother's Day weekend.

 

Don't recall seeing the Romita Sr Mary Jane sketch in the auction room by Sat at noon. The left-handed Frazetta tiger pencil sketch was prominently displayed at the Frazetta Productions booth next to 1 of their artists selling his Death Dealer original published comic art out of 2 portfolios.

 

 

The Seattle freebie table had a long 20 min. line up as ppl were queuing up only along 1 length of the tables. In 2007, u could have grabbed freebies from both lengths of the table. By noon they were handing out the new Miller Spirit preview movie poster and more Adam Hughes DC women poster gratis:

 

 

Hauser and Terry's Comics (next to Harley) both had hardcover books for sale like REH Conan, Doc Savage or ERB Tarzans. Some were literary first editions with dustjackets at reasonable prices.

 

1 hi-end collector arrived to debate grading with Borock. He was bitter that a slabbed Wonder Woman #1, or was that Sensation #1, blue label Cgc 8.5 looked so much worse than his ToS 39 blue Cgc 8.0. Another local collector stated that Pgx was able to find color touch on a comic that Cgc previously slabbed as blue unrestored. Both grading companies had booths at the con.

 

I did not stay for the Sunday part of the con.

 

 

[BeachBum]

I flew up for the day on Saturday, got up early to get on a 6:30 flight up the coast... I lived in Seattle in 92/93 during my early 20 grunge rock 'days'. To be honest with you I was a bit more interested to walk around and check out the city I left 15 years ago since I had never been back. I had some air miles to blow so what the hell.

 

I've only been to two conventions, Wizard World L.A. a few months back and now this one. I got to the show just after 10, Emerald felt bigger to me, but after just over a hour I had to get out for some air. It was very crowded early and the BO meter was off the charts early for some reason. Hygiene people.

 

I went to the show to see what raw copies I could find to finish my Copper/Modern X-Men run. I did find some great 9.8 raw Madureira that I needed, but once I picked through everything twice I was done. I did meet some nice peeps. Met a guy with a X-Men list and I showed him a friendy dealer with a great clean modern X-Men run.

 

There was a lot of overpriced stuff at the show in my opinion (C'mon $200 for a CGC 9.6 X-Men 140?) and a lot of rude people with no regard to the dealer's inventory as they thumbed through it. Some of the dealer's were quite friendly. Other's were just downright grumpy... It seemed to me that the more expensive stuff you had to sell, the more of an a** you were. You know who you are.

 

I stopped by the CGC booth for a brief convo and the obligatory "where are my books" comment. None of the "big" guys were there like L.A. but everyone was friendly. I almost brought my next batch of subs up with me but was worried about them being bounced around on the plane.

 

I headed down to the market around noon, and walked over to my old neighborhood and checked out my old bar. Things have changed in the past 15 years. The pier area has really been built up and it seems like more of a city now.

 

I went back to show around 3ish and walked around a bit again to see if I missed anything then headed back to the airport. Best parts of my day were:

 

Finding 4 raw 9.8 Uncanny X-Men's that I needed.

 

Getting upgraded to First Class for free both ways just by asking.

 

And I secured 2 more CGC 9.8s that I needed for my collection by trading emails on my PDA late last night, while stuck on the airport tarmac waiting to taxi to the gate.

 

I look forward to heading back up with my girlfriend for a few days holiday in both Seattle and Vancouver soon. Seattle's a great town.

[HouseofComics.Com]

Really nice reports guys!

 

I had a good offer to take my books to the show for me but the whole thing was still looking to be a bit too much for me this year. Hope to set up at that show sometime soon.

[aardvark88]

Also on the Sat. of the Emerald con, 2 Canadian artists both had about 20 min. line ups. Pia Guerara from Vancouver, BC had a steady line up as she was doing quickie head sketches for fans (Y, the Last Man).

 

Also, 1 of the best written manga-type titles is Scott Pilgrim. Seems like the artist and sps/girlfriend may be based out of Toronto, ON. His art style is very simple (kind of like Alex Toth minimal) but he has hard core fans/readers.

 

The Suicide Girls from Vancouver, BC were selling panties for $10. They are a consortium of local Vancouver zine artists who may sign their panties for free. Something else for the fanboy to collect other than X-men?

[Mac Man]

 

There was a lot of overpriced stuff at the show in my opinion (C'mon $200 for a CGC 9.6 X-Men 140?) and a lot of rude people with no regard to the dealer's inventory as they thumbed through it. Some of the dealer's were quite friendly. Other's were just downright grumpy... It seemed to me that the more expensive stuff you had to sell, the more of an a** you were. You know who you are.

.

 

I heard the same thing from someone else that was at the show.

[Kevin Boyd]

Scott Pilgrim artist Bryan Lee O'Malley was originally from Toronto, and his wife Hope Larsen is American. After they got married they lived in Halifax for a while, but I have heard that they recently relocated to somewhere in the US.

[JazzMan]

I think the biggest winner of them all was my 9 year-old daughter. She scored about a dozen sketches and I asked her how much she had to pay for them. Guess what - not a cent! All the artists were cool with her, even when she just walked to the front of the line!

 

I didn't run into any grumpy ole dealers-o-hi-grade while there. Maybe it's because I hit them up right after the doors opened and they were't so ill humored yet.

 

And Ally from CGC was a doll , she was ubber friendly and helpfull.

 

Nevertheless, it was a jolly ole time. My family and I caught Iron Man after the show and I was floored by what an awesome movie that is. It's a good standalone movie, not a great comic movie in that there are many inconsistencies with the comic story itself. But all in all an excellent movie.

[Designer Toast]

I'm home and had a good time at the show. Lots of overpriced books though. I will post a report with pics later. Going to see Iron Man again with the greatest wife in the world today.

[scottish]

I was there for the bit of time it took Paul from CGC to inventory my 123 books (Yes, you read that correctly) to CGC. Paul was super patient and a really nice guy!

 

My time was extremely limited so the only other stop I made was at Zenescope to pick up the con limited of Beyond Wonderland.

 

Hoping next year to be able to meet some fellow forum folks! (thumbs u

[TheShadowKnows]

I'm home and had a good time at the show. Lots of overpriced books though. I will post a report with pics later. Going to see Iron Man again with the greatest wife in the world today.

I agree she is alright!

Dennis

ps Hows your lawn mover working?

[DrWatson]

I'm home and had a good time at the show. Lots of overpriced books though. I will post a report with pics later. Going to see Iron Man again with the greatest wife in the world today.

I agree she is alright!

Dennis

ps Hows your lawn mover working?

Granted I don't do a lot of lawn work, but what is a lawn mover?