oneasian's Fan Expo signature & sketch report

[Raphael]

First off, let me say that I had an absolute blast at the show. Thanks goes out to the Hobby Star crew that made it possible (Tiz and Kevin among many many others) and to all the friends that helped me and whom I helped out at the show. Everything worked out for my girlfriend and I very well at the show.

 

Let me start off by saying that I'm not the type of guy to take pictures of the Convention area, and I feel a bit weird asking for photos of people in costume - I guess that's not really my thing. What I go to to shows for is to meet the artists and writers for signatures to add to my personal collection and of course, to get sketches - Hence my doing a signature and sketch report.

 

I was so busy at this show getting sigs for and from various people and trying to arrange for sketches that I didn't really have any time for any shopping! I helped my girlfriend buy a Spawn tpb for her little brother and bought 1 raw copy (I wanted 2!) of Walking Dead #49. (by the way, if anyone wants to sell me a copy of #49 and two copies of #51, pm me)

 

Day 1 report to follow shortly . . .

[CAP Freak]

[Raphael]

The show actually started for me (and from hereon whenever I refer to "me" that will usually include my girlfriend, Leena) on Thursday night because I went to help Unknown Worlds/Will Wong set up his booth. But I'm sure none of you are interested in hearing the details of setting up for a show.

 

Friday -

 

Before any of the signings began, the first person that I went to was Dexter Vines. I'm of the opinion that the inkers and colorists in comics really do not get enough credit for the work that they do, so whenever I have the opportunity to meet one of them to get books signed, I usually bring as much as I can (hehehe). Dexter Vines was a nice guy and happily signed all of my girlfriends, and my books -

 

 

I had the intention of getting a sketch from a particular artist and then bringing the sketch to Dexter to get inked, but that didn't end up working out for me. One of the things that I've gotten used to at conventions is accepting that sometimes not everything gets done or works out. But this year I was pretty lucky for most things.

 

After Dexter Vines, the next person my friends and I went for was Tim Sale, who, unsurprisingly had a gigantic line. It was great to meet Tim and to get a bunch of books signed by him. About a month ago I purchased some of Tim Sale's first books at Marvel (Wolverine/Gambit: Victims), one of the issues is going for grading. It was also great to talk to him a little bit about Heroes.

 

 

Myself and my girlfriend really really wanted to get Fast Passes from Tim Sale to get sketches from him. It didn't work out for me, but fortunately, Leena was able to get a Fast Pass for Tim Sale on Sunday (more on that later).

 

After Tim Sale, I immediately proceeded to get in Gabrielle Dell'Otto's line for more signatures. It was a real treat to meet Gabrielle and he seemed to really be enjoying himself at the show. I, along with pretty much everyone else in line for him had Secret Invasion issues for him to sign, and I also had the Batman/Superman Euro variant to get signed (which has been submitted for SS)

 

 

He seemed to dig my little idea for the Euro variant - I hope it gets a 9.8!

 

 

After taking care of the Dell'Otto books, I proceeded to walk around artist alley very quickly to see if I could arrange for some commissioned sketches. I ended up being able to set up 2 - one with Mike Choi and one with Agnes Garbowska and Francis Manapul to be picked up by the end of the show. In regards to almost everyone else at the show, I wish my wallet had been fatter to get more stuff, but I really had to pick and choose, and on top of that, lots of people's lists were filled up early.

 

Ethan Van Sciver was sitting next to Steve McNiven, so I got some sigs from Ethan (more on that later). I also saw Marc Wolfe and inquired about a commision for myself that was set up in Pittsburgh and also asked about commissions for other board members. He had my book and one of Daniel Partouche's books, and another book for cheetah (all of which were in his room - more on that in day 2)

 

I must say that it's great having been to a couple shows already. Having a repoire with artists is really great for when you see them again and they recognize you, and aside from that I was prepard with a couple walkie talkies (cell phone reception was baaad) and armed with chinese buns for food throughout the show.

 

After dilly dallying for a bit, I eventually lined up for Steve McNiven, who also drew a sizable line for himself. Having met and chatted with Steve a couple times, it was a pleasure to get even more autographs from him.

 

 

After getting a bunch of books signed by Steve, I then lined up for Mark Djurdjevic. I was astonished by how short his line was considering the sheer amount of covers he's done for Marvel recently. In any case, it worked out for me because I had quite a few books for him to get signed and it was really nice to chat with him briefly. He seemed like a really cool guy.

 

(I got 2 copies signed, one of which is getting graded)

 

With that final signing near the end of the day, that pretty much capped it off for me. Also, throughout everything that I was doing, I was also going back and forth between Will's booth, giving him breaks when he needed it, etc. Friday worked out really well for myself and my friends despite being a little worried at the beginning of the day.

 

Stay tuned for Day 2 . . . .

[Par2ch]

Ironically the book that Raph picked up for me was a swipe of a book he got done by Mitch Brietwieser.

[jonjesper]

great report Raph!! Looking forward to more!!!

[Raphael]

Day 2

 

The day started with me and my friends getting to the show a little late (traffic!) and reflecting on how surprisingly good Friday turned out to be for all of us despite our worries.

 

My recollection of events for Saturday is a bit blurred because it was such a long day and so much stuff happened, but I'm going to try and do it chronologically as best as I can.

 

The first person I saw for a signing was Dale Eaglesham, who also surprisingly had a very short line. Having met Dale on several occasions he remembered who I was and we had a great little chat as he signed more of my JSA books.

 

 

After taking care of that small signing, I went to artist alley again to try and get some other cool stuff done. Having arranged for some sketch commissions the previous day, I went around looking for Michael Cho to arrange for some sketches for my buddy whose favorite character is The Sentry and for my girlfriend who wanted a Superman from him. Michael Cho is a solid guy and a fantastic artist, and I luckily got on the end of his lists for sketches. I also saw a buddy of mine, Jonathon who was set up in artist alley and my girlfriend and I arranged for a Wonder Woman sktech from him (all of that was picked up on Sunday)

 

I went over to Alvin Lee and set up a sketch commission from him which I picked up a little while afterwards - will post it later on when I actually picked it up. I then went over to Marc Wolfe's booth and picked up the commission he did for me, which he absolutely did a fantastic job on, which has been submitted for SS -

 

 

One of the people I was really looking forward to meeting was Kevin Eastman, as was my girlfriend. I purchased a TMNT #1 2nd print and a solid copy of the Raphael one-shot to get signed. My girlfriend managed to pick up a nice 4-pack of the TMNT action figures which looked absolutely great as a box set. I had the idea to get Kevin to sign the individual shells of the toys, which he didn't mind doing.

 

 

There were a couple people that ended up being behind us in the line as we were getting all of our stuff signed. I imagine that when I told Kevin Eastman that my name was Raphael and I had all this stuff signed, he probably thought I was a bit of a freak. I also had the idea for Kevin to add some silver color touches on the TMNT book on the weapons to make them pop, an idea which he liked. The downside of this experience is here - in a bit of a jerk move when he noticed it was a second printing is this - you know when you slap your head when you go "D'OH!"? well, in the middle of him signing the book, he picked up the comic and did the "D'OH" move with it to his forehead which horrified me. I think he was trying to be funny, but I didn't laugh. I wanted to scream, "I SPENT $200 ON THAT BOOK SO DONT GO MESSING IT UP!" but I didn't. I just thanked myself that it was a VF condition book and not NM - otherwise I would have cried. That little move there made me decide not to ask him for a sketch for the remainder of the weekend, and it somewhat tainted my experience of meeting Kevin Eastman. He was a nice enough guy - but he pulled a jerk move for no reason.

 

(Despite Kevin Eastman's manhandling of the book, I still submitted it for SS - it was just too sweet to not submit)

 

After that I went for Matt Fraction, whom I had a tonne of books to get signed by. Yet another nice guy, and it was a true pleasure to meet a writer whose books I thoroughly enjoy on a regular basis. My only regret is that I probably gave him too many books to get signed (Iron Fist & Iron Man), but that's what happens when a writer writes so many great books! My buddy and I mentioned to him in that in Invincible Iron Man he incorrectly referenced his place of origin as the Middle East when it should have been South East Asia or something like that (Afghanistan vs. Vietnam). In any case, Matt happily signed all of our books. (I ended up seeing him again on Sunday to finish off my books)

 

 

After taking care of that, I went back to artist alley to see Ethan Van Sciver to get a little something extra on a book I got signed by him on the previous day (I didn't get it done the first day because I didn't have my gold marker). I absolutely love the way the little sketch turned out. The book also got signed by Alex Ross on Sunday -

 

(I totally would have submitted it for SS, but it's not exactly a strict NM+/M book, and I want to try and add Geoff Johns's sig to it).

 

After taking care of that, I joined a couple people in the insanely long Mark Bagley line (shout out to Alex Hunter!). Meeting and getting some books signed by Mark was sweet because I never ever thought I'd meet such a prolfic modern day Spidey artist!

 

 

Somewhere during the day there was a signing at the Marvel booth where I ended up meeting Stuart and Kathyrn Immonen - Stuart wasn't busy at all! I got a bunch of Ultimate Spider-Man books signed by him and had a nice little chat about his no sketching at conventions policy (I read his little book and enjoyed it). I was joking around with him that I was/am probably guilty of 10 or so of the reasons he listed not to sketch at conventions. What was really funny is that after he signed my books and after we had that little "no sketching" conversation, the guy right beside me asked him for a sketch! Obviously, Stuart declined. But in my head, I was like, "Dude, did you not even hear anything we were talking about?"

 

 

After that I went back to Alvin Lee's booth and picked up another gorgeous sketch -

 

(this is on it's way for SS - this also marks the first cover that I got done for my little idea to get cover swipes of the Michael Turner Fallen Son covers, which throughout the weekend I got 3 of 5 covers done)

 

After that I stopped by the CGC booth to see if I could help them out in any way since I was going to line up for J. Scott Campbell, which I ended up witnessing a couple books for him. I had very few books to get signed by him so I was more than happy to help out there.

 

 

After taking care of that, I can't really remember what I did for the remaining hours of the show, but I remember at that point I was pretty hungry despite the chinese buns and my feet hurt quite a bit.

 

Stay tuned for Day 3!

[Raphael]

Day 3

 

The day started off pretty good because we got there nice and early, about 40 minutes before the show opened, so I finally had a little bit to get settled in, unload and talk to some friends before the show opened. When the doors opened, my girlfriend went straight to Tim Sale's booth to try and get a Fast Pass for a sketch/commission. I followed a few minutes behind her to the booth. She ended up getting 1 of the 7 passes Tim did for that day, and I missed out. I didn't mind though. Leena was dying to get a sketch from Tim Sale, and I'm happy that she ended up securing herself for one. Pics for that later in the day.

 

I then went over to the Hero Initiative booth where Ethan was scheduled to be at and arranged for a sketch there. I ended up getting Ethan to do Captain America as a Green Lantern for me. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it, but trust me when I say that Ethan did a great job on it. One of the highlights of that little experience was even before he started doing my sketch, and I got to see him finish up a Batman sketch for someone else. The amount of detail and attention he gives his work is outstanding. And upon handing the sketch to the fan he said, "And that's why I'm Ethan Van Sciver". I honestly said "Wow" outloud, and so did a couple other people.

 

I headed over to artist alley and picked up my sketch from Agnes Garbowska and Francis Manapul which was really amazing (and is on it's way for SS)-

 

 

I then went over to Jonathon and picked up the Wonder Woman for my girlfriend -

 

 

After that I saw Alex Hunter who was getting in line for the Marvel signing with Steve McNiven, Dexter Vines and Dan Slott. Big thanks goes out to Alex for getting my stack of Dan Slott books done. You tha man Alex!

 

 

I gave my copy of the Killing Joke to Will to get that taken care of for me to get signed by Brian Bolland. I would have posted a scan, but my copy is really faded and it's a second print. I'm sure there's someone on the boards who got a really nice first print signed.

 

After seeing Matt Fraction again to finsh off my remaining books, I then proceeded to line-up to meet Alex Ross. My girlfriend and I specifically bought Deluxe Passes to ensure that we could meet Alex Ross, I don't care what anyone else says, it was worth it just to have the chance to meet him. I took care of getting the tickets to be able to get books signed earlier in the day, and my cousin was already in line for Mr. Ross, so thankfully my girlfriend and I jumped in the line with my cousin. Fast forward 2 and 1/2 hours later, and we met Alex Ross! Thanks goes out to Tiz for snapping a quick picture of us meeting him.

 

 

This Superman belongs to my girlfriend -

I got a couple books signed along with a poster, Leena got some stuff signed as well along with her Absolute Kingdom Come and my cousin also got some stuff signed along with the oversized poster to Crisis on Finiite Earths.

 

Here's a pic of the Green Lantern Ross signed for me (I really love this book now!)

 

 

After taking care of that and some other things, I started to finish up my autograph getting with Peter David and Leonard Kirk, both of whom were truly nice guys and were really nice to chat with

 

Upon seeing Dale Keown's signature, Peter immediately asked me if he was at the show too, but unfortunately I told him I got the book signed earlier in the year via the Paradise Comicon.

 

When Leonard Kirk signed my books for me he flipped through a couple of the issues and explained to me that for Marve Adventures Avengers he was asked to do a dozen or so covers in advance, and that he could do whatever he liked with them - after the covers were done, it was then the writers job to make a story out of the cover! I thought that was a really cool tidbit of information.

 

After dealing with that, I headed back over to Will's booth to give him a break, and Leena had her Fast Pass time scheduled, so she went over to Tim Sale's booth and I had to get Will to bring her my camera. Leena decided on getting a Two-Face from Tim and here's how that went for her -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Needless to say, she was ecstatic.

 

Here are a couple other sketches that Leena also got done at the end of the day on Sunday -

 

From Ty Templeton

 

Here's what we picked up from Michael Cho

 

And finally, this is the last sketch I picked up at the end of the show, from Mike Choi who did an outstanding job with my request

Of all the books I submitted, this one ended up not being submitted because I caught that there was a non-color breaking spine crease on this book For me, it's just a personal preference to try and get 9.8 SS sketch covers whenever I can, if I can help it. For myself, if I'm submitting the book, I'd rather not submit the book if I know it won't get a 9.8, because for the sketch covers, even though the grade doesn't really matter, I really prefer to have that "perfect grade" for the sketch covers. Not that I wouldn't buy a sketch cover that isn't 9.8 because if you check out my collection, you'll see that I have SS sketch covers that aren't 9.8 - I just like to get 9.8's whenever I can (as we all do!)

 

That pretty much wraps up my signature sketch report! After picking up all that stuff and getting tonnes of books signed, the show closed within soon afterward and we then began the process of taking down the booth. But before that, I obviously headed over to the CGC booth and began filling out paper work for the books I wanted to submit. I really wish I took a picture of the Fallen Son I got from Ethan Van Sciver, but I guess it will have to wait until it comes back from CGC.

 

I want to say thanks again to everyone who was at the show, especially the Hobby Star guys. My friends and I had an absolute blast. Thanks also goes out to the peeps who helped me out throughout the weekend - you all know who you are. And it was also a treat to see numerous friends and friendly faces.

 

[BeachBum]

Wow, just wow, so much good stuff! You were busy this weekend!!!!

[Jason Truong]

Great stuff, Raph! Thanks again for getting my book signed by Bagley.

[Bonds25]

Great report! I don't think there was a single book you showed that I didn't enjoy - nice job!

[slackjawcomics]

Looks great Raph!

[EvilAsh]

Great report and FANTASTIC haul of stuff, Raph!!!

[GAMBIT]

Great stuff!... that superman sketch kind of looks like "Robert Di Nero" ya think ... but awesome awesome stuff!... thanks for sharing

[Raphael]

thanks for the kind words everyone! it was a really crazy busy weekend. i still haven't put away all my books. i gotta try and get to that today.

[NYComics]

I am a huge fan of that Mike Choi piece. Nice Job!

[inthehottub]

Great trip report and congratulations on getting all the signatures and sketches. I really like the Mike Choi sketch but I know what you mean about submitting it. It's hard to do when you see a defect in the comic but a great sketch anyway.

[Heroes Haven]

thanks for the kind words everyone! it was a really crazy busy weekend. i still haven't put away all my books. i gotta try and get to that today.

 

I haven't even touched the two boxes I picked up on Sunday

[AlexH]

Glad I could help you buddy. Anytime. (thumbs u

[CollectingStanLee]

Thanks for the report Raph, that was great for those of us who couldn't go.

[Raphael]

Was there anyone on the boards that got a nice copy of the Fan Expo Edition to Uncanny X-Men 500? I barely bought any comics at the show due to my extreme busy-ness!