The Innocuous WonderCon Report

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Here is the World Famous Innocuous 2009 WonderCon report. Mostly written from the Yankee Pier restaurant at San Francisco airport. (Flight delayed from 7:18 to 10:15, then, had to de-plane and eventually departed at 11:30.) Finalized from home just now.

 

I woke up at 5:15AM Friday to make a 7:45AM flight to SFO. I made it to the airport with time to spare. I flew United and the terminal at SFO has a nice display of “Space Pop Culture” from the 1950’s. Since I was in no rush, I browsed most of the exhibit which took up a long hall. Here are some pictures. The last picture is the wall along the walkway which was lined with big blow-ups of some EC’s from the period.

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I have had a habit of flying to Oakland when visiting the Bay Area, This time, I wanted to try the BART line to the city. So, here is a pic of the BART train arriving…

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When I got to the city, I checked in to my hotel and went downtown to meet a friend for lunch. (I used to live in Marin and worked downtown.) We went to Bistro Burger, which I highly recommend.

 

After lunch, I walked over to the convention center. I arrived at almost 1:30 and picked up my badge. For a Friday, I would say the crowds were average to somewhat light. It wasn’t empty, as there were people walking around, but the aisles felt wide and spacious.

 

I went right to work getting some sketches. I found where the crowds were, they were all in line for J. Scott Campbell. I crossed him off my list realizing a sketch would not be possible. Art Adams was also booked. Next, I went searching for Russ Heath. His name was on website, but he was nowhere to be found. I later learned that Mike Mayhew and Mike Golden would also be no-shows.

 

I’ll post my sketches toward the end of this report. But, here are some pics of me with a few of the artists.

 

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I felt really sorry for Ryan Benjamin. It looked like he hadn’t slept in days. I don’t know how he was able to draw because his eyes were more red than white. He toughed it out all day. Here we are with the Iron Man he did for me.

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Holy . I just realized that is JJ Kirby behind us. When I went by his booth later, he was gone. Everyone said he wasn't feeling well.

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I waited in line for Jim Lee over at the DC booth. No sketches!!!! Arrrgh! But, I did get this nice picture.

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Next up the crew from Gelatometti. Wow. I mean WOW!!!! Those guys were awesome. The sketches they did were amazing. Eddie Nunez is holding Juggernaut. Livia Ramondelli did Rorschach. And, Joel Gomez with Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Each of these guys were easy to speak with and were genuinely happy to be paid to draw. They spent a lot of time on my requests and it really shows. JJ Kirby left early, but I did pick-up my sketch from him. What a funny guy.

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I got to Stuart Sayger at the end of the day on Friday. When I got to his booth Saturday morning, he presented me with this fantastic Dr. Doom. He almost didn’t let it go. He kept working on it while I stood there. Since I had already paid him the day before, I grabbed it and ran.

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Finally, Stan Sakai. When I looked at my notes, I saw Groo and Usagi. That didn’t make sense to me. So, asked for Usagi and he turned out this beauty. Later on, I remembered what it was I wanted and went back. I got a sketch of Usagi in attack mode on half my board and then went to Sergio Aragones who drew Groo attacking from the other side of the board.

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I left the convention a little after 6 to meet someone for dinner at 6:30. We went over to Chinatown for dim sum.

 

Right after dinner, I went over to the Cartoon Art Museum for their charity event and the opening of the Watchmen, Stan Sakai and Gene Colan exhibits. Per museum policy, no photos.

 

When you walk in, the first room is all Stan Sakai. There were some really nice pieces of published and commissioned art. Very Cool.

 

The next room to the back was the Watchmen exhibit. There was some artwork as well as props from the movie. Even a few costumes. Super Cool.

 

The Gene Colan room also had a mix of OA and commissioned pieces on the wall. On the wall were the original covers to Iron Man #1, Iron Man and Subby #1 and other classic covers. ‘nuff said.

 

Back to the hotel and I was asleep by midnight. I woke up a little before 7 and went for a run. From the hotel (5th and Mission) I ran up Market to Van Ness and took a right. It got a little hilly, but I made it down to chestnut and took that over to the Discovery Museum. Then, I ran along the waterfront from the Marina, Pier 39, the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building. I turned right and ran up Market to the hotel. 9 miles and awesome views just about everywhere.

 

I made it to the convention center 15 mins before opening.

 

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Ok, so, what about the comics? Saturday I finally spent some time shopping for comics. Unfortunately, I kept forgetting to pull out my camera. So, I’m a little thin with dealer pictures. Sorry, no Harley this time. He wasn’t in the booth when I stopped by anyway. But, he did have some really nice pre-Batman Detectives. I did get a picture of John at the Torpedo booth, but somehow, it got corrupted. There were many other dealers I left out of my pictures.

 

In no particular order, here are some pictures.

 

First, I found this interesting. I don’t remember the dealer’s name, but he had almost all bronze to moderns in his booth. Even his wall books were along those lines. However, sitting at the top, Superman #1. Go figure.

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This is old-school con shopping at its best. This guy is not a dealer, he just happens to have a ton of silver and bronze comics. I don’t remember his name and that is him with his back turned. He couldn’t take a guess, but then said maybe 25% of the collection was purchased raw from the 60’s to 70’s. He then filled the holes when he started collecting again in the early 90’s. Unfortunately for me, no high-grade silver Flash.

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Here is A-1 Comics. Check out those Frazetta Famous Funnies at the top. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the one I was looking for.

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This is the guy right next to Readbeard. I remember Redbeard, but not him.

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Frank from Metropolis attempting to duck from the camera. They bought some decent stock. I wanted that Showcase 8, but too rich for me.

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Here is Steve Ritter. I asked him about the Pedigree book. He promised it would be done this year. So, I asked if he would take my pre-order and he politely declined. One thing about the book, they did take advertising from dealers. I don’t like this, but it did help offset the upfront cost of self-publishing. After Harley, I think Steve had the strongest selection of Golden Age among all the dealers. Great selection, but nothing in my low-grade standard.

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Here is fellow board member Marc from House of Comics at his booth. Hopefully, you had a good show Marc. He looks happy because he sits across from the CGC booth.

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SOT and HighGradeComics guarding the comics. I wonder if Bob glued that cup to the box top or is he just ballsy?

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Ted is staring at his sandwich here. He doesn’t like onions. He also doesn’t know who the artist is on Wonderworld Comics #9 (I think). I was very close to buying Wonderworld #27. Oh well. Here is a fun SuperWorld comics fact: Ted almost named his business WonderWorld instead of SuperWorld.