Brenmark's Wonder Con 2009 Report

[Brenmark]

 

 

After over 35 years of going to conventions I decided this year that I would try to write my first convention report. As a newly retired English teacher from Fresno’s oldest high school, Fresno High, my students would often say I am long winded, so please bear with me.

 

My wife and I decided to travel from Fresno to San Francisco on Thursday instead of Friday so I would be rested come Friday when the convention would open . Thursday at around noon was our timetable to leave Fresno. My plan was to get a good nice rest the night before, but I have to say that Thursday started off quite differently than I expected when I received a phone call at eight in the morning from my friend who says, “ You got to get here quickly. There’s an estate sale right here by Fresno High.”

I usually don’t go to Thursday yard or estate sales, but I dragged myself out of bed and headed down to the old school neighborhood. On the way I was thinking, “What the hell am I doing this for? It’s after eight, and anything that is collectible would be sold to the first two people in line.” I get to the sale at 8:20 and found that it doesn’t open till 8:30. I was about 16th in line so that wasn’t too bad. The doors opened on time, and I’m in the house. Lots of old Victorian glassware and furniture were in the house, and I headed for the garage where I usually find something. There were only old tools so I return to the house. Then I noticed a small room with shelves of books. I walked in and on a table were three stacks of about 40 comics each. All were 12 and 15 centers from 1968 to 1969.

I couldn’t believe it. All major characters from both DC (Superman, Flash, Green Lantern etc.) and Marvel (Captain America, Daredevil, Spiderman etc.) were represented. Most of them were VF to NM as if the original owner read them once and put them away. It’s rare that I find comic books at a yard sale, but there they were, and I was the first to go through the stacks. Then I saw several old price guides on the table and thought, “Oh no, these are going to be expensive.” The deep rich colors, full cover reflectivity , and clean condition led me to believe they would be priced at retail. I was wrong. A little sign on the lamp said, “Comics- 3.00 apiece.” Three dollars apiece!! That was the price of a new comic, not one from the late sixties. So I began to make my pile and bought about 65 issues with every cent that I had on me. The rest were funny animal books, Harvey comics, or simply ones that I had no interest in because of subject matter or condition (these books were not in VF but more like VG). Other people were starting to jump in making their piles as well, but I got almost all of the superheroes and photo covers. What a way to start my day. It had to be a good omen.

 

Here are a couple examples:

 

 

Brenda and I left Fresno at noon. The trip up was beautiful. Lush, green rolling hills up I-5, almond trees in full blossom, and spectacular clouds. I really like traveling to San Francisco as opposed to the six or seven hours it takes to San Diego for their convention. We stayed at the Park 55 which is fairly close to the Mosconi convention center, and we had a wonderful view from the 26th floor.

 

It is also close to two of our favorite restaurants. One is Puccini (Italian) across the street, and John’s Bar and Grill just around the corner on Ellis Street. John’s Bar was celebrating its 100 anniversary, and we love the old Victorian lights, wood paneling, and great food this place has to offer. It was also the place where Daschell Hammet hung out during the time he wrote “The Maltese Falcon.” It’s a great place with lots of atmosphere and ambience.

 

I am more of an original art collector than a comic book collector so I was looking forward to seeing the art that was available and visiting with my San Francisco buddies while my wife was looking forward to being in the city shopping with her friend from Marin.

 

My primary focus was to see if I could find a work of art by Virgil Finlay. He’s next on my list so I spent two days seeking a page. Alas, there were none to be found.

 

Friday I got in and went directly to artist’s alley to see if I could find Russ Heath to sign two pages I had . The web site said he would be there, but he was not listed in the program book. He was not be found so I talked with Sergio Aragones about his collection of ducks that are on the shelf in the background of his picture of his studio in that book from last year,The Artist Within. He said he had hundreds of them from all over the world. I thought it would be neat to get original autographs of some of the people in the book, and Sergio was more than happy to sign and include a little drawing of Groo. During the course of the two days I got about 10 signatures from Stan Sakai, Arthur Adams, Mark Schultz, Howard Chaykin, and others who were present. I couldn’t get Jim Lee though. The line was half way across the back of the room every time I went back to artist alley.

 

 

 

Later in the afternoon I finally saw Russ Heath at the end of one row and got my Sgt. Rock pages signed. He was as funny as ever as he is always telling jokes. Russ is one of the greats of the Big Five DC War Comics, and he had some wonderful water colors of some of his covers. I bought a print from G.I. Combat and on Saturday showed him an original he did for me back in 1991 of The Rocketeer that I had brought to show a friend. 18 years. Where does the time go?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also visited with Tom Yeates, one of the nicest guys in the business. I’ve known Tom for close to 20 years, and it’s always a pleasure to see him and check out his newest work. I saw some pages from John Carter, and they are amazing.

 

 

 

I also wanted to meet Jeremy Bastian as I saw some pages from “Cursed Pirate Girl,” and I really like his finely detailed work. Jeremy’s line work has to be seen to be believed. It is so tight .Here’s a picture of a preview he had with him.

 

 

 

After walking around, talking with other art collectors, and taking some pictures for many hours, I called it a day and headed back to the hotel. What’s nice about being at Wonder Con is that you can walk it in about 6 minutes except on the side where the line to the freebies at the DC booth was huge. I often went from the artist alley up to the other end to see friends, and it was a breeze. In San Diego, which to me seemed like the length of six football fields, it usually took 30 minutes on a good day. Walking at this convention was a cake walk on Friday but a little harder because of a larger crowd on Saturday.

 

 

However, when I went back to the hotel, it took me 45 minutes to get a cab. I walked two long city blocks away from the convention center to see if my luck was any better, and I finally got one because it stopped to let some people out. You would think that if a convention of 30,000 came to your city that there would be plenty of cabs, but both drivers that I spoke with asked me what was going on. Saturday was better. I only waited three minutes.

 

I met up with Brenda back at the Park 55, and we had a great Italian meal that night at Puccini.

 

Saturday I woke up early just in time to catch sight of a beautiful sunrise over San Francisco and the bay.

 

 

 

 

 

Back at the convention at ten I continued to hang with old friends and meet new ones, take pictures of different booths and interesting costumes, and talk with Bechara, Scott Eder, and Anthony, but no one had any work by Virgil Finlay. Maybe ten years ago one dealer said, but not now. I did see a beautiful 50's submarine war splash by Kubert and probably the earliest page from Showcase #8 by Infantino at Bechara’s booth. That afternoon I hung out in artist alley, got my Turok pages signed by Aaron Lopresti, and reminisced with other collectors about the good old days when pages didn’t cost an arm and a leg. Many people were talking about the prices and pieces of art of the Heritage auction.

 

 

 

 

 

Frankenstein Plate at Torpedo Comics Booth

 

 

Albert's Wall

 

 

Scott Eders Booth

 

More crowds

 

Sal from Amazing Adventures and Ron and Jean from Redbeards Book Den

 

 

 

I regretted I didn’t see a Finlay but happy none the less that I got something.

 

Batman and Joker by Charles Vess

 

 

 

I ended Saturday taking shots of wall displays, people in costume, and the convention in general. I made a final purchase of a page of newpaper strip cutouts from the San Francisco Chronical from the 30's-40s. I had the cutouts at home, but never saw an uncut sheet and thought it would look very nice framed.

 

 

 

As I was not staying for Sunday I said my goodbyes and will see many of the same people at SDCC in July. Back at the hotel I met up with Brenda, and we had a great dinner at John’s Bar and Grill.

 

 

The next morning I wanted to go to Alameda for their huge swap meet on Sunday, but it was raining so Brenda and I headed for home. All in all we had a great time.

 

[Nexus]

Now THAT'S a con report! (thumbs u

 

Congrats on the early comics score and that Vess piece is SWEET!

 

 

[spider9698]

Wonderful. Many thanks

S

 

[westform]

Almost like being there.... but cheaper.

[invisibleghosts]

Many thanks for the report!

 

I'm really missing the bay area now!

[HouseofComics.Com]

You have the elevator page from OAAW 232! One of my favorite war action pages ever.

 

Stop by and say hi next time. I think we have a lot of collecting interests in common.

 

Btw, if you like Kubert, the new bio by Schelly is tremendous.

 

Marc

[adamstrange]

Great con report! Thanks.

 

Love the chiaroscuro in the last panel.

 

[Brenmark]

You have the elevator page from OAAW 232! One of my favorite war action pages ever.

 

Stop by and say hi next time. I think we have a lot of collecting interests in common.

 

Btw, if you like Kubert, the new bio by Schelly is tremendous.

 

Marc

 

 

Hi Marc,

Thanks for kind words about the Heath elevator page. I wish I knew the issue number for the other page as I really like this page as well, especially the panel with the closeup of Sgt. Rock and the way the hand grenades drop from the sky. The scan can't do it justice. Besides Heath, Kubert is another one of my favorites. I didn't know there was a new biography and will ask at my LCS if they have one. Thanks for the information. See you at the conventions.

 

Mark

[innocuous]

Great report. Thanks for sharing.

 

I can't believe Russ Heath was there. When I got there and walked the entire artist alley and didn't see Russ. Even his table number from the website was someone else, so I thought he was gone.

 

I should have done another walk through in the afternoon.

[NelsonAI]

Great report. I love the Heath pages.

 

Cheers!

N

[Paratrooper]

Great report. Thanks for sharing.

 

I can't believe Russ Heath was there. When I got there and walked the entire artist alley and didn't see Russ. Even his table number from the website was someone else, so I thought he was gone.

 

I should have done another walk through in the afternoon.

 

dag nabbit! missed another opportunity to get more Russ Heath signatures!

[BustedFlush]

Wonderful article.

[clemso]

Thanks for sharing that wonderful report and photos. I really got a sense of being there.

 

Clem