Long Beach Comic Con Report - Innocuous Style - Lots of Pics

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I went to the first ever Long Beach Comic Con this past weekend. It was very long with a lot of great experiences and a couple of not so great experiences. So, on with the report...

 

I took Friday off of work to make sure I got the full experience. I offered to help Joel set-up his booth in exchange for a pass to get into the hall early. I got there about 10:30, and, wouldn't you know, he actually wanted me to help. So, I moved long and short boxes from the loading dock to his booth. After the first two trips, I got some help from fingerprint_ink (Jessie) and his brother Randy.

 

Those brothers worked hard the entire show. But, they got some great sigs and sketches.

 

Anyway, here is a shot of the outside of the convention center mid-day before opening.

 

 

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Ok, now, on to the pre-show, the hall was decent sized for a first time con. I would say about half the size (maybe a little more) than Baltimore. Here is a shot from Joel and SPDREYCER's booth toward the front.

 

 

One thing I really liked, but it received mixed reviews, was having the artist alley be the center of the hall. There were booths on both sides of the artists, so you had to go between the artist tables to get from one side to the next. Here is an empty artist alley.

 

 

Here is Joel and SPDREYCER's empty booth.

 

 

I only have one more shot before the show opening. This is over at Ed Robertsons booth where Steve and (hopefully new board member) Richard, are going to town.

 

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I had a few highlights for the show, the first one was meeting Stan Lee for the first time. As a comic collector, this was the highlight of the show for me. I had never met Stan and did not know what to expect. In the meeting room, Stan was at a table, by himself. Each person who was to meet with him got to sit beside him and have a little chat. I spent about 3 uninterrupted minutes with Stan. He has amazing energy and was great to talk to. I won't go into the conversation, but, to say the least, I'd never thought about acquiring any of the Marvel SA keys, but I spent the next few hours searching for a Hulk 1 (but no success).

 

Prior to the show opening, I spent most of the time finding a book for Stan to sign. I purchased a Fantastic Four #10 from Terry at Terry's Nationwide comics. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a pic of it before submitting it to CGC for Signature Series.

 

Next I asked Stan for a sketch. He was happy to oblige. Here he is drawing.

 

 

And, here is me and Stan having a laugh with his drawing.

 

 

And, here is Stan's sketch.

 

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So, I know this is comic book forum, so here are some shots of the dealer booths. First up, is Terry's Nationwide Comics.

 

(ooops I forgot to take the picture)

 

Next, JayCompanyComics had 3 booths.

 

(no pic)

 

Closest to the entrace were Harley and Grapham Crackers, side-by-side. Here is Harley's booth.

 

 

And, here is Graham Crackers. He had the best selection of keys at the show, but also most expensive (to condition). Several TOS 39, AF15s, 3 Showcase 4s, etc.

 

 

Next up, Steve Wyatt. He also had a CGC box dropped off by John Dolmayan (Torpedo Comics). More on John Later.

 

 

While at Steve's booth, I saw an amazing original art page from Dave Stevens. I had to have a picture. I was so close to buying this page.

 

 

Next up, across from CGC (sorry, no pic of the CGC booth), is Scott Hudlow. He rented out some space to some guy named Jeff from the San Diego area. Jeff was a great guy to speak with and gave me the history of his Our Gang #1, Mighty Mouse and others on his board. So, I bought a Yogi Bear from him.

 

 

Brian from A-1 was there also.

 

(dang, did I forgot to take a pic of his booth too?)

 

Ed Robertson, new to the boards and from Phoenix had a huge stack of boxes. There was a feeding frenzy at his booth before the show of which I now wish I had participated in. I need to get better at using the exhibitor privilege.

 

 

Across and diagnol from Ed was Comic Collector Shop. I forget the owners name, but he was really friendly. He has a shop up in the SF Bay area that I had been to (old location).

 

 

There was one OA dealer there, Coolines.

 

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Crowds were both great and bad. Friday was brisk, not busy, but not empty. Here is a crowd picture.

 

 

Saturday was packed. Not San Diego packed, but there were definitely some bottleneck areas. I spoke with some of the dealers who said it was good. Terry said he sold a lot. Here is the Saturday crowd.

 

 

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Speaking of crowds, my worst experience was also on Saturday. As many of you know, I get sketches on backing boards. When the show opened on Saturday, I went straight to Jim Lee's table. I could have been first, but I was chatting with Harley as people were running by me. Anyway, I got to be fourth in line. Four hours later, the line is now huge. Jim finishes a sketch for the third person in line, the guy in front of me. And, he stops there. Nothing, nada, too bad. But, I did get a picture of Jim sketching for the guy in front of me. Here it is.

 

 

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Here are a few more sketches. Batman by Stephane Roux.

 

 

And, Spectre by Dave Johnson.

 

 

And, Batman by Simone Bianchi.

 

 

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The second big highlight of the show was meeting Berkeley Breathed. Growing up in the 80's, I was a diehard Bloom County fan. I asked him to do a sketch for me and he obliged.

 

 

I also went to his panel which was great. He talked about his inspiration for ideas and his upcoming projects. If you read his book, Mars Needs Moms, you should be very happy in the next year or so. I didn't win the original Sunday strip that was raffled off, but I'm happy with my Bill sketch.

 

 

 

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John Dolmayan stopped by Jim's table (when Jim wasn't there) and was chatting with a few people. I showed him a video of my daughter's band playing Crazy Train. He seemed to like it and gave me a great compliment. I really appreciated it. Here he is watching the video.

 

 

For those of you who want to see a band of 10 year olds rock, check it Static Shock on YouTube. My daughter is lead guitar.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/StaticShockBand

 

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The forum dinner was fun. Unfortunately, a couple of you couldn't make it, but we all had a great time. We signed Nik's card, shared some comics and great company. Here are some of the pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, the group shot.

 

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Sunday was really light. Actually, disappointingly light. But, I bought my 2 older kids and they had fun. Naturally, we started with the video games.

 

 

Then, we moved on to the comic boxes. Here, they were searching for trades.

 

 

No convention is complete without the Star Wars picture.

 

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The last big highlight of the convention was watching my daughter. She had way more fun than my son. He seemed pre-occupied with finding Legos and Star Wars that he really missed the convention aspect. Although he did find a stack of Cone War, all-ages comics that we took home.

 

But, my daughter just liked seeing and watching the artists. Here she is with Jim Hanna who drew a picture of her and her new hat. She made the hat at the convention. But, really liked to watch Jim draw her.

 

 

My favorite part was when we went to pick up my sketch from Ale Garza. I don't have a picture of her face, but when she saw this sketch, there was a genuine HUGE smile on her face. And, rare for her, an audible "wow." The sketch just touched her and she stared at it while I chatted and paid Ale. Here it is.

 

 

If she ever becomes an artist, I will think back to this moment.

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Pick-ups. Well, I picked up a page from Fathom by Ale Garza.

 

 

In addition to my unpictured Fantastic Four 10, I got the following two.

 

 

And, not everything else, but what I remembered to put into a picture. (The big thing missing is a bunch of SA Marvel trades I picked up. (Inspired by Stan, I have some catching up to do.)

 

 

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That's all, I hope you enjoyed my con report. It was a fun weekend and I really enjoyed remembering it while writing this up. Be sure to check out the Nik card thread for a picture with the signatures.

 

And, here's another shameless plug. Go rate this band on YouTube. Static Shock

[BustedFlush]

I leave for a cigarette with Steve B. and look what happens! Jay, thanks again.

 

 

 

[Chespirito]

Awesome report, even better pics.. it looked like a rocking time...

[PokerKid]

The second big highlight of the show was meeting Berkeley Breathed. Growing up in the 80's, I was a diehard Bloom County fan. I asked him to do a sketch for me and he obliged.

 

 

I also went to his panel which was great. He talked about his inspiration for ideas and his upcoming projects. If you read his book, Mars Needs Moms, you should be very happy in the next year or so. I didn't win the original Sunday strip that was raffled off, but I'm happy with my Bill sketch.

 

 

 

Super cool. While I thought there were a lot of great artists there, Berkeley is the one I would have loved to have spent some time talking to and getting a sketch from. Alas, I did not, but love seeing that you did and I think that sketch is awesome.

[sckao]

 

Great photos and a nice report! (thumbs u

[Drakeprimeone]

John Dolmayan stopped by Jim's table (when Jim wasn't there) and was chatting with a few people. I showed him a video of my daughter's band playing Crazy Train. He seemed to like it and gave me a great compliment. I really appreciated it. Here he is watching the video.

 

 

For those of you who want to see a band of 10 year olds rock, check it Static Shock on YouTube. My daughter is lead guitar.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/StaticShockBand

 

Great Report and awesome pics!!

 

Your daughter and her band rocks! I have a hard time playing those songs on guitar hero

Static Shock Rules!

[Duffman_Comics]

So, I know this is comic book forum, so here are some shots of the dealer booths. First up, is Terry's Nationwide Comics.

 

(ooops I forgot to take the picture)

 

Next, JayCompanyComics had 3 booths.

 

(no pic)

 

Closest to the entrace were Harley and Grapham Crackers, side-by-side. Here is Harley's booth.

 

 

 

Guy to the right of picture at Harley's booth (not a Boardie) is a Dealer/Collector hailing from Canberra.

 

Ye gods it is a small world.

 

Nice report.