I got Al Jaffee's autograph (or my weekend in Boston - Fenway and Comic Con)

[alxjhnsn]

I posted this to comicart-l, but not everyone is on that so here it is again.

 

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I think I may have mentioned that I have two brothers. One is an endodontist (root canal specialist) living in Portland, OR. As part of his licensing requirements, John has to go to Continuing Education classes and this year he took a class in Boston, MA.

 

Turns out that Friday of that weekend was the 100th anniversary of the opening of Fenway Park and John and one of his friends bought 4 tickets (Field Box 19, Row G - that is up close and personal behind first base). He let me know that if I'd get myself to Boston he'd pop for my ticket and a bed at the Westin Copley Plaza.

 

After consulting with Kathy and United Airlines, I was setup to fly out of Houston at 5:30am arriving in Boston at noon for the 3pm game. I also realized that on Saturday we could go to the Boston Comic Con (John was thrilled! ).

 

Anyway, Friday was glorious. We arrived at Fenway at 2pm (short walk from the hotel) and watched a bus load of former Red Sox players (including Pedro and Nomar) disembark from a police escorted bus (a Yankee Bus Line bus by the way!). The ceremony was moving and the game was fun (assuming you are a Yankee fan). The Sox lost 6-2, but it was a beautiful day at the ballpark and as far as I'm concerned a bad day at the ballpark is better than most days anywhere else.

 

While there, I met Tom Field - famous art collector and Gene Colan biographer among other things and up to this point a "virtual" friend of mine - at Gate B. He was kind enough to show two Texans some hospitality. It was great to meet him and put a face with an e-mail. [ See there was a comic art connection to the ball game part of this story.]

 

That night we went to dinner at Mamma Maria's, a "world class" (says so on it's webpage) Italian restaurant , which was delicious if not cheap.

 

The next day - it was the Boston Comic Con!

 

We got there at 10:10, but the line was a block long. They really didn't have enough people to sell tickets or handout pre-paid tickets. It took us an hour to get into the show. Other than that, it seemed well run and the venue was nice. (It was also the place where my brother had his endodontics CE classes. Dentists and Cosplayers at the same place. ).

 

The artist's alley was huge. The list of artists is on their website so I won't bother you with that, but I will go through the list of who I saw and what I bought.

 

We started at Bernie Wrightson's table. Bernie was off getting coffee so I missed him, but there were a couple of portfolios and I was very tempted, but held off. BTW, it seems that Bernie has moved to Austin, TX. Smart man!

 

The next table over was Herb Trimpe of Hulk and Wolverine fame. Herb did a commission of my favorite Hulk scene/story for me a few years ago, but I hadn't met the man. We almost met at a signing at October Country in New Paltz, NY a month ago, but he had to miss. We chatted for a bit and John took our picture. I got his autograph for the heck of it.

 

We wandered around checking out who was there. Among others, I stopped and talked to:

 

Todd Dezago and Matt Wieringo (Mike's brother) - I'd met Todd at that October Country signing and he said he remembered (very nice guy!). I wanted to buy a copy of the Tellos hardcover and he pointed me to Matt. Matt had a few signed and numbered copies that Mike had done so I bought one of those and made a small contribution to the Wieringo scholarship at SCAD.

 

Stephanie Buscema - The girl has a big name to live up to, but I think she'll handle it. Nice work and fun to visit with. I didn't buy though.

 

Katie Cook - She does wonderful $5 miniatures. Basically anything you can fit on the 3x4 card she uses. I got her to do the Legion of Super-Heroes founders and later in the day Harry Potter raising his Pratronus for my youngest a huge HP fan. I felt bad getting three characters on one card, but she refused anything extra. She said the hardest one she'd done was the cast of Sandman. Given that her drawings on these are quite simple and that she relies on watercolors to create the real suggestion of the character, I would think that the Sandman cast (dominated by grays, blacks, and whites) would be really tough. Very nice person and highly recommended. I'd like to get her take on a Legion piece.

 

Next to Katie was Charles Paul Wilson, III. I love The Stuff of Legends and the commissions he's been doing of the Pooh characters as Marvel heroes crack me up. He was doing a Pooh as Magneto piece when I was visiting. Bob Shaw is his agent and I plan to arrange a commission or buy some art. I really like his work. If you aren't reading Stuff of Legends you are missing a terrific book. He gave me his autograph (a toy duck with his name) and I moved on.

 

Next to CPW3 was David Peterson of Mouse Guard fame. David was missing when I first got there, but I caught up with him later. Katie Cook, CPW3, and DP all next to each other was my favorite part of the show. Anyway, David's work is remarkable and Mouse Guard is another book worth reading. Got his autograph, too. A MG character and his name.

 

Jim Calafiore - Secret Six by Jim and Gail Simone was a guilty pleasure. Why it was cancelled, I'll never understand. It should have been selling like hotcakes. He had a lot of art and was a delight to talk to. He mentioned that he and Gail are considering a Kickstarter project in the near future. Hope so. Lots of art from the Secret Six and other work that he's been doing. I didn't buy anything though.

 

Rene Witterstatter - Okay, she's not an artist, but she reps artists! I picked up her book on Nick Cardy's WWII sketches and drawings. If you like WW II information, you really need to read get this book. Not sure why Amazon says September 2012.

 

Agnas Garbowska - We chatted for a bit and I definitely want to commission a piece from her. Her young hero pieces make me laugh. She had prints and was drawing, but it was too late in the day for me to get her to do a piece for me. I had a plane to catch and John had an earlier one.

 

Ben Templesmith - My youngest daughter (the HP fan) is also a fan of the Looking Glass Wars books by Frank Beddor. Ben drew a Hatter M miniseries and I think that I may commission a Hatter M piece from him. Very personable guy. I'd met him before, but he was pretty busy preoccupied at that show. Very friendly here.

 

Kevin Maguire - I visited with Kevin and almost pulled the trigger on a couple of pieces, but I'm glad that I didn't since I wouldn't have been able to get the "big" piece below. Nice guy and willing to visit even with the non-buying folks. I did get his autograph.

 

As we were moving around, there was one very noticeable line. I couldn't see who it was so we avoided the area until close to time to go to lunch and send John on his way home. When we finally ventured into the crowd I realized that everyone was there for Kevin Eastman and Simon Bisley. Kevin's crowd was at least twice Simon's, but they really jammed up the otherwise quite spacious aisles. Later in the day, they moved those two out to the foyer - that was a good decision. I didn't stop for either guy, but they both seem quite happy to be there.

 

What I did find was the treat of the show for me - Al Jaffee. He was on the same row as those two guys, but his visitors were relatively few. John and I stopped and talked. He's sharp as a tack and really funny. His wife equally sharp and active. Al gave me his autograph and let me gush over how much I'd enjoyed his work without looking too embarrassed. Later, when we were leaving for lunch, he was right in front of us and we spoke a little more. This was a real treat for me.

 

Also before lunch, I stopped at Anthony Snyder's booth. It was there that I squandered some of my children's inheritance. I picked up two pieces. The first was a relatively minor piece by Daniel Hdr from issue 8 of the current LSH series. I like the image, but the real reason that I bought it was that I'd bought the inked version from Bob Wiacek at the October Country signing in New Paltz, NY. You can see them both here.

 

However, that was not the "big" purchase. The "big" one was a Curt Swan page from issue 306 of (Superboy and) The Legion of Super-Heroes. It's a recap of the story from the old Adventure Comics run where Star Boy kills. It's in classic Curt style and its one of the later pages where Curt was not dominated by his inker. Larry Mahlstedt did an excellent job on this piece. It's very similar to the original story. While it doesn't totally scratch my itch for a Swan piece with lots of Legionnaires, it definitely helps. I'm thrilled to have it. You can see it here.

 

 

I know that I visited with other folks, but they have slipped my mind. I can tell you that this con was a delight and if you like comic art, it was a very good show.

 

Oh, yeah. There was a fair amount of cosplay. One group was the Flash's Rogue's Gallery, but my shot was too blurry to save. Excellent job by them though.

 

Hope the write-up was of some interest.

 

 

It was a great weekend even if I did watch my Rice Owls lose today.

 

[rsonenthal]

Great update. I've got to try that Con one of these days.

 

Thanks Alex!

 

Ron

[alxjhnsn]

It was fun. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to go. Baseball and comics - hard to beat that!

 

[Pete Marino]

Wow, awesome weekend, and you got to see the Yankees win!!

 

Saturday was an epic slugfest.

[alxjhnsn]

I did speak to a few other people:

 

Jamal Igle - Very nice man and talented artist. We discussed putting pants on Supergirl. As the father of 3 daughters, I appreciated it. He said as the father of one and the uncle of two, he felt the same way.

 

Cliff Chiang - Another very nice man. We discussed the new WW run (what else). He's doing excellent work - both the story and art are a refreshing new take on the character. I'm really enjoying it.

 

Bob Layton - Always pleasant. It was interesting to hear Bob's take on the famous Iron Man #128. It was more or less just another job. He didn't realize the impact it would have at the time the job was done - another story, a really good one, but just another story seemed to be the feeling at the time.

 

I'm sure that there were other conversations; I'll see what I can remember.

[alxjhnsn]

I put the few Boston Comic Con pictures that I took (John has a few more) on Facebook if you are interested.

 

They should be visible to everyone.