The Texas International Comic Con (Comicpalooza) on 25-27 May in Houston

[alxjhnsn]

Any one on the list coming (25 May to 27 May)? If so, maybe we could arrange to meet for dinner one night. I don't own a restaurant like some folks, but there are lots of good places to eat in Houston.

 

http://www.comicpalooza.com

 

The artist's alley isn't half bad - Joe Kubert is headlining with others that include Howard Chaykin. Here's the link: http://www.comicpalooza.com/comicpalooza-guests.html#Art

 

 

 

[igotnogame]

I might be there during the day on Friday, but not 100% sure just yet. I have other family obligations the rest of the weekend that will probably rule me out. However, if I do go Friday, I'll drag my portfolio with me since there's no telling what might show up there.

 

Really wish they'd move the date from Memorial Day weekend, just seems to be a weekend that everyone would want to escape the Houston heat, rather than be drawn to it. I went to the first one two years ago when (IMO) their best lineup was there, but haven't been able to go back since.

 

Later.

[alxjhnsn]

Discount tickets - http://www.livingsocial.com/cities/1713/deals/341638-adult-three-day-pass

 

[Weird Paper]

I'll be set up there, Alex. I may even bring some art too. Count on me and one other for whatever group dinner plans are made.

 

[alxjhnsn]

Well, the weekend is over and I had a great time. You can check out the pictures that I took here.

 

Layout:

Three sections:

1) Comics (Dealers, Artist Alley, Celebrities (Movie/TV folks, SciFi and other writers)

2) Events (Roller Derby, Wrestling, Jedi training, etc.)

3) Breakout rooms (panels, workshops, etc.)

 

The three sections were divided by floor to ceiling panels. The breakout rooms were just marked off by curtains.

 

Most of the noise was in the center section.

 

There were huge aisles and lots of space allowing you to move around, but it did make the "density" of the show feel low.

 

Thursday:

I've been out of town (Boston, MA and Worthing, UK) and returned at 1:30pm on Thursday. Kathy picked me up and I dropped her off at work. Ran some errands and then went to a afterwork party building towards the 50th anniversary of my High School (not my class - the school). After that, we went back to the airport and picked up Thom Zahler.

 

Thom is the writer/artist/letterer/colorist of Love and Capes - a superhero situation comedy. If you like comics that are funny, well drawn, wonderfully paced, and written with a great beat, this is a book you should checkout. Do yourself a favor and buy the first trade or first issues from Thom or get it electronically from Comixology. You'll be glad that you did.

 

Kathy and I took Tom to dinner at Dry Creek. I suggested Thom get a beer and Kathy wanted wine. We soon discovered why it is called "Dry" Creek.

 

On Friday, I got to the show a little before it opened and got my badge. I had about 30m before the gates opened to the crowd outside so and I began to wander around to scope out the con. I started in Artist's Alley. The funny thing about Artist's Alley is that lots of the artists weren't comic artists. There were lots of jewelry makers and sculptors and painters. There were a number of comic creators though that I got to meet and visit with

• Shane Davis - friendly, but quiet,
  
• Tyler Kirkham - nice and gregarious,
  
• Sam de la Rosa - very friendly,
  
• Howard Chaykin - quite willing to talk and share his opinions. I've arranged an Iron Wolf commission with Howard.
  
• Paul Maybury - a neighbor, well ex-neighbor he moved to Austin on Sunday
  
• David Marquez - very nice; grew up near me and knew children of my friends (I'm old)
  
• Thom Zahler - mentioned above - good guy, good artist, nice to kids
  
• Brent Peeples - Met him a few times; here last year and in Austin; good guy; almost bought a DPS from his Last of the Greats. Couldn't pull the trigger; may regret that.
  
• Ben Templesmith - good guy; definitely wins the best dressed artist category
  

 

Next up, I wandered through the dealer area. Lots of comics. The best collections for sale were in (no particular order) the Bedrock City Comic Company booth, the Weird Paper's booth, and Harley Yee's booth.

 

Maybe my favorite booth was "The Kubert School" because Joe was going to appear on Saturday and Sunday. The folks representing the school (Anthony and Jackie Marques) were very nice and I enjoyed talking to them both. Bought tickets to a raffle for a drawing by Joe. The proceeds (every dime) went to the Ronald MacDonald House Charities. The art was going to go to me!

 

Lots of toys and other things, too, of course. One booth had a 3D printer at work making custom (your face) action figures (dolls) for people. That was probably the coolest thing that I saw. Almost went for one, but ...

 

I'm not a big celebrity guy, but Timothy Zahn was there and so was Chris Yost (Scarlett Spider comic). Larry Niven was due, but wasn't there on Friday. He made it by Saturday though. I've met Chris a couple of times now. I gave him a Texas Monthly and recommend that he use it for reference on what Texas is really like the first time. We talked about his expectations for the show. Good guy.

 

Friday night, Kathy and I went to MiB3 with our youngest daughter. Good show. Not the Avengers, but really good. Josh Brolin nailed playing a young K (Tommy Lee Jones).

 

Saturday, I took the dog to the vet and headed over to the show in time to catch Joe Kubert's first panel (see the pictures). Joe sketched live (the drawing that I was planning to win from the raffle) and Anthony answered questions about the school and Joe answered questions about his life. It was an interesting talk, but no really new news if you've read about Joe. Still, I was glad to be there.

 

At lunch, I went (more or less) directly to Joe's booth expecting a line. Nope, it was quiet and I quickly got him to sign my copy of Man of Rock and a little pad of autographs I used to help me remember shows. Got to visit for a bit because the line was short and Joe is VERY friendly. I also managed to get Shane Davis to autograph my copy of Superman: Earth One and my pad. Tyler Kirkham signed the pad, too.

 

At 1pm, I went to a panel featuring Howard Chaykin on Jews in comics. It was interesting. Howard has opinions and lots of stories (see pictures).

 

At 2pm, I went to a panel on "Gender Representations in Graphic Literature" which boils down to comments on how to handle women characters and comments on how they are actually handled. Thom Zahler had some really thought out points which makes sense if you read Love and Capes. Good panel. The moderator works at my LCS and is a Sociology grad student so he was prepared with interesting questions.

 

At 3pm, I went to a panel featuring Timothy Zahn and Larry Niven. Got to talk to Larry which was a thrill for me. Love his work.

 

At 4pm, I went to the second panel with Joe Kubert. This was excellent. Matt Ballesteros moderated and he was very prepared. Richard Evans (Bedrock City my LCS) had a couple of great questions about some of the social issues (integration for example) that were first handled in DC's war comics. Joe gave all the credit to Bob Kanigher who wrote the stories. That's fair, but Joe's art drew people into the books and made it real. Basically, DC's war books were flat out excellent. The panel reminded me of the book Nick Cardy: The Artist at War which is a published collection of drawings Nick made while driving a tank through Europe after D-Day.

 

After the panel, I went home to get Kathy so that we could come back to the Live Art auction and see if we were going to make a contribution to charity (Ronald MacDonald House Charities got the proceeds).

 

We watched the folks draw and it was a lot of fun. A wide range of artists from Thom's Marvel Family to Ben Templesmith's Zombie to someone's painted closet door. I bid on a piece or two, but not enough to win. Just enough to raise some funds for charity.

 

Afterwards, Thom, his friend Jesse Jackson (not that one, a guy from Dallas), Kathy, and I went to dinner.

 

Sunday, I got there fairly late and just walked the floor again. I was too late for Shane Davis' panel on re-inventing Superman. Drat! Got a long visit with Joe and showed him the Cardy book. He seemed to like it spending about 15m going through it. Matt (his moderator and WWII buff) showed up about the same time and spent some time on his way out with the book. It really is an excellent book. Amazon has it on pre-order and Renee's site doesn't show it; I picked up my copy in Boston from Renee directly.

 

My daughter Rebecca asked me to ask Thom for a commission for a little boy to whom she is close and he knocked it out of the park - see the pictures.

 

Well, that's all I've got, I think. Hope you enjoyed the read.