Comicpalooza 2022 Journal. 0

[BabaLament]

Hello all!

Its that time of year again; Comicpalooza (Houston)! So my wife and I have made our annual trip to spend the weekend geeking out downtown.

This convention has a special place in my heart, as this is where I met my wife for the first time in 2018. She was attending with her brother’s family, he just happens to be my best friend; so we met, life happened, & here we are.

I’m going to post updates and such throughout the show weekend. Anyone else in attendance, please add your thoughts, observations, and sweet convention pickups/finds in the comments! Anyone wants to say “hi,” I’ll be the guy rocking around in full Disney+ Kingpin Cosplay for as long as I can handle the heat. Hoping for a couple of “Hi Baba!” moments; be nice to meet some boardies.

Day One: Disappointment is off to an early start. Checked in at the Hilton, ate dinner at Papasitos Cantina. We skipped the wresting event & briefly checked out then left the headache-inducing EDM Blacklight/glow stick nerd rave opening night party in favor of drinks at the Hilton bar. The Baby Yoda cocktail was incredible, convention-themed beer was ok. We went on to dinner at Papasitos Cantina, after which a couple of hours later the food poisoning had my wife and I competing over who gets to pray at the porcelain altar for the rest of the evening.

This…is not off to a great start. On the flip side, it can only get better…right?

Day Two: Ok. Much better. Stomach settled, sleep obtained. Starbucks coffee for me, Coca-Cola for Darth Wifey (while the love of my life, she is *not* a morning person). A couple of hours to get ourselves together before the fun starts. 

Two celebrity guests I wanted signatures from (Antony Starr & Aliqua Cox) have canceled. 😢 At least they’re being cool about it and getting the signature & photo-op refund e-mails out immediately. Bonus points to the promoter for not messing with people’s money.

The bench of comic industry talent attending is distinguished, but very, very short. I have some Batman black label books I’d like to get signed by Jock, and I’m hoping Stephanie Phillips has some Harley Quinn books I can pick up and get signed for my niece. I brought The Boys #3 & Herogasm blank set that I was hoping to get signed by Antony Starr…but Karen Fukuhara is here, so one down, many more to go. On the blank sketch set, I was thinking of commissioning a three part connecting piece with Homelander, Superman, and Iron Patriot all squaring off. Thoughts?

I have four custom ASM 300 cover swipes to pick up that were commissioned during last year’s show. Three are from Mostafa Moussa, whose work is amazing; a Venom Noir, Carnage Noir, and Spider-Gwen Noir. His steampunk Venom is on point! Another one is by Jonathan Hallett; the StitchToons guy. It’s Stitch as Spider-Man, because Stitch is my wife’s kryptonite. 🤣

Yeah, that Stitch Crashes Disney product line from last year? More like Stitch Zero’s Out Baba’s Bank Account Balance. Happy wife, happy life, right fellas? 😇

I brought a bunch of blank sketch books; hoping that I can find people in Artists Alley whose styles I like & they’re available to feed my custom ASM 300 swipe addiction. 😁 

Final before-the-door thoughts; moving the convention dates from Memorial Day weekend to July between Fan Expo Chicago & San Diego Comic Con might be putting talent in a scheduling bind & Houston is on the losing end. If the promoters want to keep building this show, they need to up their game significantly in 2023. My opinion, I could be wrong.

Regardless, we are determined to make the best & most of the weekend. Let’s go!

Edited July 16, 2022 by BabaLament
Auto-Spell will be the death of us all.

[KirbyTown]

Thanks for sharing!

[ADAMANTIUM]

Have A good one for what I presume will be day 2 and 3

Try for some pics! Glad the stomach is better, and that is good the refunds will be prompt!

[BabaLament]

…and my update edit didn’t take and was lost. Darn. Here are some photos. I’ll write a novel later. 😁

[ADAMANTIUM]

Will get prepared for a novel then  @BabaLament

Good to see you getting geared up in kingpin style, ha!

Some fun pics

Edited July 16, 2022 by ADAMANTIUM

[BabaLament]

@ADAMANTIUM As promised, the Book of Baba's Vent.

So after a very nice nap (highly endorsed) around lunchtime, we went back onto the show floor and went on Quest for Comics...and I came up bone dry.

Its not for lack of selection or variety; some of my favorite shops & vendors were present. @MrBedrock represented Houston's finest shop as always, Rick's Comic Crypt (one of the nicest guys) had some excellent books out, and a variety of independent guys and collectors looking to cash out their collections were all moving very nice books. We were personally priced out; I have most of what I want, and the pick-ups I was interested in were more than I was willing to go. However, even considering convention pricing, things were not crazy. Some keys were downright reasonable. There's always the one guy who puts up a Hulk 181 or TMNT 1 3rd Print for "(Blank)-You" money, but even the key books that were present weren't pay-off-the-mortgage levels of overpriced. On the other hand, nobody that I saw had bank-breakers out on display; no Action Comics 1, no AF 15, etc. Now if the gentlemen who play in the Executive Game for Golden Age keys were making deals off in a hotel room somewhere, I can't say; to paraphrase John Wick's Winston, "You can't afford to dip so much as a pinky into that pool."

I did commission a custom ASM sketch cover from Aaron Williamson. I asked for Kingpin, but staring out a circular window at the NYC skyline. Not a direct ASM 300 swipe, but it hopefully works out ok.

Mostafa Moussa wants to put some finishing touches on the ASM 300 swipes, so he's going to mail them back to me. That's fine; I've waited this long, what's another couple of days?

Jonathan Hallett *forgot* to bring the Stitch-as-Spider-Man ASM 300 swipe sketch cover commission. He has *forgotten* to finish and/or ship it for almost a year; despite repeated contacts where he would "remember", and "promise" to get it to me. He *did* remember to make prints based on my sketch cover, and bring those for sale.  He has promised to mail it to me "soon."

I have a pretty short tihs list. It has two names on it. I may be adding a third in short order. We shall see.

The people were awesome. Lots of comic and anime fans who were just plain happy to *be* at a comic convention. Mask usage was probably around 50/50; some people were all about it, some people went the chin-diaper route, others were full-on YOLO. A lot of great cosplayers who, much to my surprise, asked for photos. I didn't think my outfit was all that impressive, but I think I took pictures with every Spider-Man in the greater Houston area. It ended up being quite a fun time.

Even though we paid the early checkout penalty, we decided to pack it in and head for home early. After the first night food poisoning episode, we decided discretion was the better part of valor, and that we'd rather make dinner at the house. Additionally, even though the room at the Hilton was large, clean, recently renovated, and had blessedly impressive air conditioning...the bed didn't work for either of us. Too hard for my wife to be comfortable, too soft for me. So we're back, doing laundry and working on our post-show critiques.

This is a picture with a group of Spider-Man/Gwen cosplayers, and a downright awesome Doctor Octopus.

Also, I may have learned why Antony Starr decided to cancel his appearance at Comicpalooza. To be fair, for one of those MCU paychecks, I'd have probably done the same thing.

[Crops068]

Great write up @BabaLament, I went last year to Comicpalooza and really wanted to this year but unfortunately COVID struck last week and I was not risking it (even being after the infectious window).

Sucks about Starr, he was one of 3 I would have wanted to meet there.  The others being Terry Crews and Michael Shanks.

I know some great artists that did or have attended, you should check out Ken Salinas, Chris Oz Fulton, David Sanchez, and Mclain McGuire. 

Ken has his own style, VooDoodz, which would be pretty dope in an ASM 300 swipe imo.  Chris is all about horror, so take your pick there I bet ya'll could come up with something.  Sanchez, man he is the KING of black and white charcoal coloring looking real.  And Mclain has been around forever and just an all around good dude.

[spideyfan68]

Like others said great write up. I was there Saturday and i was surprised at the lack of comic talent there. I know Jock was the headliner but no classic creators as they have had in the past. Big thanks to @Bubbagump for saving my weekend from being a total bust. I was able to add another 9.8 ASM McSpidey to help me get closer to completing  that run. Thanks Rick!