Alex's Paradise Comics Comicon Report

[AlexH]

So, if you have ever read one of my convention reports, you will notice that I tend to focus on the creators more than I do books. With that in mind, I hope you enjoy it.

 

FRIDAY:

 

I arrived at the show about an hour before the doors opened. The room was huge. Most people were still setting up, and I went to the Paradise booth to say hi and see how many books there were for the Signature Series (since I would be the one to get them all done anyways). Basically it was dividing the ones for George Perez, and all the rest.

 

I first went to see Dave Sim. We had a good chat, and I ended up buying his new limited edition print featuring Cerebus, The Frost Giant's Wedge:

 

 

My first stop for a sketch was Andy Smith (he is doing the new Red Sonja series), who drew this sketch for me:

 

 

I then went to see Bart Sears who was just setting up his booth. I had a look through the art that he was putting out and asked for prices on a couple of pieces. He said $40 each, so I bought them both. Here is one of them:

 

 

Later on in the evening, Bart stops me and says that I overpaid for the 2 pages. He only wanted $40 for both, then proceeded to give me back $40. Talk about a great guy.

 

I also visted with Arthur Suydam and Renee Witterstaetter at their brand new booth. It looks very nice. If you get a chance to see them, have a look. I also got The Art of the Barbarian Special edition and had them both sign it.

 

Next up for sketches was a local talent by the name of Valentine De Landro:

 

 

I talked to other creators throughout the night including George Perez, Gail Simone, JG Jones, Dale Eaglesham, Dave Johnson, Bob Layton, and Frank Cho.

 

I also managed to get in a brief dinner break with the Beyonder. Hi Chris

 

I also got to meet CGCWorld, and see Comicfreak, 1 MillionComix, ComicManager, Peter Dixon, Kevin Boyd, Ares, Harshan, and my favorite and yours, Paul Litch.

 

I will have more soon, including what I will be calling "The Hidden Gem" award. But more on that later...

[Ares]

Nice art

[AlexH]

Wait till you see the rest of it.

[Ares]

I dont want wait.

I wanna see now.

 

 

I got a case of the Wish I had more money on me to buy more art.

To much art not enough money.

Now to try and track down the artist to work out a private sale

[AlexH]

SATURDAY

 

One thing I forgot to mention, on Friday, I purchased some raffle tickets with the proceeds going to charity. I spent $20 for 20 tickets, not really expecting anything. But I went back on Saturday morning to find out that I had won a Manga DVD (Animation Runner Kuromi 2), along with a Manga novel. Throughout the weekend, I kept going back to find that I had won another Manga DVD (Munto 2), 2 more manga novels, and a $50 gift pack which featured gift certificates from local comic stores.

 

So, first thing I got done was putting my name down, and giving in a donation to ACTOR, for a sketch with Mike Mayhew. He managed to complete it after he had spent 2 hours sketching for people at the ACTOR booth. Simply gorgeous:

 

 

That morning, I also talked with Daniel Way. I finally had a chance to ask what happened to the Ant Man series. Marvel just ended up shelving it even though it was completed. He doesn't think it will ever see the light of day.

 

The only person I didn't get to really meet was David Lloyd. His line up was massive for the whole weekend.

 

Next up was a sketch by another local guy, Attila Adorjany, who did this Wolverine for me:

 

 

I had a nice talk with Darwyn Cooke away from his booth, where he said to me that he hoped Bryan O'Malley would be the winner that night for the Shuster award that he (Darwyn) was also nominated for. Turned out O'Malley did win. Darwyn is a class act.

 

That afternoon, I ended up seeing Ken Lashely (one of my favorite artists), and the new penciller on the upcoming Flash series. He had art work there for the first issue of Flash as well as the cover. He wouldn't, however, tell who was under the mask. The only thing he said was that we wouldn't find out in the first issue either.

 

During the time I was in line for a sketch, I had a look at the art work he was selling. He ended up selling me a fantastic double page splash he did for the Wizard X-Men special edition, for only $100. I had to take a picture of it, because I couldn't scan it, so I won't be able to show it for a few days, but it is awesome.

 

Here is the sketch he did for me:

 

 

I will have to continue this later as I need to get my daughter. More sketches to come.

[AlexH]

SATURDAY con't

 

So, throughout the con, I had sketch commissions that were on the go. The first I got back that afternoon, from Bart Sears:

 

 

One of the highlights of the con for me, was getting to meet King Kong Bundy. I ended up getting a picture taken with him putting me in a headlock. He was such a nice guy.

 

I spent the rest of the day getting signatures for the SS. I met up with Michael Lark, Brian Azzarello, Patricia Mulvihill (award winning colourist on 100 Bullets), Talent Caldwell, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Samm Barnes, JM Straczynski, JG Jones (super friendly guy), and Greg Rucka.

 

I managed to get 1 more sketch in the late afternoon from another local talent Fernando:

 

 

That night I was asked to go out to 2 parties, but I had no energy, and I ended up coming home and falling asleep on the couch at about 9:30.

[comic_manager]

SATURDAY

 

One thing I forgot to mention, on Friday, I purchased some raffle tickets with the proceeds going to charity. I spent $20 for 20 tickets, not really expecting anything. But I went back on Saturday morning to find out that I had won a Manga DVD (Animation Runner Kuromi 2), along with a Manga novel. Throughout the weekend, I kept going back to find that I had won another Manga DVD (Munto 2), 2 more manga novels, and a $50 gift pack which featured gift certificates from local comic stores.

 

So, first thing I got done was putting my name down, and giving in a donation to ACTOR, for a sketch with Mike Mayhew. He managed to complete it after he had spent 2 hours sketching for people at the ACTOR booth. Simply gorgeous:

 

 

That morning, I also talked with Daniel Way. I finally had a chance to ask what happened to the Ant Man series. Marvel just ended up shelving it even though it was completed. He doesn't think it will ever see the light of day.

 

The only person I didn't get to really meet was David Lloyd. His line up was massive for the whole weekend.

 

Next up was a sketch by another local guy, Attila Adorjany, who did this Wolverine for me:

 

 

I had a nice talk with Darwyn Cooke away from his booth, where he said to me that he hoped Bryan O'Malley would be the winner that night for the Shuster award that he (Darwyn) was also nominated for. Turned out O'Malley did win. Darwyn is a class act.

 

That afternoon, I ended up seeing Ken Lashely (one of my favorite artists), and the new penciller on the upcoming Flash series. He had art work there for the first issue of Flash as well as the cover. He wouldn't, however, tell who was under the mask. The only thing he said was that we wouldn't find out in the first issue either.

 

During the time I was in line for a sketch, I had a look at the art work he was selling. He ended up selling me a fantastic double page splash he did for the Wizard X-Men special edition, for only $100. I had to take a picture of it, because I couldn't scan it, so I won't be able to show it for a few days, but it is awesome.

 

Here is the sketch he did for me:

 

 

I will have to continue this later as I need to get my daughter. More sketches to come.

 

 

It was great to have you at the show Alex everyone really appreciated how hard you were working throughout the weekend

[AlexH]

It was great to have you at the show Alex everyone really appreciated how hard you were working throughout the weekend

 

Thanks Doug. Glad I could help.

[RaccoonRaccoon]

Great report Alex, I had a good time reading it!

[AlexH]

I moved this to the general thread. Go there, there is more to read...

[Renee-migration]

Ha, thanks alex for the comments on our booth. I looked long and hard for one we could put up and take down quickly, and still be able to carry to shows without breaking a back or two. :-)

 

Glad you liked the books as well. We really enjoyed being at Toronto.

 

--Renee

 

www.evainkpublishing.com

[comic_manager]

Ha, thanks alex for the comments on our booth. I looked long and hard for one we could put up and take down quickly, and still be able to carry to shows without breaking a back or two. :-)

 

Glad you liked the books as well. We really enjoyed being at Toronto.

 

--Renee

 

www.evainkpublishing.com

 

We loved having you in Toronto as well Renee I hope we can see you up here again

Doug

Paradise Comics