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My Iowa Con report

Started by jonjesper,

21 posts in this topic

jonjesper

jonjesper

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Went to a con in Des Moines Iowa this past weekend.

Small show, but some great creators were there! Very well run in a the convention center downtown, Kudos to ICON!

We arrived about 2:30 in the morning Saturday, got some sleep and headed to the convention. My buddy Tony was setting up to debut his new book, In My Lifetime, along with his publisher, Christian Berenak (Silent Devil, and writer of Dracula vs. King Arthur). We arrived before the con started and I ran into Phil Hester who told me that he was late because of me 893whatthe.gif as he was working on my Deathstroke commission into the wee hours 27_laughing.gif, we had a good laugh. My buddies set up and then I let those guys do their thing while I walked around to see what was 'hot' and who had some nice high grade stuff...

Disappointed to say the least...

Everything in the .50 boxes was garbage...early Image garbage...sigh

There was some higher grade items, but they were all over priced and not as nice as I think the seller thought.

I went over to Phil's booth and bought my commission. He is probably the most friendly guy in comics without a doubt. I have been talking with him and getting sketches from him for about 8 years and he just keeps getting nicer 27_laughing.gif

I told him I brought some books along to get signed and hopefully sketched when he has time. He told me to just bring them over and he would do them up right away. I told him no hurry! Whenever he had time!!! He brought them over to the booth I was at about 30 minutes later. Did I mention how great he his 27_laughing.gif!

I went over to Bob McLeod had him sign some books and talked to him about visting my school as a guest speaker. He did a couple of sketches on some books. Next to him was John Bodganove doing some great sketches for people for free! I wanted him to sign my ummm, my uhhh Power Pack Mutant Massacre issue insane.gif, but he was so busy I didnt want to interupt him!

I talked to Mike Norton and had him do a commission of Teen Titans Go! which he has been working on. He had some Runaways pages, but I still can't tell who is going to die! confused-smiley-013.gif

Talked to Patrick Gleason, he signed a comic for a buddy and we chatted about him going to FallCon in MN in October and getting something done before hand, so that was cool, great guy!

The show went well for Tony and his new book, he sold about 40 copies and sketches for free for everyone. He brought his own paper which had printed up with the In My Lifetime logo on it. The show maybe had 1000 people through the doors and most dealers seemed to not be selling much?

I did see the most horrific thing I have seen in quite a while...One of the dealers with high grade silver, had them behind him on a shelving type unit to display. I was at the next booth when I heard this crash. The books all came tumbling down as the unit slipped to the side foreheadslap.gif

I stopped over to say by to Phil and he asked me if I wanted a TPB of his for the road?! I told him I had yet to read Deep Sleeper, he handed it over to me and we talked about meeting up in Chicago.

We headed out for dinner and met up with some people at Cup of Kryptonite. A coffee shop and comic store and one of the best shops I have even been in!!! Clean, nice and comfortable! We sat there for about 3 hours, drinking chatting and I looked through their .50 boxes. Anything 5 months or older was in the boxes, so I grabbed some really nice stuff like Fables issues to fill in runs, along with Hard Time season 1 complete for $5!

They also had the Wonder Woman #1 variant for cover, as they ended up with only the variant and no regular copies 27_laughing.gif, 1 per customer, I was pleased!

We went out for drinks and had to get up 4 hours later to get Christian on a plane and for us to get home!

Here are the commissions...

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jonjesper

jonjesper

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Timmy, Chicago is where it happens for you!!!

 

Darrell, of course, it is your book!

 

Bob, Phil was around $100 and Norton was $25 (looking forward to finally meeting you at FallCon...I heard some rumors of who is going to be there this year, I will PM you!)

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Sharkey

Sharkey

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Phil Hester is one of comics nicest guys. I did a show in 1993 when he was jist a yung-un in the industry and we were talking -- turned out each of us was like "you look reeeeeaallly familiar" and once we compared notes we realized we were in a French class together at University of Iowa in 1985 or '86. Or sumthin' like that. It's all a haze.... 27_laughing.gif

 

In any case, Phil is a great, great guy and it's wonderful to hear a nice positive story about encounters with industry pro's.

 

Thanks for the report, Jon -- I haven't been to an Iowa comic show since I moved to the Chicagoland area in '94. But I did organize and promote a couple in Iowa City in the early 90s. We typically had good attendance, but you're right about the sellers being hit and miss. Lots of bulk junk and a handful of people with anything Silver/Bronze.

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Pirate

Pirate

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Phil Hester is one of comics nicest guys. I did a show in 1993 when he was jist a yung-un in the industry and we were talking -- turned out each of us was like "you look reeeeeaallly familiar" and once we compared notes we realized we were in a French class together at University of Iowa in 1985 or '86. Or sumthin' like that. It's all a haze.... 27_laughing.gif

 

In any case, Phil is a great, great guy and it's wonderful to hear a nice positive story about encounters with industry pro's.

 

Thanks for the report, Jon -- I haven't been to an Iowa comic show since I moved to the Chicagoland area in '94. But I did organize and promote a couple in Iowa City in the early 90s. We typically had good attendance, but you're right about the sellers being hit and miss. Lots of bulk junk and a handful of people with anything Silver/Bronze.

 

speedball isn't really dead gossip.gif

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