So, I got up early-ish and caught the wonderful free bus shuttle at the Doubletree, which is closer than the tram and is free (the shuttle, not the hotel).
The first person I talked to on my way to Room 8 for the publishing panel with Gary Groth and some other guys, was a nice fanboy named Ken Rasicot, his first CC-SD, but he’d been to the ones on the east coast. He was waiting in a gigantic line to get a “limited signing” from Gullimero del Toro. He was loving the cool and cloudy SD weather and enjoying the con. I was tying to hear him over the violin player in the background. I’ve no idea why there was a violin player making noise this morning, but there it was.
I then got stuck in one of those stop-the-crowd things with a family of six from San Antonio, Texas. I talked to the mom, Suzanna, who was there with her three kids, one in a stroller, and husband. They were looking for the exhibit hall, I was able to direct them to the other building. Then we had to move on.
I only made it through half of the Gary Groth and some guys publishing comics panel because the moderator, Graeme something, wouldn’t shut an annoying elderly fanboy up. I mean, moderating means keeping the fanboys in line, making them use the microphone, making them (god forbid) wait their turn and have some manners. This was not happening and I was starting to lose my temper, so I flounced out and dropped by the Fantagraphics booth to say hi to Eric Reynolds. It was a shame about the panel; thought Gary said some fascinating things before he was fanboyed. Tsk. Sigh.
Then I met up with Wendy and we went in search of ART and ARTISTS. Of course we found many (and I took the pictures today so just cope with them):
Dave Correia, from Walnut Creek CA, makes wonderfully spooky but spacious and beautifula art. This is his sixth year tabling at Comic Con. He used to make more zine-like comics to bring to CCI. He originally trained as a 3-D animator, but would rather make 2-D art. www.playwithknives.com
I then talked to Rachel Dukes, owner of Poseur Ink, (http://poseurink.com) who’s been tabling at CCSD for seven years. She’s seen the con go through a lot of changes and tighten up the requirements for tables. Her work has naturally evolved to meet those requirements, but if they’d been in place seven years ago she says she would never have gotten a table. She said that now that CCSD is a media convention, she sells more “I got no arms!” shark t-shirts these days at Comic Con than comics.
I then spoke to Paul Sebus, one of the writers of Atrox Comics, an online fummetti webcomic. The figures, sculpted out of “sculpty” I think he said, are adorable. This is his third year at Comic Con.
I then talked to the creator of “Zombies Next Door,” Dane Ault (http://monkeyminionpress.com). He started drawing very early, one of his first memories is drawing Garfield from the comics. He count’s Mike Mignola as an influence.
Devon Deveroux, (http://devondeveraux.com has been coming to Comic Con for several years and is the artist on “The Littlest Bitch.”
I completely fangirled out on Shannon Wheeler (http://TMCM.com”) because “Nilarity” is my new favorite webcomic on Act-i-vate.com or whatever it is. He’s working on illustrating a re-write on the Bible; he’s doing one gag cartoon per book.
Joe Weatherly draws the most wonderful animals ever. He teaches at the same school Wendy went to, the SF School of Art, lives in Santa Ana, and just started teaching at Art Center. So he is a very busy man. (http://joeweatherly.net)
Martin Hsu (http://martinhsu.com) has an adorable book. He works full time at Disney Animation. In addition to art, he’s launched a t-shirt business and is pitching his own show.
Kei Asadara, I think I’ve got her name wrong and I can’t find her card, sorry. She was one of the character designers on Alice in Wonderland.
James Burks was scouted at Comic Con three years ago and now has a book, “Gabby & Gator” coming out on Yen Press in September. (http://jamesburks.com). He’s working as an animator at Nickelodeon and has several books coming out. “Beep and Bob” about a goat and a dog that go on a an adventure to find a sock. Coming out in 2012. Sold another graphic novel to Scholastic that will be out in 2012 and has signed to do a picture book for Simon and Schuster that will be out in 2013.
John Villalino (I think, I can’t find the card), creator of “Pretty Vacant” and some mighty fine popsicle stick figures. He’s been at Comic Con for a few years.
On the shuttle bus back to Little Italy, I met Caprice Conley (http://chilaktazo.com, who is with Pistol Films and she was at Comic Con looking for funding for a new movie called “When Zombies Attack.” She said everybody you need to find in film is at Comic Con SD these days. She does have a comic book of “When Zombies Attack” created by Chad Waters that she was promoting at the convention as well.
By then I was very tired.
When I got back to La Pensione, I learned both stairwells were closed for construction so we all had to use the elevator. This will be fine as long as there isn’t a fire. But then again, most things are fine as long as there isn’t a fire.
And then this evening I very selfishly went to see “Batman, under red hood” which was very good and very sad and I enjoyed it very much. But as you can see, it held up posting this report a little. And now I’m calling it a day.