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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2018 22:07:50 GMT -5
Gem City, our big local con is a little over a week away, so am throwing a shout out in case any of the midwest folks might be attending. Info at the website. Guests this year include: Steve Englehart Mike Grell P. Craig Russell Kevin Nowlan Barry Kitson Ale Garza Daryl Banks Kyle Hotz Chad Lambert Dirk Manning Christina Blanch Jay Leisten Bob Wiacek Paul Pelletier Arvell Jones Matt Horak and others... plus a charity auction featuring the Heroes Initiative, a new expanded gaming (tabletop board, rpg, dice and CCG games) and lots of panels. No media guets though, as it remains comics focused. If anyone is going to make it to the show, give me a shout out or PM, as my wife and I will be there both days. -M |
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Post by The Captain on Mar 16, 2018 5:41:25 GMT -5
I would love to come out for this, especially to meet Steve Englehart, but my older daughter has her year-end all-day swim meet on Saturday, so I'll have to wait until next year.
Hope you and your wife have fun!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2018 18:23:25 GMT -5
Day one in the books, home and tired but had a good time. Did not buy a single back issue on day 1, spent most of the day attending panels and the charity auction, plus wandering artist's alley. Bought some art, got some books signed, got some small press books, but no back issues. That's going to be tomorrow.
Got stuff signed by Steve Englehart, P. Craig Russell, Mike Grell, Paul Pelletier and Bob Wiacek. Stood in Kevin Nowlan's line twice but had to leave for panels each time before I got to the front of the line, so will hit that line tomorrow. I also bought a Long Bow Hunters print for Amy (it's a print fo the cover of #1 that Mike signed for her). Attended Inside the Writer's Studio with Steve Englehart panel and a writing panel by DW Vogel and Jeri Fay (writers I had met at a show back in December), and walked through artist alley catching up with lots of familiar faces. Picked up new stuff from Victor Dandrige Jr. (The Trouble with Love) and Dirk Manning (Hope a new super-hero series with K. Lynne Smith of Plume fame) and Haunted High Ons. Michael Watson was sharing a booth with Voc and he showed me some of his initial layouts for the bonus comic he is drawing co-written by Dirk and Vic that was a stretch goal in Dirk's last Kickstarter campaign that I was a backer of.
I also picked up the glow in the dark Spectre lightswitch cover I commissioned from my friends at Roma Collectibles.
The last 2 hours of the day were spent at the charity auction benefiting the Hero Initiative. Between Amy and I, we spent $92 for the cause on some prints from Arvell Jones, prints from Lee Xopher, a mini-series done by Michael Watson, an original ink drawing of a mummy case by local fantasy artist Audra Olivia, a set of 7 goddess prints by Terry Huddleston, and a lot of 3 action figures including the Total Justice Black Lightning figure, a Wildcat action figure from the Chemo build-a-figure set and a third action figure from Mortal Kombat that I have little interest in but was part of the lot, and a Star Wars apparel set that included a purse, dice bag and mini-pillow (This one was definitely Amy's get).
I'll post some pics after day 2, too wiped to do it tonight.
-M
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2018 17:40:04 GMT -5
Home from day 2, I'll do a recap with pics later.
-M
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2018 23:19:31 GMT -5
Still processing and prepping some of the photos on Imugr, bit going to start posting the recap with pics, but may not finish until later... Day 1 as I said, was mostly panels, artist alley and the charity auction, day 2 was a lot of artist alley and a little bit of back issue hunting. Had a long, enjoyable and engaging conversation with P. Craig Russell on day 2 about illustration, styles of comic art, bringing influences from other art and literature into comics vs. creators who grew up on comics and its their only influence, his upcoming projects and kickstarters, the story behind his Wagner comics and the Roy Thomas/Gil Kane adaptation that saw print before his but that Roy knew Craig had been working on and planning since 1973, opera, Oscar Wilde, and many other topics. Was a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to commission a sketch from either PCR (who wasn't doing art at the show) or Kevin Nowlan (whose commision list filled up within the first few hours of day 1 and he had no spots available by the time I got to see him (but I did get some prints from him). I ended up spending more money for the Hero Initiative than I did on anything else at the show, $90+ at the charity auctions, donations to HI for signatures from Kevin Nowlan and others, and I bought four framed classic comic book prints from their table at the show (hey were $20 each with frame included, all of which went to their fund to help comic creators. The four I got were... Fantastic Four #52 by Jack Kirby (with the intro of Black Panther...)  Jack Kirby's Fourth World #1 by Walt Simonson  Space Ghost #1 by Steve Rude...  Doctor Strange #177 by Gene Colan...  more to follow... -M |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2018 23:47:22 GMT -5
SO charity auction, all proceeds benefited the Hero Initiative. We had donated a Diamond select Alex Ross Spider-Man vs. the Green Goblin print... (here's a stock photo of the print)  that we had had framed and hanging over my office desk back when it was in the finished room of the basement years ago, but when I started the revamp of the house and that room, it had come down and wasn't going to get hung back up, so we donated it to the cause and it ended up going for close to $50 for HI, which was cool. We also got a bunch of new art and other stuff at the auction including some of the following... a pair of signed prints by Arvell Jones... Danny Rand & Misty Night  and Cap and Black Panther  today I went over to Arvell's table and made sure I thanked him for his donation and bought another print from him...  he had an awesome Sandman Mystery Theatre print as well, which I was my first choice, but he had sold it out by the end of the day yesterday, but If I go to another show he is at I will definitely get that one too. Back at the charity auction, Amy picked up some Star Wars material for herself... a Snowtrooper print...  and a Vader print by Ren McKenzie that came together in the same auction lot...  and home made hand crafted Star Wars mini-purse, dice bag and mini-pillow that were a single auction lot...  more to come... -M |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2018 23:55:14 GMT -5
I picked up an auction lot of 3 Action figures... the Total Justice Black Lightning...  and the Wildcat figure from the Chemo build-a-figure line (ignore the price sticker the lot was about $15 for all 3)  the third figure was Radeen from Mortal Combat X, but I am not a Mortal Combat fan, so I made arrangements to give that figure to our friends at Roma Collectibles to use as a prize in their Toys for Tots prize wheel fundraiser at their July Comic & toy Con they put on, so it will pull double charity duty, getting money for both Hero Initiative and Toys for Tots. I also picked up a small pen and ink piece of a mummy by local artist Audra Olivia that will go in with my small collection of Egyptian themed art and statuary...  and a set of prints form brother creators Lee and Nate Xopher, whom I've mentioned before from other shows). Lee did 2 DC prints, Flash...  and Superman...  and Nate did a Game of Thrones House Stark coat of arms print...  more to come... -M |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2018 0:05:03 GMT -5
The next lot at the charity auction was a set of 7 prints from Terry Huddleston...  featuring 7 interpretations of goddesses, in what I can only guess is in 21st century incarnations of classic cultural motifs, perhaps riffing off of the American Gods motif for the new gods, I'm not sure if that was the exact intent and I may be reading between the lines of what the auctioneer said, but in any case both Amy and I thought these were visually stunning so took them home. Here are the seven...   this next one was my personal favorite of the seven...     though this last one is a close second for me...  and the last thing from the auction was copies of the 3 issue series Vigilance published by Michael Watson (who is doing the art on one of the bonus comics from the Dirk Manning Kickstarter I backed and who showed me some of his initial layouts form that upcoming books when I chatted with him).  I think that's everything from the auction, but if something else pops up as I process the rest of the pictures, I'll post it later. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2018 1:23:40 GMT -5
Onto artist's alley... The featured guests for this show that I was really excited to meet included P. Craig Russell, Steve Englehart, Kevin Nowlan, Mike Grell and Bob Wiacek. I dig through boxes of stuff finding which books I wanted them to sign, not knowing who was charging for signatures and not, so I had a decent stack of stuff to get signed. Turns out Steve Englehart and Mike Grell were charging $5 per signature, Kevin Nolan asked for donations to Hero Initiative to sign, Bob Wiacek asked a small fee depending on how many books you has signed and P. Craig Russell was signing anything asked for free. This limited what I had signed by Steve and Mike, but I still had stuff signed by both (2 signatures each). For Steve Englehart I ended up choosing 2 things, the first, the only issue of Fantasy Illustrated ever published featuring a story of his and a cover by P. Craig Russell, and since they were both there I had both sign that issue../ (someone had an issue with this cover when I posted it a long while back in the comics purchased thread because it has a bare breast on it, so it's going behind spoiler tags to avoid that this time...) I also had Steve sign his novel the Point Man, which he wrote a little note along with the signature...   I also attended one of two Inside the Writer's Studio with Steve Englehart panels he did, and it was a very cool experience to hear him talk about his early days in comics and his approach to writing. The moderator liked the sound of his own voice a little too much, which left little time for Q&A at the end and was the major reason I passe don part 2 this afternoon, but overall it was an informative and entertaining panel. Over to Bob Wiacek, he asked for $6 to sign 4 books, and I spent a little time asking him about his approaches to inking and art in general. What I had him sign was: Strange Tales #9 (he did finishes on the Cloak & Dagger story in that issue...  DC Comics Presents Hawkman Special #1 in which he inked one of the stories...  X-Men/Micronauts #1 (he inked the cover and interior story)  and Orion #22 which he inked over Walt Simonson pencils on the over and interiors...  the cover also fits out cover Contest Theme this week. From Mike Grell, I had him sign 2 books... Long Bow Hunters #1 for my wife who is a big GA fan...  and First Issue Special #8 featuring Warlord...  Amy also picked out the Long Bow hunters cover print which we purchased and Mike signed as well...  I asked Mike if he ever considered doing prints of all the glorious 2 page spreads form Warlord, and he said he wished he could, but the original art for those are scattered on the wind, sold off years ago, and the prints he does are from cover art he still has the originals for or are accessible to him. Funney little anecdote, when I thanked him for all the hours of reading entertainment and his wonderful art over the years, he smiled back and said, "And I thank you for all the food you provided me and my family over the years," which I got a kick out of. It certainly puts things in perspective. more artist alley to come... -M |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2018 1:38:04 GMT -5
So this morning I paid the extra $5 for the early entry (I had promo tickets for both days so it was the only money I spent of admission all weekend) to try to beat the crowds to get in the Kevin Nowlan lines first thing. I had a decent spot in line, but unfortunately Kevin was late arriving and didn't get there until 15 minutes after the doors opened for the general public. Fortunately, there was a cool bunch of people in line with me and we swapped con stories, horrible line experiences and passed the time laughing and keeping the conversation lively. When he got there, he did break the bad news he only had a couple spots left on his commission list because he had so many the day before, and I knew I was too far back in line to get one, so I changed plans about that on the fly and got a pair of Doctor Strange prints from him instead, which he signed, and then made a donation to Hero Initiative and had him sign some of the books I had brought with me, and a Doctor Strange poster featuring his art that I have had since high school and has traveled far and graced many walls over the years. In more recent years I bought a Diamond Select print of that poster that was singed and numbered by Kevin, but the vintage poster now has his signature too. So those Doc prints... #1  and #2  the vintage poster (with me behind it doing my best Dirk Manning impression)...  now signed by Kevin...  and the four books I had him sign... an Adam Strange/Dcotor Occult cover he did for Secret Origins  a Batgirl cover on an issue of LEgends of the Dc Universe I just picke dup last weekend, but Amy adored the cover, so I brought it to the show and had him personalize it to her...  Issue 4 of the first Batman Black & White series, Kevin has story in the issue and it sports a gorgeous Alex Toth cover...  and the first issue of the new Doctor Strange series that Kevin did the back up story in...  Chris Bachalo was also supposed to be a guest at this show, but his wife lost her fight with cancer in February, and Chris cancelled all of his appearances for the next few months (understandably) and I had originally hoped to have both he and Kevin sign this book. Maybe next year. more artist alley to come... -M |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2018 2:36:57 GMT -5
Onto P. Craig Russell. In addition to the Fantasy Illustrated issue posted above, Craig signed al ot of stuff for me over the course of 2 days. I only brought a couple books at a time ans stopped in when he had no one at his table. He had a couple trades for sales, and I picked up a copy of Sandman Dream hunters from him...  which he signed for me...  and I leafed through the big Jungle Book volume form his most recent Kickstarted. He has a kickstarter coming up featuring new material for the first time, which will be an adaptation of the last of the 9 Oscar Wilde fairy tales (he's adapted 8 of the 9 so far and this will be the ninth). He said depending how that goes, he will look at doing other new/original material via Kickstarter in the future. The America Gods adaptation is keeping him busy, and he has another project lined up after that (something original not an adaptation) but he has other things he wants to do that might lend themselves to Kickstarter if things go well with the Oscar Wilde campaign. On my first visit with hi, he also signed the following for me... the first issue of his adaptation of Conan and the Jewels of Gwalhur...  Isolation and Illusion, a trade collecting various shorter pieces he did...  Dr. Strange-What is it that Disturbs You Stephen...  and the issue of Fantasy Illustrated that Steve Englehart also signed. Today, I stopped by and had the longer conversation with him, and he signed the following for me... Elric #1 from Pacific...  Phantom Stranger #1...  and the first printing of Gotham by Gaslight, which I seem to have missed when taking photos. Later in the day, after hunting some back issues, I tuend up a copy of Star* Reach #8 featuring PCR's Parsifal and stopped by on my way out to say goodbye, and he signed it for me as well...   he liked to sign some things on the inside cover (Gotham by Gaslight was another) because the art was too dark on some covers and wouldn't show the darker ink he signs with. and that was PCR, onto the rest of artist's alley... -M |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2018 3:01:40 GMT -5
Paul Pelletier was also there. I didn't have a lot of his stuff even though I like his wrk, but I had picked up the Throne of Atlantis hc at Ollie's a few weeks ago which featured some of his Aquaman work, and brought that for him to sign...   From the ubiquitous one, Dirk Manning, I picke dup two of his recent releases, Hope #1...  which is fantastic and y'all should check it out (you can see my longer review in the What Modern Comics Have you read thread). Dirk likes ot personalize stuff he signs, so does thing slike this in addition to signing it...  and designed the inside front cover to allow for it. I also picked up Haunted High Ons #1 released by Source Point Press (the late Gary Reed of Caliber, introduced Dirk to the band Twisted when they were looking to do a comic project which led to this book, and a full mini-series is in the work based on the success of this one-shot...  the guys in the band are Scooby-gang style ghost hunters who are accompanied by a ghost companion and hijinks ensue. One of the bonus stretch goal comics included in Dirk's most recent Kickstarter campaign is being co-written by Victor Dandridge Jr. and features of cross-over of their creator-owned characters. I hadn't read the property Vic was using, so stopped by his booth and picked up The Trouble with Love...  Vic runs his own small comic publishing company and was recently hired by Wizard World to be their artist alley coordinator for the cons, and he often lives up to his hype as the hardest working man in comics. He's also a hella nice guy. Michael Watson (whom I got stuff in the charity auction) is drawing that bonus comic and was at the booth when I stopped by, so I got to see the in progress stuff for the book too. Another Dirk collaborator is Scoot McMahon (they are launching a new all ages book The Adventures of Dastardly Dirk and Cthulhu Jr., in a few weeks at C2E2) and we picked up a couple of prints from him since the new book isn't out yet... a kid-friendly style Justice League...  and a little comic page as print telling a Hawkman/Robin story riffing on the Icarus myth...  I also caught up with a few other creators I knew and got stuff from them... Chad Lambert won a Ringo last year for his work on a web comic on the history of Washington DC, and had a long running serial based on his years as a DJ in the 3rd series of Dark Horse Presents, so I picked up an issue of that which Chad signed for Amy and me...   from my friends at Twilight Star Studios, I picked up the hot off the press artist proof edition of the latest issue of their Tales from the Field anthology...  the regular release will have a color cover but the coloring wasn't done so they did a rush order of 50 copies of the AP edition to have for the show. From Lee Xopher (whom I got prints form inthe charity auction) I picked up the full version of his GN Rock of Pages-I read the sampler issue I got from him at the Jim & Dan show in February, and liked it enough to want to check out the full story...  it's a hefty volume, and will be a substantial read...  and from Brian Lattimer (who I have severla commissions form over the years), I picked up the newly released issue #3 of his series The Remedy...  I also caught up with Adam Fields, creator of Prowl, but I had already gotten his most recent book last month, and I never got a chance to go back and do a commission form him, but I will see him at the next Jim & Dan show and will make up for it and get something then. That wraps up artist, alley, now on to the hunt for comics and comic-related merchandise. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2018 3:30:45 GMT -5
So I didn't do as much hunting and back issue shopping as I usually do at shows, but did a lot more socializing and panels than usual, so it all evens out. I did get some stuff though. I picked up the Spectre glow-in-the dark light switch cover I commissioned from Roma Collectibles...  to go with the Usagi cover I got form them in December. I walked by another vendor and he had a bunch of magnets of the Darwyn Cook variants form Darwyn Cook month that DC did back in '14, and I have been trying to track down these books for a while, so the magnets immediately caught my eye. The magnets were $4 each, or 3 for $10, but I asked if I bought all 12 Cook covers and a couple others which I knew Amy would like and she collects magnets, if I could get a better deal, and he agreed, so I got them for less than $3 each...  the two Bombshell cover magnets (WW and Canary) and the Wonder Woman magnet are already on the side of the fridge with the rest of Amy's magnet collection and the Cook magnets will be set up on one of he filing cabinets I keep comics in once I get the room reset done. As to comics themselves... I raided some 50 cent boxes from Bell Book and Comics and picked up a large chunk of AD&D and Forgotten Realms comics from DC...   I'd always been interested in reading them but never got around to picking up the runs. I had a handful of issues scrounged up here and there over the last few years, but never really pushed to fill them in, but at 50 cents a pop I got about 2/3 of each seires today. Another dealer had about 6 tables of misc stuff at 3/$10, and had everything from trades to Bronze and Silver books in them. There was no rhyme or reason as to how stuff was organized though. I routed through about 1 table worth and found the following in addition to the Star Reach #8 I mentioned above... Thrilling Adventure Stories #2 (from Atlas/Seaboard) and Spirit Magazine #20  Phantom 66 & 67  Flash Gordon #1, 4, 12 and 13 (#1 was a little round with a small chunk missing form a corner but otherwise solid and readable)   Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #4. All told, 9 books form that dealer. Another dealer had $1 and 50 cent boxes, and I picked up these 3 there, the JSA book was a buck, Hawkman and Hellstorm 50 cents each...  I just need 1 issue of that JSA series to finish it up now. Another dealer was doing buy 2 get 1 (of equal or lower price) for free and had some dollar boxes. I picked up the Mister Miracle #11 out of the dollar bin (it's got a small tear on the back cover) and Sandman #1 and Kamandi #3 for $5 each,  along with the Ghost Rider #81 as my free book (it was a fiver as well), the other two Ghost Rider issues came froma delaer who didn;t want to take stuff home and nything makrked $10 or less at his table was being sold for $3, so I got these two Ghost Riders  and this Batman Book and Record set from him.  Another dealer was offering 20% off marked prices if you bought more than 1 book form him, so I grabbed these 2 Hawkman issues...  and that pretty much wraps it up (unless I missed something, if I did, I will add it on later. All in all, it was a good show. We ran into two of Amy's cousins at the show towards the end of the day Sunday, and sat and caught you with them for the last hour of the show, so I didn't score any of the last minute desperation deals that are typical at shows like this, but I still got plenty of stuff all at good prices and now it comes to organizing and cataloging it all and getting the comic room and office done so I can start organizing and putting awal all this stuff and getting the art out on display. I don't think I have another show now until late May or June, unless something unexpected turns up. -M |
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