Thom Zahler Art Studios: Con Reports

COMIC CON INTERNATIONAL 2000
1. "I Have a Bad Feeling About This"
2. "Your Show of Shows"
3. "More Rejection Than My High School Years"
4. "Two Men and a Babe"
5. "Panel to Panel"

I HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS
It certainly didn’t start off well. To start, I noticed that I had lost my driver’s license seventeen hours before my flight. Having E-Ticketed, I knew that I needed photo ID to get on the plane, and sure, everyone in Ohio knows who I am, but once I get out into California, I knew that this wouldn’t be the case. Fortunately, I have my passport, which has sat unused since my aborted trip to Ireland a few years back.

First off, look at this pre-kickboxing photo. My head’s a perfect circle. All I’m missing is some little Jim Henson puppet and Princess Leia in the slave girl outfit and the look would be complete.

So the first time I used my passport was going to go to California.

I did tear everywhere apart looking for my license, so I got to bed in time to get a quality three hour nap before flying out. I tried to sleep on the plane, but I don’t fly well. I’m rather like Jack Ryan in Hunt For Red October. So between that and the three hour time shift, I knew my Wednesday was going to be spent running on fumes.

I also managed to get tendinitis in my left hand. “But Thom,” you say, “you’ve been pushing yourself beyond the limits of human endurance. You did fifteen hours of caricature in two days, and then did another gig and hammered out eight pages of lettering. Your hand’s been under a lot of stress.”

And I would agree with you if I wasn’t right handed. My left is, at best, the stump that holds my drawing paper down. Kind of like Michael Jordan in Space Jam. An important part, sure, but you don’t ask him to do anything really difficult.

I love the smell of newsprint in the morning.

This, of course, made carrying luggage a joy, as I couldn’t even make a fist with my withered Alfred Bester hand. Eventually it got better, and in fact was perfectly fine by Sunday, but still, it was just one more thing.
Rob and Lee, along with Chris and Carry were going to meet me at the airport. They were a couple minutes late. I’m really looking forward to the day I get off an airplane and there’s someone is there waiting for me, preferably Amanda Peet, but as yet that fantasy hasn’t happened yet. Actually, neither have any of my other Amanda Peet fantasies, but that’s something else.

And it’s no big deal, really. Just something I’d like to have happen. Rob was supposed to meet me in New Orleans a few months ago and the fates conspired against me there, too. Oh well, I’m sure when I go to Ireland that’ll happen.

YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS
Welcome to the shortest portion of my Left Coast Swing Review... my review of the show itself. How was the show? About four days.
The comics industry has seen better days, of course. And that kind of Dr. Zachary Smith “We’re doomed, I tell you” mentality can’t help but pervade the show and make it feel like a wake half the time. But I’m used to that. You can kind of plod through that.

But I go to San Diego for the people. I’ve got a lot of friends in the industry and San Diego is where I get to see them, some of them for the only time over the year. So I really look forward to the boozing and the schmoozing more than anything else. But this year, for a variety of reasons, I felt like I didn’t really see anyone.

Rob Kelly, Sean Tiffany and Chris Wichtendahl, my art school buddies from Kubert, Carry, Chris’s “I hope I can find one like that” wife, the truly excellent ladies who make up Sequential Tart (Which you should stop now and check out... no, better idea, finish this and then go, they’ll wait. Why would I try to drive traffic off my site?) including Rob’s girlfriend Lee, my herd brothers Bob Ingersoll and Roger Price, fellow Caliber survivor Paul Storrie, former Motown editor Brett Lewis, Steve Conley of Astounding Space

"Sidekick? Why am I always your sidekick?"
--Rob Kelly, Faithful Valet

Thrills, still the greatest new comic I’ve read in the last two years (check him out, too, again, after you’re done here)... plus the new people I meet every year. It’s hard to see everyone and have a decent, meaningful time with them.

Sean Tiffany, my favorite colorist, because he's good... and he doesn't charge me a lot.

Now, if you’re going to have problems, the “I have too many friends” one is one of the ones to have. The other is “My incredibly hot supermodel wife won’t stop having sex with me and paying for me to do my comic and the Mitsubishi 3000-GT Spyder VR-4 Hardtop convertible needs to be waxed again.” But last year was so rich in that regard, and this year, I just couldn’t pull it off. A lot of things conspired against me this trip, including most noticeably a voice mail message left for me by the Tarts at my hotel room that went the way of The Invisible Man... it just wasn’t there.

Don’t get me wrong, I had fun. A lot of fun. And if you’re one of my friends (especially one I may have forgotten to mention above, sorry, you know me... my mind’s filled up with things like the name of the magazine Electra Woman and Dyna Girl worked for and the Oath of the Green Lantern Corps. I was just aware that I could have had more fun.
There’s always next year.

MORE REJECTION THAN MY HIGH SCHOOL YEARS
How did my whole “looking for work” thing go? Well, it didn’t. I saw Bill Williams, publisher and frequent inker for the darn fine Lone Star Press line, He was already giving me work, but we talked and had a good time. Other than that, I didn’t really line anything up. But that’s okay. With the Teen Pregnancy Comic happening, as well as the regular inking for Aaron, the lettering for Lone Star, and Ohio’s desire to have me draw everyone in the state’s caricature this year (World Tour T-shirts still available.... get yours now!) I just don’t have a lot of holes in my schedule. Add to that my desire to finally self-publish Raider (more on that in a couple months) I’m not really trolling for work. Oh, I’d certainly take it of someone offered it, but I’m not crushed that I didn’t line up anything new. I’m working more this year that I did all last year.
There’s not a lot of people in the industry who can say that.

TWO MEN AND A BABE

I did get to a few panels. Three are definitely worth mentioning.

Kyle Baker

Kyle is one of my favorite creators and one of my personal heroes. He’s done Cowboy Wally, You Are Here, Why I Hate Saturn and I Die at Midnight, all of which I recommend. He’s also did the controversial “Superman’s Babysitter” which while never published, won two Eisner Awards.

He’s also just a hoot. He showed us stuff from his upcoming Noah’s Ark movie, which I’m already in line for. It’s Noah’s Ark from the viewpoint of the animals. After all, he said, you know Noah’s going to survive, but if you have three elephants, somebody’s not getting on the boat.

"For the last time I didn't play 'Julio' on the Flash series!"

Kyle’s a refreshingly honest voice in the industry, which gets him in trouble but earns him my admiration, which I’m sure is why he does it. If you ever get a chance to see him, go. And he’s got a website, www.kylebaker.com.

J. Michael Straczynski

"Yeah, I wrote Jake and the Fat Man. He can't act. He can't walk. Together they fight crime Tuesday nights."

Speaking of personal heroes, JMS is the creator of the TV show Babylon 5 and the Top Cow comic Rising Stars. Like Kyle, he’s honest and amusing in person. Babylon 5, well, the first four seasons at least, are some of the best stuff ever put on television. That last TNT season had some problems.

JMS is responsible for keeping me in the comics industry. I was feeling really down a couple of years ago, and was ready to chuck it all. After all, I’m a successful graphic artist as well, what did I need this pain for? Then I saw his panel, where he explained his experiences getting writing work.

Well, by virtue of the fact that I’m writing about another San Diego Comic Con, you know what happened.

His two messages are, consistently, “Follow your joy,” and “Do the right thing,” and everything will work out. Find what you love to do and do it. Your enthusiasm will carry you through and hopefully everyone else as well. If I self-publish Raider, he’ll be a big reason why.

And he told stories of working in TV and how he had the opportunity to step on some friends and move up the ladder. He didn’t, and a couple years later those friends were in a position to hire him again, leading him to become an executive producer, and then eventually do B5.

Gigi Edgely

Chyanna is probably my favorite character on Farscape, next to John Crichton. This is due in no small part to Gigi Edgely who portrays her. She portrays an interesting, alien character... and every shot of her is down her blouse.

Okay, I admit it. Gigi’s hot. I’d watch her read the phone book. Heck, she’s got this really cool accent, it’d be worth it. And seeing her without the blue makeup certainly did nothing to diminish this. Let me take this opportunity to confess my undying love for her.

The panel talked about Farscape and what lies ahead for Moya and her crew. They played everything pretty close to the vest, which is fine. I don’t want this series spoiled for me. If you haven’t checked out Farscape, please do so. It’s one of my favorite shows.

"No, I'm not looking for a new body makeup assistant, you tall caricaturing freak!"

PANEL TO PANEL

The Tarts: (l to r) Cherry, Blueberry, Apple, Cinnamon and Chocolate Graham... okay, actually it's Lee, Karon, Rebecca, Anna, Kate, Laura, and Marcia

Sequential Tart, the women run comics webzine and good friends of mine were having a panel on Sunday and wanted to know if I’d host it. I’m well known for my hosting skills, having hosted two panels before this in New Orleans, not to mention my appearance at three roasts in Mid-Ohio. So they figured, let’s have Thom host our panel.

However, despite our best intentions, and thanks to the Embassy Suites Voice Mail system which treated my message like Hawkman continuity and forgot it, I never hooked up with the Tarts to prepare for the panel. I thought we could treat it like the McGlaughlin group...

Thom: Issue One, your favorite comic book of all time, Marcia Darcia...
Marcia: Um, well, I like Preach...
Thom: Wrong! Karon Karon Bo Baron...
Karon: I’d have to agree with Mar...
Thom: Wrong! Your favorite comic book of all time is Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew. Captain Carrot.

"Thom, are we talking about mothballing the Starfleet?"

But I figured that wasn’t the way to go.
I managed to scribble down a few questions on a scrap of paper and get some idea about where the panel was supposed to go. I think I did pretty well, considering. The trivia question was inadvertently blown, so I had to come up with two others on the fly. Fortunately I know enough Tart Trivia to keep going. One more blown question, though, and I was going to have to ask the Combination to Kirk’s safe in “This Side of Paradise.”

After further reflection, I’ve realized my role in the panel. ST is women-oriented (not exclusive, by any means, just oriented). They talked most of the time, I just stood up there and looked pretty, basically. I was just up there to be their spokesmodel, their sex object.
Of course I’m fine with that.

Right after the panel I had to bolt and get up to LA.

GO TO THE LA ADVENTURES