Baltimore Than I Could Have Hoped For
Baltimore. It looks much better than it does on The Wire.
I went to the always-excellent Baltimore Comicon, accompanied by comics scribe Paul Storrie. Baltimore is 
Marc's also a baseball fan, and arranged to have Jim Lee, artist of the G-D Batman, to throw out the first pitch. I'd never been to Camden Yards, and like Marc, I'm a baseball guy, too. I was a little worried to go to the ballpark, though. At this point, I've been to Cleveland, Texas, Oakland, San Francisco, and now Baltimore. At a certain point, you start saying "well, now I have to see all of them". It's like license plate bingo.
Speaking of which, Paul and I did notice a car with Hawaii tags as we drove east. You almost never see that. But I'm getting off-track.
I just missed Jim Lee missing home plate. Too bad. But I did get to sit with Johanna Draper Carlson and talk obscure Eighties Television, as well as my comments on the new Knight Rider and other things. The
So I headed to the Mariott bar.
It'd be easier to list who I didn't see, I think. There's a great guest list at Baltimore, and I got to see and talk to (in no particular order) Sean McKeever, Steve and Brett Conley, Jamar Nicholas, Jamal Igle, John Gallagher, Rich Faber, Mark Bowker and his wife, Ivan Brandon, Andy MacDonald, Mike Norton and more. The show's small enough still where you can run into people and hang out for a bit, as opposed to the "I didn't so much see him as spot him" that goes on in a show like San Diego. That's a fun thing.
The show started on Saturday and it was superKing Kamehameha packed. It was great to see. Baltimore is one of the only shows that I think might be too short. And that feeling is probably why the show is so great. Better to leave them wanting more than to overstay your welcome. I've never seen Baltimore this busy before. Tons of people.
And they were buying.
In terms of sales, it my best show ever, not counting San Diego. SDCC is in a class of it's own, so it's a little unfair to compare anything to it. I did more commissions and sold more Powerful Women sketchbooks than I have anywhere else.
Over the weekend, Catwoman was tremendously popular, especially in the feline fatale's 70's outfit, which I know makes no sense for a cat burglar but, man, it looks cool. I think I drew her three or four times alone. There were also ac ouple of Poison Ivys, a Kim Possible and Shego, a Nightwing that came out gangbusters, a Ms. Marvel, a Darkblade and Charlotte, a Vampirella, a Triplicate Girl, a Commissioner Gordon (okay, that was my choice for a Batman jam piece), an Invisible Woman and a Vampirella.
The guy who asked for Kim Possible and Shego said
I kept the tracing paper roughs of many of these, and some people are sending me scans, so some of these will be making their way to the blog and the inevitable third Powerful Women collection.
I sold more than a few issues of Love and Capes, some pins and t-shirts, too. Fantastic!
I also got to see Ross Richie, Mark Waid and Carly of Boom Studios. Why was that so important? I can't say… yet. Just like I can't tell you about the encouraging conversation I had with someone from another comic company, too. I've hit that part of my career where things require that veil of secrecy, which I apologize for. But I want you, dear readers, to know that the show went well. You'll find out how well, soon, I hope.
I have to call out some fans, too. I met
And, Jeni is a great lady, too. I did one of the sweetest commissions I ever did for her. And thanks to her, I may be doing some goodwork outside of comics, too.
Fans and friends are the best part of any show, and Batlimore has some of the best.
Saturday was more Mariott time, including a great conversation with Mark Bowker and his wife, both of the awesome Alter Ego Comics. They hosted me for myfirst Free Comic Book Day appearance, and you'll notice that it went so well that I keep scheduling them. That's a testament to how warm their welcome was.
(Incidentally, I have scheduled my
Sunday, I got to meet Danielle Corsetto of Girls With Slingshots fame, too. We follow each other on the Twitter, as the kids say. It's always great to actually meet the people that you meet online.
I also spent some time hanging out with the Kids Love Comics guys. These fine fellows produce books like Buzzboy and Roboy Red and Bloop and books like that. I've ever lent some of my talents to them, too. I color Buzzboy and letter NASCAR Heroes.
I haven't mentioned Toon Tumblers until now, partially because Chief Tumbler Paul was only able to attend Sunday's portion of the show. Paul's a friend and a client, and he's doing some fantastic work. He had a passle
A word about Firestorm. I'm a huge fan of the Nuclear Man, and probably just to shut up my pleading, Paul did a Firestorm glass. I never expected it to be in the first wave. So, I'm particularly proud that the first glass to sell out was said Firestorm. Flame Heads Represent!
I even got to sneak into the VIP lounge a couple of times. Baltimore is the friendliest show I know in terms of making sure that the guests have water and snacks. This year (for the first time that I noticed at least) there was a massuse, too. I just want to state for the record that this should be required at all shows. After two days of standing on concrete, hunching over a table to draw, it's just a thing of beauty.
The show ended and our goodbyes said, Paul and I got back into the Supercar-D and made the trek back to Ohio. Baltimore's a great show, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I'm already making plans to return. Maybe even before the next Baltimore show.
But that's another one of those secret things for now.
Man, I love conventions. If only I could do another one this weekend. Hey, wait, I can!
Hush Now Baby, Don't Say a Word
It's Baltimore time, and that means another Baltimore Comicon and another Baltimore exclusive glass. Since Jim Lee is a guest this year, Toon Tumblers is doing a Jim Lee Batman glass.
Toon Tumblers is a client, and a good one at that. I love working for them. So it's taking all my self-control not to refer to it as the "GD Batman glass", or to try to badly black out some swear words or to put lemonade in it or to admonish you that superheroes don't drink. But I won't. Just sit back and enjoy the glass and buy a few at the show. And come on up and see me.
Sketchtacular
I was asked by the Midwest Comic Book Association to do some sketch cards for their upcoming comic con and charity auction. The show is the same weekend as Mid-Ohio-Con, and obviously my heart belongs to the big MOC, I don't mind doing some art for a good cause. (I also don't mind saying "no", just to make sure that I don't get innundated with requests for free stuff.)
So, I did five, two of Amazonia, one of Crusader, one of Abby and Mark, and one of Darkblade. I've cleverly posted the artword here. Click and embiggen for your viewing pleasure.
If you're in Minnesota, as some of my friends will be, check out Fallcon. Of course, if you're in Columbus, come by and see me at Mid-Ohio-Con, too.
The Castle Perilous
Anyway, the shop requested it, and I was glad to help out. And, if you own a shop and one of these would help you order and move some more Love and Capes, give me a shout and maybe we can figure something out.
Betterizing San Diego
Yesterday, I had lunch with Roger Price and his lovely wife (who made me a great scarf). We were talking about San Diego Comic-Con, and how the show is growing and changing. We got on the subject of what to do to improve the show, and I had an idea that Rog said was decent. I could try to present it to the show, but that's a lot of effort to go through. So, I now present my two and a half ideas to improve Comic-Con. And if they want to give me a booth for life, I'm fine with that.
But first, a paragraph of my general feelings on the show: I've complained at times about the show, praised it at others, and have now come to the conclusion that I'm past all of that. The show is the show, it's the biggest show in terms of size and importance to the industry, and as long as I'm in the industry, I have to be there. So move to Vegas or LA or stay in San Diego…whatever. I'll still be there. Whatever the show does, I'll deal with it. I think I've got some ideas that can improve the show, but past that, I'd rather invest my intellectual capital in figuring out who the Last Cylon is. The show can be a bear to do, but I also landed some significant work out of it and had some good fun with some great friends. As long as it's somewhere, I'll be there.
Idea #1: Disneyize. Okay, I'm just barely old enough to remember the days of the "A" ticket and "B" ticket and so on. Cooler rides had rarer tickets, as I recall. Maybe it's time to do that for panels. You get an all-week membership, and you get, say, five A tickets, ten B tickets and fifteen C tickets. A one-day pass gets you one A, two B and five C. (Numbers are just example here.) A tickets are for the big media panels, B are for the smaller, and C are for the meeting rooms. You commodotize the panels. So now, people have to pick and choose what panels they go to, but they get to choose. It's not a perfect solution, but it will alleviate crowds and lines, and even solve that "sweep the room or don't" issue. If you don't have a ticket for the next panel, you have to go.
And let people trade their tickets, too. No harm in that. Give different combos to Pros and Exhibitors and Media. Heck, maybe do the same for Media and give them a press section so they don't overrun the area for the fans. Only 50 press members per panel, and let them decide who goes where. And, as an exhibitor myself, occasionally there is a panel, usually featuring Eliza Dushku, that I want to see. If there were a way that I didn't have to wait in a two-hour line to go to it, maybe I could catch a panel for the first time in five years.
Is it perfect? No. Will it cause much complaining? Sure. But the situation will need to change, and I think this allows the fan to have the most control over the end result, maybe even spend more time on the floor and possibly buy my book. (Nothing wrong with enlightened self-interest.)
Idea #2: Four-Day passes and Pros get different color badges. This was the big mistake in 2008. People who buy a full membership are not pros, so they shouldn't have the same color holder as the pros. As a guy looking for work and trying to find an individual in a mass of humanity, the fact that I know that Joe Editor would have a pro badge, and not a 4-day badge makes scanning for that person so much easier.
Wow, that one was simple.
Idea #2.5: New Layout. I read a lot about people saying "there should be a retailer section, a Hollywood section and so on." I'm not positive about this, hence the half-ness of this idea, but I think something like concentric circles might work better.
Here's a counter-intuitive example. A couple years ago at the NYC show, artist alley was on a second level, and you had to walk through that area to reach the media guests. The artist alley area was too small, admittedly, but artists who complained about it missed one of the best parts: People who want to see the Cheerleader from Heroes have to walk past your booth to get there. As an exhibitor, things that cause people to have to go by my booth are good things. From a crowd control point of view, it helps disperse the crowds.
As of Friday, I wouldn't even try to go to all the TV and Movie Booths at San Diego. It was just too crowded. As a result, I never saw almost half the convention just because of the mass of people. Maybe if the outer ring were Studios, with an inner ring of comic companies, another of retailers, and Artist Alley at the center. So if NBC is at the north end, Disney at the south, and you want to go from one to the other, you'll cut through the companies and the artists to get to the other side, rather than wade through Lucasfilm, Fox and whatever else. People will go new places, and hopefully discover new things.
Oh, and handle this, too.
Okay, that's all I've got. Take it for what it's worth.
Picture This
I've been back from San Diego for almost two weeks now and I never posted those pictures I said I'd post. Things got busy upon my return, including some things I can't talk about yet. (Curses!) As soon as I can say something about these, I will.
Anyway, here are some photos from Comic-Con. With all these photos, you can click and embiggen.
There were some great costumes at Comic-Con. I loved this take on Plastic Man.
And there was a lot of Hollywood stuff around, including this, from "The Mummy 3."
I did some sketches at the show, as well as at the aforementioned Drink and Draw. The Moon Knight was a commission, the others were from the D&D.
That's all I've got for now. Hopefully more cool artwork from current projects soon!
Not Much Farther Now Papa Smurf
There's just one day left to go in my West Coast Swing. It'll have a breakfast at the Farmer's Market, two separate meetings, and dinner with some good friends of mine. It'll be a great way to end the trip.
Well, a safe trip home is a great way to end the trip, but that's just semantics.
If you haven't seen their book, buy it here.
Anyway, it was just awesome. One of the things I miss most about art school is the cameraderie of other artists. There's a level of communication I can't get with other non-artists, and understanding, a commonality if you will. I still talk to a couple of art school buddies, and that's pretty close, but there's a lot to be said for being in the same room, seeing the process and the result.
And the beer, of course.
Then today Bob and I went to visit a friend of mine on the Warner Brothers lot. I've done drive-ons before, and I'm still geeky enough to appreciate it. But today we got to actually drive on the backlot. So we drove in front of County General from ER and past Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls. We had a lovely lunch with my friend, and then wandered the lot a bit. Exceedingly cool.
We had dinner with my friend Amy Wolfram, talented writer of Many Things, including the fantastic Teen Titans Year One. Not reading it, well, then I weep for you. Of course, you could just buy the book, too.
Things have been going really well on this trip, aside from getting my first real case of The Con Rot. There's something about shaking hands for four and a half days, breathing recirculated air, and getting by on five hours of sleep that overcomes one's immune system. Right now, my nose is running like Wally West. Still, with two daysish before I touch down in the Buckeye State, I have plenty of time to heal up, I hope.
LA la la
I should have some stories by now, shouldn’t I? Oh, wait, I do.
I’m here in LA, doing the networking and meeting thing post-San Diego. I’ve got one meeting set up for the trip, and a bunch of lunches and dinners. I’m also going to participate in my first Drink and Draw tonight, so Woo and Hoo!
Obviously, the big story is that I went to Amoeba Records and stayed under my limit… oh, wait, no. There was an earthquake.
My first in LA. I’ve noticed two in my time in Ohio. Bob Ingersoll and I were in our car, driving to visit a friend at Warner Brothers and stopped at a stoplight when the car started to bounce, like someone was rocking the bumper. Once I determined it wasn’t Bob’s driving, I looked and saw the streetlights were bouncing too. “Hey, Bob,” I said, “I think it’s an earthquake.”
It was. And the last I heard, it was a 5.4 or something.
It wasn’t bad, and for my first one, I wasn’t scared. I was sorry that I broke my word to my Aunt Bunny who said “Don’t have any earthquakes” before I left. Though how I had one, I haven’t figured out yet. Once I harness that power, I’ll use it for good. Or evil. I have a PhD in Horrible, after all.
The big thing it did was mess up the phone lines. Oddly, I could call out to Ohio (which I did to let some people know I was okay) but I couldn’t call California. So I wasn’t able to make that WB meeting, since a phone call was involved there. We went to a mall and everyone seemed to be lacking cell service. We saw a couple TV reports about the quake, too.
All things being equal, I think I liked the Earthquake ride at Universal Studios better.
Bob and I saw The Dark Knight in Imax, which was quite the experience. A number of scenes were Imaxified, including just about all of the city establishing shots. Whoa, was that cool. The theatre has been sold out of the Imax DK shows by 3:00 or so every day. I love that this movie is getting that kind of traction.
It was a good theatre audience, too. No one with their bright LED phone displays Twittering away (no slight to the Twitter, which I do, but there’s a time and a place), very quiet and just a nice filmgoing bunch. And they clapped during the pencil and truck scenes, as well as at the end. That was just cool.
Oddly, after we left the theatre and were walking back to our car, we passed Tiny Lister, who played the convict in the movie. He was also the President in The Fifth Element. That was a little jarring, but cool nonetheless.
That’s been the big stuff so far. The Drink and Draw is tonight, and I’ll be seeing some friends and colleauges in the next couple of days. And then, back home. I love coming to visit, and I like the opportunities it opens, but I think I’m just about ready to be home, too.
SDCC 2008: Day the Last
The con’s over for another year. I’m writing this as Bob Ingersoll drives us up to LA for a week of meetings and friends and the inevitable trip to Amoeba Records.
The show went well today. Lots of cool things happened, and as usual, I can only tell you about some of them. A couple of comics guys, including comics legends Marv Wolfman and Dan Mishkin came by the booth. It’s just kind of nice to have the people I grew up reading now know me by name, and read my books.
I also got to meet Felicia Day from the oh-so-great “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.” Felicia plays Penny, and I met her on the Twitter. I gave her some of my funnybooks since she was in a superhero comedy, and I write one myself. Have I mentioned Love and Capes to you? Lord knows, I mentioned it to everyone else who walked by my booth.
Anyway, she is delightful and sweet and everything you’d hope she’d be.
I sold more than a few things. Sunday was my best day, but not by much. There’s only a seventy dollar difference between my high and my low, not counting Preview Night. I felt like I sold more on Sunday, but apparently not by too much. Friday was my best day for sketching, but I sold a big chunk of Powerful Women sketchbooks every day.
I didn’t really buy anything at the show. I looked at the Boba Fett USB drives, but for what they were charging for an 8gB drive, it’d better come with the source files for the Star Wars trilogy pre-loaded. It didn’t, so I passed. I tried to get Kyle Baker’s new drawing book, but that sold out. (Way to go, Kyle!) And that was about it.
Boothmates Bill Williams from Lone Star Press and Paul from Toon Tumblers both seemed to do well themselves. Always good to see that.
So now we’re heading up to LA, where I have one for-sure meeting and one probable meeting. I’ll also be seeing some friends that I don’t see very often. Friends are the best part, of course, but a little extra work can’t hurt either, can it?
SDCC 2008: Days Two and Three
Here we go, a moment of quiet contemplation.
I think the Con is getting so big that those random
I didn't post anything before, so here's a mix of what happened Friday and Saturday.
Generally, sales have been good. It's been an odd mix, as one day I'll do a lot of commissions and do a few book sales, the next day I'll sell a ton of books and only do a couple of drawings. It's okay, as I dig the variety. It's just weird how the con breaks. In fact, I've mostly given up on trying to figure it out.
I even made the joke that now I let the con come to me. I just sit behind my booth and let it swirl around me. Honestly, I meant it in jest, but oddly, Dean Haglund came up to my table to say "hi" and introduce me to his lovely girlfriend. Then, another lady came up, and Dean said, "Thom, this is my friend Gigi Edgely."
That's just cool. I loved Chyanna on Farscape.
I got to have dinner with my friends John Gallagher (Buzzboy), Chris Bailey (Alvin and the Chipmunks, Kim Possible) and his friend, Matt Haley and Sandi (oh, I've mentioned them before) and Ray, who does a book called Liberty Mustard. I've been staring at him from across my booth for the whole show, and we've unfortunately barely had a chance to speak. I'll try to fix that tomorrow.
I've met up with Amy Wolfram, Charlotte Fullerton, Dwayne McDuffie, Dan Panosian and others. I'm sure I've missed some people. When I get back up to LA and have some time to clear my head, I'll mention more of them. I'm going to see quite a few of them there.
Saturday, I tried to walk the floor. Crazy, crazy busy. It seems like more
I'm going to try to get my Dad to build one of those Batman wirepoons. Maybe then I can get from point A to point B easier. Heck, I should have one of those anyway just on general principal.
Remember I told you that I had to have a talk with someone? Well, I haven't been able to make that happen, but I've managed to shift the location to LA when I'm up there. It's sad that it's getting easier to meet people after the show than at it.
Heck, I even wound up having gelato with Marv Wolfman and his wife, Craig Miller and his wife, and John Hudgens, where we spoke of many things including Star Trek, Monster Movies, and Indiana Jones.
I have a feeling that I'm rambling, so I'm going to punch out now. Enjoy the photos from the show, and hopefully I'll have some great stories from tomorrow.