Travel Blog: SDCC 2010: The Summary

Hey all,

I've been meaning for quite some time to write down my thoughts and ruminations from this years San Diego Comic Con since I epically failed doing an update from the actual event. I did not take an exorbitant amount of pictures this year, something I always MEAN to do but never in truth actually get around to. Still I have uploaded a few pics with captions down below for your viewing pleasure. I can easily say this, SDCC 2010 was one of the best comic con experiences I have ever had.

I've faithfully been attending Comic Con since 1992 and the key to making it a fresh and enjoyable experience each year is that you have to grow along with the show. Comic Con is such an undeniably different experience than it use to be, if your tastes and likes haven't evolved along with the show, then you are in danger of losing the core element that is Comic Con, an unabashed love of popular culture. Because that's what it is now. A pop culture con. Sure comics are still a huge part of that experience, but it's so much more. Comic Con is more now about the experience of whatever passion you have that falls under a much larger umbrella of popular arts, from films, TV, video games, actors, actresses, web features, Asian culture, manga, underground, urban art, and yes comics. It's really Nerd Prom.

This year was a markedly different experience for me. Every few years my interests change into what my driving force at Comic Con is. For a while it was solely comics, but over the years I have flirted with many other areas of interest, to manga, to films, to Star Wars, to my vinyl art phase of the past few years. This year though, was about meeting this online community of friends I have become a part of. A while back I joined a message board for an actress named Olivia Munn, co host of Attack of the Show. Over the past year as I've ventured deeper into social media and on the forum, many of these people have become friends to me.

This was the first year that a large number of them would be in attendance at Con. It was an opportunity to meet a group of people whom I had been chatting with for such a long time where we would all be in one spot at one time, a group of people gathered from all over the world. This was a unique opportunity to be sure, where we had members from New York, Texas, England, Australia, it was a chance for a disparate group of people to meet for the first time.

Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself though. It can't be said enough that my favorite thing of all about Comic Con is getting the chance to hang out with my best friend Jason for 5 days. We have both been attending Con since 1993 (I went one year before) and it is an ingrained part of our life, a tradition and custom that we both look forward to every year. This year was no different, despite his ardent claims of me "cheating" on him by hanging out with other members of the forum. = )

Wednesday is preview night at Con and it's usually my favorite night of the trip. Wednesday is usually the least crowded evening (except the waning hours of Sunday before close) and everything is fresh and new. It's impossible to see everything in teh slim 3 hour window you get that night, but it is plenty of time to make a few key visits and one of my favorite stops is artist Tara McPherson. Tara is an artist I've mentioned on the blog plenty of times before and she is always a wonderful person to talk with. I'm a huge fan of her artistic style and even her personal style. Her artwork is hugely influential in my writing, inspiring me personally. Also the fact that she remembers me every year is another bonus. I bought a great print that she designed this year that's hanging in my house and I plan on adding at least one more next year.

We made a few other pit stops and I got to chat briefly with a few of the forum members before we continued the rounds. Thursday was the big day for our meet up though. One of the forum moderators had talked to Olivia Munn and she had invited 16 of us to a special private meetup with her in one of the restaurants at her hotel. I can tell you that all day Thursday I was very anxious and excited to meet with her and I really don't remember much of the actual convention itself. I know that many of us meet the the G4TV booth to talk where I learned the details of the meetup. That night we all met Olivia at her hotel and she bought us all dessert. It was honestly fucking incredible.

She was completely down to earth, funny, and despite only really having 30 minutes to hang out with us, she spent much closer to an hour (maybe 45 min) talking, taking pictures, and joking with all of us. To be a part of that and to have her thank us for being fans was mind blowing and easily ones of my favorite comic con moments ever. Add in to the fact that this was also really the first time that many of us met for the first time in a group. It was pretty crazy. I think it was also a moment where I realized that anyone who would go to that kind of effort for her fans when she clearly didn't have to was someone who was very special. I appreciated it.

Friday was a day spent in signings, from an Olivia signing in the morning, to being able to chat with another artist that I love, David Mack, was a huge deal. David is the writer and artist of Kabuki and a beautiful painter. One of my favorite super heroes is Dazzler, this very 70's Disco themed hero that in all honesty is pretty cheesy (but then again that's a part of the appeal to me). David did a wonderful brush and ink sketch of her in my book that I really thought was amazing. Just watching his process and method was fantastic. The other truly epic thing that happened on Friday was meeting my friend Shawn. It's a well known fact my love for the 1992 Christian Slater film Kuffs is pretty unabashed. A running joke is my constant lording of the film over others incessantly. Shawn actually painted me a picture of Kuffs. It's gloriously epic. It's a three dimensional image of the films movie poster in black and white. Made from what I think is foam, he shaped each piece and painted it. It's one of the most awesome presents ever given to me. Friday night Jason, his girlfriend, Autumn, and a few other friends Matt and Lauren, all went out to eat at a great little English pub just outside the Gas lamp district.

Saturday was another big G4 day. They broadcast a 4 hour live show from the Convention and a bunch of us wanted to watch it. We managed to snag some prime standing room seats for the show. Many people crowd the booth, which itself is an elevated platform on the show floor, making it hard to be able to stand and watch the show as Fire Marshall's constantly clear the crowds for safety purposes. We got a prime seat though and manage to watch about 2 hours of the broadcast (and even made a few appearances in the background!) before being ushered along. From there we headed over to the joining hotel to watch the live Attack of the Show panel. It was another opportunity for so many of us to meet up again and chat. It was fun, funny and a great experience.

That night Olivia had a book signing of her autobiography. Olivia secured 16 VIP passes for those of us who had been at the dessert meet up and made time to thank us again and take pictures while she signed her book for us. It was kind of surreal being there and seeing other people look at us in all honesty, pretty jealously. She spent the first 15 minutes signing stuff for us and taking pictures again before she started on the rest of the line. This signing was at a Borders downtown and a lot of people had been there a long time waiting. After the book signing and much hugging, about 20 of us wandered down into the Gaslamp and ate a huge dinner at Rock Bottom. It was a great way to end the night and bond with these people, these friends.

Sunday was dedicated to a few things. One was entering a trivia contest at the G4 booth where I placed pretty well, walking away with several T shirts and a gift certificate to ThinkGeek.com for $100. It was pretty cool. Finally my obsessive knowledge of Ninja Warrior and Harry Potter paid off in dividends! I also spent some time diving through some old comic bins looking for X-Men comics. My big comic kick lately has been writer Chris Claremont's X-Men run from the late 70's to the early 90's. I'm nearing in on completing his run and I managed to find a few key books that I needed. Along with that I helped Jason dive through the bins looking for classic horror comics and covers, he has really been drawn to the outrageous covers artists like Nestor Redondo and Joe Kubert did in the late 60's and 70's.

Add in these factors plus being able to hang out with my best friends, I truly loved comic con. I walked away with a couple of wonderful pieces of art, met two of my favorite people in the world, and had the chance to embrace an entirely new group of friends. Olivia's treatment of me at the dessert meet up was truly unique and one of the most memorable things I have ever done at con. Plus my friends being there. I am the type of person to who friendship means a lot to and the people I met at Comic Con were far nicer than I expected. And I got to hang out with my best friend Jason. A guy couldn't ask for a better trip. See you in 2011!



Olivia Munn Fan Group at her Book signing.




It's Kenneth Braghn, director of Thor.



One guys sweet Darkseid costume. I really wish I had snapped more costume pics this year.





Olivia at the dessert meeting, signing an autograph. I liked the very intimate nature of the pic. And of the event.



Ms. Munn and me at the dessert meet up.


End of Line.
Gerrad!

Travel Blog: SDCC!

Day 5: The Recap!

Hey all!

WOW! It's Monday and we are finally home, posting my recap of Sunday (and the Con as a whole) from the comforts of my own Internet connection in my very messy office. It's definitely a bittersweet feeling, sad that another con has come and gone (number 17 for this old guy) and happiness that I am back at home. I will post up a quick Sunday recap, and then my thoughts on Comic Con as a whole.

Sunday is children's day at the Con, with most of the panels and large signings set up for the youth in attendance. As such there isn't a lot of panels or events going on and Sunday makes a great day for shopping, trying to find out those last second deals and key purchases. We only had two thing son the agenda today, one being my best friend Jason getting the chance to work behind one of the tables in the small pres area. Josh Howard, who creates a book called Dead at 17 (currently available through Image Comics) left the con a day early and Jason, along with his friend Matt Hebb (a really great penciler and friend) got to sit behind his booth and do sketch cards. They both turned out some really great stuff (Matt drew an excellent Spider-Woman [in COLOR!] for me) and Jason turned out some really intense cowboy and zombie cards, a bit of a tease for our (hopefully) upcoming collaboration. They hung out at the table and drew and talked to people so that was really cool.

The second was to get Autumn through James Jean signing. I had waited yesterday but Autumn had a panel to go to so she got in line today. James Jean is a wonderful illustrator of books, best known for his work on Fables as the cover artist. Autumn had picked up his new art book as well as his new book of prints. It was a pretty quick line, about 45 minutes, but he signed everything she had taken and even did some small sketching in the book. I also got to chatting with one of the very wonderful ladies from Tara McPherson's booth while in line so that was cool. We talked about art and music and general thoughts on Comic Con so I enjoyed that a lot. Being such a huge fan of Tara it was nice not to be looked at as weird by someone as close to her as she is, to be just a fan and be kosher.

I spent the big part of my day searching for some comic books. It wanted to get back to my Con roots and buy some comics. Over the past few years I have mostly bought imports or hard to find stuff, this year I wanted to dig up some old X-Men and Spider Woman comics, which i did doing one of my favorite comic con past times, trolling through the dollar bins. Well in this economy the dollar bins are closer to $2.00 bins but still I managed to load up on some seriously great X-Men, from the mid to late 100's and nearly complete my Spider Woman run. Don't ask me why, but my two favorite Marvel characters, Dazzler and Spider Woman, both have had series published around the same time ans both ended about the same time. The books were not teh greatest quality in terms of art of story, but it's more about the character and the times, rather than the content. The X-Men hold up really well, coming from the peak of writer Chris Clairmont's epic run.

We ended the day browsing for souvenirs for work folk and trying to get some last second discounts from some of the vendors. Overall it was a great experience and a wonderful reminder of why i love coming every year so much. Con started out for me as an excuse to meet the writers and artists of my favorite books, and it still is that to an extent. Then it became about finding all the cool stuff or buying things that I couldn't get anywhere else. For a time, it was even about just being with my friends. Even the last year it was about checking out the vinyl toys. Con is constantly changing what it means to me, and this year, more than others, it reminded me of why I love Comic Con so much. Its the only place, and the only time, in the world where you aren't judged for what you like, what you read, or how you dress. Someone else is into the same things you are, likes the same people, and has the same interests. It is really one place where I feel welcomed.

I had a great time at Con overall, I am going to post up some of my favorite pics from the annual Masquerade and from out on the floor. Every year they run a great costume contest and put it on Saturday night, plus I'll add on some of the folk I saw just on the floor. Enjoy!



James Jean, one of my favorite artists.



The ruthless, terrorist organization Cobra. Great group work at the Costume Ball.



And the other great toy of my youth, He-Man's enemies Skeletor and Evil-Lynn. Great work on both of these costumes, using a vinyl based paint instead of a body stocking.



A really detailed Minotaur costume that impressed Jason and I a lot.



Next to Dazzler, Spider Woman is my favorite character.



Silk Spectre, of Watchmen. there where a lot of them this year but this was one of the better ones.



My all time favorite costume from Comic Con. The Comedian and Original Silk Spectre, as shown during the rape sequence in Watchmen. It was wildly inappropriate and wrong, and I thought it was genius. They posed for some really wrong, but funny pictures and even had blood on Silk Spectre's face. It was horribly inappropriate and wrong, but the black sense of humor worked for me. Is that wrong?

Well, that about sums up the end of Comic Con. There is still another branch of Travel Blog though next week as I leave for Chicago Sunday! Thanks for reading and I'll be back tomorrow with Sunday's missed Flash Fiction post.

End of Line.
Gerrad!

Travel Blog: SDCC!!

Day 4!

Hey all!

Saturday is typically the busiest day at con and this year was no exception. It was pretty crowded but I had a great time. Started off my day making for the Attack of the Show autograph signing, with the G4 networks Olivia Munn, Kevin Pereira, and Blair Butler. The signing was a raffle ticket event, meaning you drew a ticket in order to stand in the line for signings that night. I was one of the lucky 400 who made it and I got to meet Olivia (and the rest) again. It was really cool, I even got my picture taken and hopefully will make an appearance on the G4 website for my kick ass shirt (which reads Hopeless Romantic Seeks Filthy Whore) It was a big hit! The drawing was at 10am, but the signing wasn't until 5pm, so I had some time.

After getting my ticket I made my way into the hall and chatted up several different artists, including current Captain America artist Steve Epting and Lenial Yu, New Avanegers artist. Then I made my way to finish my custom vinyl. Yesterday I had taken a blank Teddy Troop, a large vinyl bear with a huge helmet to get some of my favorite urban artists to sketch on it. I had done the same last year with a blank Munny vinyl, so this year we changed it up. All in all I got some really great sketches, By Frank Kozik, Tara McPherson, Attaboy, Buff Monster, Peak-a-Boo Monster, Brendt Peters, Kathy Olivias, Ron English, Angry Wobats, and Kano. The piece is packed. I promise posts on the new vinyl as soon as I get home.

In the afternoon I headed out to meet James Jean, another favorite artist of mine to get some stuff signed. At Con this year he released 2 new projects, the third volume of his art, called Process Recess 3, and a collection of prints called Kindling. I picked up both of course and had him sight those, plus a collection of covers he had done from one of my favorite series, Fables.

Then the rest of the day was devoted to the G4 AOTS line which took several hours, but it was fun and worth every minute of it. After the line ended, the con closed and we had a great meal at an Italian place called Buca De Beppo, sharing it with several of my friends. After one last stop at the con to take a few picks at the masquerade costume contest, we headed for the hotel and some sleep. There is an awful long day ahead of us tomorrow, a full day of con then on the road home.

Oh a quick note. I had my first traditional Filipino dessert from restaurant called Jollibees, a sort of fast food restaurant. I ordered a Halo-Halo, a drink I was told was made with ice cream and ICEE. This one was crazy but it had shaved ice, milk, ice cream, jelly candies, soy beans, and Ube, a delectable creamy topping.

I posted a few pics below, nothing major as the Internet is acting up for my today. Also I will do a separate post with all the great costumes I have seen. Thanks for reading!

a

Olivia says Hi!





Blair Butler, just before running off to an appointment.




KP signing at the show!




Crazy ass restaurant. Jollibees!

Okay. Expect another couple of updates Monday as we are traveling tomorrow night. Thanks for reading!!!

End of Line,
Gerrad!

Travel Blog: SDCC!

Day 3!

Hey all!

Friday was one of the busiest days of the con for me. The plan was first off to go to the exclusive Olivia Munn fan meeting that was held. Now it was supposed to be for people with special invites only, but word got out and the booth was a giant clusterfuck. The booth was surged with people, so bad that they closed the booth down after about 30 minutes of the event. Olivia tried gamely to keep us going, but the Con Nazi's chased up clear upstairs and out onto the back patio. We got to meet Olivia outside, with the ocean and the boats behind her. We literally where running down the rear hall to get to the stairs and outside. It was a large running herd of folks that did trickle off a few folks. Once outside, we dubbed it the Running of the Munns. To keep things moving, she partitioned the line to fan group folks, and everyone else. I met a couple of guys from the forums and we got a chance to meet Oliva and take a picture.

She was totally cool, talking to everyone and signing autographs. Definitely one of the best things to happen period. It was cool being able to chat with some of these guys and kind of put a face to the name. After that I tried to get into the Attack of the Show panel with a couple of the others forum members but after a 2 hour wait we got cut off. After a few goodbyes, I decided to head down to the floor and see what I could see. I did manage to get some sketch work done on a custom blank vinyl toy by some of my favorite artists: Buff Monster, Tara McPherson, Frank Kozik,and Attaboy. I want to try to get a couple more tomorrow, maybe Kathy Olivas or a new artist named Peakaboo Monsters. Pictures of that to come when its done!

It was a really great day! I even got to see a really great costume of my all time favorite super hero, 1970's disco Dazzler! It was awesome! I know there is probably a ton of stuff I am forgetting, there is so much at each day it is nearly impossible to remember it all.

Enjoy some new pics below!



Olivia Munn, Queen of Comic Con, surveying all her subjects.



Olivia, Olivia have you seen me and Olivia?



Consternation, or maybe gas? This was snapped right after what is now known as the Running of the Munns.



Hand to God, I swear this is the coolest costume... ever. For real.

Con was its usual awesome self! Be back tomorrow with another update, thanks for reading! Oh, and for some reason the pics are posting funny, so sorry about that but my whole Internet setup is kind of messed up so hopefully you guys are okay with it.

End of Line.
Gerrad!

Travel Blog: SDCC!

Day 2!

Hey all!

Thursday was an intense day with an even bigger day planned tomorrow. Headed into the floor and made my way first thing to the Kid Robot booth to get a hold of the SDCC exclusive 8 inch Dunny by Shane Jessup, a sweet black only variant. There was only 200 made, and I was number 200 so I feel really lucky to grab one. I waited in line and got it signed too so it was a bonus! That took several hours actually, but as one of only 3 items I was certain that I wanted, I had no problem waiting. Heck while I was standing in line I did an interview with Kid Robot's online web feed, The Kronichle so that was fun!

After that I tracked down renowned artist Bill Sienkiewicz and got a signature and a sketch. I really overpaid for it and am suffering a serious case of buyers remorse, but he is one of my favorite artists and drew one of my favorite characters for most of the series, Dazzler. So I did get a very cool Dazzler sketch, but probably not worth what I paid for it. Oh well. A few less foreign comics will now be bought eh?

Then I wandered the floor for a while, meeting comic great Jeff Smith as well as running into G4 correspondents Blair Butler and Alison Haislip. Alison gave me a signed photo and both posed for pictures. I spent a little more time at Tara McPherson's booth getting her art books signed and then started routing around for the other two items on my list, James Jean's two releases, the print set Kindling, and his new art book, Process Recess Volume 3. I got both and am very much looking forward to finding James on Saturday and getting them signed.

After the con we headed for some dinner at Joe's Crab Shack for some crab and drinks and after a pit stop at the car we headed out for a live art show downtown. Artists Buff Monster (who Jason is a big fan off) and Attaboy (someone I quite like) both where there painting, Buff even paint a live model. It was pretty hot. I took a bunch of pictures and will post a couple up today, be on the lookout for more as the week progresses.

Tomorrow is some exclusive time with one of my favorite celebs, Olivia Munn, so I am off to bed. Enjoy the photos!



Welcome to Geek Vegas!!!




The end of a very long line for an exclusive...



Vinyl artist Mr. Shane Jessup.



Alison Haislip and yours truly.




Blair Butler caught in the headlights. Fucking classy right? My shirt says so.


I will post up more pictures tomorrow, including stuff from the live art show and when I get back home I'll scan in my sketch.

End of Line.
Gerrad!

Travel Blog; SDCC!

Hey all!

Day one of Comic Con has come and gone! Well technically it hasn't, just preview night, but still. For those out of the know, the San Diego Comic Con: International, or SDCC as I will hereby be referring to it, is the largest comic and pop culture convention in the world, with over 125,000 attendees every year. Everything from new movies and DVD releases, to vinyl toys, comic books (both old and new) to celebrities stumping their current gigs can be found there.

This marks my (gasp!) 17 annual trek to the show and by has it grown. Each day the hall is packed more and more, and preview night was no exception. The Con officially kicks off Thursday, but individuals who pre-register for 4 days get to have a sneak preview for 3 hours on Wednesday. As an old pro of attending, you know that Wednesday is usually the best day to spring forward on the Con exclusives and get the stuff you KNOW you are gonna want while supplies still last.

Truthfully, you don't so much see the con itself as run to each booth and pray that you are there in time to get access to the exclusives. We actually had a really good night, Jason managed to get almost everything he was looking for on the first night (which could be a bad thing) and Autumn found several items on her wish list. As for me, my exclusives don't drop until today, though I did find a wonderful black and white hardback comic called Bouncer from France. It is entirely in French so I can't read it, but I want to study it for purposes of the comic that Jason and me will hopefully be working on.

The highlight of my night was meeting one of my favorite artists, Tara McPherson again and actually having her recognize me. Kind of cool to be remembered as a fan that checks out her stuff every year and she signed a couple of vinyls for me this year, though I will make at least one or 2 more trips to see her and get some more stuff.

Today its all about landing my vinyl exclusive and just checking out the booths and the con hall. Taking some pictures and having a good time at the hall. I am not really on the lookout for anything else, except for a couple of early release products for artist James Jean. I will have pictures and more to update on as the con progresses. See you inside!!


End of Line.
Gerrad!

Comic Con 2008: Day 4: Fallout

Hey all,

Comic Con 2008 has come to pass and we are all safely home now. Sunday was a perfect end to the con.

I spent about 2 hours passing out fliers for Matt and Jason's new book, Harry Walton: Henchman for Hire that will be dropping from Image later this year. It was great to be able to do my small part in helping out my friend and anything that I can contribute to means just as much to me as it does to them. I feel like their success in some small way is also my success. You can't help but be emotionally invested in a person's success after over 18 years of friendship. Especially when it means that much to the other person.

I also managed to do a few things for myself, meeting artist Frank Kozik and having him do some work for my DIY Munny. It is awesome! I'll be posting some pictures from Comic Con over the next week or so with some cool captions. Staring with some pics of my DIY!

I did think that I would highlight the top 5 things i got out of Comic Con this year.

1- Wacthing Jason do a signing for a real published book. I was both a sense of honor and awe that someone I knew helped to create something that has been a part of my life for so long. Every comic book fan dreams of one day making a book, I watching him do that allowed me a small glimpse into something that I thought I'd never know.

2- Meeting Jason's friend Will. He was just super nice and fun guy to hang out with. It's not that often you meet a really cool and genuine guy that you can call a friend after such a short time.

3- Pulling in all that sweet vinyl. Between the DIY Munny from so many of my favorite creators and getting to talk to them, it was just cool. To top it off knowing that regular Kid Robot contributor Attaboy is designing my own person Mini Munny is just to surreal. I posted some pics of my DIY up top.

4- Getting not one but two awesome Dazzler sketches. Matt and Jason drew one up for me that I am proudly keeping near my workstation. As well as one of my favorite comic artists, Phil Noto, who sketched out one for me on Bristol board. That was just the icing on the cake.

5- The announcement that they are making and have footage of Tron 2. I love Tron and the fact that 2009 will see a theatrical sequel fills me with more excitement than the impending Lord of the Ring prequels and Harry Potter sequels combined. And I love those 2 franchises. Please God, don't let this be bad.

Anyway that was the big hit out of Comic Con 2008. Check back in over the next few days for more updates, including flash fiction, my rewind pick, and a possible poem. Thanks for reading guys.

End of Line.
Gerrad!

Comic Con 2008: Day 3!

Hey all,

Well day 3 is in the bad and it was packed! The best part of today was the day we decided to do signing lines.

I got to meet several artists and have them work on my DIY Munny, including Gary Baseman, Buff Monster, Attaboy, MAD, Mad Barbarians,Touma, James Jean, and Tara McPherson. I am going to try to get Frank Kozik to do something tomorrow and that should about finish up any blank spots on the Munny.

I also picked up a few shirts, including a great workshirt by Bawidaman, a fantastic pin up artist, a Tara McPherson shirt, and a new Batman logo shirt. Overall a very positive day. Oh I also got an exclusive Buff Monster release signed. It was cool!

The best part of the day was passing out flyers for Jason and Matt (Matt and Jason's) new book from Image Comics, Harry Walton: Henchman for Hire. The book is about a professional henchman and his trials as just a regular guy who is trying to make a living a from henching. Overall I think it is a very solid piece and I hope to see these guys in a third book sooner rather than later.

Later in the evening we watched some of the annual Masquerade. A collection of over 40 contestants with some staggering costumes we took a bunch of pictures that I will try to post up. Overall I took a bunch of pictures and I thought maybe I'll do a photo dump on the blog and add some funny captions. There are some pretty wild and weird choices that could be good fun to see over the next month or so.

Anyway it is hard to believe that Comic Con is almost over! Just one more day to go and I need to be up early so I'll post the final days recap in a day or so.

Thanks for reading and happy conning!

End of Line.
Gerrad!

Comic Con 2008 Day 2

Hey all,

Today was a really good day.

The best news coming out of con is that Jason got a second book picked up. Called Harry Walton, Henchman for Hire, it details the trials and tribulation's of a guy who works as a professional henchman for supervillians. Teaming with up series artist Matt Hebb, I think it is a fun and different book that will be published by Image Comics in September. I am so happy for him.

In terms of purchases, things went a little light. I did get some sweet sketches done. First off, I am working on getting a Do it Yourself Munny and having many well known artists doodle on it. It is coming along great and I cannot wait to post a completed picture with it. I also plan on doing some random con photos where you all can see some of the things that I see. It's weird that after my 16th year of attending this con, I take a lot of things at face value that many people would probably snap a lot of pictures at. I hope to upload some after I get home.

I also managed to get a limited edition Joe Ledbetter release that was signed. It was a great find. Jason and Autumn have cleaned up on exclusive Buff Monster vinyl toys, getting a limited 1 of a 100 release, as well as some exclusive New York City Con exclusive releases that carried over. Oh, AND a limited clear release! Crazy!

I got a great sketch by artist Phil Noto, who has a very old style 60's vibe to his illustrations.He sketched an awesome Dazzler, which I am very happy with. Tomorrow is another big day, hopefully with more updates and signings scheduled.

Oh there was also a few con announcements.
Footage of Tron 2 was shown in the convention hall, which I can't wait to find online. I missed it during the first run. There is also some huge events planned tomorrow so I will keep you posted!

Thanks for reading!
End of Line.
Gerrad!

Comic Con 08- Day 1

Hey all,

Well, we just wrapped day 1 of Comic Con, and it was fantastic. First off, lets talk about the stuff I got a big kick out of.

Technically we got in Wednesday night for preview night, where you get a 3 hour window to hit some of the boothes before anyone else who did not buy the four day pass. Fir us, this was great. We managed to pick up on several limited edition releases from some great vinyl toy makers. Jason and Autumn got exclusive releases from Buff Monster and Kid Robot. I managed to pay what would normally be a very steep price for a new Dunny from Tara McPherson that I have been wanting, but this is Comic Con so really $70.00 wasn't that bad. We also loaded up on some sketchbooks from artist Adam Hughes and picked up some other small vinyls. I even got interviewed by the television station G4, for it's Attack of the Show features, reading and reacting to some Comic Con rules for attendance with contribute Alision Haislip. It was cool, even after the 15th take!

Thursday had by far what I perceive to be the highlight for the trip. Watching my friend Jason, a man who has been so dogged and determined to break into comics, finally do a signing for his first book, Wonderdog, Inc from Viper comics. Viper made a limited edition run for Jason, series artist Matt Hebb, and writer Scott Zirkel to push at the con. It was fantastic seeing Jason get an opportunity to show everyone what kind of talent he has to offer. I was very proud to call this guy my best friend today. His unending belief and dedication to his craft really inspire me.

In other Thursday news, a ton of rumors hit the show floor. The biggest rumor is that Comic Con may be in danger of moving to another location in the coming years. Increased vendor attendance, increased convention goers, and increased interest is allegedly pushing the convention center to the limits. Cities such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas are reportedly pushing to move the $60 million dollar cash influx con brings each years to their respective cities. Though San Diego officials, staff, and many long time vendors vow to do everything in their power to keep the con here. I for one hope it stays. San Diego is Comic Con, anywhere else wouldn't be a real Con.

Other news out of the floor was brand new footage of the Hugh Jackman Wolverine film (boasting an appearance of long time X-Man Favorite Gambit) as well as more images from movies like Watchmen, The Day The Earth Stood Still, and tons more. Already we have lined up an advanced screening of the new movie Tropic Thunder Saturday and hopefully more info to be announced.

Stay Tuned and I'll let you know more of what you need to know.

End of Line.
Gerrad!

COMIC CON!

Hey all!

I'm here in San Diego preparing for day one of Comic Con. Be sure to check in nightly for my daily updates on the whys and wherefores of what I have been up to at comic con. Tonight is preview night, so I should be back online with a great update on some of the limited edition vinyl exclusives being offered.

This is my 16th Comic Con, and I get just as excited for each one every year. Especially this year as Jason will be signing at the Viper Comics booth this year. Hell yeah, gonna get him to do some special sketching. Hello Dazzler sketch!

End of Line.
Gerrad!