Note: This is a LONG one folks.
DAY MINUS ONE (TUESDAY)
Don:
I knew it was going to be a trying day when I looked up at the Departures screen at the Bangor International Airport.
I'd booked my flight to San Diego out of Bangor because it's only a three-hour drive from my Canadian abode and I got a nice deal on a flight. Problem: the flight -- first to Pittsburgh, then boarding a larger plane to San Diego -- left Bangor at 6:10 a.m. EST. After factoring in a three-hour drive, my paranoia about potential problems and my general eagerness to get my vacation going, I left Fredericton at about midnight EST.
No harm in arriving early, I thought.
And arrive early I did, only to be greeted by large, white, digital letters encased in an orange box. It read "CANCEL," and it was beside my Pittsburgh flight.
Well, shit.
Fortunately, the ticket booth was just opening, and I was quickly booked on a flight to Philly at 6:30 a.m. instead. Overall, I was scheduled to arrive in San Diego only about two hours later than originally planned. No big deal.
Little by little, though, the day dragged out. The Bangor flight left a little late. The Philly-to-San Diego flight left really late. And landing in San Diego was followed by almost a half hour on the tarmac as we waited for the go-ahead to approach a gate.
And the wait for the baggage... don't get me started. Spotted Colleen Doran on the Philly flight, though. I think. I'm pretty sure. Not sure enough to go up and say, "I loved Orbiter." But I will at the con. (And I did. She had the Orbiter original art with her. It was beautiful.
All told, from the moment I left my apartment to the moment I collapsed on the bed in the hotel, I spent 18 hours in transit. About half of which was spent actually moving via automobile or aeroplane.
The hotel, while not immediately handy to the convention center, is everything it needs to be and a little more. English pub downstairs. A/C. Oh, a balcony overlooking the pool, with some palm trees off to the right. And a Jack in the Box fast-food place within easy walking distance.
Even better, the hotel offers a free shuttle to San Diego points of interest, among them, the labyrinth-like shopping center called Horton Plaza (nicknamed Escher Plaza by experienced con-goers) and the San Diego Zoo. Though I arrived in town too late and too tired Tuesday to hit the zoo as planned, the handy shuttle offers opportunities for such a sojourn Wednesday before Randy arrives.
Tuesday evening... too tired to sleep, oddly enough, which I suppose is OK, since it should get me on a "normal" sleep schedule for the con. I decided I venture into the city's gaslamp district, to a pre-con signing and Q&A session at Borders. Eric (Age of Bronze) Shanower, Chynna (Scooter Girl) Clugston-Major, Rick (Blanche Goes to Paris) Geary and Batton (Supernatural Law) Lash -- all comics creators who call San Diego home -- were on hand. Said hello, and bumped into a con goer from my corner of the world. Forgot to bring digital camera. Idiot.
Followed the session up with a search for an Internet cafe, where this section of the adventure was scribed. Required sustenance. Sought out beer. Beer and something to eat. Quesadilla. Yes. Cheese and flour.
Didn't dip into the Big Bottle of Rum I brought with me from Canada yet. No, Randy and I'll crack that one open together.
DAY ZERO (WEDNESDAY)
Randy:
As has become a Con tradition for me, I went in to work in the morning to pull books so that I could have fresh comics to read on the plane, and be as up-to-date on the world of comics as I could be going into the Con, given that I'd be going into total Internet blackout mode for the duration. Ironic that I feel less connected and "inside" when I'm in San Diego, the mecca of comics, than I do when I'm at home with a cable modem and access to Newsarama, Comic Book Resources and the rest. At any rate, since they're likely to get skipped in actual reviews, I'll note that the comics I read (and loved) on the plane included Death: At Death's Door, Human Defense Corps, Teen Titans #1, Runaways and Sleeper.
Don:
Meanwhile, I was walking and talking with the animals of the world-famous San Diego Zoo. Yes, it's tourist-y, but I wanted to get some non-con activities in... something to share with the non-comics fans back home. The zoo was a rainbow of experiences. I never thought that there was such a variety of smells for so many different kinds of feces. I kid.
It was surprisingly interesting, actually. Did you know that rhinos can "spray" up to 20 feet? Stan Lee never covered that in Amazing Spider-Man. The bus tour -- included in the value package ticket I picked up -- gave a great overview of the zoo, and the guide informed the passengers that we'd had some excellent views of a newly born baby hippo, a pair of playful polar bears and some unusually active nocturnal cats, such as the jaguar and snow leopard.
Randy:
I caught a midday flight out of Austin to Phoenix and then on to San Diego, depositing me on the sunny Southern California shores at about 4:30 in the afternoon. After a bit of a snafu with luggage that saw me going back and forth from two baggage stations four times, I grabbed the shuttle that would take me to my homebase for the next five days, the Holiday Inn on the Bay. I had already had a brief report on the accommodations from Don MacPherson, reviewing partner and roommate, and was wary of the distance from the convention center but excited about the news of a balcony overlooking a pool. Don met me at the check-in desk, and since he'd already been there a day, check-in was fast, letting us get up to the room and settle in quickly.
The Holiday Inn on the Bay was a great place to be for the Con. Nice room (no Internet access and no mini-fridge were the downsides) with a balcony, right across from the Star of India and Anthony's Fish Grotto, a seafood restaurant I've been meaning to go to for years. The distance (about a mile) from the convention center turned out to be no problem, as the Con was running free shuttles, and when those were full, the cab rides were about five bucks or less. All told, my transportation costs during the Con were pretty cheap, and it was nice to get into a vehicle at the end of the day rather than walking my tired ass back to a hotel room six or seven blocks away.
Don:
It wasn't my ass that was tired every day, it was my damn feet. Hours trekking around the zoo might not have been such a great precursor to the con.
Randy:
After putting my luggage in the room and sorting stuff out into my backpack, Don and I made our way down to the shuttle and over to Preview Night. As you may have heard, Preview Night was enormously popular, and this was the first inkling we had that the Con might be really huge and well-attended this year. The second inkling was when we got to the Con floor and saw just how enormous it was. I thought last year's Con was big, but this year the center was even bigger. And though I eventually got used to the layout, the organizers did change some stuff up, so much of Preview Night consisted of me and Don running around trying to find people, using what we thought was a terrible map (there's a story there) and moving in what would have looked like a completely random pattern if seen from space.
Don:
The map story consists of Randy and I being dumbasses and looking at the wrong damn map. For two days.
Randy:
I had six things on my Preview Night "to do" list and many more on my mental "to do" list. I accomplished two of them, swinging by the Morse/Mahfood booth to pick up some of Scott's new mini-comics for the Con and give him my new, blank sketchbook so he could inaugurate it. The theme for the book: Monkeys, Pirates, Ninjas, and Robots. Don quickly reminded me that it should be OR instead of AND, so I went with AND/OR in a compromise. It took us a few circles around to connect with Scott, by the way. Both he and Jim were really busy during the Con. I also managed to pick up The New Baker from Kyle Baker's booth.
To be honest, I've completely lost track of who we saw on that first night. I know that we made stops at the AIT/Planet Lar booth, Oni Press, DC Comics and Crossgen, and I'm sure we hit some of the others as well. I know we were at IDW, because talking to the friendly and personable Beau Smith isn't something you forget, and because we ran into Internet comics press peers Augie De Blieck, Jonah Weiland and Matt Brady there.
After a fairly hectic and what seemed like immensely quick Preview Night, the Con hall was closing. Don and I headed back to the hotel, freshened up a little and then walked across the street for a meal at Anthony's Fish Grotto. He had chicken; I had a platter with scallops, shrimp and fish, and the food was terrific. I grossed him out by being tempted by their offering of fried Twinkie for dessert, but I was too full to get it. Maybe next time.
After that, it was a walk around San Diego and a return to the hotel, where we initiated the tradition of closing out the night with rum and Cokes on the balcony.
Don:
That became a nightly tradition, and I honestly have to say, it was one of my favorite things about the trip. Randy and I would just sit on the balcony, sip drinks that were wonderfully too strong and talk comics all night. We reminisced about the Psycomic days, the one-year stint at Fandom.com. About upcoming projects that intrigued us and personalities that confused us. The relaxation was just what we needed at the end of long, hectic days.
DAY ONE (THURSDAY)
Randy:
The next morning, we initiated another tradition for this Con, one that Don wasn't terribly fond of. That was the tradition of me waking up an hour before our wake-up call and getting up, which woke him up as well. The downside? Only about six hours of sleep, which was plenty for me but not enough for my grumpy Canadian roommate. The upside was that it gave us time for breakfast, and we walked over to the Denny's to grab their "Breakfast Meat Platter" or something like that, which had ham, sausage, bacon, eggs, hash browns and pancakes for around five or six bucks. Certainly the cheapest meal we'd eat at the Con, and it let us go through most of the day with only a snack or two to get by.
Don:
I have NO idea how Randy has managed to maintain a less voluminous form that yours truly. First, he actually WANTED a fried Twinkie at dinner the night before, and then, he drags us to a place that refuses to serve us anything less than half a pig with breakfast. It was frightening.
Randy:
Thursday was the day where I had no panels at all planned, and I spent my time wondering the Con floor, getting sketches and picking up the occasional book. Don and I got a lot of material for review at this Con (in fact, we're probably going to have to really try to get back up to two Two-in-One reviews a week if we want to get through it all before the end of the year), and one thing was clear: the amount of talent in this industry isn't dwindling at all. I saw a lot of exciting things just wandering Artists' Alley or the Small Press areas, not to mention the larger booths.
I can't even remember all the people I ran into on Thursday, so I hope folks will forgive me if I leave any of them out. I caught Darwyn Cooke leaving the DC booth and said hi briefly, and then never saw him again. I got to talk to Ryan Yount, co-creator of Scurvy Dogs, and got a copy of issue two of the book as well as a "Pirates are the New Monkeys" t-shirt. Good thing, too, as the Scurvy Dogs folks did well at the Con, and were sold out of both shirt and issue two by Saturday. Stopped by the Active Images booth and said hi to Richard Starkings, nabbing copies of Hip Flask: Elephantmen #1 and their two new graphic novels, Strange Embrace and The Spiral Cage. All very sharply-produced, and I'm looking forward to reading them. We also talked with Steve Conley, and picked up copies of the Astounding Space Thrills Convention Specials.
There was only one panel I went to on Thursday, and that was the Comic Reviewer Websites. We sat with the lovely and talented Johanna Draper Carlson (of Comics Worth Reading, by the way) and watched as some of our peers talked about the craft and the questions of reviewing comics. It was an interesting panel, probably moreso for those in the audience who were looking for an insight into reviewing, although I did enjoy hearing that most of the reviewers on the panel struggle with the same things I do in terms of the time, the ethics and other aspects of reviewing.
After a day at the Con that was much longer and more successful than that brief paragraph above indicates (I can't do the full name-drop, because I honestly don't remember who I ran into when), Don and I met up with Johanna and headed on over to the Marriott Yacht Club, where the Crossgen Non-Dinner Dinner was being held. Augie already recounted a little of this in his column, but basically what happened is that Don, Johanna, Augie, Bill Rosemann and I wound up sitting there talking about comics and comic-book reviewing for most of the night. For my part, I did it while munching on the fantastic appetizers (the goat cheese and portobello mushroom fritters were amazing, but the curry chicken skewers and spare ribs weren't bad either) and drinking down some very well-mixed rum and Cokes.
Don:
Those rum & Cokes don't compare to mine, come on. I learned that Mahi Mahi is fish, not how fish is prepared. Surprisingly good with potato cakes. But the highlight of the evening (OK, tied with the free hooch) was the conversation.
Randy:
One of the high points of that dinners for me, beyond the great food, drink and company, was getting a chance to meet Crossgen head honcho Mark Alessi for the first time. I apologized for writing off Crossgen too early in my initial reviews, he apologized to Don and I for being a little oversensitive to those reviews the first time around, and I think we all generally wound up in the same place of loving comics and thinking that Crossgen has a whole lot to offer the industry. Hearing Alessi talk about comics, even when I don't agree with some his conclusions, it's clear that the guy has plenty of intelligence and passion, and it was a pleasure to meet him.
Don:
Alessi mentioned that Rosemann's schooling him on the nature of PR, and he's picking up that there's truth to the old idiom, "There's no such thing as bad publicity." He's definitely a personality, and like everyone else at the con, he loves to talk comics. And he didn't mind a few gentle and joking jabs.
Randy:
At any rate, Don, Johanna and I stumbled... er, walked on out of there around midnight or one in the morning, and Johanna took off for her hotel while Don and I headed back to the Holiday Inn. One more rum and Coke apiece on the balcony and it was lights out for the night.
Don:
Ahem... I wasn't doing the stumbling, dude, that was you. My turn for stumbling would come a couple of days later...
DAY TWO (FRIDAY)
Randy:
Friday started off once again with me waking up early and Don cursing me for it. We swung by the deli/breakfast place right next to the Holiday Inn and got some really good breakfast food (eggs, bacon, that sort of thing) before heading off to the Con. The shuttle line was massive, and we were going to call a cab, but there were enough of us angling for cabs that one of the hotel guys just grabbed one of their shuttles instead and drove us over. We shared the ride with Brandon Thomas, writer of Ambidextrous at Silver Bullet Comics (and Youngblood: Genesis and Brigade), as well as his buddy Nate Lee, among others. Turns out Brandon and Nate were at the Holiday Inn on the Bay as well. Brandon was more dedicated than Don or I, though, shelling out the exorbitant fees to update Silver Bullet from the hotel's lone wired Internet connection. At any rate, though we lost track of the guys in the Con shuffle, it was a pleasure to meet them both.
Don:
After the zoo, Preview Night and one day of the con, I was really starting to feel it... in my feet. Much to Randy's chagrin, my vocal thoughts inevitably turned to the sharp pains shooting up my legs. Advice: don't just bring comfortable shoes, but keep changing shoes.
Randy:
Our first stop on Friday was at the Geoff Johns/Judd Winick panel. I'd seen Judd already at the Oni booth, but this was the first time I'd gotten to see Geoff all Con. Geoff, as some of you may know, has been writing occasional recommendations for The Fourth Rail with his "One of the Good Ones" column, and so we consider him part of the family. You know, the smarter, more successful and oh, let's face it, better-looking member. At any rate, the panel was greatly entertaining, and having read both Titans #1 and Outsiders #2 (First Look copy) on the plane, I was right in the mood to hear more about this corner of the DC Universe that the two of them are carving out together. It's clear that Geoff and Judd work well together, as they had an easy-going and humorous manner, and the panel flew by. You can see some of the news revelations from this panel (many of them handed over to Matt by Don and myself) HERE.
Don:
Given the sell-throughs, eBay prices and planned reprints, it's clear that the new Titans and Outsiders books are big successes for DC, but what was interesting and surprising about the panel was the discovery of the kind of collaboration that's going on between Winick and Johns. They seem more like partners on both books than two guys writing separate and distinct titles.
Randy:
After that panel and a little more time on the floor, I checked my voice mail and found that I had a message from Tess Bodley, a customer at my local store who had told me on Tuesday that she had made the last-minute decision to come to the Con. I agreed to meet her at 2:30 and give her my extra Con badge so she could get in. After a little more time on the floor, Don headed up to the Quick Draw! Cartoon Improv panel. I had intended to hit that one as well, but since I was planning on going to the Kill Bill panel and I had to meet Tess, I decided to skip it.
Tess and I met up and then spent some time trying to track down Kevin Altieri and Glen Murakami, who she used to work with at Warner Brothers. She finally caught up with Glen the next day, although we didn't have any luck before that. To be honest, I've once again lost track of what I was doing all that time on the floor, except for wandering around, saying hi to people and picking up various books.
Don:
Panels weren't a high priority for me at this con. The news announcement panels were things I could catch up on with Newsarama and CBR, and as for the panels featuring the Big Name Movie Stars... well, I was at the con for comics, not movies. But one I made sure I caught was the noted Quick Draw! panel. Hosted by Mark Evanier, the panel was something like Whose Line Is It Anyway? for cartoonists. Evanier put Sergio (Groo) Aragones, Jim (Batman) Lee, Scott (Oddball Comics) Shaw! and Kyle (Plastic Man) Baker through their paces. Though the panel had a couple of slow spots, there were more than enough laughs to make up for it. Aragones could do this schtick on TV, he's so good at it. And Jim Lee -- the least cartoony of the cartoonists there -- surprised with a couple of really solid laughs. His Hulk-as-jockey sketch was hilarious.
I also caught the first half of the Neil Gaiman/Dave McKean panel at which they provided a sneak peek at their upcoming film project, MirrorMask, produced by Jim Henson Pictures. One could argue that principal photography has wrapped, but the film is at least a year away, as McKean, the director, has a lot of artwork and digital effects to add in yet. It seems to be a haunting and distinctly unusual project, one that will keep Gaiman and McKean fans happy. But the real aim of the project is to provide 21st century audiences with something that carries on the traditions of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, brilliant movies that the Jim Henson people created... with far greater budgets than Gaiman and McKean were given to work with.
Randy:
At about 4:30, I headed up to the Kill Bill panel. Or what I thought was the Kill Bill panel. Turns out that it was the "show the Kill Bill trailer, than let Michael Madsen ramble in drunken fashion endlessly" panel and I left after about fifteen minutes of that. Spent some time in line at Crossgen getting Steve Epting to do me a sketch of Lady Sin from El Cazador, and then met up with Don again. I should have gone to the Quick Draw! panel, as it sounded like a lot of fun.
Anyway, after doing a little more running around and meet-and-greet on the Con floor, I met up with my friends Maida and Doug Scott and their new seven-month-old son Zander at the Abstract booth, as we'd previously decided. We made our way out of the Con and out to The Fish Market, a restaurant I first went to last year and loved. Don begged off, saying his feet were tired, but I think he mostly just got scared by all the talk of babies that Doug, Maida and I were exchanging. We did eventually let the conversation turn to movies, DVDs and comics, but I think a fair amount of the conversation (over a good cup of clam chowder and some really good fried scallops) was probably about new kids and how great they are.
Don:
Nah, the main reason was my aching feet, and I'm glad I took the time to myself. The con is huge and overwhelming, and it was nice to be alone in a small room for a bit. Started to watch 40 Days and 40 Nights -- a movie that seemed so bad, it was kind of entertaining -- when Randy returned from his dining excursion.
Randy:
I returned to the room around 10:00 to find Don watching the afore-mentioned flick. He confirmed my suspicion that it was in fact terrible, and we both got changed and ready to head on out to the Comic Con Funk Party at the Honey Bee Hive. When we got there, the place was packed, and we had to wait for a couple folks to leave before we could get in, since the small bar was at maximum capacity. The show was a lot of fun, a small bar packed with people and a small room a little less packed where they served pastries and coffee during the day. The packed room also had a setup in the front where The Vinyl DJs were playing tunes and Scott Morse and Jim Mahfood were painting on boards tacked up to the walls. It was something to see, with good music and some really great art, the two of them switching off and collaborating on pieces of original art with paint, crayons and other supplies. And it seems worth noting that the club had really reasonable drink prices.
Don and I were pleased to see some familiar faces there, including Steve Rolston and Sabina, Kieron Dwyer and Jose Garibaldi. We had found out earlier that Jose was staying at the Holiday Inn, so I invited him and his buddy to join us for drinks on the balcony when they got back. As it turned out, they did stop by, but Don and I were both unconscious by that time, and we missed them. Sorry about that, guys!
Don:
Comics creators weren't the only familiar faces there either. Brian Posehn, of Mr. Show and Just Shoot Me fame, showed up along with Dwyer. I would have gone up and told him how much I enjoyed his work, but I couldn't remember his damn name... even after people told me it several times.
Randy:
At any rate, Don and I each picked up a piece of art to take home with us. Don bought a really cool Mahfood piece with a hip hop girl and a turntable, and I picked up a Batman collaboration between Morse and Mahfood. The prices were insanely cheap for such great art, and we were both either too optimistic (or less charitably, too drunk) to think about how we were going to get these big pieces of artwork home. But that's a story for the next day, because we again went back to the hotel, drank down a couple drinks on the balcony and went to bed.
DAY THREE (SATURDAY)
Randy:
Saturday started off just as every other day had, with me waking up an hour early and inciting Don into thoughts of murdering me so he could get some sleep. It continued along the same routine lines with us grabbing breakfast next door, this time getting the Comic Special, a three-meat and mushroom omelette with sourdough toast that was damn tasty. Where it changed was when we decided to try and get our newly-bought artwork shipped home. We took a cab up to the UPS Store on Broadway and presented the folks there with a challenge. Could they ship a four-foot by two-foot, relatively fragile piece of art to Austin, Texas, and another two-foot by two-foot to Canada? A quick check of costs indicated that Canada might be cost-prohibitive, so Don decided to send his piece with mine and we'd figure it out later.
The women working at the shop bubble-wrapped both pieces separately and tried valiantly to get them into a box, eventually getting them to the point where some tape and jury-rigging would work. They then set the enormous box up on the scale, measured weight and width, and pronounced that it would cost in the neighborhood of $120 to get them home. I decided to take my chances on the plane, paid $20 for the solid wrapping job and we took our pieces with us to the Con, dropping them off with Jim Mahfood and Scott Morse so that we could pick them up at the close of show.
Don:
Well, that's what you get when you buy art when drinking double rum & Cokes. In any case, I also opted to carry the piece on planes as well. Part of me regretted the purchase, but whenever I look at the piece now, I'm thrilled I picked it up.
Randy:
After that, it was more wandering around the show for me and more panels for Don. We met up with a few folks we'd been meaning to talk to, either together or separately, and picked up some more stuff for review or just for reading. On a whim, I went by the Duck Dodgers/Teen Titans panel and caught the tail end of Duck Dodgers, which closed out with an Iron Giant riff and seemed kind of fun. As I walked down the aisles, looking for my friend Tess, I saw Geoff Johns (and vice versa) and made my way to sit next to him and Titans artist Mike McKone. This was the first time I'd gotten to really see Geoff during the Con, and we talked briefly in between listening to the Titans panel. They showed a clip of the Teen Titans, which looked like way more fun than I expected (and it is really fun... I caught it on Tivo when I got home) and then threw out some trivia questions, courtesy of Mr. Johns. I got up and answered one of them ("How did Starfire learn the language? She kissed Robin") and won a nice bag of stuff from Japanese singing group Puffy Amiyumi, who do the catchy theme song from the cartoon. The prize bag included their new album, which has the Teen Titans theme song on it, and I popped it into the car CD player as soon as I got home. Glad I did, because I loved the album, and Teen Titans is responsible for introducing me to this talented and fun group.
When the panel closed out, Tess managed to find me (my newly bald head came in real handy on this trip as far as people finding and recognizing me) and I went up with her to meet Glen Murakami briefly. I then headed off to the Universal panel, hoping against hope that the enormous size of the new ballroom 20 would mean that a panel featuring Spider-Man 2, Underworld and Hellboy wouldn't be swamped. The line out the door dashed that hope, so rather than catching up with my friends Maida and Doug in that panel, I turned back and went to the Joss Whedon panel.
Don:
Meanwhile, I'd been wandering the con floor, picking up sketches and saying hi to many more folks -- many of whom I'll forget here, and I apologize in advance -- such as Mike (Powers) Avon Oeming, the AiT/PlanetLar folks again, DC's Patty Jeres, Brian K. (Y: The Last Man) Vaughan, Jai (The Golden Vine) Sen, Robbie (The Authority) Morrison, Charlie (Codeflesh) Adlard and... man, it's just a blur.
At my first con in Chicago in '96, I made sure I attended the Pro/Fan Trivia Challenge, and I did so again at this con. Mark (Empire) Waid, Kurt (Arrowsmith) Busiek and Len (Batman: Nevermore) Wein took on fans Tom Galloway, Sidne Ward, Tim Lynch and a fellow whose name I don't recall in a game of JLA/Avengers trivia. Ran into comics annotator Jess Nevins (check out his new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen companion book), Johanna again and Savant's Dave Potter in the crowd. In an unexpected twist, the fans trounced the pros in an entertaining match.
Randy:
At the same time, I was taking in the Joss Whedon panel. Joss Whedon was a lot of fun to listen to, as his audio commentaries on DVD would indicate, and though most of the news he had to share was things I'd already heard, it was nice to have confirmed that the Firefly DVD set would be coming out later this year. In addition, Whedon was a highly-entertaining speaker, and I even got up and got to ask a question about his interest in comics. I sort of fumbled my way through it, but I was glad to hear in his response that he had an interest in tackling DC or Marvel characters, although (unsurprisingly) he didn't really have the time. To my mind, the only name that could replace Bendis if he were ever to leave Ultimate Spider-Man is Joss Whedon.
I had about three panels I wanted to go to after that one closed out (Universal's Van Helsing, The Matrix.com: Comics on the Web and Tripwire: The New British Invasion), but they all closed out too late, as Don and I had realized that the IDW party we were going to started at 7 pm instead of 8 pm. Wanting to get back to the hotel and change clothes/freshen up, we met at 6 pm at the Crossgen booth and headed out to the hotel.
We returned to the Marriott Yacht Club at about 7:15 or so, for what was definitely THE event of the convention. Good food, made up of some of the same appetizers (and some different ones, including really tasty shrimp puffs) from the Crossgen dinner, good drinks and a lot of good company, all in an outdoor and casual situation, made the party a blast. I went to talk to John Layman and found myself also talking to Jay Faerber and Liam Sharp. All three gents were great, and Liam especially was very gracious and friendly, despite the fact that I'd been a little rough on his work in The Possessed #1. After chatting with them for a while, I made my way back to the table to talk with Don, Tess, Johanna and Dave Potter.
We mingled with a variety of folks that night, including Matt Fraction, Steve Niles, Matt Wagner, Kurt Busiek and Beau Smith, but my most memorable conversation was with IDW EIC Jeff Mariotte. I've been a fan of Jeff's work with his writing on Desperadoes and editorial work at Wildstorm, and it was a pleasure to see him again. I was telling him about the live art show (it was a favorite topic of conversation for me on Saturday, as I was really pleased with the art I'd gotten and the general vibe of that show) and I told him the funny story about our mishap with UPS. Jeff offered to ship it back to Texas for me. I've always thought Jeff was one of the good guys, but that act of kindness moved him up to the short list of "guys I'd take a bullet for."
Don:
At least you have memories of that evening. All I remember is ordering drinks. Oy. I'm sure I did Canada, and Bob & Doug McKenzie, proud, knocking 'em back like I was in a contest. Far too many people asked me how I was feeling the next day.
Randy:
After a long night of drinking and mingling, Don and I made our way back to Denny's by way of cab for late breakfast/dinner and then back to the hotel. Neither one of us was up to the traditional nightcap on the balcony, and we instead both passed out in our respective beds, praying for no hangovers in the morning.
DAY FOUR (SUNDAY)
Randy:
Happily, we awoke with no hangovers. This time, it was Don who woke up early, unable to sleep despite being tired, and I slept in until almost nine. We both stumbled through our morning routines, skipping breakfast thanks to our late-night meal and making our way back to the convention center for one last go-round. It takes a lot for me to really get tired, but even my reserves of energy were flagging for this last day of the Con.
Our first stop was at IDW, to drop off my artwork and thank Beau and Jeff for the invites to the party. Jeff took some time to show us the rundown of IDW's upcoming projects, and I think both Don and I were suitably impressed. In addition to Steve Niles taking on both the Frankenstein Monster and zombie archetypes in Wake the Dead and Remains, there's a charming younger readers story of retired monsters by Kevin Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, new licensed work including Underworld, CSI, Silent Hill and The Shield (woo-hoo! HUGE The Shield fan right here), a super-hero style book by Marv Wolfman and Len Wein and any number of other projects I'm forgetting. It's a diverse and solid line-up, and those who only know IDW as "those 30 Days of Night guys" are going to be quite surprised when they blow the doors off the industry later this year.
We made a variety of other stops that morning, rushing through Artists' Alley for last-minute art and sketch purchases and trying to catch up with publishers and creators that we'd missed. That included Rick Smith, whose collected Shuck Unmasked is a beautiful volume from Top Shelf, and Jan Utstein-O'Neill, CEO of Hurricane Entertainment, where I picked up the two trades of Violent Messiahs that I had missed.
Don:
The final day of the con for me is all about the shopping. I've heard great things about Colleen Coover's Small Favors, so I sought that out, but what I was really after was original comic art. My budget was limited, but I managed to pick up a pair of great pages. One was a sexy Queen & Country page by Jason Alexander, and the other -- an Alex Saviuk DC Comics Presents page featuring Superman, Plastic Man, Elongated Man and Elasic Lad, with inks by the late, great Kurt Schaffenberger -- represented a wonderful return to my youth. Those pages, along with the Mahfood multimedia piece, made me a happy con consumer.
Randy:
My last stop for the Con was at the Ed Brubaker-Greg Rucka panel, moderated by Geoff Johns. I sat in the front row with Don and Matt Brady, and was there when DC higher-up Dan Didio stopped in to announce the big news, that Greg had just signed a three-year exclusive with DC (excluding his work on Queen & Country and another Oni Press project about Mount Everest). That confirmation, along with some of the big exclusive bombs dropped at this con about Grant Morrison, Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale, Mike Wieringo, Mark Waid and others, pretty much served notice that the DC-Marvel pendulum that swings back and forth has swung back to DC in a big way once again.
The panel was a lot of fun, as it became clear (just as it did in the Winick/Johns one-on-one) that these guys know and like one another, and the addition of Gotham Central artist Michael Lark in the front row, pitching in from the peanut gallery, only added to the fun of the whole thing. It was a great way to close out the Con for me, and I managed to get a quick group picture with Don and the three writers taken by Geoff's wife (the picture turned out great, thanks!) to remember the day.
After that, it was a trip to the hotel and the airport, and a flight home via Las Vegas, where I found myself sitting next to Gilbert Austin and his wife Caroline, two semi-regular customers at the shop in Round Rock. We talked about comics, DVDs, TV, movies and various other things all through the flight, and so I wound up with three new friendships in Texas as a result of a trip to San Diego, which isn't a bad thing.
Don:
I was in San Diego an extra night, and it served as an excellent decompression period after an overwhelming experience. The trip back home, beginning Monday at noon, was far less liberating, and far more excruciating than the trip to get there. Suffice it to say that a late plane, missed connection, plenty of waiting and a long drive home totalled up to 24 hours of travelling.
