Note: This is a LONG one folks.
I almost missed it this year. After nine years of attendance, I almost missed out, because I didn't book a hotel room early and until we sold our house, I wasn't sure I'd be able to afford it. But selling the house allowed me the cash, and a lucky break allowed me to book all but one night in the Holiday Inn, my usual hotel for the Con. As always, the show was huge... people were guestimating between 105,000 and 125,000, and neither figure would surprise me much. It turns out they closed down registration on Saturday because the show was so crowded, and I got the sense that the fire marshals were watching like hawks.
As with last year, sketchbooks and sketches made up the bulk of my purchases. I bought another metric ton of sketchbooks this year, and I'll have a rundown on those, as well as reviews of other San Diego stuff, in the next week or two. I spent most of my time hanging out with my buddy, screenwriter Joe Doughrity and his roommate, Dave. Had a blast with these guys, and was really glad that they were there, as they gave me good friends to hang with for most of the Con.
This year, the Con has been covered from every conceivable angle. Look around at CBR, Newsarama, their respective blogs, The Beat, Comics Reporter, Bags and Boards, etc. and you'll have a picture that's almost more complete than actually being there. I don't expect there will be any big news reveals in this Con report, and in fact it might be entirely superfluous at this point. But it's a tradition, and I'd written most of it before I returned, so here you are. This is more of a travelogue, the Con through one attendee's eyes, and my usual "Here's some stuff and some pros to look out for" thrown in for good measure.
As always, there are no pictures. I've realized I always forget to take pictures, and so I don't bring the camera. You can find a ton of pictures on the CBR photo parade and on The Beat, among other places. Oh, and as always, I may come off like a horrible name-dropper, and if so, I apologize. Believe me, I'm generally amazed that any of these folks even know who I am, much less consider me a friend of friendly acquaintance.
Day One: Wednesday
I'm afraid it's still going to be up to Augie to provide travel horror stories this year. My trip from Austin to San Diego couldn't have gone smoother. After a lunch with Suzanne and Katy at Katz's Deli here in Austin, I got to the airport about two hours ahead of my flight. Checked in, didn't check luggage for the first time ever and walked over to the gate. Spent most of my time waiting by playing Texas Hold'Em on World Series of Poker for the PSP. All of this preparation playing electronic no limit Hold'Em would turn out to be of no use in the real game on Saturday night, of course.
The plane took off on time, landed in Phoenix on time, and then went from Phoenix to San Diego on time. The only anxiety I had was worrying about whether my luggage was going to fit in the overhead bins, as they kept stressing it was a small plane, but there was plenty of room. So I landed in San Diego at about 5:40 as planned, with Preview Night due to start at 6:00.
Went to grab a cab and found the Holiday Inn on the Bay shuttle waiting there, just about to depart. How fortuitous! Talked with a fellow comics fan (and fan of the Fourth Rail) whose name I've forgotten, and was reminded how cool it is that when you're in San Diego for the Con, odds are anyone you talk to is plugged into comics. Throughout the course of the show, I had interesting conversations waiting in line for the shuttles, onboard the shuttles, waiting at restaurants, etc. Talked to a couple locals who were using the shuttles to get around and who loved having the Con in their backyard, as well as several people who had come quite a ways to be at the show.
At any rate, I quickly got checked into the Holiday Inn (my room had a beautiful harbor view, a nice bonus), went out to catch the shuttle, and that was just arriving at the curb. I had magic timing on Wednesday. The traffic was pretty rough, so we got to the show around 6:30. I braced myself for the usual nightmare of waiting in lines after pre-registering. This year, they had added a barcode that you scanned, and I had that with me, but I was skeptical. Then I saw that there was no visible line where it said "Professionals, with barcode, no changes." Getting a better feeling, although still nervous. I waited with a few other people outside the door as a security woman directed, and five minutes later we all went in. We were all expecting a gigantic line inside, and there wasn't one. In fact, I waited about a minute behind one other person, got up to the desk, had the barcode scanned and had my badge. Amazing. Kudos to the registration folks, they really looked at what didn't work in the past and did a fantastic job this year.
So I had almost the entire three hours to wander around Preview Night. Which, as always, was way too short. Preview Night always feels to me like a pinball game, just bouncing randomly from place to place. The overwhelming size of the convention hits you, as does the desire to check in with everyone you see every year.
As always, the order in which everything happened starts to blur, so I'm not sure exactly when I talked to all of these people in relation to one another. I did make notes after each night, a new idea for me, so hopefully I'll be better about not leaving anybody out. I now that the first place I went was to the Top Shelf booth, where I said hi to Brett Warnock, Kristen Siebecker, Alex Robinson and Chris Staros and bought a plush Owly toy before they sold out. I also got my first look at the Lost Girls hardcover set, which was going to be the talk of the show. Top Shelf started out with several cases stacked behind the booth, and the last time I looked on Sunday, they had only nine copies of the book left.
I got to meet Mark Siegler of First Second graphic novels and tell him how impressed I had been with their launch. Reconnected with Tim Seeley (author of Hack/Slash, artist on Forgotten Realms Dark Elf trilogy) and finally met Devil's Due PR gal Susan Bishop. Stopped in to say hi to Ross Richie at Boom! Studios and congratulate him on all the strong work that company has been producing and talk a little bit about Austin, Ross's former hometown. Picked up a couple of Death Jr. kid's t-shirts from Ted Naifeh. Met Jeff Parker at Cold Cut's Indy Island and told him both how much I was looking forward to Agents of Atlas and how much I was enjoying his work on Marvel Adventures: Avengers. Caught up with the Viper crew (Jessie Garza and P.J. Kryfko) as well as a few Austin locals hanging around the booth, including Goat Boy and Miss Monster. This gave me the opportunity to tell Miss Monster that I had bought a piece from her at the Austin live art show and that my daughter absolutely loved it. She thought that was as adorable as I did, which was nice. Stopped in at Active Images to say hello to the always charming Richard Starkings, and he hooked me up with their latest graphic novels (spy-thriller Kafka and surreal superhero tale The Nightmarist) as well as the latest Tim Sale sketchbook.
Active Images was right near DC, so I ventured into the crowded DC booth. I quickly met up with Marc Andreyko, talking with him for a little while on all things Manhunter (looks like there might be a second trade, which is great news). He introduced me to Anderson Gabrych, who talked to me about his upcoming Omega Men miniseries, which sounds really intriguing. I then stepped over to the Vertigo side of things to say hi to Bob Schreck and congratulate him on the recent move to Vertigo, as well as talking to Bill Willingham, Steven Seagle and Shelly Bond. Shelly is one of my favorite people to see at these shows... not only is she a terrific editor who has long championed Willingham and is thus responsible in large measure for my favorite book (Fables), she also happens to be remarkably cute and always upbeat and friendly whenever I've seen her.
After that, it was a stop at the Oni booth to greet Joe Nozemack, Ian Shaughnessy, Randy Jarrell and Jamie S. Rich over at Oni Press. Randy and Ian have both done a fair amount of time in Austin, so I always feel a certain kindred spirit with them. In fact, I think I bugged Randy throughout the Con, stopping back by Oni to chat with him on several occasions. Randy and Joe hinted heavily about the big announcement that Oni was working on, building up my interest but not spilling the beans. Later on in the show, I'd find out that it was the Colbert Report's Tek Jansen comic, which might be my favorite bit of news to come out of San Diego this year. I love the Colbert Report, and I love Oni, and I think this will bring them some well-deserved attention in a larger market. After a quick stop over at the small press area to say hello to Ryan Claytor and pick up the latest And Then One Day, I stopped at Image to talk to Jeremy Haun (Oni's Leading Man) and then the hall was closed.
I went out with my friend Joe D. and his roommate Dave, starving for something to eat. We walked over to the Rock Bottom Brewery, and while my dining companions tried the beer sampler, I chowed down on meatloaf, which was excellent. Hungry as I was, I finished every bit of meatloaf, white cheddar mashed potatoes and green beans on my plate. On the way back, we stopped off at Ralph's Groceries for supplies. For my part, I grabbed a six pack of 20 oz. Coke bottles, a six pack of bottled water, bread, peanut butter, blackberry fruit spread and some Gladware disposable sandwich containers. This minor investment allowed me to almost entirely bypass the over-priced and generally awful convention center food. We went back to the convention center, only to find out that the shuttles had stopped running a couple hours ago. Dave and Joe decided to hoof it, but I was tired and grabbed a cab ride back to the hotel.
Day Two: Thursday
Every year in San Diego, the two hour time change and anticipation of the Con gives me a weird sleep schedule. See, I like to sleep in at home, but when I'm in San Diego, I'm almost always awake and out of bed by 8:00 at the latest. That was the case on Thursday, so I got up, showered and prepared and went down and had breakfast at the Bayside Cafe, my usual routine at the show. Eggs, ham, potatoes and toast for six or seven bucks? Great way to load up on food when you're not going to eat much during the day.
The shuttle line was pretty long, and one shuttle showed up already full, and I got to I talking with a couple who was standing in line behind me. The guy introduced himself as John something (I couldn't quite hear the last name), and said he was going to be in Artist's Alley over by Matt Wagner. We talked about a variety of things about San Diego and the Con, and another young woman joined in the conversation. Another shuttle showed, and it was full as well. John and his wife (I think her name was Dee?) grabbed a cab, and I walked over with the other woman, whose name I've completely blanked on. We had a nice conversation about the show, though, and she was there as part of an independent music distribution network, mostly looking at toys on the convention floor. Later on, when I went by Artist's Alley, I'd discover that the John I had been talking to was John K. Snyder III, an artist I've long been a fan of!
At about 11:00, after a relatively easy walk, I arrived at the convention center. While I was walking in, Bill Willingham got my attention and introduced me to Matt Sturges, his co-writer on Jack of Fables, whom I had asked to meet the night before, because he's an Austin local and I wanted to talk to him about coming to the store for a signing. We tentatively arranged something, which means I need to send him an email as soon as I finish posting this convention report. I started off in the second half of the hall on Thursday, and my first stop was at the Red Window/E-Ville booth, where I picked up the long-awaited Rose & Isabel Book 2 from Ted Mathot and said hi to Jim Mahfood and Scott Morse. I drooled over Scott's gorgeous $400 package of custom Converse, original art and skate deck, but knew that I couldn't afford it, even with my unusually decent Con budget this year.
I also made the first of many stops by Udon Studios, hoping to find Jo Chen and get a sketch. Her covers on Runaways (among other things) are up there with James Jean in my book, and I was really psyched to see that she was going to be at the show. On my way back to the other side (the mostly comics side) of the hall, I picked up a special Heroes pin that would allow me to nab a limited Tim Sale-illustrated comic promoting the show, and also was lucky enough to run into Brian Fies, author of the Eisner-winning comic Mom's Cancer. I also got to take a look at a color preview of DK Publishing's Marvel Encyclopedia. It looks fantastic, and should be the equal of their excellent DC Encylopedia from last year.
Wandering back to the other side of the hall, I grabbed this year's and last year's sketchbooks from Eric Powell and stopped in to say hi to Sean Wang and his lovely wife. They showed me a color preview of Sean's new Image book, Meltdown, which looked great, and I picked up Sean's sketchbook. Then I wandered over to the DC booth. This marked the first time I would find Mark Buckingham's line already capped. Throughout the course of the Con, I'd find his line capped three more times before finally getting into one.
Over at Image, I said a brief hello to the busy Ryan Ottley and asked if the Superman/Batman annual meant he was lining up for more work at DC. He said that no, he was planning to stay on Invincible, which was a big relief. Also got to say hi to Matt Fraction. It took me a second to recognize him, because he seems to look different every time I see him. This year, he had a dapper beard and slightly long hair combo that worked out nicely for him, and gave him that "man of action when he's not being a man of leisure" look so perfect to the writer of Casanova and Punisher War Journal. Next to him was Keiron Gillen, writer of the upcoming music and magic book Phonogram from Image. Gillen was a delight to talk to as well, and I would visit that corner of the Image booth, talking with Gillen and Fraction, several times throughout the show.
I also stopped by to talk to Jeremy Haun again, as he's someone I've seen at a lot of Cons who I always enjoy talking to. We each showed off pictures of our kids and talked about comics and conventions and travel, and I managed to introduce myself to Brian Posehn, who was next to Jeremy's booth, and tell him how much I enjoyed Comedians of Comedy. I also saw Rosario Dawson at some point at the Image booth, but she was mobbed, and "wasn't really there," so I didn't want to bug her. I'd get a chance to catch up with her and the rest of the O.C.T. crew later on during the show. Moving around the Image booth, I got to meet Mark Andrew Smith and Dan Hipp, creators of the Amazing Joy Buzzards, and was very happy to hear that more of the series is coming later this year. I also got to talk a little bit to Scott Kurtz, about his impending visit to Austin for the Dragon's Lair 20th anniversary, about PVP and about Superman Returns (a movie we both loved, incidentally).
After three years of passing it up because I just couldn't afford it, I went ahead and left my theme sketchbook with Tim Sale and commissioned a sketch from him. Then it was off to the Grant Morrison/Deepak Chopra panel. The panel has been covered at various news sites, but it's a tough thing to really convey. It was one of the most interesting, mind-expanding discussions on comics I've been privileged to witness, and definitely worth the investment of time.
In the later hours of the day, I decided to stop by the small press section of the show. I got to briefly meet Felipe Smith, creator of the Tokyopop book MBQ (review of volume two coming soon) and happened upon Chip Mosher, a friend from way back who was shopping around his graphic novel, Left on Mission & Revenge. I got a short preview, featuring art by Lex Talionis's Nye Wright. Note to Chip, if you're reading: I finally got a chance to read it on the flight back, and really enjoyed it. Expect much praise in my Con review wrap-up. I also picked up a few indie gems like Papercutter 1 & 2, the second volume of Patrick Morgan's sketchbooks, a gorgeous hardcover sketchbook called Mariachi Samurai, a ton of sketchbooks from the Rhythm Section guys and Contents by Gio-Bao Tran.
As arranged prior to the Con, I met up with Zack Smith to go grab dinner at the Fish Market. On the way there, I was spotted by Shawn Richter, artist of Drive and Trip to Rundberg. That was lucky, as I hadn't gotten his number from Nate Southard and vice-versa. I invited him along to dinner with us, and he started walking with us. We then met up with Austin local Geoff Sebesta, who handed me the remastered Megatexas comics and decided to join us for the Fish Market as well. When we actually got the restaurant, Geoff and Shawn bailed, as neither was really looking for a fancy dinner, and Zack and I talked TV and ate some delicious seafood. For about $40, I had clam chowder, grilled shrimp and scallops with bacon and creme brulee, and it was all terrific. The Fish Market dinner is always a highlight of my San Diego trip, and this year was no exception. Sadly, I never saw Shawn again during the Con... sorry, Shawn... maybe we'll catch up at Wizard World Texas this year?
After that, it was getting late, so I walked back to my hotel and crashed, relatively early, so I'd be rested for what was sure to be a busy Friday.
Day Three: Friday
Friday was easily the best day of the Con this year. It started off with the hassle I had been expecting, having to move hotels. I again woke up relatively early, around 8:30, and called over to find out Dave was still asleep. So I showered, etc., went down and grabbed breakfast and checked out of the hotel, also checking one bag. Then I took a long walk to the Radisson. I made the mistake of asking the Holiday Inn concierge "Is it walking distance or cab distance?" The question should have been "Is it walking distance if you've got two heavy bags and will be walking miles of convention floor all day as well?" After a long, hot trek through San Diego (actually only about 12 blocks, but about 4 blocks in, I started thinking seriously about hailing a cab or pedicab), I arrived at the Radisson. I dropped off my bags and my computer in the room and then joined Joe and Dave while they had their breakfast. We grabbed a shuttle, which took a while to arrive thanks to traffic but had a shuttle driver in high spirits (one of many, shuttle drivers were great this year) and arrived at the convention center around 10:45. Joe and Dave headed off, and I headed in.
I was lucky enough to get to Vertigo right as Mark Buckingham was sitting down, and got into his line. Finally I had my chance, and wasn't going to miss it, though I was running dangerously close to the Heroes panel. While in line, I asked Bill Willingham if I could see the galley of 1001 Nights of Snowfall, the original Fables graphic novel coming out later this year. As expected, it was gorgeous, and will be well worth the twenty dollar price tag. As I got to the front of the line, I got a call on my cell from Zack, telling me he'd saved me a seat in the front row, right behind studio executives, producers and writers. As it turned out, I got to the front of the line just as Karen Berger was telling Mark he had to go for the Vertigo panel, starting at the same time as Heroes. I asked Mark if he'd prefer if I left my sketchbook with him so he could finish it later, and he thought that was a good idea. Worked out good for him and good for me, as I managed to get up and get in line and get into the Heroes panel, a lucky thing as a few hundred others were locked out. And thanks to Zack, despite my late arrival, I was able to get a kickass seat.
While waiting in line for Mark, Josh Elder (of Mail Order Ninja) spotted my badge and came over to say hi. He actually walked with me towards the Heroes panel, and we exchanged cellphone numbers in case we didn't meet up later.
Jeph Loeb introduced the cast, and Zack went berserk when he found out Adrian Pasdar was actually there. I was actually a little disappointed that Greg Grunberg didn't make it, but my disappointment was short-lived, because once the show started, I was completely into it. I don't want to spoil it at all, but the creators have really turned in an ethnically-diverse cast (without beating you over the head with it... truth to tell, I didn't even notice that element until someone asked about it at the tail end of the panel) and captured the lightning in a bottle the way that the Lost creators have. I can easily see Heroes being a phenomenon akin to Lost. Remember how cool you thought Unbreakable was, and what an unusual take on the superhero genre? Heroes has a fair amount in common with that, although it's less dire and ambiguous than Shyamalan. (Or less pretentious, I suppose, if you're not a Shyamalan fan.) Don't miss it, it premieres on NBC on Monday, Sept. 25 at 9:00 PM. After the episode ended, I got up with the others in a short line to ask questions. Unfortunately, the panel was running late, and just as I got to the microphone, Jeph cut off the panel.
I later playfully chided Jeph about this at the DC booth, and he told me that he had someone with a clipboard riding him throughout the panel to get it done, since it was running late. I hope he realized I was being playful, and didn't just think I was being a jerk. If I came off that way, sorry Jeph! At any rate, I asked him my question, which had been to him and Tim Kring anyway, about whether or not they'd be doing podcasts for Heroes ala Lindelof and Cuse and Lost, and Loeb seemed to indicate that they would be.
Beyond that, it's the usual blur. I picked up sketchbooks from Mark Schultz and got them signed, and was happy to learn that he is planning to get back to more Xenozoic Tales eventually. I know that I wandered past Chip Mosher once more, and picked up one of the Borrowed Time T-Shirts (which Chip helped me out on by throwing in $2, because I had either $8 or $50, and he didn't want to break the $50 if he could avoid it... thanks again, Chip!). I then headed over to Oni, where the creators of Borrowed Time were, and got a sketch from Joe Infurnari while talking with Neal Shaffer. I then went around and talked with Ande Parks and Chris Samnee. Samnee, one of the best artists in the industry that not enough people know yet, drew me not one but two Queen & Country sketches, which was really cool and nice of him. It was at that point that I spotted someone wearing a Wasteland T-Shirt and, peeking my head around, realized they were for sale. I asked Randy Jarrell if Antony Johnston was going to be there, and to my surprise, he told me that Antony *was* the guy in the Wasteland shirt. So I got to talk to Antony for quite a bit, and it sounds like Wasteland is a hit, which is great news. I picked up a T-shirt and had a good conversation with Antony, then headed over to Image to see if I could catch up to Phil Hester, whom I had heard was over there from someone talking to Ande.
Phil was indeed there, and I stopped off to say hi and once again gush over how great a writer he is. It kills me that Phil isn't being given Marvel and DC books to write, as he's up there in my mind with guys like Vaughan and Willingham. But he is writing something new for Markosia, as well as writing and drawing a tale for the anthology Postcards, which I'm also really looking forward to.
I then made another circle of the Image booth, and got to meet Gabriel Ba and tell him how much I had enjoyed De:Tales, which I recently reviewed, as well as get a quick sketch of Casanova. I also got to meet Rosario Dawson and David Atchison, co-writers of Occult Crimes Taskforce, and tell them how much I enjoyed the first issue. I knew Rosario would be in Austin for Grindhouse and Sin City 2 shooting, so I passed her a business card and told her we'd love to have her at the store for a signing when she was in town. She seemed amenable, and hopefully that'll work out, because I'd love to give O.C.T. #1 another big push.
Then I wandered back to the center of the show and found Josh Elder at DC once more. He hadn't yet met anybody at Oni, so I took him with me and introduced him to Randy Jarrell. While there, I found out that Bryan Lee O'Malley was going to be at the show the next day, and did more talking about kids with James Lucas Jones's wife, as their daughter is just a bit younger than my daughter Katy. I asked Josh if he wanted to join with the rest of us for dinner, and we went out to meet up with Nate Ng and Brandon Thomas, as well as Joe D. and Dave.
After several cellphone calls, we managed to all meet up. Dave was crashed back in the hotel room, but Joe had brought his buddy Ralph, a graphic designer, with him. We decided to head over to the Baja Rockin' Lobster Company, and while waiting, we were joined by some more friends, including PopCultureShock's Jon Haehnle (whom Joe and I had both worked with on Psycomic) and Shola Akkinuso, a longtime Internet friend. A few others joined us as well, and eventually we wound up split into two tables. For my part, I had dinner with Ralph, Nate, Joe and Josh, and we had a good dinner and great conversation. Joe and I decided to head back to the hotel, change and head back to the Hyatt bar for drinks and socializing.
After we watched the Vader Sessions on my laptop, we grabbed Dave and headed down to the bar. We were only there a short time, and were annoyed by the gated-in bar that we couldn't get into. But I did bump into John Layman, Austin locals Andrew Boyd and Robyn, Chip, Don Hudson, Ross Campbell, Shelly Bond and... Grant Morrison. I wasn't going to miss the chance to meet him, even though his intelligence and creativity just intimidated the hell out of me. As it turned out, he couldn't be nicer or more gracious. I talked to him, he smiled and greeted me warmly, and it blew my mind that he knew who I was and liked my reviews! We chatted for just a few moments about his panel, about Batman and Superman, and it was definitely the highlight of my Con.
Joe and Dave and I took the shuttle back and crashed, for my latest bedtime of the entire Con.
Day Four: Saturday
Honestly? Saturday kind of sucked. I started the day a little tired, as I woke up around 6:30 and could not get back to sleep. Dave and Joe were both still asleep, and they're California locals, so they weren't having the same time adjustment issues as me. I didn't want to wake them, but I figured I needed an early start anyway, so I quietly got up, took a shower and then took my laptop downstairs to take advantage of the wireless in the lobby. I checked email and wrote up part of this here Con report. About 8:30, I went back up, shaved (the only non-quiet part of my morning routine, thanks to an electric razor) and we headed down for breakfast. My stomach was feeling a little weird, not as bad as Sunday last year but definitely queasy, and I put that down to a lack of sleep. Unfortunately, it was kinda too late to do anything about it. Some waffles, eggs, potatoes, sausage and bacon helped fill me up at least.
We decided to walk over because we knew the traffic would be crazy, and so we got there at about five minutes to ten. Fortunately, the Con hall had opened early on Saturday, so we went in and I got into the Lost panel. It was a great panel, and I managed to get up and ask Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse a question about the podcasts and commentaries. There was a plant in the line who pretended that she was angry about the Dharma Initiative and spewed a big rant that no doubt contained many clues, and that was kind of a fun little bit of pretend drama. There were also previews of the Lost Video diaries, which are going to be cellphone and then webcast, as well as a couple of special features on the DVD.
After that, I went down to Oni to get a sketch from Bryan O'Malley. Corey Lewis was seated next to him, and he was talking to a gentleman I didn't recognize. Until he introduced him to Bryan as Adam Warren. I said that I really loved Livewires, and he responded with "you, me and my editor, that's about it" in a self-deprecating manner. A shame, but it's true, that book didn't do anywhere near as well as it should have. I would love to get a sketch from Warren someday, but I wasn't going to accost him when he was just walking the floor, so I was just glad to be able to tell him how much I appreciated his work. Then a lovely young woman came up next to him and Corey recognized her as Jo Chen. I had been trying to find her all Con, so I quickly introduced myself, gushed over how much I loved her Runaways covers, and asked if she was doing sketches for the Con. Sadly, the answer was no. But at least I got to meet her as well.
Then my energy just left me. I was still feeling a little sick, and now I was exhausted as well. Combine with a crowded con floor and no particular agenda, I basically wandered like a zombie for about an hour. I came back to Oni for the Wasteland signing, and got a sketch from Chris Mitten. I also met up with Rob Osborne, creator of 1000 Steps to World Domination and Sunset City, who is moving to Austin, which is great.
Feeling tired, I decided to go ahead and check in on the Hack/Slash panel. I'm embarrassed to say that I almost nodded off several times. Not becuase the panel was boring, it was actually very entertaining, but I was sooo tired. I figured it would seem ruder to get up and leave the relatively small room, especially after Tim had done such a great Kwinn sketch for me earlier, and so I powered through, nearly nodding off several times.
I did a little more wandering, met up with George Singley and Ethan Beavers at Markosia and they gave me the Mutation trade. I found Francesco Francavilla, artist of Black Coat, on the other side of the hall, and picked up his sketchbook, and then headed for the Veronica Mars panel.
Right after, around 5, I called Joe and arranged to meet him at their hotel to pick up my bag. Said my goodbyes to Joe and Dave, thanked them again for the place to crash, and then grabbed shuttles back to my hotel to check back in. After a quick shrimp and clam chowder dinner at Anthony's Fishette, I showered and got dressed for the poker game I was headed to.
Poker did not go well. I'd like to say it was because one of the players at my table was someone who plays poker for a living (and was kind of grumpy, which threw me off my game) and because it started off as limit hold 'em, which I really don't know how to play... but the truth is, I could and should have adjusted my play for those factors and instead I sort of muddled through, feeling pretty dumb in comparison to the other guys playing. Finally went out when I put all my chips in on A-J, after the flop had paired my aces and revealed no stronger kicker. Turns out Tom Galloway had A-Q, but that wouldn't have mattered either, as the other player had a straight. Either way, I should have read the strength of their betting and bailed, even though I was more or less pot-committed at that point. So around midnight, I caught the shuttle back, a little annoyed at my bad play, and came back to the hotel room to write notes for the Con report and then crash.
Day Five: Sunday
Surprisingly, Sunday was a pretty good day. I say surprisingly because tradtionally, Sunday is a day when I'm either sick or exhausted or leaving too early for my liking or, in some cases, all three. I woke up a little early, and my stomach was feeling a little weird, which had me worrying about a repeat of last year's final day illness, but after sleeping in for another hour, then a shower, I felt a little better and decided to go grab breakfast or lunch. As it turned out, I saw the shuttle arriving at the hotel, and there was room on it, so I decided to take advantage of the luck and get onboard, figuring I'd find something to eat in the Gaslamp. I wound up finding a slice of pizza that was decent but not much cheaper (or better) than I could have gotten from going to the convention center directly, but oh, well.
I don't remember the exact order in which I met people on Sunday. I do remember that I finally caught up with Tim Sale, and he had finished my sketch in my theme sketchbook, and it was terrific. I walked across the aisle to finally say hello to Eric Shanower (his booth had been busy every time I'd been by in the past few days). He graciously did an amazing sketch of a winged monkey in my theme sketchbook, a request inspired by the new IDW reprint of his Oz graphic novels. Shanower had a copy of the limited hardcover edition at his table, and it is a thing of beauty, with all of IDW's traditional excellent production values and Shanower's art in gorgeous, remastered color. Shanower explained to me that he didn't sell his original art, and thus he had been able to give the originals to IDW in order to do the scanning and re-coloring. I immediately wished that I had ponied up the extra $35 for the hardcover, and even checked Amazon to see if it was still available, but sadly no. I'm quite sure the softcover will be terrific as well.
Had a brief but very pleasant chat with Jimmy Palmiotti, who I spotted at the DC booth. Palmiotti's a fun guy, and listening to him tell a couple of stories, it's clear that you could get hours of enjoyment just talking to the guy.
I made another pass through the small press section and found a few things I hadn't before. For one, there were some excellent little mini-comics by Karen Knighton that used acetate to great effect and just had a really interesting art style about them. I also found a graphic novel reprinting a fantasy/military action webcomic called Alpha Shade, and picked that up, getting a sketch from the artist in my sketchbook. Finally, I ran into Gia-Bao Tran, creator of Content from a few years back and Contents, a new book that I bought earlier in the week. We talked a little bit about his work and I walked with him over to Oni to put his books in Randy Jarrell's hands. Wandering a little deeper, and back toward the Flight booth, I found the Those Guys booth, which included a number of creators whose work I had bought last year. I picked up new work from Richard Pose and Joshua Pruett, whose Hector Spector was one of my favorite buys from last year.
At some point, I wandered back over to the Image booth and once again talked with Matt Fraction, Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. Jamie did me a nice sketch of a character from Phonogram while I talked with Gillen about Las Vegas and poker, since he was headed back to Vegas before heading home to England. I also picked up an O.C.T. t-shirt from writer David Atchison for $10, making six total T-shirts bought this year, four for me and two for Katy.
After that, I made one last pass around Artist's Alley, picking up sketchbooks from Bernie Wrightson and discovering that John Snyder had Suicide Squad pages at only $30 each. I haven't bought original art in quite some time, but Suicide Squad is one of my all-time favorite series, and at that price, I had to look... and when I discovered a few cool pages, I had to buy two of them (even though I wanted three or four). I also found Robert Roach, creator of pulp comic The Roach, and enjoyed talking with him for a few minutes before moving on.
Making my last rounds, I finally found Dan Brereton, picking up a postcard promoting the new Nocturnals hardcovers. There was about an hour left on the clock, but I really wasn't feeling any particular need to see anyone or anything. I'd pretty much covered everything I needed to, including buying everything that other folks had requested of me, including sketchbooks and the limited Solomon Grundy figure.
And so I left about an hour before the floor closed, wanting to avoid the rush to the shuttles and figuring that I was pretty much done with the show anyway. Went back to the hotel and grabbed a meal at the Elephant & Castle Pub, based on enjoying what I had last year and wanting to try more of the menu. Sadly, the meatloaf was kind of lackluster, especially since it was the same dish that I got at the Rock Bottom a few days ago (meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans) but not as good. Not bad, by any means, but not as good as I'd hoped. At any rate, I unchecked my bags, resorted everything so that I had one bag to check and got on the shuttle to the airport. While checking in, Chris Butcher was also checking in and called over to me. We had a brief chat before getting checked in, and then it was off to get on the plane. At least, in theory.
The trip back was not as smooth as the trip there. Thankfully, neither was it the equal of last year's horror story. Basically, they switched departure gates on us twice and then the flight took off about half an hour late. I was nervous about missing my connection, especially when I had to run literally across the Vegas airport to get to my connecting gate, but I needn't have worried. As it turned out, that flight was delayed by almost an hour, and so what was meant to be a red-eye arriving in Austin at 3:30 instead arrived closer to 4:30. It was late and I was tired, but the lack of sleep and borderline sickness I'd suffer from on Monday was worth it for another great year in San Diego. Can't wait for next year already.
I'll be doing some sort of round-up review of the stuff I picked up at this year's Con, hopefully in the next couple of weeks, but real life may intrude and it might not be until late August. If you've read this far into the Con report, thank you and I apologize for running so long again, although I did at least take better notes this year, so it was at least 20% less rambling.
Lessons learned at this year's San Diego:
1. San Diego is a great way to renew your enthusiasm - I know some people just dread San Diego or see the encroachment of Hollywood and other interlopers as a betrayal of the medium. But I was sort of flagging in my enthusiasm for comics thanks to a disappointment in a lot of the big sellers, and the wide diversity of what was available at San Diego reminded me of how much talent and how much promising material is out there, and what a great sense of community comics has. Talking to the people behind the comics, from the small press to the big books at Marvel and DC, helped remind me that there are a lot of passionate, talented people doing top-notch work in this industry right now. It also reminded me of how much camaraderie and friendship I feel in San Diego.
2. Overplan - I had a long list of panels to attend that I didnt, people I wanted to see that I missed and sketches I wanted to get from artists who turned out to not even be there. As a result of this overplan, in general, I managed to really get the most out of my Con, always having some sort of agenda that I was pursuing so that the chaos never totally overwhelmed me.
3. Peanut butter and jelly rules! - I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and bottle of water with me during every day of the Con, and it was a lifesaver. This is the first year I haven't bought a hot dog, a pretzel or some other over-priced and under-nutritious snack for lunch.
4. Take a break on Saturday - This marks the second year in a row that I was just exhausted on Saturday and borderline sick as a result of pushing myself on Sunday. There's always an early panel or something I want to hit on Saturday, but I think next year, programming permitting, I might grab some friends and go get lunch in the Gaslamp Quarter to get away from the convention center on mid-day Saturday.
5. Get a flight out late Sunday night or on Monday - Getting out late on Sunday meant that I could stay as late as I wanted at the convention center (turned out to be around 4:00 PM), and that basically left me completely satisfied with my Con experience, not feeling like I really needed more time that I didn't get.
Oh, and this ain't all... check THIS LINK for the many and varied cool sketches that I got during the Con.
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