Seattle ComiCard Convention - September 12th 2004

Today was a Seattle ComiCard Convention day. The listed guests didn't all show while hubby-Eric and I were there, but we only stayed for a couple of hours.

The first person I talked with was Kathleen Webb, who is best known for her work on Archie comics. I got a sketch from her back at the first Emerald City Comicon, just before I started asking for permissions. She has no problem with me posting her sketch, a non-Aquaman but aquatic nonetheless sketch. It will be posted on October 2nd.

My goal for this con was one sketch and one permission. Halfway there already!

Next up was Bill Schelly, author of Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder and all-around comic book historian and generally cool guy. I had him sign my copy of the Otto Binder (rhymes with tinder) book (which I haven't reviewed only because I haven't yet finished enjoying it). Bill told me there aren't a lot of copies left and also that Jackie Estrada admitted to him that the book probably contributed to Otto getting a much-deserved spot in the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame.

After talking with Bill for a few minutes, we wandered over to where Roberta Gregory and Donna Barr were still setting up. We chatted with Donna for a bit, including some discussion of internet privacy and government computers.

While hubby-Eric got sketches from the two lovely/scary ladies, I chatted a bit with Phil Foglio (including admitting that I'm the one who roped him into Anglicon this year) and Cheyenne Wright. I haven't seen Cheyenne since I started reading his webcomic, Arcane Times, so I had to tell him that I'm enjoying it. Even if I don't quite get the Mousferatu thing.

Eric came over with his two new sketches for his Green Lantern themed book (anyone or anything as Green Lantern) and Donna had drawn an Oz/GL crossover while Roberta Gregory provided her well-known character with a GL symbol stamped on her... um... butt.

Moving on, three artists were sitting at the table next to Phil and Cheyenne, busily working away. One of them I had already managed to get a sketch from. Siya Oum did a wonderful Manga-style Aquaman for me at a Seattle con a year ago. She thanked me for posting the sketch and told me she sends folks to see it. With her help, the other two artists agreed to do sketches for me.

Chad A Du Lac did an older bearded Aquaman for me. I love the sense of motion he gave Aquaman in his sketch. I have permission to post the sketch, and it will go up on October 9th. He's between websites at the moment, but when he gets a new one I'll link the image in my sketchbook to it.

After Chad's bold effort, Tiana Tampico added her version. As we'd been discussing Namor and his ability to fly a little earlier, she did a classic version of Aquaman shooting through a school of flying fish. Her version of Aquaman has a great knowing look on his face, and I adore the fish! It brings my fish count up quite a bit. I have permission to post the sketch, and it will be my featured sketch on October 16th. Tiana is also between websites.

As I was getting sketches, hubby-Eric decided to ask for sketches from the trio. I'd already told them his theme, and they were eager to give it a shot. Chad Du Lac drew Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz movie as Green Lantern. Tiana drew her character Mythrysta "Myth" Thorell as Green Lantern. Siya opted for a traditional look, and drew the classic Hal Jordan Green Lantern... and it's really good, too.

There were a couple of other artists hanging out, but none that appeared to be sketching. I talked with the writer and artist at Thunder Frog Comics, but Harrison Wood had to go deal with a premature moving day (he was originally told he had three more days) and didn't have time for a sketch. I did get to flip through their latest project Kat & Dogg, and I would have picked up a copy of Mighty Mites if I'd had three dollars on me.

I got up the courage to talk with Greg Scott Bailey who is working on a book called Mocktales. The story involves a major city being thrown into an alternate dimension where elves and magic exist. The city is, of course, Seattle. The art samples on his table were excellent. The only thing lacking was a story page to judge his storytelling skills by. Because of his employment situation he was charging for sketches, but we struck a deal. I would promote his website on my blog, and he would draw a sketch for me. He drew a classic Aquaman which will be posted on October 23rd. I plan on following the development of his book, which should be out in time for San Diego next year. The concept interests me, and I liked what I saw of his artwork.

The last guy I talked with before leaving was Thomas Doherty, editor of Committed Comics. He had some good news for me about getting permissions for me at San Diego this year. He talked with a few of the folks on my list and planned to e-mail me the results once things had calmed down a bit for him. Seeing me at the con reminded him. The only name he could remember right off was Jamal Igle, who apparently thought I was a bit insane to ask permission but gave it anyway. So a whole new stack of people will be posted once I get the confirmations from Thomas.

Eric and I then wandered a bit around the dealer tables. Nobody has the last few books I need (especially not at a price I could actually afford), so we were looking only. As with the last few ComiCard events, the turnout was a bit low. Until the economy turns around it will stay low. Which is why I question the wisdom of having another ComiCard Convention on November 14th, only two months away. On the other hand, the guest of honor is Michael Turner, so that will draw more than a few people in. What do you think the odds of me getting a free sketch from Michael Turner are?

Well, we had fun, met some old friends and made some new. And had a decent sketch count, even if Eric didn't get to meet Paul Chadwick. All-in-all a pretty successful con for us. We'll have to see if we can make the next one.

Seattle ComiCard Convention Report

Too much was planned for today. Eric's Oz friends were coming to visit for one of their normal gatherings, and that pretty much wiped out any chance of us going to the convention together. But man, I really wanted to go. There were several folks I'd never seen before, and I wanted to get permission from Randy Emberlin to post his sketch. I'm not really up to going alone. I just hate being alone at cons. So I asked my sister if she would go with me. She agreed, and bought herself a sketchbook after I explained what I did at these conventions...

The weather was awful. Spitting rain that looked deceptively like it was light, but got you soaked through in a short time. Sister-Lisa and I got down to the building early to grab a good parking spot, and then sat in the car watching the rain and reading Astro City while we waited for the opening time. At ten sharp we headed over to the doors, and stood in line getting rained on until we finally got inside. It was COLD outside, and wet. It was nice and warm and dry inside.

The tables were sparse. It was a low attended con, both in dealers and in fans. We figured that much of it was due to the weather. After hitting the "free stuff" table, Lisa and I wandered to the guests area to scope it out. Lean pickings. There just weren't many people there at all.

Still, my goal was one sketch, one permission, and I was going to give it a shot!

As expected, Anne Timmons was there (with Mr. Guest), and was happy to do sketches for both of us. After an Aquaman for me, Lisa suggested a sheep for her sketch (please don't ask me) and Mr Guest suggested that Anne draw a sheep and Go Girl and title the sketch "Ewe Go Girl!" And so that happened. I do not have sister-Lisa's sketchbook, nor did I ask permission to post Lisa's sketches, so you are unlikely to ever see that unlikely sketch show up here. The Aquaman sketch, yes I got permission. But "Ewe Go Girl!" is going to remain a mystery to the majority of the world.

After the fun time with Anne and Mr, we wandered over to the comedy duo of Tom Peyer and Brian Augustyn. I'm not sure how much time we spent trading quips with those two, but I definitely would be at the losing end of any battle of wits involving them. Tom Peyer signed my green book with a little sketch of Topo, and Brian drew an Ocean Master, sort of.

Moving away from the slings and arrows of outrageous amusement, I asked a sketch of the amazing Mike S Miller, who is an Aquaman artist among his many other credits. He drew an excellent classic Aquaman for me (with permission to post), and a Wonder Woman for sister-Lisa (who had given up on the sheep).

Well, after visiting Mike, there were just two more occupied tables. R.K.Post had a small crowd, so we wandered over to the Committed Comics and Rorschach Entertainment tables to see if anyone felt like sketching. Brian Meredith, who already did an Aquaman sketch for me, took up the challenge and drew Flash for sister-Lisa's sketchbook.

Looking around, Randy Emberlin was setting up, and it looked like somebody was setting up at Paul Chadwick's table, so sister-Lisa and I visited R.K.Post's table to kill some time. I'm really glad we did. He drew a woman for Lisa which was really quite nice, but the Aquaman he drew for me!!! Wow! You all know I'm a big Elseworld fan, right? Well, I want somebody to do an Elseworld based on this Aquaman. There's a feel to his artwork that reminds me of Esteban Maroto's work on Atlantis Chronicles. Most Excellent. And yes, I have permission to post it. It'll be up in a few weeks.

While R.K. was sketching, a man came up behind me to check out his table, and I read his nametag and said without thinking, "Oh! So you're Paul Chadwick!" He looked at me sharply, with amusement, and said yes, indeed, that was him. Embarrassed, I tried to backpedal, but I'm afraid I came off as a little... odd. He'd been getting some books from the dealers (who were probably very glad of the business), but he was headed over to his table to set up. I said I'd be over, and he wandered off while I felt a wee bit like a cad.

Randy Emberlin was still setting up, but I managed to get in and show him his sketch from 1999 and ask for permission to post it. He gladly gave permission. Lisa attempted to ask for a sketch, but he was still setting up his table and had another sketch to work on, so we moved up to Paul Chadwick's table.

There was a crowd, of course. Ahead of us were people getting books signed, including The Cliff Guy who had a book of Jars with him. Paul Chadwick put Concrete in a jar for him. After a bunch more signings, I managed to get an Aquaman sketch from Chadwick, and permission to post it. I think you all will like it, I do! Chadwick also suggested that since he doesn't have his own website, I should link to a well-done fansite about him. I think I found the right one. Little-sister-Lisa got a sketch of Concrete himself, and also got "Concrete: Think Like a Mountain" for us to both read.

Well, Chuck Gibson still hadn't showed, and Lisa wanted to get a sketch from Randy Emberlin, so she got herself into the crowd to wait, while I looked around. At the Committed Comics table I spotted a woman I didn't recognize working on a standard comic book page. I boldly approached and asked if she was willing to do a sketch. She was happy to try, and when I said I'd like her to do a sketch of Aquaman, she smiled and said she liked a challenge. And so I got a sketch from Siya Oum, who is a great artist, in a Manga style. Her Aquaman is definitely cool, and yes I have permission to post it. Sister-Lisa spotted me getting another sketch, and deserted Emberlin's table long enough to get a sketch from Siya for herself.

Sister-Lisa finally got into the line for Emberlin, and managed to get a Spider-Man sketch from him. Before we left, though, we noticed that Mark Tedin had arrived. His name was really familiar, and he was a Magic: The Gathering artist, so I asked him how long he'd been doing art for Magic... ten years... Yup, he was doing the artwork when I was still into the game. As I originally got into Magic because of the artwork, I recognized his name. He was very willing to do sketches, and did a demon for Lisa and a very Greek-looking Aquaman for me. Permission was given to post it, and web-links were exchanged.

At that point we reached a conundrum. We could stay a bit longer in the hopes that more artists would show, or we could go home so Lisa would have a chance to get herself back to school before it got dark. All things considered, with the storm outside and the fact that we'd been walking around for over three hours, we decided to leave. We don't know if Chuck ever actually made it.

Well, I got one permission for an existing sketch, and managed to get six new sketches, which was unexpected, especially after we'd gotten to the con and seen the low turnout. Lisa, my twin sister minus six plus years, got eight sketches. And we both had a blast.

Seattle ComiCard Convention Report

Several weeks ago, hubby-Eric and I had a short discussion on whether or not to attend the September 14th Seattle ComiCard Convention. Hubby-Eric would have been teaching for two weeks and would be into the swing of things. More importantly, we would have some money on the way at the end of the month from his first paycheck. We decided to attend.

Yesterday afternoon I reminded hubby-Eric of the con, and asked if we were still going. Our situation had changed drastically. I really wanted to go, if only to possibly get some more permissions for posting sketches. Hubby-Eric, always the sensible one, reminded me of the money situation, and we dropped the topic to think on it some more. After a few hours, I decided that I was being selfish, and told hubby-Eric that with the way things had gone the last couple of weeks, I understood and accepted that we couldn't go. However, in the same time, Eric had thought about the cost of the con ($10 for both of us) and how much fun I was likely to have, and decided that we should go after all. I didn't need to have my arm twisted.

My goal for the con was at least one new sketch and two permissions to post older sketches. The first person I spotted upon entering the artists alley was William Stout, who was mentioned yesterday in Mark Evanier's blog. Mr Stout was not doing sketches, or so he said, but he drew a pretty cool dinosaur in my autograph book nonetheless! I should have had him sign in my sketchbook instead.

Next person we visited was Matt Clark, whose Aquaman drawing continues to amaze me. I went up and politely asked if I could post his sketch from 1999, and showed it to him. "Sure, no problem!" was the response (one permission down!). He then did a sketch for my husband of classic Hal Jordan Green Lantern.

While Matt drew in Eric's book, I visited the table next to his. Rebecca and Peter Woods were sitting together, and as Rebecca wasn't too busy I showed her my Aquaman sketchbook. She was ... "wildly enthusiastic" is almost not strong enough. She looked entirely through my first sketchbook, then through my second, and was willing to give Aquaman a try. While she sketched, I wandered to find more permissions. Well, actually, one permission walked up behind me while I was still talking with Rebecca. I now have Karl Kesel's permission to post his sketch, which he remembered and liked quite a bit (two down!). I spotted Mark Brill from across the room since he's been at every Seattle ComiCard Con I've been at, and I think I've said hello every time. This time I asked for permission to post his image, because for some reason I've never been able to reach him via e-mail. Again, permission was granted (three down!).

Rebecca finished her drawing of a pensive Aquaman after deciding that she didn't know how to draw kelp. So he's "Pensive and Kelpless". She then took on Eric's challenge, and drew Spoiler (from Robin) as Green Lantern (without the Spoiler mask on). She also granted permission for me to post her image, and her husband tackled the Aquaman challenge. His one is great, but you are going to have to wait until I post it (yes, permission granted) to understand why I love it so much. His is definitely along the lines of the Scott Alan "grin-every-time-I-see-it" sketch.

I figured I was done with sketches and permissions, but since Rebecca was still working on hubby-Eric's sketch, I popped over to visit Paul Gulacy. I honestly didn't think he'd be able to do a sketch, as there were tons of people at his table, but he took my book and managed one anyway. His is an amazing flowing image of the face of an older Aquaman, with the beard and long hair. It's beautiful. And, yes, he gave permission to post it. While he drew, I wandered the tables and spotted James Dean Smith (Boris the Bear) who had done a sketch for me at the Emerald City Comicon. Again, permission was granted to post his sketch (four down!).

By the time Paul Gulacy managed to finish my sketch between all the various other folks talking with him and getting autographs, I had run into The Cliff Guy, who got a cliff sketch from Peter Woods, and into another gentleman (whose name I can't recall) who had the most amazing book of Thor sketches. Unlike my sketches, which are entirely at the artist's whim, the Thor sketches were commissions, and frankly they were incredible. I hope someday to graduate to getting commissions of Aquaman done in a full-size book like that. One artist in the Thor book, Steve Hartley, was across the room doing caricatures. As hubby-Eric was getting a Peter Woods sketch, I went over to Steve and explained about my sketchbook, and apologized for not having any money, and asked if he was willing to draw an Aquaman. As there weren't any paying customers at the moment, he agreed, pointing out a caricature he had just done of the guy at the next table, Deep7 games, who, because he was blond and had a beard, Steve had drawn as Aquaman with two hook hands. He then did a very serious and sexy Aquaman for me, the Peter David version shirtless and muscled. Yum. Again, permission was granted to post the sketch.

Running out of energy and time, hubby-Eric collected his "Tin Lantern" sketch from Peter Woods and we vacated. I beat my goal by getting four permissions and four new sketches (all with permissions granted). Yeah, I had fun. And yeah, I think it was worth ten dollars.

Now, I'm sure you are all dying to know when I'm going to post these images. Well, I've got permission at the moment to post twelve sketches. I only have two of those scanned. My original plan was to post one per week on Saturday, but I think I'm going to increase the pace a bit as I've got so many permissions right now and I recently got a load of e-mail addresses to try. I don't, however, want to post them all at once. They are to be savored. So I will probably be posting one or two more per week until I get low on sketches with permissions.

Comicard Convention!

When I woke up this morning, I seriously did not believe I was going to the Seattle Comicard Convention today. Indeed, I knew I wasn't going, because hubby-Eric and I had discussed it quite seriously last night and determined that we really couldn't afford it.

So, when I found myself entering the doors to the Northwest Rooms at the Seattle Center at noon, I wasn't quite sure how we had suddenly gone from "not going" to "ok, we'll go." I'm still not sure. But... we went!

We had just enough cash to pay for parking and to get in the front door, and since we had not a cent more, we went to the signing area and ignored all the dealer tables.

The first booth we went to was the great Studio Foglio where I got a signature from Kaja for my green-book-o-autographs and chatted a bit with them. We then wandered over to Greg Rucka's table where I got another signature.

Then we went to Jim Calafiore's table and hubby-Eric got a sketch for his Green Lantern/Oz sketchbook while I drooled over original pages of Aquaman. Eric's sketchbook is a thing of wonder! His concept is that the nature of Green Lantern is such that any character could be a member of the GL Corps, so when he asks for a sketch he tells people that they can draw any character they want... as Green Lantern. This approach has led to some fascinating, and funny, sketches. One of the first is "Carnage Lantern" by Randy Emberlin. Amanda Conner did a funny self-portrait, Steve Lieber did Stetko as Green Lantern, and Brent Anderson did an Octopus Lantern. Because Eric is also a Wizard of Oz fan, Eric Shanower did the Green Lantern of Oz, and Leah Adezio did a portrait of Dorothy and Toto... with Toto wearing a GL ring. There are a lot more images in the sketchbook, if you happen to run into us at a con, ask for a peek.

Getting back to today, Jim Calafiore drew Nocturne of Exiles with the GL Ring.

I asked Jim about an Elseworld he had submitted, and he showed me his pin-up of Kal-El as Aquaman (his ship having landed in Atlantis instead of Kansas). It was fantastic, and if I'd had $300 to spare I think I might have bought it. I mentioned The Aquaman Chronicles and he said he had to dig out some stuff for it, but John has already asked him about doing a feature on it in the fanzine. I hope we get a print of the pin-up, it was great.

Both Eric and I next visited Peter Gross, who drew Aquaboy for me, and DC's Death as Green Lantern for Eric.

Next up, we wandered over to Frank Brunner's table and I asked about sketches, but he said he was only taking commissions. I got his autograph in the green book.

Next off we visited Chisai publishing, home of the all-new book The Witch and the Jackal which has been getting quite a lot of press from me, despite me not having reviewed the first issue yet (although I've read it). The artist on the book, Steve Ratch, was willing to try his hand at sketches, but didn't want to try Aquaman. He drew one of the main characters from his book, Jack. Aka Jackal. Then came Eric's sketchbook, and the pun-of-the-con, as Steve drew Jack as the Green Lantern (with a ring-created sword). His associate and business manager promptly dubbed the sketch "Jackal Lantern".

We then wandered over to Committed Comics, and I was remembered by the amazing Quenton Shaw, who apparently never forgets a face. He's seen me maybe once a year, if that, since 1999 and remembers that I'm the Aquaman fan every time we meet. Mark Brill was at the table, and since I've already got a fantastic sketch by Mark Brill of Aquaman, Eric got to ask for a sketch for his book, and got Brill's character Platypus Rex as "The Green Platypus"!

Then it was off to Rick Hoberg's table. He's currently working on the Batman Family crossover in the Batman books with inker Stefano Guadiano, who was sitting next to him. Both did sketches for both our books. Rick did a Silver Age Aquaman for me, and R2-D2 as Green Lantern for Eric. Yes, R2-D2. From Star Wars. The short robot. Stefano did a cool "modern" Aquaman with the harpoon, which we jointly decided he didn't need to ink. He drew a demon as Green Lantern for Eric.

We wanted to get a sketch from Karl Kesel for Eric's book, since Kesel's Aquaman sketch in my book is so cool, but Karl needed a break and started to wander the floor at that point. So we scoped out the remainder of artists and visited a couple of dealer tables. At the Modern Pulp table we ran into artist Brian Meredith who did a somewhat animated style Hal Jordan Green Lantern for Eric, and the harpoon version Aquaman for me. Both are fantastic. This guy can draw.

At this point we were tired and there weren't any more artists that we could approach, so we decided that if Kesel didn't return soon, we'd leave and hope to catch him at a future con. Of course, the moment we decided that, Karl wandered back to the table.

After flipping through my original Aquaman sketchbook (in which his sketch is the fifth one, so he hadn't seen most of the sketches), he agreed to do a sketch for Eric. He pondered it awhile, and while he pondered, I decided to try something I had tried once before.

Way back at the third con I ever got sketches at, I asked Art Adams to do a sketch for me. He apologized and explained he wasn't doing sketches at cons at the time, and I understood... but it was Art Adams! So, right before we left that con, I went up to him again and said, "I would never forgive myself if I didn't try a second time to get a sketch from you," at which point he took my sketchbook and drew a wonderful rendition of Aquaman.

Today it was Frank Brunner's turn.

Brunner doesn't make it to many west coast cons, and I had never met him before this, and I felt it was unlikely I would ever meet him again, so I went up to him and said that I would completely understand if he didn't want to do a sketch, but I really had to ask, since I have to live with myself, one more time. He reluctantly agreed to look at my sketchbook, and even more reluctantly said he would try an Aquaman, although I repeatedly said he didn't have to do Aquaman if he didn't want to. He told me that he really liked Mermaid Man from SpongeBob Squarepants, and I said he could draw him if he liked. To keep the pressure off, I told him I would just leave my book with him and go over and talk with Karl Kesel. I honestly wasn't sure if he'd draw anything, but at least I gave it my best shot.

In the meantime, Karl had come up with his idea and sketched away. The result was "The Most FANTASTIC Green Lantern Ever!" Yup, he drew Mr Fantastic of the Fantastic Four as GL, complete with a "4" inside the GL Logo.

After he finished and laughs were exchanged all around, Eric and I walked over to Frank Brunner's table, and he handed it back to me saying, "I'm not sure if it's Aquaman or Moses." If anything, I think it may be Neptune. He couldn't remember how to draw Mermaid Man, so he was going for the modern Aquaman look, but the hair got a bit curly on him. I like it quite a bit. I felt a bit like yelling "I got a Frank Brunner sketch!" but managed to contain myself. That makes me two for two on second tries.

After that exciting bit of fun, Eric and I left the con, and decided that it was worth the cost to have a bit of fun and get some more sketches together.

And we learned that coming next February is the debut of a new ComiCon in Seattle, The Emerald City ComiCon. It will be interesting to see how well it goes.