2010 Cape Comic Con Recap Post

Driving would be more enjoyable without other vehicles. That isn't an issue with the convention but with the drive back here this morning, when I was reminded of that again. Also, a downfall of spring is the state gets heavily into road repair, which means delays. intellectually, I know it's good (if ultimately futile) they're doing this, but emotionally I hate being slowed to a crawl.

Since Alex wanted to come to the convention again, I had to drive to his house, which adds a few hundred miles onto the trip, but he's a good cook, and there's always a lot to catch up on in his life. Come Saturday we headed south, reached the convention, and each picked up the weekend pass (which means paying for both days at once, rather than each separately). I picked up one of the prints Ethan van Sciver did for the con, which Alex took over later and asked Mr. van Sciver to sign (I meant to do it, but kept being distracted), while also taking a picture of van Sciver working on a sketch. Alex put in a dollar for the raffle for the Green Lantern: Rebirth Absolute Edition. He didn't win, which those less positively inclined towards Geoff Johns' work might consider a blessing, but winning is fun, so it was a bit of a downer.

The convention was in the Osage Community Center, which seemed larger than last year's venue. Ken had apparently overcome his desire to pack things together for more "energy", as there was plenty of space to walk past the tables. My first stop, once I found it was, Marvels and Legends' table, because Jack agreed to bring my book's from the past two weeks (so look for reviews starting tomorrow). Having paid for those, Alex and I began perusing the tables in earnest. I don't believe there were as many vendors as last year, but considering there didn't seem to be sufficient visitors last year to keep all the vendors happy, that's probably for the best. I think there were still some folks who probably didn't do great, but hopefully everyone made enough it was worth their while*. Alex and I tried to spread the cash around as best our interests allowed.

This didn't involve many actual comics being bought. Late Sunday, we bought some trades from Alan Schell (who we purchased art from last year), because he was offering 5 trades for $20 bucks. So I told Alex to pick a couple**, and I grabbed three others***, which I read Sunday night and left with Alex so he could enjoy them. I picked up a set of trading cards from the Marvels and Legends table, and there was a fellow in one corner selling various DVDs and CDs related to animes. I bought the complete Noir collection, Alex went with the first 2 Patlabor movies****.

We tried to spend more time talking to creators than we did last year (and more money on their works), though Alex wound up doing most of the talking (and me most of the spending). He's more friendly, so it comes easy to him. I tend to listen quietly, nodding, asking a particular question if it occurs to me. Sunday we stopped at Anime Midstream's table, and talked to them about what it's like trying to dub a series for DVD, especially when it had no budget initially, and whether they added music or stuck strictly to what was in the Japanese version, since Alex had visions of getting some of his music in an episode. Undeterred, he now has hopes of somehow getting to be a voice actor in a future episode, which would be pretty cool. Alex picked up a volume of Nathan Bonner's InDavo, which I'll have to read the next time I visit. We chatted with Martheus and Janet Wade about their Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa series, and I picked up a couple of the graphic novels, Crucible and Defiance. The story has some familiar beats to it, but there are certain aspects to the characters I'm intrigued by, I had a sense the creators have given some thought to the world the stories are set in, and I liked the tendency for body parts to break panel boundaries and lead to the next panel once I was used to it. The Wades were both really nice, Alex took some shots of Martheus sketching some pages, and I asked how long it normally takes to draw a page. The answer was around three days, considering it's trickier to find time with kids to look after, and the page layout is the easy part, but getting the details, especially getting the lighting right and consistent were the time consuming aspects. Alex also marveled over Lin Workman's (Bushi Tales) illustration of Vincent Price, while I was more impressed with the Burgess Meredith Penguin I caught a glimpse of.

The creator we spent the most time around was Brian Rhodes, who was selling a trade of his webcomic Mike and the Ninja, which I ended up purchasing a copy of for Alex, while Alex bought a sketch card of the ninja working a turntable, which Brian sketched up right there (Sunday he had someone dressed as a ninja standing in front of the table, handing out stickers and fliers). Alex also helped himself to several of the Hired Goon Association stickers, which he plans to adorn his DJ equipment with. I only had the chance to read the first few strips, what I think will be interesting is the evolution of his style, because the trade collects strips from when he started in 2000 up to 2008, and just by flipping through the book I could see his figure work improved, while maintaining the simple style, and he went to larger panels. We're talking 7-9 per page, compared to maybe 12-15 panels in the very first strips. I'll be curious to see if there's a difference in the story that might account for the shift, or if he's simply more confident in his artwork.

We spent a lot on art. I bought a couple of different Ghost Rider pieces from Gary Friedrich, one drawn by Terry Huddleston which I'll keep, the other by Mark Texeira I'll give to a friend who likes Ghost Rider. Alex asked Wil Woods to sketch Deadpool working some turntables (noticing a pattern?), and when Wil said he'd throw any of his other prints in for 5 dollars a piece, I grabbed a Spider-Man and a Sango*****, and encouraged Alex to take the one Wil titled "Deathstar Reflections"******. Follow the link, it's right there, you can't miss it. Two of my coworkers showed up early Saturday afternoon, and one of them also bought several pieces from Mr. Woods, including a Batman sketch they gifted to me, and an Evil-Lyn they kept for themselves.

Terry Huddleston ended up with a lot of my money. In addition to his own work, he was selling Alan Schell's as well, so Alan could focus on selling trades. Alex picked up Schell's Dr. Doom and Bat-Mite. Early on Sunday, I went with Terry's Steph Brown Batgirl, Hawkeye, and then a Nightcrawler piece, since he said any of them after the first 2 were five bucks a piece. Later, I went back, and after listening to Terry and a couple of Marvels and Legends' regular customers discuss politics and the method in which the U.S. deploys its military, asked him if he could sketch Nova for me, New Warriors style*******. Yes, it was time to add another New Warriors sketch to the collection, and Terry also let me pick one of the really large pieces he had as a throw-in (or to split the cost, depending on how one looks at it), so I went with Dr. Strange. It was that or the Black Costume Spidey, and as I picked up a Scarlet Spider from Terry last year, I was good on arachnids for awhile.

Nova turned out awesome. Since he was trying to work on it while still engaging other prospective customers, and exchanging goods for money, I wasn't sure how it would end up, but it was beyond my hopes. Really fantastic.

OK, enough about spending. I took more pictures this year, and since I found my camera's "museum" setting, the pictures actually turned out well. Lots of people in costume, and I got pictures of most of the ones I wanted, though I missed out on the Dr. Who. It's not a complicated costume, but I looked at him and knew instantly who he was supposed to be, so it worked. The Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2 was outstanding, though I was partial to the young lady dressed as Rip van Winkle from Hellsing. We kept cracking up at the Batman Alex photographed, who when Alex asked for permission, audibly grunted as he tried to hold himself up straight and (I assume) suck in his gut. All told, there were about 18 entries for the adult costume contest, maybe a half-dozen for the kids********. Alex and I discussed the possibility of who he should come as next year, at one point considering him switching costumes every hour. I said that would mean he'd have to do Superman at least once, so he could run off and pull his shirt off as he went, revealing the costume beneath. I can't remember who else we considered, except for Inspector Gadget. I think he'd have to have some gadget coming out of the hat, and I was thinking the mallet, or the copter blades. For some reason, Alex said "love potion", so I had to tell him nobody wants to see Date Rape Inspector Gadget at the comic convention.

I don't understand his mind sometimes.

Outside of the intense storms Saturday night, which unnerved Alex, it was an excellent weekend. Had some laughs, saw some cool costumes, ate some good food - at his home and mine, as neither of us was hungry while at the convention, so I can't speak on the food there - bought a lot of nice art.

I'm going to go ahead and post this now, because I need a break, but I'll add some links to creator pages later {Edit: Links added!}, and I'll probably do a photo post later this week/over the weekend.

* I was hoping to chat with Ken about this and that, so I overheard a conversation between him and some of the creators where they told him they'd help promote the con if he'd get them some fliers or something to hand out at other cons or comic book stores, which sounds good. Ken said his high-end hope is 4-5,000 people, but he was a little over 1,000 for the 4th year in a row, so he knows that'll take some work. He also knows he has to do better at keeping the web page updated, to which I emphatically agree. There were people at the con not mentioned anywhere on the page. Either he has to do a better job, get someone else (or someone more reliable if he already has someone) to do it for him. I think Ken has such a high motor he tries to do everything himself, an impulse I understand. I worked on enough group projects to know how bad it stinks when something you're working on is torpedoed because one lazy bum can't bother to pull their weight. It's safer to rely on yourself, but I think the convention is too big for that.

** He went with Nova: Annihilation Conquest and Nova: Secret Invasion, and all I said was I really like Nova, before you start getting suspicious I pulled a mind trick on him.

*** I went with Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four: Silver Rage, Captain Britain and MI-13, and the Claremont/Miller Wolverine mini-series.

**** We watched the first one Sunday night, and Alex was disappointed initially, because the fellow promised lots of action, but I pointed out there were 30 minutes (actually 40) to go, and by the end he was more positively inclined towards it. I liked it, though nothing in it really surprised me, except the homage to The Birds.

***** To remind me of when I watched and liked InuYasha all those years ago, I guess.

****** Which isn't a comparison I imagine a Vietnam vet would find flattering.

******* I did opt for the classic blue with yellow star bursts costume, which he went back to sometime around New Warriors 6 or 7, rather than the red one he sported in the earliest issues.

******** One thing for next year is the emcee might want to consider holding the mike farther away from the kids when he asks who they are, or any other questions. I don't know if kids don't understand they don't need to shout because they'll be speaking into a mike, or if they know it'll make their voices louder, and they want to be really loud.