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Seno's Soapbox
#6: Convention Journal
Last weekend I attended the Hollywood Expo Convention in Plano, TX. What follows is a recount of the experience; all times are approximate.
9:30 AM: I finally drag my ass outta bed and eat two breakfast burritos.
11:15 AM: After showering and dressing, I depart from Keller for Plano armed with drawing paper, Mapquest directions, drawing reference of the OFF CAMPUS characters, and copies of Green Arrow #1, Crux #1, Kingdom Come #1, Liberty Meadows #5, and Tellos #1 .
11:45 AM: Traffic is backed up on eastbound 635 due to two lane closures. After about fifteen minutes of stop-and-go driving, I arrive at the root of the problem: some jackass is pushing what appears to be a lawn mower up the left lane. God only knows what the fucker was hoping to accomplish.
12:05 PM: Incorrect directions cause me to miss my exit.
12:15 PM: I arrive at the Plano Center determined to meet Frank Cho, artist extraordinaire of Liberty Meadows, come hell or high water.
12:20 PM: I get stuck in line waiting to buy tickets. I'm told that I can get a ticket to meet the cast of the Batman TV series for $25. After reminding the nice lady selling tickets that the year is 2001, and not 1965, I buy a general admission ticket for $10.
12:25 PM: The booth for Insight Studios Group is setup
right next to the entrance. I'm pretty shocked to discover that the
line is only a few people long, and shocked greater still when a random Oriental
lady (I presume she's related to or knows Cho personally) informs me that
it really isn't a line at all and plants my star-struck ass right in front
of the Monkey King himself.
Now people, I've actually met a fair number
of celebrities in my day, athletes mostly, but none of them have thrown me
off like Cho did. While this guy is busy signing the poster-size prints
he ran to promote the show, I'm literally standing there like I had lapsed
into some sort of weird trance-like state. If you can picture a 12
year old boy getting an eyeful of his very first set of tits, then you've
got a pretty good idea of what the situation looked like.
After several seconds, I finally managed
to stammer that I had pre-ordered one of the prints. While I signed
off for one of them, another fan who was way more articulate than I was at
the moment began asking Cho about inking methods and such. It was oddly
comforting and I found myself beginning to relax ever so slightly. I
even managed to ask him for a character sketch (although I forgot to specify
Brandy) without sounding completely retarded. While he drew (which
took almost no time at all), I asked him about his baby girl that was due
in December. All in all, it wasn't too terribly dumb of a conversation,
I didn't piss myself, and I got an original sketch of Dean and an autographed
print out of it.
I walked off, making a mental note to
come back later and see if I couldn't get a Brandy sketch to go with the
rest of my Cho loot.
12:40 PM: I made my way through the feeding frenzy that was parked in front of the table of Green Arrow artists Phil Hester and Ande Parks. They were both already swamped with drawing requests, but Hester agreed to do a quick head shot of Rachel. I ended up talking fantasy football (of all things) with the duo, while Hester drew and Parks worked on one of his own commissioned pieces. The highlight of the encounter was definitely Parks describing Rachel as "dreamy." To be honest, I don't know how serious he was being, but I chose to take it as a compliment. The completed sketch was awesome, even if Hester did make Rachel a brunette for some reason. After getting my issue of Green Arrow signed by both of them, I headed off.
12:55 PM: Once again I find myself having to fight through a crowd; this second huge pack of humanity was sitting smack dab in front of the booth inhabited by TheForce.net . Staunchly refusing to get sucked into watching shitty Star Wars fan films, I left in search of writer Mark Waid.
1:00 PM: I locate Waid at the end of a table located next to the original Batboat. I was delighted to discover that my encounter with Hester and Parks had me relaxed enough (finally) to converse with him on a level befitting that of a reasonably intelligent ape. He signed my copies of Kingdom Come #1 and Crux #1 while we chatted briefly about his recent move to Tampa Bay to work at CrossGeneration Comics. Evidently, Tampa is the unheralded humidity capital of the world, a fact that Waid was less than pleased with. I really wanted to also ask him about 1) his widely-publicized fight with writer Scott Lobdell and 2) whether or not he's still seeing writer Devin Grayson, but my severly-underdeveloped sense of tact kicked in and I thought better of it.
1:02 PM: I scooch over to the table area inhabited by Tellos creators Mike Wieringo and Todd Dezago. Dezago, who was a hell of a lot younger than I'd pictured him, was busy talking to another artist I had never heard of and some random fanboy, so I never got a chance to interact with him. Wieringo had him sign my issue of Tellos #1 , but that was really about it. Wieringo, on the other hand, was nice enough to do a sketch of Austin for me. The truly impressive thing, however, is that during this same time Mark Waid, with an efficiency and precision that a machine would envy, autographed approximately 300 comics. People we're literally bringing the guy boxes of his work to sign. I can't imagine how bad things would be for him if his name was longer . . .
1:10 PM: Ok, so by this time my arms are full of a whole bunch of shit, including my big-ass Cho print that I have no way to keep rolled up. With most of the creators gone to lunch, I find some clear table space and start putting stuff away into my backpack. In a moment of unbridled MacGuyer-esque ingenuity, I use a piece of tape from my previously-sealed comics to keep the print rolled up. Unfortunately, I followed this minor triumph with a moment of complete and total abject stupidity when I walked off without the poster.
1:13 PM: While trying to navigate my way through a thickening menagerie of the nerdy and annoying, I suddenly realize that my hands are disturbingly empty. Spurred on by the knowledge that my Cho poster is worth at least 20 bucks on eBay, I hurry my ass back over to where I'd forgotten it. Fortunately for the several hundred innocent by-standers present that day, it was right where I left it.
1:20 PM: My next destination is the booth of Team Red Star, the dare I say revolutionary creative team behind the critically-acclaimed series The Red Star . I show up hoping to get a sketch done by penciller/co-writer Christian Gossett, but he's already left for lunch. I do chat briefly with two members of Team Red Star who are there, a guy I believe to have been colorist Snakebite (it was right about then that I realized that nobody was wearing name tags at this show) and an unconventionally sexy brunette that might have been Johanna Olson (in retrospect, she kind of looks like my girlfriend). After I finally come to grips with the fact that I just don't have the wall space for any of the very cool posters they're selling, I resolve to come back later for my sketch.
1:30 PM: Cho is also gone from his booth, so I decide to take a gander at the various retailer booths. I start by hitting the handful of comic book tables at the show, vainly searching for a copy of The Metabarons #7 (if anybody knows how I can procure a copy of this issue, please email me!!)
1:40 PM: I find a table selling stacks of Jim Balent art prints. After a few minutes of looking at insanely busty women with swords, I actually get bored with looking at insanely busty women with swords. Go figure.
1:50 PM: I come across a table selling old Transformers toys. Evidently, the same (admittedly awesome) toys I use to play with when I was six are now worth their weight in gold.
1:55 PM: As I pass a table pedaling original art pages from various comic books, one of the pieces catches my eye. The page in question just so happens to be from last May's Uncanny X-Men #394 , an issue that I personally thought was beautifully illustrated. As it turns out, the penciller and inker absolutely hated the way their work meshed and had sold several of the pages at ridiculously low prices. Regardless, I just couldn't afford the $250 price tag for it. Not that this deterred the retailer at all; the guy basically badgered me for five minutes, even going so far as to suggest that credit cards weren't "real money." I wanted to tell him that fucking him in the ear wasn't "real assault," but I resisted the urge. Instead, I got his email addy and promised to be in touch when I actually had some cash.
2:05 PM: Despite my best efforts, I (and apparently Mark Waid too) finally get sucked into watching part of a Star Wars fan film. The piece, entitled Knightquest, features some cutie with a double-bladed lightsaber taking on Darth Vader. I have to admit it I enjoyed it, right up until I realized that the movie happened to be better than Episode I. Depressed, I walk off.
2:10 PM: In other Star Wars related action, I stumble across a huge line of people hoping to meet two models who have leant their likenesses to a pair of obscure Star Wars characters. I couldn't help but think piss-poorly of the people standing in the line, at least until I caught a peek of the lovely ladies in question. After that, I decided the guys in line were the damn smartest folks I had run into all day long.
2:15 PM: I track down the table for freelance comic artists J. E. Smith, John Lucas, and Michael Lark. All of them currently reside in the Metroplex area and have been at all the cons I've attended in the last two years. Getting a chance to talk to Lucas, who fucking cracks me up, was the real reason I stopped by but it quickly occurred to me that I had never asked for a sketch from Lark, so I resolved to do so once he had a free moment. Anyway, it turns out Lucas is working on a mini-series with Howard Chaykin. I can't for the life of me recall what the hell it was titled, but the pages he had finished looked great and the premise sounded intriguing. I'll definitely be looking for it.
2:30 PM: Christian Gossett has finally returned from lunch and I rush over to accost him for a sketch of Suzie. He charged me 15 bucks for it but I was more than happy to oblige because 1) sketches you pay for are usually much better than free ones and 2) Gossett is a terrific artist.
2:35 PM: While Gossett draws a picture that the unconventionally sexy brunette gushes (correctly so) is "so cute!," a "fight" breaks out between some fool dressed up like Robocop and another moron clad as a Stormtrooper. To those in the general vicinity, this was supposedly a really cool thing. Personally, I figure that the pair had about four inches of penis between the two of them.
2:45 PM: As Gossett puts the finishing touches on the drawing, a pair of models (one with pink hair and another with blue hair) representing herorealm.com ask to have their pictures taken with him. Apparently, artists get all the chicks (well, at least the ones the musicians don't want anyway).
2:50 PM: Cho's booth is devoid of fans for the moment. Working up my courage once again, I walk over and ask him if he would do a quick head sketch of Brandy for me; miraculously, my words almost sound like English. He then explains to me that he doesn't do sketches of Brandy. I can only guess than my profound disappointment is apparent on my face, because he quickly offers to do a drawing of someone else. Not wanting to be a "Cho hog" and considering that he already did a great Dean picture for me, I decline the offer and wish him luck with his upcoming comic book series (looking back, I really regret not asking for a sketch of Oscar).
2:55 PM: I reach my car in the parking lot and head for home.
3:10 PM: I realize that I never asked Lark for a sketch
. . . again. Sometimes, I really fucking hate myself.
Seno
10/28/01
Today's Question: With the release of OFF CAMPUS: Big Bowl of Suck looming on the horizon, I was just wondering if anybody had any requests for some other kinds of OFF CAMPUS merchandise. Let me know .
Good Shit: October saw the release of two really good sketch books: Frank Cho's Sketchbook and J. Scott Campbell's Danger Girl Sketchbook. The first can be had for twenty bucks from Cho's site , the second can be purchased for $7 at any comic store worth its salt.