Dude! I went to ComiCon!
Yes, the 2008 San Diego International Comic Book Convention! The Mecca of all things geeky, nerdy, or in any way related to comics, sci-fi, fantasy, and pop culture. THE ComiCon! It was like MegaCon on CRACK! The friggin’ convention center was 5 times the size of the one in Orlando, or at least it seemed to be. My wife, Jessica, and I met with our friends, Keith and Vita, at the Con and had a great time meeting what I consider to be to new friends, Naomi and Fitzy. We milled through the unbelievable press of bodies; its like a constant concert floor! Not too many crazy costumes this con, or at least I didn’t see many.
I bought some hard to find comics, but still couldn’t find Mitch Byrd’s Notes to Draw from. I saw a few friends from SCAD, Wheeler, Kelli, and Jarrett; hoped y’all’s portfolio reviews went well! I only got one proper review, luckily it was with Dark Horse’s Chris Warren, who I’ve reviewed with before at SCAD and could follow up with. Unfortunately he cut his review short before he got to the best of my newest stuff, so that’s a bummer. I had a sheaf of CD portfolios to distribute, and have only 6 left, so I did well. I even got to give a couple out to company’s I’ve reviewed with and could ask it to be delivered to editors by name, that’s an added bonus. Fitzy was great, she’s got a knack for people, knowing and remembering them, and being known and remembered by them… maybe its the mohawk… after I was already impressed with all the talented and successful people she knew I mentioned that I wanted to have a career like Doug Tenapel (a long and successful run followed by a midas of publishing, everything he publishes sells!) then she idly mentioned, “…yeah, I know Doug Tenapel, I could introduce you.” WHA-!!! I was speechless!
I got to meet two of my favorite artists, Sergio Aragones, and Stan Sakai. OK, well I met Stan Sakai. Sergio was a bit preoccupied. Admittedly I came up on him while he was talking to Mark Evanier. But I got to have a brief talk with Stan Sakai and his wife, she was very, very nice and we mainly talked about kids and how it seemed just yesterday mine was 3 months old. Stan’s 20-something son was behind them and Stan said it was just yesterday that he was 3 months old! An incredibly memorable trip and I’m already making plans to go back next year!
