Con Season 2014

It's that time again... The snow will soon be melting away and when it does, con season will be upon us. Here's my schedule of events for the upcoming year:

Green = I will have my own table, so (if it's a con) look for me in Artist's Alley.

Orange = I'll be in attendance and might even be selling my work, but I won't have my own table. Look for me at the Stormwatch Comics booth.

Red = I'm attending, but not exhibiting. Chances are I'll be running around on the main floor, pestering publishers and persuading them to peruse my portfolio.

C2E2 & Pittsburgh Con Recaps

So much has been happening recently it's hard to keep it all straight!

I just got back from the Pittsburgh Comic Con and before that I was in Chicago with Enrica Jang from Red Stylo Media. Now that I'm home, I hardly have time to catch my breath before packing my stuff back up again and setting up for the Gloucester City Art Festival.

First things first - C2E2 was incredible! 

I had no idea how overwhelmingly massive this convention center was until we got there. (Apparently, McCormick Place is the largest convention center in the country. Who knew?) It was easily as large as NYCC, but mercifully less claustrophobic and less smelly.

I was sharing an Artist's Alley booth with Enrica Jang from Red Stylo Media. She's the editor for the Shakespeare Shaken Anthology I've been working on and was personally responsible for getting me involved.

I really cannot say enough good things about her. She's whip smart, energetic, and a joy to work with. She also said that if anyone tried to hurt me, she'd stomp their hands apart, so yeah, I'm pretty much in love.


New Shakespeare Shaken information: The release date is August 15th!
I'll post links here (and everywhere else) as soon as it's available for purchase.

Despite the fact that our booth was situated as far away from the entrance as it was possible to be, we got plenty of foot traffic all throughout the weekend! We were situated immediately behind comic legend George Perez and vaguely adjacent to sometimes actor Shia LaBeouf, which helped keep a steady stream of new faces coming our way.

This was my first time in Chicago and the windy city did not disappoint. I ate some of the most delicious food I've ever had in my life, made a ton of new friends, and got to spend some time hanging out with old ones!

I hung out with the talented Sara Richards and I can confirm that she is exactly as awesome as you think she is. Possibly more so. She's silly and fascinating and I really hope to run into her at another convention sometime soon.

(This was the view from
the hotel window!) ---->

I also got to meet the minds behind the Kind of Epic Show podcast. David, Gabe and Ian are the kind of people I wish I met everyday. There's a kindness about them that radiates outward and they're the perfect blend of silly and amiable that makes them fun to be around. If they didn't live in the middle of the country, I'd hang out with them all the time.

Just when I thought the visit was pretty much over, we met longtime Spiderman artist Alex Saviuk in the airport shuttle. He was super friendly and offered all sorts of advice for an artist trying to break into the industry.

  

Then off to Pittsburgh!

The Pittsburgh Comic Con is an annual favorite of mine. I don't know what it is about the place, but every time I go there, I meet the most amazing people. This year was no exception!

I met long time comic book veteran Mike Grell at a drink and draw event and proceeded to chat with him for hours! If you ever have the opportunity to meet him- do it. He's funny and tells the most amazing stories.

I stopped by the booth for Bad Place Productions and had a really promising discussion with one of their creators, Paul Schultz. So, fingers crossed, I hope to be hearing from them again soon. I also talked to the crew at Hound Comics, and I may end up doing a pinup illustration for them in the near future. I'll post any developments here as they happen.

And perhaps most excitingly, I picked up a copy of the Eisner nominated comic Princeless from Action Lab. I was hooked on the story after reading the 8-page preview in Feedback Magazine (it starts on page 20). It's about a princess who's been locked in a tower waiting for a prince to come slay the dragon that guards her and rescue her from imprisonment... only she decides that's stupid and teams up with the dragon to save herself and her equally trapped sisters. It's extremely well written and a joy to experience. Seriously, go pick it up for yourself.

As usual, my first day at the Pittsburgh Con was spent shopping my portfolio around. After that I booth-babed for Stormwatch Comics, and sold my prints on a section of the table that Bob was kind enough to let me use. 

I'd been working my fingers to the bone on a Poison Ivy costume that was unveiled for the first time at this convention. I sewed every leaf onto the body suit by hand. One leaf at a time. Because I'm some kind of creative masochist. 

At the 70% completion mark, I was completely sick of greenery and cursing myself for ever thinking this was a good idea, but I'm nothing if not stubborn and I saw it through to the end. I worked right up to the deadline too. The drive from Jersey to Pittsburgh is 5 hours, and I sat in the van sewing for every minute of it. I wasn't done until 1 AM on the night before it's maiden voyage. 

The struggle I went through made the finished product all the sweeter though and I'm REALLY proud of how this costume turned out.

Upcoming Events:
This weekend is the 4th Annual Gloucester City Arts & Music Festival! I've participated every year they've had it and I'm not stopping now. I'll be in Proprietor's Park in Gloucester City, NJ from 11AM to 5PM. It's all happening on Saturday, April 28th. There'll be local bands and tons of artists. Come check it out if you're in the area!

Pittsburgh Comic Con - 2011

I just got back from the Pittsburgh Comic-Con and I am exhausted.

I made a few new friends, as well as a number of potential business contacts!

Instead of purchasing a table in Artist's Alley to sell prints and whatnot, I focused on showing my portfolio to publishing houses in hopes of drumming up some real business. I plan on doing the same at a bunch of east coast conventions: Wizard World Philly, Baltimore Comic-Con, Wizard World Chicago, and Wizard World Boston. Pittsburgh doesn't draw any of the major labels, so I had considered it more of a trial run than anything else, but it was far more fruitful than I had expected!

I got to talk to representatives from Moonstone and Big Dog Ink, both of which were exceptionally friendly and helpful. I also got to show my portfolio to several small press labels like Post Mortem Press, Diamondgoat Media, Fortress Publishing, and Boomtown Press.

And (because no convention is complete without a bit of cosplay) after I'd shown my portfolio to everyone, I was able to switch from professional mode to Stormwatch Comics booth babe. I'd been working on a Black Widow costume just for the occasion, and I must say, I am extremely pleased with how it turned out!

I spent some time walking the floor with the wonderful Amber Love.

(shown below, hugging comic art veteran George Pérez)

photo by Scott Allen Stafford

Amber is a comic book goddess with quite a sizable... following.

She's a journalist, an avid blogger, a model, a cosplay diva, and soon to be a published comic book author! She's a busy girl, that's for sure, so it's unsurprising that making the rounds with her takes quite a while. We ended up stopping at almost every single booth, since she knows everybody there. In all seriousness, she was on a first name basis with 50% of the people in that building, which is extra astonishing to me on a personal level, because I am so terrible at remembering people's names.

Through Amber I was able to meet Paul D. Storrie, a prolific comic book author who is just as much fun to talk to in person as he is to read. He was delightfully witty, which is something I don't often come across in real life. Clever yes, sarcastic sure, but witty requires a balance between a quick mind, sharp tongue, and dark sense of humor that is only pulled off by characters in scripted TV shows. Hanging out with him and Sean McKeever (another writer) was definitely one of the high points of the show.

I also met Lauren, an absolute darling of a girl, who was working one of the other booths. We became friends almost instantly and spent most of the show hanging out with each other. The great thing about conventions is that it brings together people who would never meet otherwise, but the tragedy of it is that I end up making friends with wonderful people (like Lauren) who live incredibly far away from me.

Thank god for the internet.

As always, Ken Haeser of Living Corspe was set up in Artist's Alley, drawing his heart out. I got to share a meal with him, his wonderful wife Tabi, and the rest of the Stormwatch crew several times throughout the weekend. The Haesers are some of my favorite people, so it was wonderful to get to spend time with them.

I got to see some really spectacular costumes, including an extremely elaborate Robo-Cop suit that the person had made themselves (complete with a lady scientist who guided him around since it was obvious that he could barely see through that visor). There was also a really impressive Jareth the goblin king from Labyrinth walking around and a guy (Alexander Rae, according to the internet) who pulled off the best Superman/Clark Kent look I've EVER seen!

I entered my first costume contest ever on Sunday. I was harboring no delusions about winning, since there are people who show up at conventions for no other reason than to exhibit the costumes they've been working on all year. The winner of the children's category was a 2 or 3 year old girl dressed as Ms. Marvel who was too cute for words. When she won, the trophy they gave her was almost as big as she was. Robocop won for the Adult TV/Movie category, a team of steampunks won Group and the adult winner overall was a 10-foot Chewbacca costume that was movie set quality and 100% handmade.

At the end of the contest, Little Miss Marvel ran up to Chewbacca, threw her arms around the fuzzy tree trunk he was calling a leg and cried out "I won 'Bacca! I won!" So, yeah, if you heard a weird cracking sound on Sunday, that was probably my just heart breaking into a million pieces from the unbearable adorableness of it all.

Now that I'm back home, I've got my work cut out for me. I have a HUGE show coming up on May 5th and there's a million things to do to prepare for it! I'll post more info on that later on this week.

Daily Special #6 - Invisible Woman

Sue Storm made it to the DF front page last week, but I wasn't speedy enough to post about it before it expired. Here's the screencap if you're interested in reading about it anyway.

This image might be the first of a set of covers featuring the Fantastic Four in their new white outfits, or it may end up being the only one- we'll see. I have 50 of these to draw and 50 Dominos that are on backorder until we get more X-Force books in, so I'll have plenty of sketch cover work waiting for me when I get back from Pittsburgh.

Speaking of- I'm leaving tomorrow for the Pittsburgh Comic Con! I'm super excited, since this'll be the first con of the year for me. I've been gearing up for it all week, putting my portfolio together and finishing up the missing pieces of my Black Widow costume. I will return with photographs, stories, and hopefully a few new business contacts. Wish me luck!