San Diego: What Rickey Bringed Home

Okay, I'm STILL beat from San Diego cause I'm old and weak and drink too much beer alone in the dark. But check this out:

Here’s what I brought home from San Diego Comic Con 2010!
San Diego can be hard to weather - especially when it comes to making time (and room in your luggage) for crap you get at the show. I’m generally buying less and less comics stuff for myself anymore, and that frugal sense extended to SDCC where I bought a lot less this year than in the past. Even still, I picked up a handful of neat stuff, so I thought I’d share it all with you.

GENERAL FREEBIES!

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• CONVENTION EVENTS GUIDE - The swollen listing of panels this year had a “modern” Peanuts cover by Chris Tirri. My pack rat side usually prods me hold on to all the con booklets from shows I’ve attended, but I’m running out of room for growing monsters like this.
• CONVENTION BOOK - This year, the convention’s features magazine had short bios on featured guests, a section of fan art dedicated to DC’s 75th Anniversary, obituaries for industry members who passed this year and a neat cover by Ivan Reis.
• GREEN LANTERN 3-D MASK - You can never have too many 3-D masks around the house. This one’s tied to this game and was given out at the DC booth. Looking forward to re-reading Superman Beyond with these babies.
• DCU ONLINE KEYCARD & LANYARD - The Hyatt had room keycards dedicated to the upcoming DC Universe Online game and Sony handed out lanyards at our booth where a playable demo was available. If you haven’t seen it, PLEASE GO SEE this cinematic trailer for the game. It’s got the coolest fight I’ve ever seen starring DC characters. 100% goosebumps.
• ETERNIA PINE DEODORANT - Mattel was handing out these mini-deodorants themed after Moss Man at their booth!
• STARRO MASK - The coolest freebie on the floor was probably this life-size foam-rubber mask from Mattel based on the classic mind-controlling JLA villain. Mattel had a special Starro con exclusive, too, that came with 4 tiny Starro squids you could put over any 6-inch action figure’s face!
• FOUR MINI-COMICS BY KAREN KNIGHTON - I’d never heard of Knighton before, but these four minis (Days, Found, Naps., and Places To Look If You Have Mislaid Your Ear) all bounce between story books and dreamy storylines. Some use onion paper, allowing for backgrounds to be re-used over and over. These are cleverly designed minis I’m glad I randomly found.

SCOTT PILGRIM (and other Oni stuff) MADNESS!

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• PENG! - I used to have a copy of this fun Corey Lewis super-kickball book, but I lost it. I grabbed a new copy while in line to purchase Scott Pilgrim vol. 6.
• SCOTT PILGRIM SHIRT - This was the new “Scott Scott Scott” shirt made just for the show. I haven’t unwrapped it yet. Cat-hair issues.
• SUPER PRO K.O.! - Also while waiting in line to buy Scott pilgrim vol. 6, I browsed this new Oni title from Jarrett Williams about bonkers wrestlers. It was bubble gum-popping with PHUN, and I was sold after a quick flip-thru. I was so pumped, I also bought...
• SUPER PRO K.O.! PINS - Just a set of five vibrant buttons spotlighting characters I’m certain I’m gonna fall in love with. I like how Oni packages their button sets like they’re handmade baggies of four-color drug wowness.
• SCOTT & RAMONA BRACELETS - One came free with the book. The other I got to complete the set.
• SCOTT VINYL STICKERS - New design! I grabbed 8.
• SCOTT PILGRIM VOL. 6 - Not pictured ‘cause my girlfriend snagged it as soon as I got home so she could read it. I haven’t seen it since.

QUICK NOTE: It was cool to see the Oni booth ALWAYS busy as con-goers bombarded the place to pick up the final Scott Pilgrim volume like it was the final Harry Potter installment or something. The DC booth was diagonal to Oni’s and I never didn’t see it stacked with rabid fans. Yay!

FANTAGRAPHICS AND PORN!

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• YOUNG LUST #2 - I’d heard of this underground sexploitation/romance parody comic before, but never seen a copy until this one. And only a buck! Rad Bill Griffith cover.
• PRISON PIT VOL. 2! - Johnny Ryan’s ultra-violent tale of one madman’s bloody path of rage as he fights to survive a dangerous realm filled with monsters and murderers is short on words and tall on action, and volume 1 was one of my favorite books last year. This was a SDCC debut and I happened to wander over and buy it when Ryan was signing. See what he drew in my copy below in red sharpie!
• FANTAGRAPHICS FREEBIES - When you buy anything at the Fantagraphics booth, they give you a bag filled with freebies! Here’s what I got this year when I picked up Prison Pit: FUNNY BOOK - I feel like I’ve never seen this Free Comic Book Day 2006 Fantagraphics issue. POSTCARD PACKS - Three sets of 10 postcards featuring art from Hate, Krazy Kat, and Basil Wolverton. POPEYE MINI-COMIC - Contains the Plunder Island story.

(above: what Johnny Ryan drew in my Prison Pit vol. 2)

BUENAVENTURA AND SPARKPLUG!

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• PAPERCUTTER #13 - Matt Wiegle! I grabbed this newest issue fo the damn-it-it’s-sooo-gooood anthology at the Sparkplup booth!
• THE NATURAL WORLD #1 & #2 (pictured backwards) - Damien Jay’s work caught my attention with Papercutter #10, so when I saw these first two issues at Sparkplug, I was giddy. The screen-printed issue #2 cover is SO NICE.
• DO NOT DISTURB MY WAKING DREAM - Collected random strips and drawings from Laura Park, who I also (weirdly...) first heard of from a Papercutter issue (#6). This was one of my two purchases at the Buenaventura booth, who were (sadly) holding a final sale at the show.
• CLUTCH #19 - This little brick is supposed to be the final issue of one of my favorite diary comics ever EVER. Clutch McBastard, the creator of the series, collects randomly unpublished entries from over the years here. So great to have a new issue in my hands, but so sad to see the series end.
• BEAT OF THE TRAPS: LOST DAILIES - I didn’t know this, but Jonathan Bennett’s Kramer’s Ergot 7 story was actually a full-color “Sunday” strip ending 6 “daily” four-panel strips. He approached the project like a syndicated comic, with each daily strip at 4 panels and recapping the events of the previous day’s strip in the first panel. The daily strips, though, were dropped from Kramers, so Bennett collected them here in this mini-comic. I’m thirsty for more Bennett material, so finding this at the Beunaventura booth was perfect.
• IN THE TALL GRASS #3 & #4 - Another book/creator I’ve never heard of, Tessa Brunton’s In the Tall Grass caught my eye with it’s full-color covers pasted to brown grocery bag paper. Flipping through, this strip cracked me up, so I bought both copies Sparkplug had.

10 BOOKS FOR A DOLLAR!

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I passed a booth on Sunday that had dime books. I fumbled through all their long boxes and grabbed the following stuff! I tried to only grab things that aren’t collected elsewhere in an efficient manner...

• SPAWN/WILDC.A.T.S #1-3 - Just the first 3 issues in a 4-issue mini written by Alan Moore. Bonkers.
• DEATHLOK ANNUAL #1 - Cover by Joe Quesada! Story about Deathlok being unlocked in time.
• WOLVERINE: THE LIST #1 - Jason Aaron writes a story revisiting some of Grant Morrison’s ideas from New X-Men with art layouts by Esad Ribic! I didn’t buy it in stores when it was released cause the price was steep and there was a back-up I didn’t care to own. Look closely at the last page for some Deathlok stuff.
• SLEEPWALKER #1 - I dunno. Fuck it.
• BRUTE FORCE #1 - Animals in bio-mech suits that let them shoot guns and karate chop bitches! Kangaroo on a scooter with sunglasses! pew-pew!
• MARVEL FANFARE #40 - Mazzucchelli cover and 14-page story inside!
• ALL-STAR SQUADRON #36 - I needed it.

ULTRAVERSE: 10 FOR A DOLLAR!

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Still at the dime book table...

• PROTOTYPE #1 - None of the Malibu stuff has been collected, and I’ve never tried it before.
• FREEX #1 - Free card inside!
• FIREARM #1 - James Robinson! Cully Hamner!
• PRIME #1-11 and Infinity - Of all the Ultraverse stuff, I always thought I’d like this the most. And even if it’s collected, I got a good chunk here for JUST over a buck.

RANDO BOOKS

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• MARVELMAN PRIMER - A booth was selling this new issue for a dollar. SOLD.
• THE REIGN OF MEGAMIND - I’m not a huge fan of Dreamworks’ CGI movies, but this special promo based on the upcoming film has a John Cassaday cover, is written by Joe Kelly, and features art from some of the Dreamworks designers. Pretty.
• THE AVENGERS #13 - The Heroes Reborn Universe isn’t something I’m terribly interested in, but I love WildStorm, and I know the 13th issues of the Heroes Reborn titles combined to tell a so-far-uncollected 4-parter guest-starring the WS characters before the HR Universe was swallowed back into the regular Marvel U the following month. Another dime book, this kicks off my quest to find the other three parts...
• TOMORROW KNIGHTS #1 - Lookit that fucking cover. And the bad guys are called The Reamers.

And that's it. I'll be back asap with an update on my Watchmen sketchbook. Check out my pretty useless Flickr set from the show between now and then, though.