56 Things I May End Up Remembering From Comic-Con 2012

San Diego! Land of perpetual 73-degree weather and $12 mixed drinks!

Like fellow blog bros Ben and Kevin, I made it out to Comic-Con International this year for work. I know that the general consensus from average fans or their moms is "Wow! That must be a lot of fun!" Conversely, the people in the industry I talk to's Twitter feeds are all, "And now I will lead this march into the jaws of hell!!!!!" In actuality, I think the show has some "crap I've got to do" to it, but that's totally drowned out by awesome adventures of drunken love of the artform revelry wrapped in absurd Hollywood promo materials and cosplay.

In other words, I had a great time. Maybe the best show for me in five years of flying out as a pro.
Here's everything I can recall of vague importance that would appeal to the CKT's readership of "People I hung out with at the show who are probably vanity Googling themselves right now." Let's do it!

* Randomly before the show, I got contacted by my hometown paper The Flint Journal, and they did a story about me going to the show. That was INSANE.

* Let this be the last time I tell this story with a twinge of stress in my heart: Comic-Con was already 45-times crazier for me this year since its early weekend meant it crossed over with one of my twice-annual, ten day graduate school retreats. I can't miss these retreats and still graduate on time, so I'm eternally thankful to my program head at Hamline University Mary Rockcastle for just being like "You should just fly out four days early! It's cool!" even though she probably should have busted my chops for it. Could not have survived the past two weeks without that.

* It was a super comics-y week at Hamline aside from the impending con. Not only have my job and proclivity to just say "Batman" as often as possible earned me the "comic book guy" label at school, but cartoonist Gene Yang was also at the residency for the first time as a full on professor. When I saw him, he was all, "Kiel...I heard you get to go to Comic-Con. No one told me there was a special dispensation, dude!" Apparently this is Gene's first miss in over a decade, but he was a rock star on campus all week, so I think it turned out.

* Of course, the night before I left it was my roommate's birthday part at a bar called The Happy Gnome. Of course, my flight to San Diego was at 7:00 AM. Of course, they didn't turn off the cabin lights the entire time we were in they sky. Of course, I was working ten minutes after checking into my hotel at 9:45 local time. Woof.

* On the up side, my father and younger brother Clint were at the show. 12 years ago, dad took me to Comic-Con for the first time as a high school graduation present, and this year, Clint wanted to do the same before he heads out to MSU. It was nice having them around on the CBR Boat and going out to eat at some weird British fish & chips place instead of hanging in the Gaslamp on Friday.

* It strikes me how much the con has changed even in my brief time coming when I think about how dad and I's trip in 2000 involved the Hollywood aspect where we saw a Kevin Smith panel and heard via a waitress the Angelina had bailed on a panel, but this year when I asked dad how his first day was, he said, "Great! We saw Anthony Bourdain AND McLovin!"

* Work went well. Despite my being at school in the whole runup to the show, the CBR staff was way on top of stories ahead of an at the con, which meant less freak out phone calls during the weekend and more partying. Props in particular to Jonah Weiland and Stephen Gerding – neither of whom made it into the show and onto the floor.

* But you know, when not making the show floor means you're on the boat all day, that ain't bad neither.

* My roommate Steve Sunu also did the all-star job of the Millennium covering for me and covering the show in general. You have to, have to, have to, have to, HAVE TO watch this first person video of Steve running the "Walking Dead" zombie course at Petco Park.

* Speaking of which, I found the above photo of Steve shaking Kirkman's hand at said event on the Facebook page for Geek Magazine, which I thought kinda funny.

* So happy I got to hit the comics blogging panel Thursday night hosted by Douglas Wolk with Heidi MacDonald, Andy Khouri, Rich Johnston and Tom Spurgeon. Sat amidst a packed room with Caleb Goellner and David Uzumeri. Perhaps the best parts were when Tom asked the crowd who there actually read their sites, and us and Brigid Alverson made up 50% of the respondents.
* But serial, at one point Heidi said she's stayed in comics this long because it has the nicest people, and the rows around shushed me for laughing too loudly.

* No but super serial, I thought it was really interesting how the default answer to Douglas' "Who do you write for?" question was "myself." I do a lot of writing for myself, but almost none of that involves my work writing. Maybe in selection of topic to cover do I get closer to writing for myself. But I always view my comics writing on CBR to be for consumers, retailers and creators...probably not necessarily in that order. (Okay, and I write for other journo-types a way higher percentage of the time than I'd care to admit). Not saying one is better than the other, but it was weird to feel in the minority there.

* If you're interested, here's a smattering of panels I reported live over the weekend: DC's Batman panel where I picked up one of the few giveaways I didn't lose – a Snyder/Capullo Court of Owls mask! Then there was the Ultimate Marvel panel and this Legendary Comics one and this DC graphic novel one and...oh hell, you get the idea. I've got to say that the panels for the big two came off as kind of rote this year. Part of that was a lack of big announcements outside of one or two things like new Sandman or Quentin Tarantino comics, but it's also because I just kind of felt like a lot of the standard bearers of these panels were a little off their crowd pumping game. No surprises even for the diehards, you know?

* That said, the fact that Marvel and DC have so many panels can kind of drown out the noise from something like the Image panel Saturday that seemed to carry a lot of energy and announcement weight. I suppose that the same can be said of how many books the big two release and how much of that sites like CBR cover what comes out, but I kind of feel like the pace that spaces out things in a regular news cycle fights against the wash of panels at CCI.

* So what I'm saying is, read that Image panel report.

* Okay, one more panel note: the DC Young Justice panel really gave you the feeling that between Scott Lobdell, Bobbie Chase and non-attendees like Tom Defalco, Bob Harras has just put his favorite lineup from his '90s Marvel band together on the Teen Titans comics like they never broke up. I imagine the readers of those books have at least a few genes in common with people who go to Credence Clearwater Revisited to hear "Down On The Corner" or whatever.

* I've always been a bit flummoxed by the costume people, but I can't admit that it's kind of fun to see what they pull out, and each year I seem to chat up at least one cosplayer who's terribly nice. This year, it was this girl dressed as Poison Ivy who sat next to me at the Batman panel. Every nerdy college student within five seats was trying to pick her up, and she dealt with it with aplomb.

* I was only on the floor of the show for 12 seconds on Friday, but I was happy that those 12 seconds were spent talking to Joe Keatinge. If you didn't already know, Joe is maybe the most ENTHUSIASTIC comics maker in the business right now. He's just so pumped about every project he picks up, and spoke to me in beaming fashion about his upcoming Thanos mini series at Marvel, calling the character one of his all-time favorites. I believed him. Also: Joe's Image series Hell Yeah! is severely underrated right now for how it riffs on comics history in a total non-obtrusive way, but that's going to have to be the subject of its own post at a later date.

* Also important: Joe knows everyone who's ever done a book for Image Comics ever, so if you meet him at a show, look around the group of people he's with and say "Who are your friends, Joe?" Then you get to meet Emi Lenox!

* One more observation from the floor: when you're a fan walking around San Diego and you see people in the biz chatting each other up, you may wonder what they're talking about. Maybe they're talking about the proliferation of comics culture in the world? Maybe they're talking about the profits and perils of digital comics? Maybe they're talking about some rad new series you won't see for another six months? No, I'm just messing with you. What they're talking about is "how much the other publishers booths suck balls compared to theirs, because you think our booth is the best one of the floor this year, right?" Booth envy. IT'S ACTUALLY A THING.

* Saw my friend and my O.G. comics industry mentor Ivan Cohen at the show too briefly (always too briefly). If you didn't know, he's writing issues of DC's Green Lantern: The Animated Series comic now. Sounds like some FUN stuff coming up there.

* Met new ComicsAlliance E-i-C Joe Hughes, who I instantly recognized from cons past even though we were never introduced. That seems like the best kind of person to be running a site like CA. Bumped into Joe maybe 45 more times over the course of the weekend. Excited to see what he does over there.

* Speaking of CA and Caleb as I was a moment ago, he's had some pages from what I think may still be a kind of secret comics thing on his iPhone that were so cool they made my eyeballs bleed. And THEN he told me the final would be in full color.

* Thursday night, I hit the CBLDF party, which has become a kind of annual tradition. On my way there, Sam Humphries sidled up on me like some kind of ninja, and it was the first of many times we laughed a lot that night. Sam and I talked about how Comic-Con has gotten to feel like summer camp – i.e. you kind of know where you're going in downtown San Diego after having to walk around that crazy mall on 2nd to get to the Westgate one night each year. It's like remembering where the old canoe launch is.

* Speaking of Sam, I can never tell how many of the core readers of big superhero books are blog savvy enough to be caught up on things like "Our Love Is Real," but anyone who didn't know him before the Ultimate Marvel panel probably wanted to buy his shit after. He speaks with a lot of knowledge and enthusiasm for his stuff in front of a crowd.

* Ditto Nathan Edmundson on that front, actually.

* Anyway, back to the party: it produced the above photo with myself, Douglas Wolk, Tom Spurgeon and the rad ladies of Fantagraphics: Jen Vaughn and Jacq Cohen. It was worth it for that alone.

 * Let me be the 12,000th person to mention online that Spurge is looking GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD. I wish I got to talk to him in normal human ways more often.

 * Highly Important: Finally met Tom's brother Whit – Comics Reporter super photographer. After flipping through his iPhone, I really get the feel Whit takes more pictures of CCI than both the ladies we had working for CBR combined. He also slides wonderfully into this hilarious, Jackie Mason-esque character schtick without ever overdoing it.

* The 35 minutes I spend with John Layman at any given CCI party rank amongst my most anticipated events at the show each year.

 * Spent a lot of time talking to Chris Roberson and his wife Allison Baker over the weekend. Hot damn if those two aren't as smart and savvy as any people you've ever met in comics or elsewhere. The launch of their Monkeybrain Comics imprint has finally gelled a bunch of my opinions on digital comics together. Namely that I'm not sure the app model is the so-called "new newsstand" so many keep proclaiming it to be. Apps are still too specific and impermanent to be successful as general public sales platform like that. But they sure as hell fill the gap left by the modern direct market's inability to sell high end genre serials not published by the few standing players. In other words, Monkeybrain is to the 2010s what First and Pacific were to the 1980s.

* Comics writer, toy industry pitch man and A+ Wizard alumn Justin Aclin was my guide through Thursday night, and I couldn't have asked for a better one. He's got big things coming, this guy.

* Friday night was the super secret "Bros of Wizard" enclave where we plotted our imminent takeover of the entire industry (haha) while hopping from bar-to-bar. Attendees included Aclin, Diamond Select Toys' Zach Oat, Marvel TV's Todd Casey (and his lovely friend Mel), Archaia PR man and lovely friend Mel Caylo, Topless Robot's Rob Bricken, Kevin, Steve Sunu, Dark Horse Editor Jim Gibbons and...damn, I'm sure I'm missing someone. There are a lot of us! I love them all like brothers. No bullshit.

 * Ended our night at the Marvel party where we collided with Ryan Penagos, and I somehow missed Ben while I was doing shots with Rosario Dawson (not really but kind of).

* Also got some real hangtime with my girl Josie Campbell at the show. Realized after many nights of balcony chit-chat that her boyfriend Marly runs the "JoJo" Remembered Heroes Tumblr, and now I have a crush on him.

* I don't know what was happening at this particular point in my Jeph Loeb video interview on the boat, but I'm pretty damn sure he and I were having a GREAT time.

* Surprise CBR Boat guest of the year: Jock. He is an extremely sweet man. Like, Stan Sakai levels of sweetness even.

* That aside, my favorite boat interview for the year was a toss up between fellow Michigan State Spartan and all around thoughtful dude JT Krul and unexpected guest "Foxtrot" creator Bill Amend. Watch for those!

* I used to do these goofy celebrity sightings posts from the show, but this year my Hollywood overlap was ridiculously low in the best way. So here's my randomly short bus list on that front:

* I met everyone in the above photo on the boat except Elija Wood, who I only ever see at Comic-Con at the bar late at night. They seemed like fine folks.

* At one point, a gaggle of Hollywood types came onto the boat, like they do. You can always tell who the PR folks are by their blazers and their six bags and their constant texting. And you can tell the talent because they're the pretty ladies in the tight green dress and the high heels. This time out, the pretty lady was this woman – who I'd never heard of before she left and I said, "Who was that?" But she talked to CBR Producer Remy Minnick for like 20 minutes about the business of DVR. I guess that's what Comic-Con is for some people too.

* The Marvel booth is always totally crazy at the show, but sometimes it's that crazy because your buddy Ryan is talking to Don Cheadle on camera while Robert Downey, Jr. re-embodies the role of Tony Stark amongst 45 little Iron Mans.

 * My #1 celebrity moment came before I interview Joss Whedon in a little plywood room hidden in the middle of the Dark Horse booth. As a nice young lady from another website was finishing up before me, John Landis appeared out of nowhere looking for Mike Richardson (whom he referred to as "the basketball player"). Richardson was AWOL, so Landis just burst into the little room to shake Whedon's hand and tell him how much he loved "The Avengers." It was pretty funny to see a guy who causes nerds to freak out when they talk to him at the show freak out like a nerd because John Landis was talking to him at the show, let me tell you.

* On Saturday night, Ben and I embarked on the world's nerdiest, boringest episode of "The Amazing Race" ever when we tried to go out to eat with about a dozen Marvel staffers. 1.5 hours and seven restaurants later, we ended up eating alone in a diner with My Little Pony on the walls. Oddly, the only time I saw Bryan Lee O'Malley all show was when he was dashing through that diner towards the exit. Overall, best meal of the show. Thanks, Benny.

* Later, had the first ever event on the CBR Boat that I will qualify as a real, legit party. I mean, there's like a staff party early in the week, but those aren't ridic enough, you know?

* Somewhat related: MTV Blogs Editor Josh Wigler is a golden god. All that b.s. up there about me traveling at 5:00 AM? Chump change to how hard duder was going all weekend. * Talked to BOOM! Editor-in-Chief Matt Gagnon for a while. Really sharp in terms of how that company and their books function creatively and in the market. Example: he sees "Adventure Time" as both the kind of paying gig that can fill a comics-shaped hole in their commission work (a la the late "Nickelodeon Magazine") and also as a way to expose younger and more traditional comics readers to their other work.

* Best Eisner story I heard: upon winning the award for "Best Anthology" for Dark Horse Presents, Mike Richardson gave one of the three statues he got to his Assistant Editor (and my boy) Jim Gibbons. Not only is that a very cool thing to do, it also allowed us to declare "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, EISNER WINNER JIM GIBBOOOOOOOOOOONS!" all night long.

* Over the weekend, Chris Roberson made a great case for never going to the Hyatt and instead hitting the Hilton Bayfront that was equal parts "The Bayfront supports unionized employees" and "Aw, fuck the Hyatt, man!"

* That said, was at the Hyatt for 15 minutes late Saturday. Spent no money, though.

* First time I ever heard someone refer to it as "The Riot At The Hyatt." How have I been missing that joke?!?!

* For some reason, I only end up catching up with Kyle Higgins in the wee hours of the morning when the bar is closed and we're both crosseyed tired. But I'm sure he's just as much fun when I'm sober/well-rested.

* People I barely missed over the weekend: saw Allison Bechdel walking through the lobby of a hotel, but she has no idea who I am, so I let her be. Saw Archaia's Stephen Christy by the pool, but he was on his cell phone. Saw Darwyn Cooke on the street, but I was on my cell phone.

* Sunday, my version of kids day involved a lap on the floor catching up with some of the folks making kids comics for the traditional print markets: * NBM's Papercutz has a new PR guy who's very helpful. Jesse Post in the hizzouse! Fans kept stopping by their booth to get some kind of Power Rangers stamp that combined with others for a free t-shirt. Power Rangers fans kind of fascinate me.

* Spoke with a few bros at Capstone Books – the Minneapolis-based publisher that did those rad Art Baltazar "Super-Pets" books. They've got a number of kids comics coming out this year and were excited both for their offerings and because it turns out two of them go to the same university as me.

* Ape Entertainment has had a TON of Richie Rich product hitting over the past few weeks. Between that and the app they've been pushing, I hope they're finding the audience for that material. New Ernie Colon/Sid Jacobson stories, y'all!!

 * Spent a while at that booth talking up Brent Erwin, Dave Hedgecock and Aaron Sparrow. They're stated ethos for publishing so many kids comics is "If we don't do it, who will?" I think that's a kind of a valid point, which is a little sad when you think about it too much. Still, they've gone from publishing creator-owned all-ages books like Scratch 9 to having a nice newsstand-distributed magazine dedicated to comics stories featuring one of the biggest animation studios in the world in a few short years without dropping much of anything along the way, so maybe not many others are meant to do it.

 * Wrapped my show getting an autograph on my copy of Love & Rockets: New Stories Vol. 5 from Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez. They said they barely had time to do anything fun at the show until that day either because they were so busy. As it should be.

* I'm sure I forgot to mention someone awesome I spoke to at this year's show. Tell me I'm a jerk in the comments, gang! And thanks for the memories!

SDCC Stories: Fallen Angels & Fickle Fandom

As I prepare to depart for my fifth trip to San Diego’s Comic-Con International (fourth consecutive) next week, my mind wanders back to SDCCs past and the adventures therein. While each holds a special place in my heart, from the initial job-seeking odyssey back in 2004 alongside Tim Stevens to last year’s Marvel livestreaming tour de force, if I were put on the spot and asked to pick out a favorite, I believe 2010 would leap to the fore.

SDCC 2010 was really a tale of two shows for me when it came to after hours hijinx. Half the time I was led down the path of debauchery by this man…

…yes, reigning TNA World Tag Team champion Christopher Daniels, “Fallen Angel” and master of mischief. Some of my favorite SDCC memories period have spent in the company of my rasslin’ buddy, whether helping his conduct his “Fallen Angel Files” video interviews for Marvel.com (getting Travis Charest to cut a wrestling promo that fell somewhere between “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Popeye), meeting his rad family (his daughter Jerica was not only the most adorable host we ever had on Marvel.com, she also asked her dad if I was a wrestler too, causing him to point at my lack of biceps and laugh hysterically) or terrifying my poor wife by putting his buddy Curry Man on the phone to say hi. Chris is one of the most interesting and hilarious guys I know, but also a genuinely good fellow who I don’t get to see nearly often enough, so getting to hang out in sunny San Diego with my bud is a consistent highlight.

Of course the debauchery comes after the show floor closes and I find myself in his company at a party on the roof of PETCO Park and then back in Jeff Katz’s hotel room having a conversation with Shane Helms about how you market Captain America overseas and Samoa Joe congratulates Jill Thompson on her Eisner win (yes, this is the PG-rated version of that story with certain names omitted—Helms is a father now, after all!). There was also last year where Daniels, Eric Young and Kazarian tried to figure out how they could reasonably split my one free drinks bracelet between the three of them at the Marvel party, but I suppose jumping ahead to 2011 is cheating…although that really was the story.

Bottom line: Wander the streets of San Diego with Christopher Daniels and a good time will be had.

Good times were also had throughout 2010—and have happily continued—with my comic book SDCC “family” of Todd Nauck and his wife, Dawn, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Brad Walker and Tom Brennan. Todd and Dawn are two of my favorite people on the planet and probably in the top five as far as the nicest (I’m only saying top five because there are several million people I haven’t met yet), DnA are as wonderfully entertaining and friendly in life as they are brilliant in writing, and Brad is a joy with a smile as big as his artistic talent (I am a writer and this is how I compliment people). We spent many a rousing dinner, be it around Odin’s plinth (some long wooden table we found in a bar) or at the ritzy seafood place Mike McKone (another gem) invited us along to. I had hours of fun with this gang and then reported it all home to my jealous wife.

Oh yeah, and Tom Brennan was there too.

Ok, here’s the deal with Tom Brennan: He’s a co-worker and—I hope he’ll let me get away with this—friend of mine who I rag on a lot. To be fair, he has it coming to him. Ok, no he doesn’t. Tom is very funny and quick witted and for some reason lets me berate him with my brand of “humor” without eviscerating me in return. He’s also one of the hardest working, smartest editors at Marvel who never gets enough credit for his work (the Harvey-nominated Shame Itself, one of the most entertaining one-shots you will ever read, was birthed by Tom through sheer force of will, I believe).

Now let tell a story about Tom Brennan from SDCC 2010 (not the one where we waited in line to meet “Captain America: The First Avenger” director Joe Johnson because we wanted to get his autograph and I confided in Tom I wasn’t that familiar with his work and he told me that was ok because he wasn’t either then stabbed me in the back by waxing poetic about “The Rocketeer” for ten minutes leaving me to follow up with “Uh…good luck with the movie”—I won’t be telling that story).

Brennan and I are hanging out at the Marvel booth, doing crowd control or something (“crowd control” was what Tom and I would tell everybody we were doing when Tim Dillon was looking for us to do real work) when a group of young men approached us, the lead hooligan with rampant excitement in his eyes. “Oh my god, I am such a big fan of yours…” he began to Tom Brennan—yes, that Tom Brennan—before continuing with “…but which one are you?” A flattered but confused Brennanator asked for clarification of the previous statement, to which the lad responded with “Are you the one from X-Men or Smallville?”

At this point we realized this kid thought Tom was one of the Ashmore twins, Shawn and Aaron, an admittedly not too outlandish comparison that he claims he has gotten before.

Tom, an improvisational actor to the core, ran with it and said he was actually the lesser known third Ashmore triplet, Tom, and that he was promoting nothing in particular. The kid was a bit confused, but still quite excited to be meeting even a tangential famous person. Tom kept it up for another half minute or so before giving it up and admitting he was merely Tom Brennan, editor of Spider-Man.

Without even a pause for breath, the kid did a complete 180 that would have left most dizzy and begin tearing into Tom for One More Day.

Where can Tom Brennan be mistaken for an actor one second and castigated for being a comic book editor the next? Only in San Diego, gang.

SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON: WATCHMEN SKETCHBOOK

If you were the San Diego Comic-Con, I'd have walked all over you last week and you'd have given me some beautiful babies.

And by "babies" I mean "sketches to add to my Watchmen book." I'm too young to have a human baby.

So while I worked my buns off at the show sweating like an oldie sweating to the oldies, I wrote a tentative to-see list of creators to run around to in the few free minutes I found here and there.

MATT FURIE

The first sketch I got at the show and I found Furie by accident! Furie's the guy I was most stoked to see for three reasons. For starters, I didn't know he was gonna be at the show (specifically the Buenaventura booth), so to get to finally meet him was a treat! And he was wearing a Superman outfit (I didn't take a pic...)! The next reason is that he brought along with him a spanking new issue of Boys Club, a book I happened upon by chance in the Sparkplug booth at Comic-Con in 2006, the first (and only other) Comic-Con I ever went to. And lastly, I was anxious to see what he might do in my Watchmen book. So here you have it: My first Owl Ship drawing with a twist of Furie's humor. And he drew in a gray pen, so it's light for a reason. Munch on it.

JOHNNY RYAN

Hoo-Boy. Johnny Ryan DOES NOT look like I pictured him. He's a tall, handsome dude who's well-spoken. I mean, look at any of his books, and you'll know why I was surprised. That makes it all the more funny that when I handed him the book and asked if he wanted the Watchmen paperback for reference, he smirked and said, "Nah, I know what I want to draw." Guess what? I knew what he was gonna draw, too. And here it is.
When he was done, Johnny asked how to spell my name so he could autograph it. I showed him my ID tag and said "R-I-C-K-E-Y" but he left the E off. I like to think that was on purpose and a little joke between the two of us. Johnny gave me the heads up that his new book Prison Pit was on sale down at the Fantagraphics table, so I raced down there and snapped that little bastard up. A non-stop fight scene in a barbaric, almost alien land drawn by Johnny Ryan? Uh, yes please. And hey. If some kid asked me to draw Rorschach, I'd have done the same thing Johnny did here with the mask. It's the air-humping that makes it a Johnny Ryan masterpiece. Recognize.

ESTHER PEARL WATSON

A little while after finding Johnny Ryan, I realized Jordan Crane had a little booth of prints right next to Buenaventura! While I waited for Jordan to finish signing someone's print to ask if I could have a sketch, I realized he was sharing a table with a few other cartoonist; namely Esther Pearl Watson! Her book Unlovable had me cracking up in the store when I first saw it, and I bought it right then and there. Finding her randomly was so cool, and when I asked if she'd do a sketch for me, she knocked out this Laurie Juspeczyk piece! Lookit that smeared eyeshadow and sad sack feeeeeeel! Gah! And iirc, Esther said she never read the book, so she flipped through the trade and randomly found this image to do. FATE!

MARK TODD

Also standing with Jordan Crane was cartoonist Mark Todd, whose minicomic BadAsses I found on accident in one of New York City's Giant Robot stores while searching for a copy of Don't Go Where I can't Follow. Giant Robot luckily had Todd's book of illustrated bad asses and I was happy to buy it. He said he was excited to do Nite Owl cause he liked the costume. I love how cold and nervously sweaty he is here!

JORDAN CRANE

I never heard about Jordan Crane til my bff Sean showed me a copy of The Last Lonely Saturday and shit was over after that. I've been buying his stuff whenever something comes out, so to get a sketch was REALLY cool of him. He went the Alan Moore route, but his well-placed fine lines pop. I felt bad, though, because after I handed the book to Jordan, he seemed a little perplexed by what he should draw. I kinda felt like a friend at karaoke making another friend get on stage when they didn't want to. So, thankey, Jordan!
And I'd like to shout out Johnny Ryan here again. While waiting for my book back from Crane, Johnny came over and talked to me about this book from Picturebox and said I NEED to buy it as soon as I got home. I haven't yet, but from what I see, it looks hilarious. You go. Look now.

JEFF SMITH

Boo-yah! I've wanted to meet Jeff Smith for a long time. So I saw he was signing at his booth across from the DC booth and ran over when his low-key signing began. I was in line behind a group of about 6 little girls (yay!) all of whom had their moms buy them Bone books (YAY!) and only 2 people were behind me the whole time, so when I got to the front of the line, I nervously shook his hand and was relieved to find that he was a pretty down-to-Earth guy. He has a hand brace on from all the work he did to finish Bone near the end, which is terrible to hear, but he still cracked out this Fone Bone-as-Rorschach sketch. My belly was doing flips watching him draw in my book. And I have a little beer belly, so it felt weird. YAY!

FABIO MOON

At last year's SDCC, Sean interviewed Moon and his brother Gabriel Ba and they came across sooooo excited about comics that I got more excited about their work. That's why it was such a pleasure to meet Moon this year. He seemed a little tired by the time I got to him, but he mentioned he couldn't wait to get back to Brazil where he lives to start drawing comics again. Gotta love that. And you gotta love his sci-fi (G-rated) Dr. Manhattan.

GABRIEL BA

My second Owl Ship ever and both at the same show! Ba's showcases his use of shadow to communicate texture while the clouds imply a soft, floating feeling. It fucking rocks. You can hear it humming overhead.

DEREK KIRK KIM

Ohhhh shit. I was literally running to the restroom when I spotted Derek sketching for donations for the Cartoon Art Museum. I stopped and asked if he'd do something in my sketchbook and, smiling all the time, he said "Absolutely." I'm a NUT for Derek's work, and I've found myself selfishly frustrated he doesn't have more new work available for me to devour every few minutes of the day. It took me so long to hunt down Same Difference and Other Stories and I must've read it now about 4 times. If you like the way Adrian Tomine's comics focus on human emotions colliding in life, you'll love Derek's work. And it's not always as cartoon-y as his Nite Owl here. THOUGH I LOVE THIS, TOO! When Derek was flipping through the paperback, he said, "I want to do Nite Owl; I love how he's so chubby like a real guy trying to be a hero would be."

TOM NEELY

Tom Neely is one of the absolutely most talented cartoonists working today when it comes to evoking a sense of mood - specifically terror and dread. That said, he drew one of my favorite pieces of the con, and it is so utterly filthy that I can't show it online without probably getting fired. NSFW isn't the right tag for this thing. It's prolly illegal in 10 states and Canada. When I walked up to get the piece, he smiled and said, "Here you go, man. You may regret asking me to draw," and I said, "No no, I'm excited," and I couldn't hold in my audible gasp. I showed it to one DC employee and he literally exploded. I showed it to a baby and it immediately aged into an old man. I showed it to a dog and she turned into a banana. Shit's epic. So if you want to see this thing, come find me at a show. I'll show you. Otherwise, high-five, Tom Neely. You made me blush.

TRAVIS CHAREST

My most mainstream sketch is also the sketch I never thought I'd get in my life. Finding Travis Charest at a show is like sitting through the movie The Notebook without crying - it just doesn't happen. So during a break while heading over to the Marvel booth to see Ben, imagine how surprised I was to see Charest signing at their booth, just sitting there, no one asking him for a sketch. There was a bit of a line, but everybody was waiting for Steve Epting and a couple other guys sitting ahead of Charest. And Charest didn't have a name plate out or anything, so people genuinely had no idea who he was. My bff David can't get enough of Charest, and David was the guy who made me get off my ass and ask creators for theme sketches, so I said "balls it" and went up to the line. That's when Ben came over and used his menacing Marvel abilities to get me a sketch. I won't tell you how it happened, but it did. And hard. And fast. And here it is. Calm down.

NATHAN FOX

I JUST missed Nathan at New York Comic Con this year when I asked late on Sunday if he'd do a sketch in my book, so I wanted to try and grab him in San Diego at the Dark Horse booth where he was signing for his book Pigeons from Hell. The guy has a slouched, moody, heavy style, and he busted this Roorschach out before having to leave for another signing. And the guy was kind enough to not punch me in the face when I declined to buy the trade and also get it signed by him (I already have Pigeons from Hell in trade!). So I had that going for me.

SAMMY HARKHAM

Sammy edits the Kramers Ergot series and writes/draws the book Crickets and I loooove his fine line style and slightly surreal stories about usually-dirty people. Like, "dirt and grime" dirty. It's like they just survived an action film. Sammy was scheduled for the Buenaventura booth earlier in the trip, but he didn't show up at the posted signings, so I assumed he wasn't gonna make it. Needless to say, like Matt Furie and most of the other people on this post, I couldn't believe I might get a sketch from him. So while walking back to the Buenaventura booth to grab an extra copy of Boys Club #3 for a friend, I spotted Sammy! He gladly did a sketch for me (a straight panel recreation from the book) and it looks glorious. Do yourself a favor and grab a copy of the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror issue Sammy is editing like a mini-Kramers Ergot this year. YOU NEED THIS. Now I want more superhero stuff drawn by Sammy...

ROSS CAMPBELL

The penultimate guy on my get list this year was Ross Campbell. His book The Abandoned blew my fucking mind with it's vision of a dirty south setting overrun by zombies and the emotions terror like that can gurgle up in a person. When I told him I had the book, he said he was just telling someone he hated theme books, but happily sketched out this Bubastis, the feline companion to Ozymandias. You can see Ross' plump design peeking out of the cat's eyes and it's the first time someone has drawn the creature, so I was stoked. I may have to eventually hit him back up for an unmasked, snarling Rorschach one day.

GUYS I MISSED

Like I said, it was a busy weekend, so there wasn't much time to gather sketches even though I think I got more at this show than any other single show. But that's cause I was at this show for 4 days and not 1 like usual. I missed a batch of folks I'd have loved to get like Xaime Hernandez (he said, "maybe later" at one point, and when I came back later, he said "characters who are not mine are $60" and I don't have $60), Vasilis Lolos, Roger Langridge (Ben got one!), Rafael Grampa, Dave Gibbons, Cory Walker, and James Jean. I actually had a ticket to be in line for James' signing at Chronicle Books, but by the time my place in line got close, I had to be back at the book. No big. I'm sure one day it will work out.
The guy I was most bummed about not getting was Lewis Trondheim. I actually tracked him down at the NBM table, but his signing started something like an hour and a half late, and I had to go back to the DC booth, so I missed him. Then I accidentally found him at Fantagraphics signing one day and I was so excited! I could finally get one! See, Trondheim's story in Mome about where creativity comes from and what happens to cartoonists as they age really kind of opened my eyes to some ideas about comics. So I went out and started buying up all the books of his I could find including single issues of his series Nimrod from Fantagraphics and several of his First Second books. He was the one guy at the show I wanted to get more than anybody else cause he never comes to the states. Well...
I walked up and no one was in his line and I asked if he'd do a sketch for me. He flatly said, "no" and then said, "I only draw my characters in my book if you buy it." He had a rough accent, so I didn't take his brief answer as offensive, but I looked around kind of hurt and looked back and said, "But...I have all of your books at home. I'm a big fan. I love what you did in Mome." And then a talent who was sitting next to him who was also signing said, "Well, buy another book," in a joke-y tone. They both kind of sat back in their chairs looking at me from across the table. I felt like bullies in school were making me dance with my pants off to hang out with them. I looked around, but I owned all the Fantagraphics books on display. So I just sort of shrugged my shoulders in defeat and awkward nervousness and said it was nice to meet him anyways and walked away. I didn't even talk to him about how much I loved the Mome story!
Sure, he doesn't know if I own all his books. And sure, I could just be some guy planning on selling his sketch. And sure, asking fucking Lewis Trondheim to draw a Watchmen character is probably stupid and beneath him and, jeez, he may not even know what the shit Watchmen is. And sure, the risk of asking a creator to sketch a character that isn't theirs is even with the risk that a creator will say no to that request because it's their obvious right to say no. But I still kind of felt like...well...Lewis Trondheim doesn't give a dump about me. Kinda sucked in a bodyslammingly humbling way.

Anyhoo, I got PLENTY of other bodacious sketches and if I never get a Trondheim then, eh, fuck it. Everybody else was boss enough to give their time and talent to a goober like me. Good on them!

Now get ready for a few other posts from mine (and Ben and Kiel's) experience at the show in the next few days! Balls!