Long Beach Comic Con

[Elveen]

Sounds like a party!

[chriskay99]

Sunday Sunday Sunday for my brother and I! Looking forward to seeing some of you peeps!

[Bone-A-Fach-ee]

Holy Cow! There is actually an ULTRAVERSE panel at LBCC on Sunday! 20 year anniversary! No joke!

http://www.longbeachcomiccon.com/_files ... amming.pdf

[Elveen]

I'l be heading down to the LBC to begin the set up of my booth tomorrow. Packing up boxes tonight.
I really looking forward to LBCC. Actually, I can't wait.

[Jace]

Pretty excited myself. It'll just be nice to spend a day with just my wife and no 2 yr old. We love her to death , but wow is she a handful. Oh yeah and getting some sketches, seeing some of you guys and taking to creators will be fun too!

[chriskay99]

Finalizing my books I'm bringing to get signed and wanted out point out the following artists who have done work for Valiant that will be at this show:

Kevin VanHook (VH1 Bloodshot)
David Mack (cover artist for Shadowman #8 variant)
Andrew Robinson (cover artist for Quantum & Woody #1 variant and #5, Shadowman #9 and Harbinger #18 variant)

I think that's it. Bring 'em if you got 'em!

[AnthonyF]

Happy birthday Bone!

Also, Elveen ("I'm Chiclo") and Dr. - Great to meet you at your booth! OTV represent!

Got to meet Kevin too, and picked up this sketch of OG Bloodshot

[Bone-A-Fach-ee]

Great time at this con. Not the largest of crowds, which was nice. It made it easy to do everything I wanted to do in 1 day, instead of having to go both days. Spoke to a bunch of creators, which was awesome. Darick Robertson is the man! And so is Art Thibert. For an inker, he is an incredibly talented artist who should definitely be pencilling. Some amazing work on his sketches/commissions.
Missed Kevin Van Hook, because he wasn't in artist alley proper. So, I just never saw him. got sketches from Art Thibert, Brian Buccellato, Len Wein. But, the best part was hanging with Elveen, Dr. Solar, and meeting AnthonyF. All class dudes!

[Jace]

Sorry I missed you Bone. I'll write a longer post when I finish this long drive home, but I gotta TOTALLY agree about Art Thibert.

[Jace]

OK finally home! So my LBCC experience turned out pretty well all things considered. First the bad news ... after driving 3 hours and 50 minutes of a 4 hour trip I realized I had FORGOTTEN my sketchbooks!!!!!!!! Three 12 hour shifts for three straight days followed by less than 4 hours of sleep clearly affected my ability to think. Ten minutes from the show and the main reason I am going is out the window because I am a moron. So since we still had almost an hour before the show was starting my wife and I hit up a Barnes and Noble to buy a new sketchbook. Definitely not an ideal solution, but it was better than nothing. So having a Legion of Superheroes, a Justice League and a Valiant sketchbook already, I decided to go the Marvel route with this new book. Again not ideal, since I am not much of a Marvel fan these days. I vastly would have preferred to be getting commissions to move the sketchbooks I already have, towards completion. Still this was the best option available to me after my bonehead maneuver.

Also on the negative side of things was all the creators who were advertised as attendees, but weren't there. I have no way of knowing if they were there yesterday, I just know they weren't there today. So some of the books I brought along to be autographed were just dead weight and wasted space in my bag. Really disappointed that there were a substantial amount of creators I didn't get a chance to talk to, I really wanted to talk about the Man of Steel movie with Mark Waid. He at least had a sign on his table that said he was out sick. The amazing Keu Cha was also out sick, but I did get a chance to talk to his brother and got a blank cover variant of his Hex The Lost Tribe #1. I would have loved a sketch from him, but maybe it's for the best since I can get something non-Marvel from him next time. Guys I have talked to before who I was hoping to talk to and had books to be signed included JT Krul, Marv Wolfman, Scott Lobdell and Matt Hawkins. In Hawkins case Top Cow never said he was going to be there I was just hoping because he is such a great guy to talk to and Think Tank is one of my favorite titles. As it turns out he was actually at a show in VA this weekend. Also I was especially disappointed about Wolfman because I carried around my Crisis on Infinite Earths Absolute Edition all day and as you guys may or may not know ... those Absolute editions are HEAVY! Last, but certainly not least was the fact that Valiant wasn't there!

Now for the positives ... Elveen's Comics - Got to chat a bit with Elveen and Doc. The booth was relatively busy every time I happened by. Nice to see my boys doing well. We talked a bit about why a Jedi Knight has no chance against Godzilla (sorry Sean) and I let them know I will be caught up to the current episode of OTV soon!

LEN WEIN -This guy is a champ. Old school to be sure and just a real down to earth guy with an incredible track record. We had a bit of a nostalgic talk about how much more story substance you used to get back in the days of 32 page books. This guy created Wolverine!!!! He's a legend and I would encourage any comic fan to chat him up.

Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Connor - Once again got a few books signed and chatted with this dynamic duo. They really are two of the nicest people in the industry who just love what they do.

Trent Kaniuga - Another really nice guy self-publishing a creator owned all ages book. Teenage kung fu ronin for hire? Sounds good to me! I picked up the first issue, if anyone is interested check out his page at http://www.twilightmonk.com/. Also the Ghost Rider mini he did for Marvel awhile back has some amazing art too.

The sketches I did end up with were

Incredible Hulk by Derek Fridolfs
Black Cat by Ryan Kincaid
Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) by Ray-Anthony Height
Jubilee by Art Thibert

I find it pretty interesting that given the chance to draw any Marvel character three out of the four chose females. It is always fun to come back to get the sketch and see who the artist chose. I am really happy with all the commissions I got I only wish I had been able to get a few more. there were several other artist both known and some newcomers just starting out who I would have loved to have sketches from. Very reasonable prices for most people too. That is the benefit of gong to a smaller show like this, as opposed to SDCC let's say. Less traffic means less demand, which means more reasonable prices for commissions. Jesse Toves is definitely someone I hope to get a sketch from in the future as well as Lord Mesa and Scott Koblish.

I have to say my favorite part of the show though was hanging out with Art Thibert while he finished my sketch. I got my book to him with an hour left of the show. As things were winding down though lots of other creators kept coming by his table to chat. He ended up not finishing my sketch til about 5:30 which was 30 minutes after the con was closed. He was such a nice guy about it and even gave me a free Batgirl print for having to wait so long. He's already one of my favorite artist and chatting with him about me being a chef and stuff was just awesome. He's daughter was really cool as well. Definitely a great guy and at the TO Pof my list of creators to meet if you are ever at a show he is at. I mean right off the bat when I asked him to sign some books he was engaging and talking about the stories in those books and asking my opinions on them. He's an extremely genuine and passionate creator.

Well that was my LBCC. This post is already huge so I'll post pics of the commissions later. Gotta get some sleep so I can get back to work early tomorrow!

[chriskay99]

Went on Sunday and really enjoyed this show. I love the artist alley area as I think it's a very good size and that's where I ended up spending most of my time. I was very disappointed Mark Waid was out sick on Sunday especially since I brought 3 floppies and 3 trades I was hoping to get signed by him. That was a bit of a letdown. Seemed to be a few other people missing on Sunday but I guess that happens. Good to see Sean and Elveen as always!

I got most everything signed that I wanted to with the exception of the aforementioned Waid. I talked to Andrew Robinson for a few minutes whose done a few variant covers for VEI. I asked if he had anything else lined up but he said unfortunately Jody LeHeup was his contact person there, who is no longer with VEI. I let him know I really enjoyed his covers and hopefully we can see some more in the future.

I brought my Marvel themed sketchbook and ended up getting 10 sketches in all on Sunday. Would have liked to get more, or at least some different artists but I'm finding it's a balance of which artists have free time, and hoping I have the free time (and the money left) to get some art in my book. I'll post two of my favorites here:

Logan by Darick Robertson


Daredevil by David Mack


I was thrilled to get anything from Mack in my sketchbook.

All in all, I really enjoyed this show but didn't end up purchasing much - picked up a graphic novel or two, but spent most of my time and money in artist alley working on this darned sketchbook. I think the next big SoCal show is Wondercon in April? Hoping so because my wallet needs a few months off after this one.

[chriskay99]

Darick Robertson is the man! And so is Art Thibert. For an inker, he is an incredibly talented artist who should definitely be pencilling. Some amazing work on his sketches/commissions.

Robertson was really cool to chat with. My brother got some stuff signed by Thibert but I didn't have time to get a sketch from him. But I agree - I've always enjoyed his pencil work. Dude's got plenty of talent to go around. I'll have to hit him up next time.

[Jace]

IMAG0548 by The Comic Source, on Flickr
Jubilee by Art Thibert


IMAG0545 by The Comic Source, on Flickr
Captain Marvel by Ray-Anthony Height


IMAG0543 by The Comic Source, on Flickr
Black Cat by Ryan Kincaid


IMAG0542 by The Comic Source, on Flickr
Incredible Hulk by Derek Fridolfs

[Bone-A-Fach-ee]

Logan by Darick Robertson


Daredevil by David Mack


Love these two sketches!

[quote="Jace"]
IMAG0548 by The Comic Source, on Flickr
Jubilee by Art Thibert

Proof that Art Thibert is the man!

[Jace]

Proof that Art Thibert is the man!

Not only is he super talented ... he stayed til 5:30 to finish that sketch for me. Just a super classy, nice and genuine guy.