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One of the best parts of attending conventions is meeting up with
folks that you don't get to see often enough. MeganCon
was no exception. I spent the bulk of the show hanging at the
table shared by my best buddy John
Beatty and Alberto
Ruiz. Now THAT was a blast [and I plan to write about
the experience in a seperate blog update].
Directly across from Alberto and Beatty's table,
Bob
McLeod was set up. Bob's sketch list
was full and his new book, Superhero
ABC was selling like hotcakes. If you have [or
know anyone who has] young kids, Bob's book would make
the perfect gift! Heck, I even saw fans without kids buying it
for themselves!
Alex Saviuk was set up. Alex is a great guy who's
been busy the last couple of years doing storyboards for movies
in addition to his comic work. Alex has a true love
of film and so it was great to spend a few minutes catching
up with him.
Mark
Pennington was there on Saturday sketching
for fans. Mark
had a really cool Conan
painting on display. Mark said that it was
a commission for a fan and the fan wanted Mark to change
it so that Conan was wearing a horned helmet rather than
the wolf's head. While I can understand the fan's thought process,
I think that the painting would look cooler the way that it is.
Mark was sketching for fans and turning out some really
nice pieces. James Howell got a Batman in the rain
that was so nice that he went back to get a Joker [also
in the rain] so he'd have "bookend" pieces. Matt
Hollub also got on board for a piece from Mark. I would
have as well, but my reference was with another artist and Mark
was only going to be at the show on Saturday. Still, I
know just the sketch I'd like to get from Mark, so the next time
we're at a show together, you know I'll be in his line.
Although I was on two sketch lists [Adam Hughes
and Phil Noto], and Alberto did me three gratis
[3!!!] Stallone pieces [more on that later], I wanted to
try and pick up a piece of art for a buddy who'd done me some
favors.
I thought that Shawn
Surface might just be the man for the job, and
boy was I right. Shawn has done some work for my buddy,
Bill Black's AC Comics, as well as Mitch
Hyman's Bubba The Redneck WereWolf. I'd talked
to Shawn at a few cons over the years about getting
a Stallone sketch from him... but since I wanted to get
a piece from my buddy, that had to come first. Shawn was
more than up for the task. I really liked the way it turned out.
I'd like to tell you that you can click HERE
to see the piece, but instead you'll see Shawn and what
a Mage sketch might look like. LOL. Ok, ok... it wasn't
THAT funny [unless you know James Howell and have
read THIS].
Once my pal, Scott sees his piece, I'm sure he'll post
it on his
site and you can see it there.
Gus Vasquez
was there. We talked a bit about the work that he's been doing
on an animation feature. I also asked him about his niece,
Rosario Dawson. What a year she's had with her involvement
in Sin City and Rent. We also discussed the comic,
OCT [Occult
Crimes Taskforce] that she's co-creating with David
Atchison and Tony Shastee. Rosario and Gus
will be among the tons of guests at Heroes Con later this year.
Andy
Smith was there. When he wasn't sketching for fans,
he was looking for something to take back home to his daughter.
Jesse
"Cadre" Hansen "the hardest working
man" in comics was set up with his crew. I really
wanted to spend a few minutes catching up with Jesse, but
the time just wasn't there. We did say "hi" a few times
as we passed each other though.
MegaCon, like most cons these days, has people showing
up in amazing costumes. Sometimes the folks really look
like the characters that they're supposed to be.
Thor had a cool helmet and his beard and hair were right.
Still I thought Thor would
be taller than me. I love Eric Powell's The
Goon. And he's a character that people seldom choose to dress
up as. Still, I thought The Goon would
be bigger than me. A lot of people choose to dress
up as Batman. Although, not too many are lucky enough to
have Batgirl and Robin [also in great costumes]
along for the ride. But I have to admit, I thought that Batman
would be taller than me. You might think that I
was starting to feel like "the big man in comics"
but you'd be wrong... see I
met up with the Kingpin!
If you've ever been to a con, you know how much goes on.
I'm sure I'm leaving out some stuff... still, I'll post my new
Adam Hughes sketch tomorrow [I LOVE IT!] and my thoughts
on hanging with Big Beatty and Alberto soon. If
you want to see what they had to say, then click HERE
or HERE
[where you can actually see Alberto drawing my second Stallone
sketch!]
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