Comicon. Was...BIG. Stupidly big. But was ridiculously good fun.
Day one Previews Night...after cutting our way to the front of the three hour line to get convention passes through good old fashioned AUSSIE know how our wits and ingenuity.
We were there for an hour before having to scurry away to the pub overwhelmed and exhausted.
I kind of floated in the general direction of a corner not knowing where Flight were situated and ran into the lovely Raina and Dave (Smile and Astronaut Elementary), had a chat and was immediately dispelling myths that poisonous octopus fill our oceans lying in wait for unwitting Johnny Foreigner to dip a toe in. And although that actually sounds kinda cool...it is true that we do however have large spiders as big as cars and live in kangaroo houses that we drive to work. FACT.
Eventually found Kazu and Johane at the Flight booth who welcomed me with open arms. Arch nemesis and "nice" guy Kean however...obviously tipped off to my arrival...had escaped.
BUT NOT FOR LONG! Our cosmic convention ballet had only just BEGUN!

Photos....in no particular order and more witty commentary behind the cut. (Really image heavy)




The Convention centre...it actually is bigger than this photo suggests...it kind of keeps going off to the left about twice the length of this photo again. 90 000 nerds through the door apparently.


Indeed.

TOYS -





Toys (as well as music and movies and comics and...) are my one real vice...the only thing that saved my wallet was that i only had one...and that most of the stuff on display were protoypes and not for sale.







David Horvath's new series of ugly dolls and Pounda prototype.






Gary Baseman's new protoypes.






Ledbetter prototypes.






Maquettes from the new Wallace and Gromit feature "Curse of the Were Rabbit"








Blythe dolls for Jenmatic.




Human size Tim Biskup "Helper".


New Pete Fowler




People dressed as Ugly Dolls.




New Hellboy action figures. The reflection was really bad but everyone is there from Liz to the nazi head in the jar. Oh yes!




Death and Death Jr from Ted Naifeh's...Death Jr comic series. (Latest issue coloured by Craig Phillips)

LOONIES -


This chap was 50 and just under 5ft. Best couple of the con. Look at that cute tentative spidey hand reaching round on MJ!


Blurry Wonka...the guy wouldn't stand still. He was too busy...prancing.


About 15 large sweaty guys were following and crowding the best Leia costume i've seen everytime we walked past her. Ballsy. Hooray for Star Wars fans!


Caveman Robot. More politically aware than Captain Caveman...and with triple the iron! (HAW!!)


The Wraith.


The Marines are brought in to disperse Joss Whedon fans from his "FREE USED THONG" giveaway. Second prize you went into a raffle to win a ticket which would let you go into a line to wait 5 hours to touch his thigh. A lot of really big Buffy T-shirts were torn in the ensuing ruckus.


Tank Girl.


Kindly gent.


!!!Mrs Incredible!!!


An old crone, Billie Piper and Cate Blanchett as Xena, Power Girl and Wonder Woman.


Best Catwoman of the con...and some guy as Penguin.


...


Kroenen from Hellboy. No doubt this guy and many others in armour were taking themselves far too seriously at the really really shit goth afterparty we were at for 45 minutes on Saturday night. LAME TO THE MAX! I should have followed Jai Nitz after the coctail bar to the burlesque club with Darwyn Cooke and Kevin Nowlan in attendance.
I blame jesus for my decision. But i can't stay mad.


People. Cattleprod a must.


Misc blurry gothy type girl. GOTHS ROOL!


...yeah...

COOL PEOPLE -


Matt Groening FURIOUSLY signs something.


That guy who does that book with that Owly bird. It's more cutesy wootsey than even I can muster...and he makes girls cry in a GOOD way. So they LOVE him. Some men even want to be him. THE Andy Runton.


Jill Thompson. Helping her find her portfolio at the Scholastic dinner was rad!


Spike from the Moderntales booth.


Doppleganger...Robert Kirkman. Look at him...so...innocent...and UNAWARE i'm EVEN watching him! HO HO HO.


The super cool Cori and Tyler from Stylish Vittles. I love that name.


Rhode Montijo and James Baker of Pablo's Inferno (also one of the chaps behind Happy Tree Friends) and Rocket Rabbit. Respectively.


The Those Guys doing...STUFF!! Later a giant chicken would arrive...and we would fight him against Kane, the 8ft tall wrestler. At least thats what i dreamt.


The Flight Booth. Pip pip! Flanked by Enrico Casarosa and Ronnie Del Carmen, Bill Plympton and Bill Pressing to the right and Ben and the ridiculously cool Nucleus gallery to the left. We OWNED the aisle.


KEANER!! He likes to think he's like...SOOOO cool. But really...he's only Soo cool.
...
...
Enrico and Bill Pressing in the background.


Emotion ERIC!! He just can't HELP but emote. He really can't. Even when people tell him to "just for the love of god stop emoting already."


Fearless Princess Captain Kazu. I don't think i saw him swear or lose his cool once. Even when i was prodding him with a stick continuously in hopes of throwing him off his game! UNCANNY!


One of the most genuine and warmest people i've EVER met, Johane. Kept the wheels turning and the sales ticking over. High fives!


Phil draws something...funny. No doubt! Cause he's a pretty funny guy.


And we end with a pretty face. Kean doing more stuff. Johane trying to distance herself from his madness.

And thats that for the con.
A really great week. I met a lot of people and took not nearly enough photos of them to mark the occasion. Made some contacts, chatted to a few publishers, got some good feedback and some potential publishing routes. Being a part of Flight is a great icebreaker. "Hi i'm Doug...i was in Flight"...and they practically roll out the red carpet. The Scholastic dinner was great. Shaking hands with Jeff Smith and he already knows me by my work i ALMOST swooned. Almost. I may however have blushed and giggled.
Dinner with Steven Grant was good fun. Quiet, interesting chap with really solid ideas on comics. Even if some of the stories he told of comics politiking made me want to turn green and smash the table.
The Eisner Awards afterparty like everything in California that serves alchohol...closed at 2. Great to be at...but it had only just started to get going by the time the LAW shut us down. Damn the man.
Great to finally catch up with the Deevee crew of Daren and Daniel and chop it up over a beer.
And it was also really interesting to see the US small press scene and it's similarities and differences to the Australian scene.
They have the same issues self publishing and distributing, the same dumb politics and rivalries, the same problems with printing and quality and blah blah blah. It's just there is about 1000+ of them at SD...rather than 15- at a Supanova.
There are some great comics and some bad comics, some okay comics and some i don't even know what comics.
What i DID find interesting is the amount of sketchbooks and beautifully printed squarebound collections of work. I didn't really get a chance to talk printing costs...but i think this is a great idea that really seperates the comic from just a throwaway pamphlet. Possibly in a lot of cases it could be like offering up a gold plated turd...but it can't hurt to take a bit of pride and some interest in presentation (One of my major problems with mini comics.) Some investigation into Asia for printing is a must.
But definetly want to head back next year. If i was wanting to work for Marvel or DC...hmmm...i'd probably say going to San Diego for work isn't a great idea...because every fat bloke who thinks he can write or draw is there doing the same thing. For all the other companies, Top Shelf, Fantagrpahics, Oni, IDW Dark Horse, Image etc...a DEFINITE good place to at least introduce yourself and your work.

STORY OF THE CON -


This buffalo wing belongs to a rather rotund Current Editor in Chief of a large comic book publishing company. It's pretty famous you've probably heard of it. (Although i didn't recognise who he was until it was pointed out to me...he looks JUST like every other guy waiting in line to touch Wolverine's 'SNIKT'. XXXL Large Famous Comic Book Publishing Company logo T-shirt and all.)
He and a couple of his equally rotund mates were sitting at the table next to us at the pub for lunch.
Discussing of all things...comics. More specifically crossovers.
I now have the goss on what the next BIG multi title crossover thats going to change the face of the universe 4 EVAH is going to be. It's going to be bigger than the latest one. But most likely JUST the same. for 45minutes they dribbled out inspired plot line after shocking revelation as they chowed down on the large meal brought to them. I almost picked up a chair and smashed it over his head.
This is the meal.


After finishing this meal...or at least assimilating most of it through their skin sacks...they called for the bill and left. Left mind you...BEFORE the waitress BROUGHT them the bill they had called for. And most definetly on making a query with the waitress BEFORE paying for it.
Thats right...Mr Editor in Chief of Large Famous Comic Book publishing company that you've probably heard of...skipped out on his bill. He's pretty famous you know...he can DO that sort of thing.

Needless to say...we pointed out who they were and where they could be found for when the manager lady called the black and whites.
You heard it here first true believer! EXCELSIOR!

Next -
Part 3 - What happens in Tijuana stays in Tijuana - Vegas baby - Cowboys and New York.