2 posts tagged “comicon”
Well I'm a week late, but here is the run down from APE (Alternative Press Expo) in San Fran.
I had gotten the new books (see last post) and a new banner stand courtesy of Scott and was ready to kick some ass at APE. I also had my costume worked out, but it meant wearing a portion of it on the plane. It was easier to wear my cowboy boots, coat, and hat than pack them away. Not to mention lighter.
I felt a bit silly at the airport, but it was in the interest of a good costume.
Scott, Jack and I travelled together, and would meet the others later. We had to drive to Seattle and then flew into San Fran, which was pretty brutal. Fortunately I'm good at sleeping on planes now.
Once we arrived we checked into the hotel (located on luxurious Ellis street) which was pretty much in the center of "Crackton". Yeah the neighbourhood made the downtown Eastside look alright. Still no one got shot so the area couldn't be that bad.
Anyways after a loooong wait we connected with the rest of the Cloudscape crew. There were seven of us in total, though we didn't see Severine the first night. Of the people staying at the hostel we had Jonathon, Angela, Steve, Scott, Jack and myself. We are then off to the APE preregistration party at the Last Gasp book warehouse. Some of us got into costume including yours truly. Here were some highlights:
My ghost cowboy
Jonathon as the Monkey King
and the greatest costume of all, Scott as Charlie Brown!
It was a good night, however I found my extreme make-up got in the way of networking, as that no one could recognize me. Ah well ive and learn.
All in all it was a good night, I got to catch up with Camilla D'Errico, Keith Knight, and Stephen Notley.
The next day was the first day of APE and I was psyched. We had a slick new book and a great looking table, however there were two things I wasn't counting on.
ONE: San Francisco takes Halloween very seriously and doesn't like to do much the day after.
TWO: The first day of recorded torrential rain for the winter happeneded.
So sadly Saturday was bad sales wise, in fact we got slaughtered, it was pretty nasty. But I did get some nice books. Like the new Acme novelty Library, and Linda Barry's Best American comics.
And we made friends with the Boston Comics Roundtable Cloudscapes Eastcoast American dopplegangers.
It was very rewarding to see the number of comic collectives at the con. I really think this is the future of small press.
Saturday night we missed out on the Comic Art Museum party, but did soak up the free booze and fun at the Isotop comic awards.
Sunday saw the return of the Sun and a rise in sales. I also got to see Chris War talk about his work and even get the mans autograph. I was very nervous to meet him. He creates his comcis much like I created my 24hr. comic. In that he plans his story in advance but then starts immediately on finished art and works from top left to bottom right, allowing the story to evolve as he draws. His comics however end up a lot more polished than my 24 hr. scribbles did.
Still I see some value in applying this thought process to the work. I plan on some more flowing comics in future, maybe a 48 hour comic with sleep breaks is in order.
Chris Ware suggested a 27 hour comic, though possibly this was a plan to eliminate competition ;)
Sunday night Jack and I got to meet up with our old workmate Sasha, and we saw the shrines of "the day of the dead" which looked like even more fun than Halloween.
The next day Jack, Scott and I went to Alcatraz and got to experience the second recorded day of torrential rain in San Francisco. (I think we brought it down from Vancouver)
After we dried out we went to Chinatown for dinner, and the final day was spent at the cartoon art museum before returning home.
Loads of fun.
And on the 16th we do our official Vancouver launch!
Wish me luck!
Well I just wrapped up my second day at emerald city today and I had a blast! The first day was a bit hectic, and I found I got more face time with the artist on the second day. Some highlights were speaking with David Mack, Chris Sprouse and Michael Oeming. I also got some fantastic free sketches from Chris Sprouse and Gene Ha. And I broke down and paid some for a few originals from Mark Bagley and David Mack. And I tried arm wrestling Mike Oeming for some original art, sadly he kicked my ass.
Chris Sprouse was an amazingly friendly and approachable guy, I spent quite a lot of time at his booth on Saturday. David Mack and Mike Oeming were also very nice guys. I also met a girl named Dinana who lives in Whiterock and is on the verge of becoming a proffessional inker. I met her on Saturday night as that we were both staying at the same hostel and were both looking for a good place to grab dinner. We found a nice local pub and I tried some nice micro brewed beer. Afterwards Diana took me to a party with other local Seattle artists for some alchohol fuled madness. Things were great until I was given a deadly blue concoction. Still, we both staggered back to the hostel that night and were able to get up for Sunday.
I am really impressed with this hostel. If you ever are in Seattle look for the Green Tortoise!
Tomorrow I do some normal sightseeing!
