Thursday, June 26, 2008

Heroes Con 2008 wrap-up extravaganza

Whats up dudes and dudettes?

Another year, another fabulous Heroes Con in the lovely city of Charlotte, NC, for those of you that are stupid and without a map.

Travel chums Brad McGinty and Patrick Dean made both the trip up and back fun with their amusing anecdotes and sound effects while I drove the Yaris full of fun mini comix and pasty nerds. I seriously can't believe we fit all of that in a two door car. Oh well, the things we do to save on gas, which by press time is now up to $74.67 a gallon. Why do I bring up gas prices? Trust me it came up a lot.



This is my fourth year going, first year as a featured guest in Indie Island.
I guess I'm moving on up the comix latter. Why, next year at this time you might have maybe possibly heard of me! Not bloody likely, but a fella can dream, right?

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I shared a table with the other half of Cute Girl Demographics, Brad McGinty (who's not a cute girl) , and our super duper pal and fellow cartoonist Shannon Smith.



The table was cramped and tight but it was nice to have someone at the table at all times, 'cos I like to walk around n' stuff and buy stuff n' stuff.



And Brother, did I ever buy stuff! I think I did my part to stimulate the economy, thank you.
I don't think I 'll ever need another comic as long as I live. Just kidding, please send me your comics, everyone!

That's my biggest regret of the show. I really wish I met and traded with more of you out there. But I digress.

What, was there even a point?

Oh yes, the stuff I bought or otherwise (shoplifted):



The Claws Come Out
by Pat Lewis


I was already sorta familiar with Pat's work through the stuff he did For Wide Awake Press. I really love it. His style is super bouncy and cartoony. I love cartoony books. We need more fun comics, I mean they're called Comics, right? Anyway, the book is great, buy it now. Pat's gotta lot of great minis too. Go to his site right now and say "What up, homeskillet?!"



Superior Showcase #3
by various jerks


Man alive! What a great book. All three stories (by Brian Maruca, Jim Rugg, Laura Park and Dustin Harbin) are great. Am I saying great too much? I must admit, I had hesitations about Steet Angel, mostly because I thought it was gonna be a comic adaptation of the
1984 film directed by Robert Vincent O'Neill about the High School Honor Student by day, Hollywood Hooker by night. Well, true believers, it's not. I 'm a fan now. I loved Street Angel.

I 've slobbered over Dustin many times in many places, so I'll just say,
"Dustin, you make me wanna quit drawing, and I mean that in the best possible way."

A side note about this book. I got Chris Pitzer to sign my issue, he personalized the lovely Roger Langridge cover for me and for whatever reason felt bad and offered to give me a clean copy too. I wouldn't hear of it. In fact, I want Chris to autograph all my comics for me from now on. Y'hear that, Chris? Look for my collection coming to you C.O.D!



Skyscrapers Of The Midwest
by Josh Cotter


I haven't read this one yet, but man, the book is gorgeous, it really looks great(there's that word again!)
Oh, I have read an issue or two of this book when it was being serialized as a floppy, but I don't know how it reads all together. I 'm wagering it'll be great(That's it, I quit).




The Blot
by Tom Neely


Would you believe this beautiful book is self-published? Cripes, the craftsmanship on the cover alone is enough to make me throw my own books in the nearest landfill.

Tom has kinda a 30's Ub Iwek/Fleischer looking rubber hose style that he uses to tell a sad and psychedelic tale that I honestly would do a disservice by trying to explain. This book is all pictures. There are a few word balloons, but it's mostly a pantomime. I've seen this book around, and I 'm glad I have it now. Look out for The Blot, he's gonna be huge!



Girls Of Monster Paradise
By Stephanie Gladden


First things first, the cover of Girls Of Monster Paradise looks MUCH better in real life. I was just too lazy to get a good scan and I couldn't find a better picture in Google image search.
In a perfect world, you and I could turn on the TV and this cartoon would be on the air. Then after we finish watching a little TV, we could get up and go to the kitchen and make ourselves a bowl of Girls Of Monster paradise cereal while dreaming of a world when gas was still only $2.98 a gallon.

Send me a better jpeg of this cover, Steph!



The Surrogates
by "Hollywood" Rob and some other guy

Jeez, Rob. I'm sorry it took me this long to get around to buying your book.

Some other odds and ends:
  • a nutty European Disney Duck comic that has some dragons and junk
  • Superman Family Vol2
  • ...and a grounds for divorce-worthy amount of golden age funny animal comics.

You're still reading this?

Let me say how great it was to see my friends, J.Chris Campbell, Duane Ballenger, Rob Ullman ,
Ben Towle, Topshelf, Adhouse, Sarah Louise Wahrhaftig, Chris Schweizer, Team 8 Press, Dollar Bin, all those guys from Macon, Indie Spinner Rack and lotsa new friends too.

Admittedly, I didn't really make out at the Con like a bandit in terms of my sales, but a good time was had and that's all that really matters, right?
I honestly wish I walked around and did more trading.
I guess I was just darned embarrassed!
I guess there's always next year-
Unless of course, we live in a Mad Maxesque post apocalyptic world by then.
In that case, comic books would be pretty silly, really.

2 comments:

Shano said...

Good report. I "lol"ed and "rotflmao"ed and several other internet cliches.

And no, I can't believe that Blot book is self-published.

I thought our croweded table (and other people's crowded tables) looked great. I think it's kind of sad that some fans expect creators to just have a big empty table so that the fan has plenty of room on which dump a stack of comics and expect the creator to sign. The creator is not getting one penny off those books the fan brought to the con and the sad thing is they probably did not get paid much when they created those comics in the first place. I say pile the junk from the floor to the sky and if the fans want a signiture, sketch or even just a handshake they have to buy there way through the pile.

But then again, I don't have any fans and I'm a crazy person.

Unknown said...

Awesome! I had a great time, and it was good seeing you again and hanging out. Next year will be EVEN BETTER!