Thursday, June 26, 2008

HeroesCon '08 - Day Three

Sunday started with little fanfare. No breakfast, though I did drink coffee, which is a rarity for me. Read SHANNA, worked on another sketch and waited for that magic hour of 11am when the convention opened. While in line I recognized a face in front of me - none other than Chris Sims of The Invincible Superblog. I stammered through a greeting and asked if he was drawing Batman yet. (He wasn’t.) I then asked him what W.E.I.R.D. was and before I could blink Jay Potts, his penciller, had placed a HARD ONES ashcan in my grubby little mitts. Nice work and a very nice guy that Jay. We continued to talk as the line moved and eventually parted ways as we hit the floor. I did a quick run over to the ‘Ringo booth for hellos before I had to head up for the inking panel at 11:30.

Not knowing what to expect from the panel, though I was hoping we’d be doing some inking exercises, I got a decent seat and proceeded to work on my Quickdraw idea. Thought I really had a chance today with the QD as I overheard the judges were looking for a drawing that told a story, so instead of humor I was going with a macabre theme today. But those thoughts had to wait as Roy Richardson began the panel. A very soft spoken man it was rather hard to hear him at times. The panel didn’t really teach me much more than I already know through the Kubert book and DVD, but it was good way of spending two hours and not any money. After the panel I headed back down for another quick visit with the gang before hitting Fuel Pizza again for a couple more slices.

I scarfed down my slices in the room and did some more sketching to keep the drawing fresh in my mind and hand. I decided to hunt down Evan Dorkin after talking to him the previous night. He had a small crowd around him, so I waited and picked up a copy of HECTIC PLANET and he was kind enough to do a quick drawing in the book for me. It's always nice to meet someone who's work you've respected and enjoyed and you find that they're good people, too. Makes the world seem a little better.

The hour of the QuickDraw had drawn nigh, so I headed over to try my luck one last time. Hopefully, the fear of an elder god would claim me some sembalance of victory. I present you with Cthulhu:


Hands smeared with pencil lead I headed back down to the floor to check in on the family. Everyone was around except Mafus, so Squeeze gave him a call. He said he’d found something for me and he was waiting in the 300 aisle. I refrained from yelling, “This is Sparta!” and headed over. Seems Mafus had found the volume of JLA ELITE that I was missing, so I snatched it up. Having broken the seal, so to say, I bought a few more items before listening to the list of QuickDraw winners without my name on it. Defeated again, we packed up shop and called it a con.

A quick change and we headed out to the after party at Heroes Aren't Hard To Find, Shelton Drum's store. Now I love me some Velocity Comics. They keep a mean store, but HAHTF is a flagship store if there ever was one. I could spend days and thousands of dollars in that place. Yowza. Beverages and food were provided, but the BBQ disappeared with a quickness, so we had to go elsewhere if we wanted vittles. Luckily there was a cajun place two blocks down. We hoofed it with a storm threatening and ordered up. The dinner was excellent, though they ran out of bread before we got there (I'm looking at you, Kirkman!), so the meal might have even been better with some baked goodness. We swapped stories and laughs before heading back in the rain.

As we had acquired Uncle Boom (Mark Waid) at dinner (thanks for dinner again, too!) we were even more cramped in the Squeeze-Mobile than before. Mafus and I ended up in the back and I had water running into my arse. Later at the hotel bar I'm sure the wet circle over my rectum raised many an eyebrow, but I didn't let me phase me as I was "assing" people many questions. Todd was handing out Choopie Butt Cards like crazy. It was rather amusing. (He even gave one to Darwyn Cooke.) A few drinks and we all called it a night as everyone was leaving in the morning. No sketching, just a little reading and then lights out.

DAY THREE LOOT:
ESSENTIAL HULK Vol. 1
HECTIC PLANET Vol. 1
INDIE ISLAND T-SHIRT (DORKIN)
JLA ELITE Vol. 2

7 comments:

Heywood Jablomie said...

Sweet! Thanks for giving the rundowns! Although the image of your wet ass, while funny, was unnecessary haha!

did they confiscate the quickdraw pix or did you get them back? cuz that cthulhu is frakkin awesome.

Christian D. Leaf said...

I got 'em back. (Didn't know this last year until the end, so I only got one back.) Gonna ink 'em and post 'em, probably in the order I drew them. Wanna try some new techniques with Cthulhu, who Mafus has already called dibs on.

Heywood Jablomie said...

Damn you Mafuuuus! haha

that's cool. anyone got dibs on the tom then?

Christian D. Leaf said...

Unfortunately, yes. Sorry, mang. A friend has two little girls, who have called dibs on the "lighter" two drawings. The surprising fact is that the girls love this zombie drawing of mine we use for target practice. They probably would've called dibs on Cthulhu if they'd been given the chance.

Heywood Jablomie said...

haha that's hilarious. gotta love kids!

Matt Wieringo said...

Heh. Like taking candy from a baby. Well, more like taking drawings from two babies. Whatever. C'thulhu is mine, bitches!

Chris Sims said...

Jay was unbelievably quick on the draw with those Ashcans. I think it has something to do with the fact that he had a special compartment for them, and mine were just lumped into my bag with copies of PUNISHER 2099.

In either case, it was great meeting you (and to have someone shouting at me from the second floor), and I'm sorry we didn't get to hang out a little more. Next year, yo!