SDCC '11: The Aftermath, Pt. 2

And in this chapter, I shall present Con Sketches.

As recently as recently I picked up my first sketchbook that was intended to be a Con Sketchbook. I finally figured, "Hell, I'm old enough now to not be so cool as to think I'm above this sort of thing."

Quite by accident (kinda through the fault of some new friends who have "themed" sketchbooks) my Con Sketchbook ended up becoming a Swamp Thing sketchbook.

That said, before I post the images I feel it is important to note that Swamp Thing is the property of DC comics, was created by Len Wein & Bernie Wrightson, and was absolutely dominated by the genius of Alan Moore, Steve Bissette & John Totleben.

Now, I present the glory that is my Swamp Thing Sketchbook, up to now:

The opening salvo of the book, and the man largely at fault for the glorious theme, my dear friend, Rafael Navarro:

Next we have the creator of Blue Estate, Viktor Kavalchev, who claimed to have never heard of Swamp Thing, then looked at a couple of images & whipped this out:

Third in is one of Viktor's co-conspirators on Blue Estate, Mr. Toby Cypress

Next in is none other than Jason Shawn Alexander, whose most recent work graces the cover & interiors of Dark Horse's Creepy #6. 

I hate this guy. He's way too handsome to be this talented.

Then we face the might & glory of Barron Storey. If I need to tell you anything about him, then I'm not certain that I can talk to you.

And finally (for now), is something I never thought I'd have, from a man I never thought I'd get to meet. A man who was at the forefront of redefining the possibilities of art in the comic medium, in the 80s, Mr. Michael Zulli.

That's all for now, and good lord, it is more than I ever thought possible.

SDCC '11: The Aftermath, Pt. 1

Alright, let's just get this out of the way: This blog has not yet found its voice. I know this. I'm working on it.

It frustrates me, frequently. As I was handing out business cards at Comic-Con I found myself hesitant, regretting having put the URL on the cards, because of this lack.

Never fear, we'll find our way. This will not be another 40 years in the desert.

Now, for the bits to which the title of this post referred.

I have only two words that can accurately summarize this year's San Diego Comic-Con International, and those words are: Holy Shit!

The retelling of Con will come in chunks. There was a lot worth reporting, and you can't do justice to this sort of madness by blurting it out in one breath.

We'll start with the fact that the whole fucking thing is a massive fire hazard. 126,000 people in attendance, and I'd say less that 1/4 of that number knows their ass from a hole in the ground when it comes down to crowd dynamics & crisis management. The fire marshal almost shut down the Fox booth, because a massive crush of people couldn't pull their shit together & behave like reasonable human-beings when the Fox people trotted out yet another celebrity (seriously, Fox people, you need to find a better system, and request a booth in a location more suited to your shenanigans). Artists' Alley has been condensed down to less than 1/3 of the space it used to occupy, though it would appear that the number of artists in the space has not changed. This condensation means that the artists are cramped into unreasonably tiny spaces, with their only mode of egress from behind their tables being to move down the row, behind everyone else between their table & the next available aisle.

This is both uncomfortable & unsafe.

I've become concerned that the organizers of the convention have become a bit too attached to the success of the show. This is understandable, but the flaw is in overlooking that exponential growth is not an interminably supportable system. Sooner or later a thing will collapse under its own weight.

Don't take me wrong; I'm not one of those who is upset that "Con isn't what it used to be." Things change. This is the way of the world. This is how things work. Hell, this is why things work. Physical evolution; emotional evolution; social evolution. These are the keys to progress. This is, in fact, entirely my point: The show is changing, but there doesn't appear to be any attempt at balance & temperance.

It's like a localized version of the Dot Com boom, and without temperance & balance it will continue to zoom toward the same fate.

More soon.

SDCC 2011

Comic-Con 2011 is breathing down our necks. Just around the corner. Lurking in the shadows. Other metaphors, as well.

I'm walking into Con this year with a renewed sense of excitement, having just scored a gig writing a mini-series for Committed Comics, and having just come off a stint working as the inking assistant for the Great & Powerful Mick Gray on issue one of DC's new Batman & Robin relaunch, and on Johan Hex, over the pencils of the Almighty Ryan Sook.

I'll be out there looking for new gigs, & doing sketches.

See you there.