Comic Geek Speak Super Show or Guns, Guns, Guns

Over 80 indy creators and several hundred comic book fans descended upon the former industrial town of Reading, PA for the CGS Super Show April 30-May 1 for a riotous good time. Sharing the Reading Expo Center with a gun show.  I was only able to make it down for Sunday which apparently turned out to be the better day.

Pop for 50 cents, dollar hot dogs.  What is there not to like about this con?

Artist Tony Moore and wife Kara were very friendly and approachable. Tim Truman of Jonah Hex and Grimjack sat in on a panel.
Andy Schmidt, IDW Editor and founder of Comic Experience had a table. Robert Atkins of GI Joe also had a table.

Kudos to the boys at CGS for the most creator friendly con ever.

MoCCA Fest: Indy Mania

The 10th annual MoCCA Fest Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art April 9-10, 2011 at the 69th Regiment Armory building, a vast space.  An complete treasure trove of independent creators of all forms.  There was absolutely no signs of commercialism or big studios or superheroes.

Creators that stood out to me:

Bill Plympton did a beautiful sketch.  Team of Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente

Sikhtoons- whimsical with a great educational and social message

Kensuke Okabayashi of Piggybackstudios.com presented his first effort “The Foreigner”

Inkbot.net- in particular Louis Chin’s Womp

MoCCA was founded in 2001 to the production and history of comic books, comic stripsand other forms of cartoon art.

C2E2 Report from Chicago

The 2nd Annual Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo on March 18-20 was a refreshing change from the giganta-cons we’ve hit recently.  Even though it was held in the monstrous McCormick Place it still felt like a manageable event – kind of like Boston as a city compared to New York, all the benefits of the big city without most of the drawbacks.  Archaia had a huge presence front and center at the show and looked like they did very well with their titles like Mouse Guard.
Georgia and I had a blast hitting the Artist Alley.  We met some great people there like Robert Atkins, Chris Sotomayor, and the wonderful guys at Comic Geek Speak.  The panels were terrific with no lines or waiting.  The Intellectual Property panel was very popular, the Food & Comics with Rick Bayless the strangest.  Panelists did a bang-up job trying to draw parallels between the two though.

The day ended at the Nerd Bar of the adjoining Hyatt where we met Shanna VanVolt and David Pepose of Newsrama, and Black Panther writer David Liss, novelist and ended up having dinner

SDCC ’10: Hello Hollywood

San Diego Comic-Con has gone star crazy with Michael Cera, Angeline Jolie and many others all touting their films.  Comic purists may sniff, but we had a great time wallowing in commercialism.  I mean let’s face it, it’s loads of sunshine and the best looking con crowd ever.

Getting our badge on Thursday was a dream compared to other large scale events we’ve been to in the past.  Kudos to the large battalion of volunteers manning the rows and rows of check-in stations.

Highlights included: sharing a ride in the elevator with R2D2 (I pressed the button), some impressive Cylon sightings,

Panels were definitely crowded, but we were able to squeeze into the Yo Gabba Gabba room and listen to the creative team talk about  their inspirations for the hit show.  Sounds like a feature film is in the near future.

And there was the unexpected Kevin Smith sighting where we got caught in the scrum of fanboys taking pics.

Other surreal events- apparently there was an altercation between two fans involving pen stabbing. The Machete outdoor party lived up to its hype with Michelle Rodriguez baring her midriff and serving tacos.  Sure we’ve sold out and will definitely be back next year with our Sharpies and comfy shoes.