“When I was a child I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. - Elvis Presley

This is gonna be a pretty image-heavy post, so bear with me.

So, San Diego Comicon was last week. What a place! It was like disneyland for geeks. I guess they recorded something like 120,ooo people all 4 days. That's insane. My wife and I headed out Wednesday morning, so we could make it to Preview Night. We handed out flyers and stuff for the Phoenix Comicon, then walked the vendor floor, for a while. Thursday we went back, and walked the floor some more. Give you a hint of how big this place is, if you haven't been; if you stand in the middle of the room, you can't see either end. There's that many booths and people. I got some sweet sketches and autographs (I'll post some up later) from the likes of Neal Adams Comics God (who wasn't doing sketches, but did a quickie for me), Ryan Ottley of Invincible Fame (who also wasn't doing sketches, but did one, and then got Bill Crabtree the colorist on Invincible to color it for me), Koi Turnbull (from Aspen Comics) did me a sweet Black Canary, Frank Cho (Liberty Meadows) did a Truman for me, hell, even Kurt Busiek did me a sketch! I have a few others so here are some thanks: Brandon Peterson, Angel Medina, Josh Middleton, Adam Hughes, J.G. Jones, Ashlie (my wife), Matt Haley, David Mack & LeSean Thomas. Thanks sooo much! You helped make my first con great. We bought alot of stuff, too. Ashlie fell in love with an Adam Hughes limited edition Zatanna print, so we had to get it, a whole mess of comics and trade paperbacks, and I bought a sketch from Scott Kolins. We also got a LOT of free stuff that they were handing out at the different vedor booths. I met in addition to all the people listed above; Jason Gorder Inker Extrodinaire, Jim Lee-Artist of the Gods, and John Romita Sr. SOOO COOL!

On to Pictures: I had just gotten in on Thursday Morning, and Ashlie and I were checking out the Marvel Toys booth. When off to my left I hear a voice say, "Oh. This isn't the Marvel Booth, this is just the Toys." Not just any voice, though. I recognized this voice from years of being a Marvel Zombie. I looked over and did a double take. There was the man responsible for defining the artistic vision of Marvel Comics and comics in general for the better part of the 60's and 70's, John Romita. The man who to this day draws my favorite Spider-Man. I was awestruck. Total geek meltdown. I asked him for a handshake, because that was all my brain could think of at the time. My wife looks at me like I'm an idiot, and says ask him for a PICTURE! So, I did. Not a bad start to the first real day of the Con... ;) Thanks, Mr. Romita!


While walking around, I ran into this character. Considering my affinity for all things, Spider-Man, I asked if I could "bug" him for a photo.

I got to the DC booth late, and Jim Lee was wrapping up his shift at the signing table. I asked if he was doing any sketches and he said no, but I asked if I could get a picture, and he said yes! A very cool, if tired man. Thanks, Mr. Lee.

The Convention Center as seen from the Gaslamp district in Downtown San Diego.














A shot of the screens in Hall H, where we waited for 2 hours for Kevin Smith. Who never showed. (I'm not supposed to have taken this pic...)














Pirates! There were alot of them at this show. These pirates seem to be brokering a deal with Indiana Jones. Presumably, for the sale of their friend on the stick. All kinds of things are for sale here!














Me & Sora.


Lego Batman. Yes, he's made entirely of Legos. Neat, huh?


Guess the characters!










































And, on Satu... er, FRIDAY night, I met up with some awesome people from the Graphic Design Forum. Unfortunately, I'm stupid, and got the days mixed up, and thought we were gonna meet on Saturday, so Ash and I had already eaten. But we went to this busy little mexican restaurant in Old Town. We had a great time. I can't post the pic because Ash is a little internet-shy, but trust me, we're all smiles and there's a reason. Shelle and Urstwile, were loads of fun!

ART TIME!!!

As this was my first con, I thought I should get a sketchbook to obain autographs, sketches and whatever else I could think of. I posted about the sketches I got up top, but I had the first page left to fill. I thought about getting someone I really admire to do a doodle for it, but there are to many people to get on one little page. So, I did it myself, under the insistence of my loving wife. Here's what I came up with:





Thanks for checking me out. See ya next time!