HeroesCon: Day 1 - Review

First lesson we learned? The lines get long. Last year we had a kid in a stroller so we got to use the elevators and kind of bypassed all lines. This year, at 3.25 years old, OC doesn't use a stroller and we stood on line. First time we were on the wrong line. I couldn't believe it was so long and that was the general admission line. We luckily had advance tickets for the 3-day event so we had special tags and got to short-cut... somewhat. We still had a line but it wasn't quite as bad: was no stroller skip though!

Beware the power of Owen's ligggghhhhhhttttt!

Upon entrance, I b-lined for Jamie Cosley's booth. I wanted to buy a painting from him and get my incentive to be first which was a awesome batman sketch he did. I got there and reintroduced myself. He knew who I was (yay). CT asked Jamie to draw him a picture of "Adventure Time" (he had a painting of it on his table so it gave him the idea). We talked as he drew the pic. He's a very cool guy! Saw his son too who is a cutie-pie. We bought a 6"x6" of Thor (consensus from the kidlets), got the Batman sketch (which I totally adore), and a copy of his "Cody the Cavalier." He drew "Adventure Time" for CT and HT asked for Thor.

Jamie Cosley doing HT's sketch of Thor
(see the Thor painting on the table? We bought that one!)

Next to Jamie was Chris Giarrusso - someone else we were also familiar with (mini-marvels). Again, a super nice guy. I love his sketches so much. They are just the right amount of cute without being too girly-cute. I just adore his work. HT kind of knows his work and although his sign said "Free Basic Sketches of G-Man Only", he asked for Blue Hulk. The sweet, kind man that Chris is, he took his time and drew an amazing Blue Hulk for my son. Meanwhile Tom decided to get a commission from him. He commission him to draw Blue Beetle & Booster Gold (B&W) and I cant wait to pick it up to see it! It will be proudly displayed in our house. We also bought a G-Man comic as well.

Then next to them was Jacob Chabot & Gregg Schigiel. I had Schigiel on my list as well. CT asked if he could draw Spongebob and I must say, it's such a simply awesome picture! CT *loves* it! We bought an "X-Babies" and a "Spongebob Comics". We plan to go back and Hunter wants him to draw and his book as well. After seeing Gregg, we kept singing "Dusty Cartridges & Long Boxes".

Next we headed over to Andy Runton, creator of Owly. CT asked him to draw Owly (as did HT after). CT pointed out his shirt which was the Emerald City Comic Con shirt from 2010 which features Owly done by Runton. He dint seem too impressed with any of it. He kindly did the sketches and the kids wanted these tiny buttons so they each picked out a small Owly button (3 for $5.00 isn't a great deal for these smaller than an inch buttons but HT begged). I also had complimented Andy on his awesome colorized Indie Island picture he did for the con. I told him I saved it on my desktop at home. He thought that was kinda cool...I think.

We then headed over to see Todd Dezago who is a writer for "Super Hero Squad" which is a HUGE hit at our house! Now, Todd is a writer, not an artist but CT asked for a sketch of Dr. Doom and he did the best he could and Ct was happy and I told him how special it was that a writer did a sketch in his book and he's proud to have it there! 

CT wanted a sketch done by Evan Dorkin. He's the guy who created Super Martian Robot Girl (from Yo! Gabba Gabba). The two of them wanted to see him last year but he had cancelled so they didnt get to see him. This year we made it a point to go see him. We waited by him for about 15 minutes without him even bothering with us. His daughter sat and played her GameBoy (I assume his daughter who is about 8 or so) in front of us and he talked to a bunch of other people. We eventually gave up since he never even made eye contact with any of us and I will admit, my kids are cute and they make good puppy dog eyes (which sadly, usually gets them what they want - even though they dont know they have that power). So, no Dorkin for 2 straight years. Sorry kidlets. By the time we could get him in their book, the baby would be too old to watch YGG!


Tom told HT that he should go see S.L. Gallant as he is the one who does the GI Joe comics he currently reads. HT excitedly went over to him and asked for a sketch of Snake Eyes. Kids were trying to be patient but were getting restless and he said we could come back to pick up the book. We did, stopped at someone else I will review next but when we picked up HT's book... WOW! he did an amazing sketch that is just.. yeah! It's awesome! THANK YOU! You made my 5-year old AND my husband very happy! Tommy had him giggle a bit talking GI Battle stories from back in the day. It was kinda cute to watch hubby get all mushy-gushy and sentimental over his childhood GI Joes :)

From Gallant's booth we saw some awesome sketches of an artist who reminded us of Skottie Young. We flipped through his book of awesomeness! Christopher Uminga (the one whom we totally loved) & his table partner Matthew J. Fletcher was very nice. CT got a sketch of The Joker by Uminga. I just totally dig his stuff as I browsed his artwork online as well. 

We tried to find Rob Hunter but couldn't find him... looked like someone else was in the spot he was supposed to be. :( He would been cool on a few levels.


We walked over to get another sketch we wanted. Last year, Mike Norton drew the Ted Kord Blue Beetle for HT (per HT's request). This year we needed his compliment, Booster Gold. Mike kindly stopped his commission to quick sketch for HT. Mike didn't seem overly friendly this year, but ya know what? He did graciously stop paid work to do my child a favor so how can I complain? I cant, really! Mike, you did another awesome job! Thank you! I can feel Booster's "nose-in-the-air"iness just looking at the picture and BattlePug is awesome!

While waiting for that, Tom turned around and saw Jon Gray. He was there with Archie Comics but he had a whole bunch of Mega Man comics there. CT got him to draw an awesome Mega Man sketch. Now we got  "Take it From Me" by Kirby Krackle in our heads. 

Kids were just about done. Waiting for 2 hours cant be much fun when you're 3, 5, and 7. We took a quick walk around the back area and did stumble upon Terry Huddleston. He had a whole wall of unbelievable head "shots". Again, I looked him up and his whole body stuff is just as amazing. I can totally see my house decorated in those head shots and I bet one of his prints will be in our house soon (but not this trip - damn tight budget). I have his awesome card and his page book marked. :) 


The other person that caught my eye was Marc Lewis. He had this original art-piece of Atrocitus, Larfleeze, and Sinestro and It was just so cool. I should have asked the price. I think he said stuff was half-price for kids. I told Tom he has to go talk to him tomorrow. I keep thinking of that picture :) 


Finally before leaving that section of the con with 3 VERY hungry kidlets who were getting snappy, whiny, & crabby (their new dwarf names), we stopped by Rob Anderson's Panda Dog Press table. How could we not stop by and see him? We couldn't! We talked to him for as long as the kids could stand and I purchased Issue 0 of "Rex: Zombie Killer". It was just a buck after all. I read it and I want to read more so it worked! Good job, Rob!


We walked past a few booths. HT had a complete meltdown because we wouldn't buy him a Transformer. What Transformer did her want? A min in box, original, Japanese version of Optimus Prime... like from the 80s. It was priced at $250.00. He didnt care. He just wanted to play with it. One day we hope he understands. He did get a cool Flash guy for only 2 bucks at another place.

-------------------

This is our stash from today (minus Tom's commission we didnt get yet).

Isnt that Batman amazing?

---------------------

RICH BARRETT | AA-429 | Nathan Sorry

JAMIE COSLEY | AA-221 | Cody the Cavalier

EVAN DORKIN | AA-516 | Beasts of Burden, Milk & Cheese, 

MARIS WICKS | AA-409 |Yes Let's, Project Romantic

ANDY RUNTON | AA-444 | Owly

CHRIS GIARRUSSO | AA-222 | G-Man, Mini Marvels

PANDA DOG PRESS | SP-129 | Rob Anderson, Grace Chang

REBECCA BUCHMAN | AA-741 | Green Lantern Corps, Brightest Day

TODD DEZAGO | AA-403 | Marvel Super Hero Squad

SANFORD GREENE | AA-712 | Deadpool, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, Wonder Girl, Methodman GN

ROB HUNTER | AA-814 | Batman and Robin, JLA, Brightest Day, Green Lantern

SCOTT KOLINS | AA-623 | Flash, JSA, Flashpoint: Citizen Cold, Avengers, Wolverine, Thor

PETER KRAUSE | AA-627 | Irredeemable, Power of Shazam!, Metropolis: S.C.U.

BEN MCCOOL | AA-412 | Choker, Memoir, Captain America: Korvac Saga

MARK MCHALEY | AA-706 | Voltron, Star Wars Sketch Cards, Indiana Jones Sketch Cards, The Socketeer

MIKE NORTON | AA-211 | Young Justice, Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt, Battlepug

MARK MORALES | AA-723 | Avengers: Children's Crusade, The Mighty Thor, Siege, Secret Invasion

GREGG SCHIGIEL | AA-220 | Spongebob Comics, X-Babies, Pix: Teenage American Fairy

SL GALLANT | AA-728 | GI Joe

STEPHANE ROUX | AA-407 | Zatanna

ETHAN VAN SCIVER | AA-802 | Green Lantern

KEVIN MAGUIRE | AA-116 | Justice League International

AMY MEBBERSON | AA-639 | Muppets, Strawberry Shortcake, Monsters Inc.

ADAM WARROCK | AA-337 | 

Seen 8 of 24 as of end of Day 1 (plus need to revisit 5 of them)