E-7 -- Where Comics Live!

How many breaks do you get in a lifetime?

Comic-Con International: San Diego has once again come and gone.  I’m happy it’s over, and happy because I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Apparently redemption comes acute, obtuse, straight and right!

Just as Comic-Con has changed over the years, so has the make-up of the Bare Bones Studios booth.  Mike (our bunny-eared leader), Killer Robot Rob and I shared table space while Carlos roamed the vicinity.  This year we were joined by Alethea (a-LEE-thee-a), who published her novel Angels Of Redemption.  With my latest issue, Pretty Vacant: Final Repose, combined with Bare Bones Studios t-shirts, current copy of Pocketbook Heroes and a seemingly endless supply of free action (stick) figures, we were ready to rock!

Not only was the product different from last year, so was the group dynamic.  Alethea brought two of her children, Gabriel and Sterling, and this year my sister and my friends David, Steve and Courtney joined my nieces and me in San Diego.  I received no end of teasing regarding Courtney’s youthful appearance, with Rob jokingly (I think) questioning if I was a sexual deviant.  As a tax preparer certified by the IRS, I have to ask the date of birth of all my clients, including Courtney’s, and yes -- she’s legal!

Between selling Pretty Vacant and drawing customized faces on stickmen, there wasn’t as much time to spend with family and friends.  Yet a reprieve came from an unlikely source: Sterling.  He also started drawing faces on stick figures and began handing them out.  My primary function at the booth temporarily halted, I was happy to enjoy the Con!  I made the most of it, squeezing in my traditional Friday lunch at Dick’s Last Resort with my best friend (at Comic-Con) Rodney, watching the “Chuck” panel and the Captain America (in 3-D!) movie with my nieces, while hanging out at Dustin and Sandra’s booth behind Bare Bones.

Sandra sold her Banzai Chicks items while dressed as characters from the late, lamented “Legend of The Seeker”, while her husband Dustin presented his iPad app Poker With Bob in a playable format for the show.  So playable, in fact, that Rob and I had fun pointing out which attendees had gambling addiction problems to Dustin!  It was ideal to have the two behind me, as it was easy to pass on attendee-paid copies of Pretty Vacant to Sandra to autograph with me, as Sandra did paint the cover to my comic!

Sandra and I posing with a copy of Pretty Vacant: Final Repose.  

Thanks to Mike, I was still able to sell out at the show!  Hardcore selling at the last hour of the Con ensured this, even if Rob bought my last book just to shut Carlos up!  I returned the favor to Alethea by purchasing two out of the last five copies of her novel left at the show.

With Mike away from the booth for part of the last day, Rob and I had our one serious discussion.  Rob wondered if we had wasted our breaks.  We have all been relatively successful with comics, television and film in the past.  Now, here we are in our 40s trying to sell comics at a comic convention that really isn’t about comics anymore.  We (minus Sandra) still have our day jobs.  However, Rob’s son drew the inside cover of Pocketbook Heroes, my nieces have said the reason they took up drawing was because of me, and Alethea’s sons like to cosplay as the Killer Robot with Rob and tell me that their faces on stickmen are better than mine.  All I can say is that it doesn’t really matter what we do now, but what we leave after we’re gone…

… and that’s what Christmas Comic-Con is all about, Charlie Brown!

Rob made the front page of the San Diego Union-Tribune with his costume!

Lastly, I do hope the lady with the best smile in Comic-Con comes back next year!

Previous Comic-Con entry

“Chuck” Comic-Con Panel: We’re Doomed…

An unintended consequence of major Hollywood movie studios pulling out of this year’s Comic-Con has been that turnout for television series panels in Ballroom 20 have overflowed past its capacity of 4,250 people. Case in point: My nieces, my good friend Rodney and I waited two hours in line to attend this morning’s “Chuck” panel and barely got inside, sitting in the second-to-last row!

The audience was treated to an opening video clip of Josh Gomez (Morgan) being trained by Ryan McPartlin (Captain Awesome) Rocky-style to Jeffster! singing “Eye Of The Tiger”. It just has to be seen to be believed, and fortunately has already been posted on the ‘net.

After the cast and producer Chris Fedak took their seats, the panel started in earnest. Zac Levi (Chuck) spoke about how he would like “Chuck” to end after five years. Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah) mentioned that her favorite episode was “Chuck vs. Phase 3”. And unlike last year, the moderator was smart enough this year to allow enough time for questions from the audience.

Most of the questions were predictable and easy to answer, but one question in particular put Fedak on the spot: If Chuck was the only one who can handle the Intersect, how come so many other people have had the Intersect uploaded into them during the past two seasons? After hemming and hawing, Fedak finally said that the Intersect affects people in different ways, and will somewhat highlight the Intersect’s effect on Morgan early in Season Five.

Some cast members were sad that the show is in its final season, while others were still unconvinced of the finality. Mark Christopher Lawrence (Big Mike) opined the best way for “Chuck” to end: funny!

I just wish that the free promotional t-shirt given to me during the panel would fit me…

I can do-- this!

Once again it's that time of year where everything I've worked on privately is presented to 130,000 of the most critical people one can ever meet. If any of you who read this blog can make it to Comic-Con this year, my booth is E-7. Please say kind things to me!

And bring me a gift as the Monday before Comic Con is my birthday! Twenties and higher, please!

God Loves Me Anyway -- The New G.A.R.D.E. at 10!

People are surprised when they visit my house that I only have one page of my original artwork framed on a wall. I’m happy with that, because it’s my favorite comic art page: Page Six of The New G.A.R.D.E. Special Edition!

The New G.A.R.D.E.’s premise is that yesterday’s heroes could show today’s cynical world what it truly takes to be a hero. Released ten years ago this month, The New G.A.R.D.E. was sponsored by the late, lamented Blockbuster Video, and it is currently the only comic of my work that’s been accepted in San Diego State University’s special collection for their Library.

G.A.R.D.E. stood for Genetically Altered Radically Different Entities, and despite being the only character that did not have a super-power, Tour de Force became my favorite! Not because she was an unusual cross between Batman and Annie Oakley, but because she was based on a very bon ami (good friend) who lives in France.

Tour de Force was cool because she was the only one on The New G.A.R.D.E. that could make a precision strike. That ability was helpful when The New G.A.R.D.E. had to capture a President of a foreign country wanted for crimes against humanity. While the other members of the team kept President Silec’s armed forces busy, Tour de Force sneaked inside his fortress to capture him personally:

I combined a Jackie Chan action sequence (TdF leaping past security lasers) with my personal thoughts on God’s Grace (“God loves me anyway”). That makes it special for me!

Even ten years on.