I wound up speaking with everyone on my list who I hoped to find, except my Diamond Distributor Representative. It turns out he had walked right by our booth while I was out talking to everyone else, and even though I repeatedly went to Diamond’s booth, I never found him.
I got contact info for every artist I spoke with, and there were a lot of artists there I was excited to meet.
I found Dick Ayers and his wife, Lindy, early during the con. He didn’t recognize me at first. He said my hair was shorter now. It had been three years. I brought a stack of books for him to sign, and bought some of his sketches. I asked if there were any comics characters he’d like to draw that he hasn’t had the chance to do yet, and he said, The Punisher.
We talked about meeting for drinks later. These plans were altered to having an early dinner, maybe something simple like burgers. They weren’t in the mood, they said, for a fancy dinner. We decided to meet up after the con.
Michael Lark was very friendly, and even stopped by our booth. He glanced at my books, and then asked, kind of shyly, if he could do a pin-up for me. I couldn’t believe my ears. I had been begging him, fairly regularly, to let me commission him for a pin-up, for years. I finally just stopped asking, because I assumed he wasn’t interested. I was so excited now, I thought he’d be more inclined if he saw some of the other pin-ups, so I yanked out all my copies and started showing him all the pin-ups I’d gotten so far. My wife later pointed out, I didn’t need to try to sell him; he had just said he wanted to do a pin-up. In fact, when I was done, he said now he felt a little intimidated about giving me a pin-up, because there were so many good ones.
We told him we were hooking up with Dick Ayers for dinner, but would love to hang out with him in the bar later, if he would be there. He said it sounded like a lot of fun.
See, now that we’d done the Bristol Con, we were learning how this convention business works. We realized now that all these people were from out of town, and had nothing to do at night except eat and hang out. So they’re all looking for something to do, and most of them will be hanging out at bars and visiting. So we’re learning to try and find out where the action is, and hang out with the people we’d like to get to know better.
Overall, I was really surprised by how short all the lines were for all these artists. At Mick Foley’s line, I poked right to the front and asked, “If I get in line, would you let me get a photo with you?” He said, Yeah, sure. It just took a few minutes. Mick Foley looked a lot taller and thinner than I imagined him. After the photo and buying an autographed book, I was fumbling to put my change away and wanting to ask if he read comics and would take copies of my books, but next thing I knew, he was on to the next guy in line.
That was one disappointment for the show, that I didn’t just hand him the books. Even if he would have taken them and just put them in the garbage.
Matt Wagner was friendly and fun as usual, and was also planning to be at the bar that night. Jon K. Snyder III was sitting with hi, and Matt shouted, “Hey John, have you seen this guy’s stuff? You’ll get a kick out of it.”
I took my copies over, and the very sweet, very encouraging and positive John looked over my stuff and said he’d enjoy doing a pin-up some time.
Jim Starlin signed some books I’d brought, and said he was pretty busy, but may be up for a pin-up in the future.
I really liked Tim Truman’s personality. He was real friendly and upbeat and energetic. He said Dick Ayers had been a teacher of his at the Kubert School. I’m so fascinated with Tim’s art, but I don’t really know what it is that intrigues me so. Maybe just because I enjoyed his Jonah Hex series for Vertigo so much. Tim said he would be up for a pin-up.
I poked my head over to the Top Shelf booth, and introduced myself to Chris Staros once again, and told him I would keep occasionally emailing him, and hopefully he’d have time to look over my books. The way he said all right, made me wonder if he recognized me (I think he did) or knew what book I was talking about.
The Simonson and Romita lines were actually the longest, so I didn’t get to either of them the first day of the con.
Chaykin’s line had been long much of he time. At one point I went over just as he was getting up, so I asked him quickly about commissions, and he gave me his card. Later, when I saw only one person talking to him, I went over. It was actually a long wait, because Chaykin was giving a valid, critical discussion of this person’s artwork. When h was finished, I told him I thought it was great that he took that amount of time and care, and he said, Did I? I told him that so many artists just flip through and say, Well it looks good, but he actually had suggestions to give. I reminded him I was the one who had asked about commissions. When I told him I was doing Kirby-style giant monsters, he asked, Why??!? But when I started showing him all the pin-ups, he named each of the artists, and then kind of got into it, being able to tell who the artists were. I jokingly asked if I should cover up the signatures, and he said, Yeah, do it. So we flipped through and he tried to guess all the artists, and he got almost all of them. He didn’t get JH Williams, which was fun, because Jim had told me Howard was responsible for getting Jim work at DC. When we had finished, he said, I don’t know if I’m up for this (doing a pin-up). I told him, the theme is giant monsters, and he could do whatever he wants. Anything? He asked. How about Dick Cheney? I said, it’s your pin-up. Whatever you want to do. I get the feeling he was thinking about it. I felt really nice about the exchange, because the last time I had met him, at a Wondercon, he had said he absolutely never does pin-ups. At that time, he had just gotten into comics again, and was pretty much only doing an occasional cover, and otherwise only writing.
Mark Waid I’ve been feeling like I see everywhere. He is absolutely so sweet and approachable. He had bought my Tabloia comics at a recent signing at my local comics shop. I asked if he’d had a chance to look at my books, and he said he’s been too busy, but said he’ll definitely be in touch.