Was really excited that Steranko would be there. Walked in, immediately scoped out where he was, but he had a fair pack of admirers, and it was early! I was too intimidated, so I walked through artists alley. Saw Tom Coker, a local friend-of-a-friend, who looked over my stuff and said it looked good. Asked him about doing a pin-up, and he said he was probably up for it. I wondered if I was a little rude, because I just flopped my portfolio on top of all his stuff, and took up space that fans could have used to approach him and buy his stuff. I hoped I didn’t scare off his business.
It’s a long story, but Steranko said he’d do a pin-up! STERANKO! But there are plenty of catches to that story, and it’s all outrageous and painful and crazy and too big to tell here…
Ryan Sook spotted me and immediately said, “Hi Chris.” I had given copies of my Dick Ayers-inked monster stories at Super-Con earlier, and new he said he read them and really enjoyed them. That was nice that he not only recognized me and was friendly, but remembered my name as well. It really meant something to me.
I bugged Russ Heath again. A younger woman (daughter?) was sitting with him. I think she was shocked when I let drop I commissioned him a year ago, and the check I sent him had expired. She sounded like she would help me hound him to get the goddamn thing taken care of. I planned to call and bug him some more, now that I had support from inside his fortress.
Michael Kaluta was as friendly as ever. He acted like he remembered me, and still expressed interest in doing a pin-up, and acknowledged he hadn’t written back to my emails. Funny, friendly guy. Said he charges differently for projects, based on how much work he does, and that he charges the going rate. I’ll be sure to continue to bother him.
I approached Sergio Aragones, showed him all the monster pages and pin-ups, and he basically said he isn’t interested. I thought he would be interested, since his response the year before was that he likes to wait for someone to have a few issues out, so that he can make sure it’s something he wants to contribute to. Even though I didn’t have the issues out yet, I had three issues completed, and a bunch of cool artists involved with my book. Made me a little sad. I hadn’t realized how much I thought he could really do a great pin-up. He was an important comics artist for me, during my formative comics-reading years as a kid.
Art Adams says he’s “under exclusive contract with DC and can’t”. It was too bad, because I’ve heard that from a few other artists, and always kind of take it to mean…He’s not interested. What was especially too bad, is that I’d bugged him at earlier cons, and he hadn’t been exclusive at those times, but we hadn’t managed to work anything out. Shucks.
Dave Stevens said he may have time! Well, specifically, he said, “You never know.” That would kick ass! I think now that I’ve bugged him the last three conventions he’s starting to recognize me. He laughed like hell at the stories this year, even though I’d shown him basically the same stories the year before. He seemed impressed with some of the pin-ups I’d gotten. This year, he said, “You know what would have been brilliant?” He said, “This is good, but what have been great is if you’d had different Kirby inkers each ink a story.” And then he listed a bunch of Kirby inkers who were still alive and going strong.
In previous years I had noticed JH Williams III at the cons. I had asked to buy an issue of Promethea I was missing, that he had out at his table. He had replied, with perhaps some embarrassment, that they were just out as displays of work he’s done, and not for sale. Another time I had brought my copy of Promethea #1, and he had signed it. Now this year, I showed him my monster stuff, and he said he would be up for doing a pin-up.
When I saw Matt Wagner listed, I managed to hunt down his email. I wrote him beforehand that I’m a fan, and was doing monster books. I sent a couple of my favorite pages to him, and he immediately wrote back. He said it looked like “a buttload of fun.” He was very sweet at the convention. He signed a couple books I brought, and got a good laugh out of all the monster stories. He liked that all the monster names sounded borderline dirty, but didn’t quite cross the line.
Bruce Timm was listed to be doing signings for some cartoon-related thing. I spotted where he was at, and kept my eyes peeled. It was a strange set-up, though, where you had to pay ten or twenty dollars or something, and that allowed you the privilege of walking up where he was and getting a photo or something signed. I just wanted to go talk to him, but it was too intimidating a set-up.
By chance, I saw him leaving the booth at one point. I said, “Bruce,” and he kind of turned and winced, like he was hoping to sneak out, and didn’t want to be bothered. I just told him I was a fan of his work, and he thanked me, and we parted. I continued on to the escalator, and turning around, realized he was right behind me. He had a cigarette, and was obviously heading out for a smoke. I had the whole escalator ride up with him, but was too scared to say anything. He gave such a vibe of, “I don’t want anyone to talk to me,” I felt too intimidated to turn around.
Overall, it was about as fun a Wondercon as I tended to have. Plenty of potential for some new pin-ups from some great artists, and the peace of mind knowing that certain ones weren’t necessarily interested.