cwisnia

diary entry: February 23-25, 2007, part five

DAVID MAZZUCHELLI

While talking with Brian Bolland, Brian mentioned I should ask David Mazzuchelli about doing a pin-up for me. What??! I hadn’t even realized David was going to be at this con. WOW! David Mazzuchelli. What excitement.

He had a huge mob of people there to see him. They all had books to sign, so I found a way to squeeze around to the side of them all and talk with him a little.

He’d brought a bunch of sketches of Batman and Daredevil and Catwoman. Head shots and more expensive full body shots. I overheard someone try to buy two, and David told him he was only selling one to each person, to give as many of his fans the opportunity to enjoy his work.

I showed him my comic and asked if he ever has time to do commissions. He started to give an answer, but then just said, “Well, no.” But he said he’d like to take the book and look it over when he had some time. I checked in with him periodically. He of course never had time to look it over during the convention. I asked him if he had any contact info he could give me, to check in with him, and he said no. I understand.

ALEX MALEEV and ESAD RIBIC

Before the show, I’d spent time at the website to see who would be there. I kept hoping to find Alex Maleev, because I’s seen him before at San Diego Comic-Con, and I knew he’d be doing convention sketches, and I wanted to see if he might do a sketch for me. But Alex was never at his art representative’s booth whenever I made the trek downstairs. I finally asked his rep if I could leave a book for him to show Alex, and if he could ask Alex about a commission of a giant monster for me. He said he’d probably forget, and besides, he didn’t think Alex would do it. So that was not very encouraging.

Finally, at the end of the first day, I saw Alex, but it looked like he was packing up. I asked him, “Alex, are you leaving?” He said, “Yes, but don’t worry. I’ll be back tomorrow.” So that was that for the day.

The next day, I popped downstairs again, and Alex was there, and Esad Ribic was sitting with him. Alex was busy, so I said hello to Esad. He recognized me and lit up and said, “Hey, what’s up, buddy!” and put his hand out for a high-five. I visited with him for a little while. He said ever since he finished his painted Loki series, he’s been working on a painted Silver Surfer series, and it’s due to be out this summer – right in time for the movie, I presume.

He was very friendly. I told him I’d come down to ask about getting a pin-up from Alex. He said, “Go ahead.” I got Alex’s attention and made my pitch, and Alex didn’t seem particularly interested. But then an amazing thing happened. Esad shouted out, “You will do a pin-up for this guy! I did a pin-up, and you’ll do a pin-up for him too, because he’s a cool guy!” And from then on, Alex took me seriously, and wound up doing a pin-up at that very con. Esad teased me, “But you are taking us to lunch at San Diego!” If my punishment for getting pin-ups is taking these cool guys to San Diego, I will take my punishment like a man.

My friend Doug had been a real sport watching the table while I ran up and down the stairs, up and down all the aisles, trying to make all these connections. I tried to spend a fair time at the table as well, so that he could see New York a little. He was able to step out and hit a bunch of museums.

THE TRIP HOME

We left the convention and tried to get a cab out front for about half an hour. Out front were a ton of these black sedans with their drivers harassing us and bargaining prices to take us to the airport, and actually getting in arguments with each other about which of them was taking us. We walked up the street about three blocks, then back, and cabs would drive by without stopping, if we spotted them at all. Finally, we walked up perpendicular to the road about three blocks, hauling all our suitcases all the while.

A cab saw us and flipped around and got caught at a light, and there was suddenly a cop behind him, and he wound up continuing onward. Finally a cab stopped for us and took us to the airport.

We arrived and waited at our gate about a half hour, then suddenly realized our gate didn’t have our flight listed. Suddenly frantic, we ran to the front of the line and asked where our flight was. They said we had to walk all the way down to a different desk. We bolted, and learned we needn’t have bothered, because it turned out a snowstorm had begun blizzarding outside, while we were in. The flight was delayed.

Finally we got seated on the plane, but then had to wait a little longer for the plane to be de-iced. We tried to get some sleep, and were home by three in the morning, and ready to work the next day. What a trip!

diary entry: February 23-25, 2007, part four

THE GENERAL VIBE OF THIS CON

At this convention, sitting at my table, I was approached by an unusually high volume of people who said they were reviewers or podcasters or interviewers. Most of these people asked if I had anything I cared to give them. It got tiresome after a while, just giving stuff away to everyone, and not selling anything. Someone else later told me that this was indeed a very heavy trade show. Yet another someone else told me that it’s interesting too, because the San Diego show is so near Hollywood, you get all the movie folks, but all the book publishers are in New York, so it’s a pretty literary crowd at this one.

A fan of my work stopped by my table, and he told me he’d read a few of my comics, and he was excited to see I had some other goods, and made a nice purchase. Another person stopped by to tell me he’d bought the Doris Danger treasury, and he and his kid were enjoying using it as a coloring book.

It’s so infrequently I go to cons and someone shows up who’s familiar with my work and enjoyed it enough to say hello and tell me so. So of course, that was really nice. This was maybe the third and fourth time? Fourth and fifth?

I wasn’t sure what to make of this con. I didn’t sell very much. Part of it, I’m sure, was because when I wasn’t able to spend time at the table, my friend basically just watched the table, and didn’t try to make any particular pitches or sales.

But even if he had, I don’t know that it would have made much difference. At one point, the con was so crowded, the aisles were stuffed with people. And I just sat back and watched, and was kind of confused to see how fast these masses of people were walking along. And then I realized that none of them were looking around. No one was looking up at the names of the artists they were walking by. No one was trying to look at any signs. No one was looking at what was on everyone’s tables. They were literally looking straight ahead, and driving forward purposefully, at high speeds. It was as if all of us in our booths weren’t there at all, it felt like. I couldn’t understand it.

Just the same, I made, I hope, some nice reviewer/interviewer/podcaster connections. And as usual, it was great talking with artists and getting photos with them.

TONY HARRIS said he might have time somewhere or other to do a pin-up of a monster for me. He said sometimes he just feels like a break from his usual work, but he never knows when these moments might pop up, so to check in with him now and then. A pin-up from Tony Harris . . . That would be cool.

BILL SIENKIEWICZ

Bill is someone I’ve been trying to hunt down for a number of cons. But it seems he either doesn’t end up making it to cons he’s listed to appear at, or else I see him, and then go back to my booth to get books to give him, and return to find him gone. He was listed at this con, but was nowhere to be found Friday or Saturday. Saturday someone told me Bill was seen at the Marvel party Friday night, so he’s around SOMEWHERE.

Finally I saw him sitting at his booth on Sunday, but he had a huge line of people with stacks of books to get signed, IN ADDITION to people interviewing him behind his table. On top of that, he never had any drawing materials out at his table, and the reason I was hoping to get to him was to get another sketch. So this con, I let things lie, once again.

diary entry: February 23-25, 2007, part three

STERANKO

I poked down to say hello to Jim Steranko. He saw me and said, “Oh, you made it!” I told him we decided last minute that I’d come without the rest of the family. He said how pleased he is I wasn’t wearing my usual ugly tie. I decided not to wear them this trip, because it would just be too much to pack, in addition to all my books that I would have to carry myself this trip.

He said he’d been having a streak of bad luck lately, and I joked, “And then you saw me coming, and it got worse.” He got a kick out of that.

Later in the weekend, I showed him my giant monster book and asked if he might be willing to give me a quote I could use to promote the next issue. He flipped through it and told me, “Gee, I don’t know, Chris. If I give you a quote, then all my friends will say, You gave him a quote, why don’t you give me a quote? I might have to pass.” I told him, what if I quote you, “I was having a streak of bad luck, and then I saw Chris coming, and it got worse.” He laughed and said he just might do that.

Before I left, someone brought up a Nick Fury comic for him to sign, and he said, “Nope. I won’t sign that.” And there was an uncomfortable pause, and then Jim kind of explained, “You don’t treat people like that. You know the story.” The person nodded understandably. I don’t know the story, but it makes me curious to find out.

Then someone opened a Batman Black and White book for him to sign. He said there was an interesting story about this piece. Jim drew his pin-up and sent it to Mark Chiarello, the editor. Mark said it looked great, but Jim felt like it was missing something. He sat on it for a while, and then played with it and added some op-art white silhouettes of bats into the composition. He re-sent the image, and told Mark, now it’s good. Use this version.

Mark told him he didn’t agree, and that he liked the other one better. Jim said no. That’s not the piece. Mark said he liked the other one better, and that’s the one he was going to use. Jim told him, I’ll tell you what. Go ahead and use the old one, and then never call me again, because I will never do any work for you, ever. Mark, of course, said if that’s how it’s going to be, he’ll use the new one. And Jim told him Mark will call him in a couple months and tell him he realizes Jim was right. And Jim added that Mark did call him in a month and tell him Jim was right.

TED McKEEVER

I saw where Ted McKeever was sitting, and I’ve always been intrigued by his art. Often, when I read his stories, they’re so dark and disturbing, I don’t enjoy experiencing them, although I continue to be intrigued and curious. His style of art is fascinating to me.

I finally saw him at his table, but generally he was visiting and had people crowded around him, and I had other people to try looking for, so I continued to wander past him. Also, I felt a little afraid of him in a way. He’s an angular, muscular guy with a shaved head, and frankly, I was a little intimidated by or afraid of meeting him. I didn’t know what someone with art like that would be like.

Finally I saw him with just one person, and it looked like he was drawing a sketch. I poked over and saw he was doing Spider-Man. He’d relatively recently done a Spider-Man story for the “Tangled Web” comic, and he’d done a Batman and a Superman revamp. I asked him how he liked doing mainstream superheroes. He smiled and looked up at me and said he really enjoys it. IF they let him to do what he wants to with them. That got us talking about how lately he’s been having trouble finding work, UNTIL the Marvel Zombies comics came out that sold so well, and now all of a sudden, DC is calling him, trying to do horror comics of their own that they think his style would work nicely for.

He mentioned how strange he thinks it is that companies haven’t been taking chances with any of their comics lately. He pointed out that if you look at all the comics that were revolutionary, they tended to be the dying characters that were about to be canceled. Claremont’s X-Men. Miller’s Daredevil. Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol. Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. You could even go back to Lee-Ditko’s Spider-Man, in that it was the last issue of a dying book, or Fantastic Four, which Stan Lee describes as a book he decided he would just do whatever he wanted with, because he was ready to move on to a new profession, so he reasoned the worse that could happen is he could just get fired and move on.

I showed Ted what I’m doing and he seemed really excited about drawing something for me. I asked if he’d have time to do something at the con, and he said he thought so, but to check back with him. He showed me his list of commissions, and it looked moderately long. He told me he’d actually rather do my pin-up, but he had committed to these others. I really enjoyed visiting with him. I felt like we hit it off nicely.

I left him feeling hopeful, but as the con wore on, I began to realize he still had a very big list of sketches still to do ahead of me, and it began to sound increasingly likely he might not be doing any pin-ups for me here. He eventually even said he’d like to do something nice and take his time with it, since my books had so many great, big-name artists involved. I asked if he was at very many other conventions, and he said he barely goes to any. We left with me getting the contact info for his representative, and plans for me to contact him.