Thing sketchbook, part 11

The legend of the Thing sketchbook continues to grow.  The trip to Comic-Con brought the numbers up quite a bit.  Now I've got five more sketches to show and others waiting in the wings.  Hope you enjoy!

Antonio Crespo - Pittsburgh Comicon 2012

I've worked with Antonio on a couple projects to date and have chatted with him online, but I was able to meet him in person at the Pittsburgh Comicon this past April.  Tony showed up on the Sunday and deftly grabbed an empty table to set up shop.  I think he made more in a few hours selling his prints than I made in the entire day!  He was also nice enough to add this beauty to the sketchbook.  A full body shot!  I don't have too many of those, and I certainly don't have many that live up to this level of detail or skill.

Tim Seeley - XCon Myrtle Beach 2012

Hack/Slash introduced me to writer/artist Tim Seeley, but he's taken on a number of different projects in the past few years.  I saw him once again at XCon in Myrtle Beach, and I was finally able to add a Thing sketch from him this year.  He took the artist's challenge and quite nicely cleaned up some of the bleed through from the previous sketch.  As always, the blue eyes are a nice touch.

Jonathan Hickman - XCon Myrtle Beach 2012

Jonathan Hickman is currently nearing the end of his successful run on Fantastic Four and FF, so of course, given the chance, I had to get him to add something to a sketchbook starring the FF's strongman.  Hickman is better known for his writing, but he's also a heck of an artist.  This is one of the more unique images in the book, and it's one of my favorite as well.

Ben Edlund - Comic-Con International 2012

According to Ben Edlund, this is the first time he's ever drawn the Thing.  That means I love this even more!  Edlund is best known as the creator of the Tick, but he's had a great number of successes outside of the comic industry as well, including involvement in Firefly, Venture Bros., and most recently the show Supernatural.  He's also one of my industry heroes, so it was so incredibly satisfying to add a Thing sketch by him into the book.  As if this isn't jealousy-inducing enough, I also got a Tick sketch on a backing board.  What a great haul!  And yes, he shouted "Look I'm a monster!" as he wrote the words. Awesome.

Bob Polio - Comic-Con International 2012

Bob Polio is the art director for New England Comics, publisher of the Tick comic - and he has been since the book's inception.  He added this classic cigar-smokin' Thing to the sketchbook almost immediately after Ben Edlund drew his version.  Bob's also a baseball historian of sorts who loves the old Boston Braves.  We chatted baseball at length during the show - and as anyone who knows me understands, once I get started, it's tough for me to hit the brakes.  I was glad to meet a fellow fan of both the Tick and baseball.


Okay, that's five, so we'll take a break.  But there are more to come!  So you can rest easy, America.

New Teddy and the Yeti trading cards by Jeff Lafferty!

A little while ago, I posted the black and white version of the above image by the great Jeff Lafferty.  Now I'm happy to show the colored, final version and shed a little more light on the future of this art.  As I mentioned, I'm going to make this a connecting, two-card set.  I've decided that I'm going to have these printed out to give away for the first time at the San Diego Comic-Con, which is just a little over a month away.  I'll still have the standard promo card by Antonio Crespo, but this one will be a little bit special.  Once the show dates get closer, I'll reveal just what purpose these cards will serve.

In the meantime, check out how awesome this is!!  I'm pretty excited about it.  Jeff is mailing the original art, and oh man, I think I'll have to make some room on the wall for it.  It's really something.

Pictures from the 2012 Pittsburgh Comicon, part 3

Back again, huh?  Well, like it or not, it's time for the final installment of pictures from the 2012 Pittsburgh Comicon.  If you'd like to see more...just keep scrolling down the page.  Seriously, there are two other posts with pictures and they're right below this one.  Anyway, our first picture is of the booth.  And who's that handsome, possibly bearded gentleman behind a Venture Bros. henchman mask?  Telling would be defeating the purpose of a mask, eh?

RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU LOVE FASCISM!

Here's a shot from the convention floor, right in front of the FUBAR/215 corner booth.  It looks like there's going to be a showdown between the Pink Power Ranger and the guy in the Steelers jacket.  My money's on Mr. Steeler.

Here's an unexpected treat - from the Tick universe comes a Chainsaw Vigilante costume!  And a decent one at that.  I struck up a conversation with this girl and we talked about the costume, the character, and his short-lived (but surprisingly good) series from New England Comics.  The funny thing is that I could barely understand what she said because of her mask.

What's even better about this very nicely put together costume is the fact that I'll bet a lot of people just think it's a female Captain America costume this woman came up with, when in fact it's modeled after the character American Dream from the MC2 Spider-Girl universe.  Her shield was really impressive.

Here's a random picture of the Stan Lee line.  It was like this at almost any point in the day on Saturday and the first half of Sunday.

Here I am, trying to look cool alongside the already cool Antonio Crespo.  The booth next to ours was abandoned all weekend, so on Sunday, Tony laid claim to half of it and sold some prints of his work.  He drew a really cool entry into my Thing sketchbook, which I've scanned and will show off at a later date.

And after the show ended, I ran over Jeff McComsey with a hand cart.  Those are the casualties of convention warfare.

I did manage to pick up some swag at the show.  Barry Kitson made an appearance - I can't remember him being in attendance at previous shows in Pittsburgh - and I got him to sign a few books: two from his 1990s Adventures of Superman run and an issue of a Fantastic Four miniseries.

Kitson was drawing free full body, penciled, inked and watercolored sketches for anyone in attendance.  This was such a grand gesture on his part, but I didn't end up with one, unfortunately.  If you wanted a sketch badly enough, you had to wait in line literally for hours to get it.  When I inquired about it, I was told that I would have to wait roughly seven hours in line.  You paid for this art, the thinking was, with your time, and you couldn't leave the line and come back when it was your turn - you had to stay with it for the long haul.

Those who stuck it out got some beautiful artwork and, seemingly, some new friendships with the fellow line warriors they stood with for hours on end.  If I wasn't at the show with a booth, I might have decided to try my stamina, but since I was at the show to sell things, I couldn't get away for more than 20 or so minutes at a time, and thus didn't have nearly enough free time to devote to this.  Even so, I'm sure that those who made it through have a treasured piece of art and some fun stories to tell in the balance.

I also picked up Astonishing Tales #5 and thus I now have the first eight issues of the series.  These issues each featured Dr. Doom as the headliner and co-star.  Now that I've got 'em all, I can finally sit down and read them in order, so I'm looking forward to that.

I believe that with this purchase, I have every issue of every series with Doom's name in the title, or where he starred/co-starred.  So this includes recent titles like Books of Doom, '90s titles like Doom 2099 and earlier books like the above series and Super-Villain Team-Up.  Of course, I didn't even know about Astonishing Tales until a few years ago, so I could be wrong.  Even so, it's something I've been working toward for a while.

At the end of the show one day, I saw SteelMan driving home, in full costume, on his motorcycle.  I wondered where SteelDog was, but then I saw her in the car trailing the bike.  Funny stuff.

I heard some retailers openly wonder about the show's future at the end of the day on Sunday, with one saying that he hadn't heard anything about a 2013 show and was going to approach someone about it soon if no one told him anything.  When I thought about it, I realized that in years past, someone from the show would make his or her rounds and hand out flyers with next year's date on it.  This year that never happened, though at 5:00 on Sunday, when the show officially closed, Renee George (I think), one of the show's coordinators, got on the intercom and proudly pronounced "we'll see you next year!"

I'm not sure if this means that convention is in any danger of not returning next year, and I certainly can't speculate on what's happening on their end.  For me, though, it was obvious that the 2012 Pittsburgh Comicon was the slowest show I had been to in a while.  Whether this was true or not, or just my perspective, I can't say.  I hope that the show returns, because Pittsburgh should have a well-attended comic convention.  The region may not be able to support an A-level show like New York or even, well, Philadelphia, but it should be able to have a moderately sized, fan-friendly show.  If there is a show next year, I'll be there.

Baltimore Comic-Con floor plan update! Plus, promo cards are in!

The Baltimore Comic-Con recently released the floor plan for this year's show.  Wagon Wheel Comics will be exhibiting in booth A213 - I've gone the extra mile (you can't prove I didn't) and drew a yellow circle around the general area where I'll be this August 20th and 21st.  Here it is in closeup!

Not a bad location, if I do say so.  I'll be interested to see how it turns out!  If you're going to be at the show, stop by the WWC booth and say hello (or whatever you want to say).  The second volume of FUBAR will be out and I'll have some copies.  If I run out...well, I guess I'll just walk over to the official FUBAR booth - er, double booth - at A143 and A144.  The FUBAR guys always do a great job with their booth and I'm sure this one will top all previous ones - it's worth the look for sure.

I'll have a few new things at the booth this time around, one of which will be the new Teddy and the Yeti promo trading cards, which I just got in the mail from Versicolor Productions!

The one megapixel cell phone camera picture doesn't do them justice - they look really great and Antonio Crespo's art really shines.  As you can see, I got a bunch, so there'll be plenty to hand out.  Two weeks until the show!  Exciting stuff.

Teddy and the Yeti card by Antonio Crespo

Last year, when I printed out the 18-card set of Teddy and the Yeti trading cards, I made sure to get a greater amount of card #1 so I could hand them out at conventions.  It so happens that I have run out of those extra cards, and rather than get more printed, I decided to do something a little different and print out one new card that will serve as a promotional item for future conventions.

I like this idea for a couple reasons - first...dammit I just like to see new Teddy and the Yeti art.  Second, while the first card of the trading card set certainly has some introductory elements to it, it didn't do much to give people an outlet to learn more about the series.  If someone picked up the card at a convention and didn't look at it until he or she got home afterwards, that person might be stuck without enough reason to check out the series online.  On the back of this new card I'll have information about the book, the trading card set, and perhaps most importantly, where they can go online to find more stuff about the characters.  I think it'll serve me well in the future - starting with the quickly approaching Baltimore Comic-Con.

The very talented Antonio Crespo is responsible for the great new art that will be gracing the card.  I asked him to create an 'iconic' image of the two main characters, as is befitting a promotional item like this, and he didn't fail to impress.  The Yeti is much more beastly than she's been portrayed before, and Ted is sporting some fancy new goggles, but I'm happy with the interpretation and I'm sure it'll make some people look twice at the book.

The card is being printed by Versicolor Productions, the same company that produced the first card set, so I'm confident that the quality will be high when I get these back in a little while.  If you're coming to the Baltimore Comic-Con on August 20th and/or 21st, stop by and grab one of these cards!

Here's a fun fact about Antonio: we both went to Youngstown State University, though he left the place the year before I started.  We had a fun conversation about all of the porno shops and liquor stores in the surrounding area.  Check out his deviantART page here: http://tonytorrid.deviantart.com/!