Pictures from the 2016 Comic-Con International, part 6: Sunday (Thing sketchbook, Adult Swim...and the aftermath!)

Hey! It's the last batch of Comic-Con pictures...until I go to the New York Comic Con in less than two weeks! Here are pictures from the final day of Comic-Con 2016 in San Diego.

My Thing sketchbook had two empty pages in it before this convention. Chris Burnham filled up the very last page on Sunday. There are a few little things I'd like to do with the book before I officially lock it up in a vault somewhere, but this is, I feel, some kind of milestone in my life (right?). You'll notice that Batman and X-Men artist Burnham has a Pac Man lanyard on...we also had a nice chat about old video games. It turns out that Burnham once owned a arcade cabinet himself.

I'm extra excited to bring these two things home with me - signed and sketched comics from both Matt Groening and Sergio Aragones! 

I never take enough pictures of the floor. It's hard to get an idea of the scope of this convention even when you're there, let along from an image. But here's this, stretching out as far as the eye can see.

Todd Nauck is a great guy who is kind enough to acknowledge my presence every year when I walk up and bother him at a show. Todd has worked on pretty much every major mainstream character. It's pretty impressive.

The Sideshow booth is always mind-alteringly awesome. Check out this TMNT statue set based on the original movies.

Wanna grab a Star Trek uniform? It's possible.

Due to my foolishly-acquired sunburn (and other reasons), I didn't do much outside of the convention center this year. But on Sunday I decided that I would finally give the Adult Swim on the Green offsite a try. The lines were incredibly long - you'd have to wait a few hours to get one of their screen-printed shirts (I passed).

But I did stop at Meatwad's Dome, which had a new, and very trippy, show this year.

The costumes were impressive every day of the show. It didn't slow down on Sunday.

I ran into Ally Cat, a great artist and a cool gal, at her booth which was situated right by one of the snack bars. They're trying to fit as many booths into the convention center. I guess some of them eventually have to be next to the nachos.

And here's Eric Esquivel, a writer who's comin' up in the world. He just announced that he'll be writing a story in this year's DC Christmas special.

There were a lot of Star Trek costumes at the show this year. These Borg looked great!

I managed to grab a quick picture with Griffin Newman, Arthur on the (greenlit!) Amazon "Tick" series, before he went back behind the New England Comics booth to do another round of signings.

DC's New Super-Man title had only just launched at this point, but here's a really great costume from the last day of the show.

The NEC booth was pretty busy on the last three days of the show. Ben and Griffin signed for hours. It was great to see the enthusiasm fans had for the character. It's funny to see copies of the SDCC exclusive comic pop up on eBay every so often with their signatures on it.

Our last cosplay for the show is a fun one - the Guardians of the Galaxy family, complete with a potted Groot!

One more before the show ends.

I'm always surprised at how quickly the convention clears out when 5:00 rolls around. People are ready to go, I guess. I have to believe that someday soon, they'll extend the hours until 6:00, or at least have panels that go on after the convention closes. It's a taxing show, but everyone seems to have a good time.

This is about the time that I scour around for empty boxes to send stuff home in.

Might as well wrap up some creators for the offseason. It keeps 'em fresh.

Riding a bike on the show floor? There are no rules!!

And thus ends my Comic-Con adventure for 2016. Planning has already begun for next year's show! But thankfully, I had a least a few days to rest up. I stayed in the area for a few days and made a trip to San Diego's Cat Cafe once again.

I then hit up a local state park, where I activated my lobster powers.

And then, at the top of the mountain...

After San Diego, I went out to Los Angeles for a few days, where I was pretty blown away by the exhibits at The Getty Museum. This is absolutely a must see if you're in the area.

It's really impressive.

I ended the trip by stopping by the Santa Monica pier.

There. I went in the ocean.

Until next time, Comic-Con.

Pictures from the 2016 Comic-Con International, part 4: Friday (Tick 30th anniversary panel, Rotten Tomatoes, Star Trek art exhibit and more!)

Thursday at Comic-Con was a big long day, so I didn't have too much planned for Friday. Of course this means that Friday ended up being one of the best days at the convention for me. Let's look at a few pictures!

I was lucky enough to get to share a space with Jennie Wood at the show. Jennie is a very talented author and I'm continually surprised at just how many people seek her out at Comic-Con. Flutter was a big hit once again. We'll have some news on the third volume soon!

I managed to snag a ticket to a Nichelle Nichols signing early on in the day (which was great). While in line, I had a nice conversation with actress Kate Comer, who has had roles in Veep, The Office, and a few other things. She made it easy to root for her career, and I hope her star blows up any day now. I'm...probably basing a Honcho character off of her.

Whoever marketed this inflatable raptor idea is a genius, and almost certainly very rich.

On Friday, I gave out my first Tick Sandwich Edition issue! This gentleman kindly obliged in having his picture taken with the issue. I'm very happy with it, and everyone else at the booth was kind of confused.

Despite the name tag overhead, this is not Neal Adams.

Here's another Spaceballs costume! I noticed a few from that movie this year.

The Tick and Arthur came to visit the NEC booth in the afternoon. They're both great guys who really care about the property (and the guy dressed as The Tick is from Pittsburgh!), and I was able to chat with them for a few minutes. They showed up when Tick creator Ben Edlund arrived in advance of his "Tick: the First 30 Years" panel that was held this day.

The panel was housed in the Horton Grand Theatre, a few blocks from the convention center. I'm not sure why Comic-Con chose this as a ticketed event, but it went over very well. I haven't checked, but if by some miracle this panel was filmed and it made its way online, it's my humble opinion that you (dear reader) should watch it immediately. It was simply humbling to hear about Ben's vision for the new Amazon series and the different stories about the character.

The panel consisted of Edlund, Townsend Coleman (voice of the cartoon Tick), Bob Polio (NEC art director) and Griffin Newman, who plays Arthur on the Amazon series. I was able to watch it with a few others from a room upstairs, which as pretty neat.

The panel had a few video clips interspersed throughout, from the cartoon and the 2001 live action series (we also got to see some of the first images from the Amazon series). Much to my delight, Ben also showed some footage, nearly lost and never aired, of The Tick's puppet theater, originally planned for the end credits on the final season of the Fox Kids cartoon.

Getting to see this panel really got me excited about the new show and about the characters in general. I hope that the show opens up a few more opportunities to put new issues of The Tick out there.

Ben and Griffin had signings at the NEC booth the rest of the weekend. I introduced Griffin to the Taco Truck.

I kind of felt like my day was over at the end of the panel, so I mostly wandered for the rest of the show day. I did see some good costumes, though.

The kid's face is pretty good in this one.

After the show ended for the day, it was time for the Rotten Tomatoes: Your Opinion Sucks! panel. I had copies of the poster to hand out and felt like I was a little part of the panel, which was fun. Grae Drake and Matt Atchity are great people and they put up with my fanboy attention every year. And Grae's costumes are worth showing up for by themselves.

This year's panel was in a much bigger room than in years prior. It's great to see this getting more attention and getting bigger.

This is the second year that I've run into Mythbuster Jamie Hyneman at Comic-Con. I guess he likes the show! He was at the Rotten Tomatoes panel and was kind enough to take a picture with me.

After the hall cleared out, I was able to get a picture with Matt and Grae.

It was 8:00 when we left the convention hall, and I was feeling it from the past couple of very long days, so we didn't do too much more this evening. I had wanted to see the "Star Trek: 50 Artists 50 Years" offsite event, but it was supposed to be closed by this time of the night. Luckily for me, the folks running the gallery apparently didn't feel like closing up, so I got to walk through and see all of the (honestly stunning) pieces in the offsite gallery.

It's hard to pick a favorite piece from the exhibit, but this cereal box might just be it.

I managed to get some sleep this night so I could get back to it on Saturday. I'll post those pictures soon!