Pictures from the 2013 Pittsburgh Comicon

The 2013 Pittsburgh Comicon has come and gone, and there are pictures to be seen.  The Pittsburgh show is always interesting, and this version was no different.  It's the first time I've brought out the Wagon Wheel Comics booth in quite a while.  I presented my first panel.  I got some Thing sketches!  It's something I'll have to dwell on a bit longer before I pass judgment on the event.  But for now, some images and commentary:

Friday night of the show was just about as dead as a convention of any repute could be.  It makes me wonder if the Pittsburgh Comic-Con even needs a Friday anymore.  In any case, it allowed me to stand in line for a great Barry Kitson sketch.

Kitson has worked on a number of mainstream books; I first became aware of him from his early '90s work on Adventures of Superman.  Recently, he drew a few issues of FF, which made him a prime candidate for the Thing sketchbook.  Kitson doesn't charge for sketches, but he takes such care with them that there's only the opportunity for a handful at any convention.  I began the show fourth in line, and waited five hours to get a sketch.  It was certainly worth it, but it was a big time commitment.  I'll post a nice scan of it in the coming weeks, but here's a shot of  the finished work with the relatively giant Kitson himself!

FUBAR chief Jeff McComsey and I had a panel about publishing small press comics - it seemed like a good idea especially for a small show like Pittsburgh's.  Overall, I'd say that it went very well!  There ended up being about 50 people in the room and it seemed to me that Jeff and I held everyone's interest for a little over an hour.  Plus Carmen Sandiego showed up to hear what we had to say!

Because I enjoy hearing the sound of my own voice, I filmed the panel and uploaded it to YouTube.  I'll embed the panel here on the blog soon!

There were a number of costumes to be seen at the show, especially on Sunday, when I believe you get in free if you wear one.  These guys knew how to do it.

I've seen these two ladies at the show before; in fact, one of them dressed as Quicksilver and one, I think, as the Flash the day before.  They both do good work.

This guy basically has the perfect build for an older Finn, and the beard looks just goofy enough to work.  Princess Bubblegum and BMO are great as well!

I saw this Chainsaw Vigilante costume at the previous Pittsburgh Comicon, were I was equally impressed.  I chatted with her this time around, and I mentioned that I had shown her picture to CV creator Ben Edlund at the 2012 Comic-Con in San Diego (which I did).  She was pretty thrilled to hear that.

Looks!  It's unfortunately-placed balloon animal Venom!  Oops.

Game of Thrones costumes continue to be popular.  This girl did a nice job with hers.  I have...no idea who the guys in back are supposed to be.  Gendry and Hodor?  No, that's not it.  I'm stumped.

This was a pretty elaborate concoction of the X-Men's Hank McCoy/Beast.  The mouth even moved!

Without a doubt, the best costumes I saw all weekend (I'm a little biased, but whatever) were these two - a real-life Frankenberry and Boo Berry couple!  Incredible!  We chatted for a while about the cereal and the costumes.  They were a friendly bunch, but of course that goes without saying.  The Frankenberry glasses were very well done.

The FUBAR booth bumped right up next to the Wagon Wheel Comics booth for the weekend, and it was a nice treat to get to talk with Jeff McComsey and art director Steve Becker for a few days.  They know how to set up a booth.

On Saturday, someone brought over this hand made piece of FUBAR fan art!

Jeff and Steve cranked out sketches all weekend long - this one was my favorite...zombie E.T.!

I managed to snap a picture at the FUBAR booth before the weekend ended and I packed up to leave.  It was a fun time despite some lags in attendance (which is something the convention will have to address at some point, I hope).  I was able to meet some nice people, buy a few things and get some sketches.

Now it's off to the New York Comic-Con, where I'd imagine things will be...a little bit busier.

Pictures from the 2012 Comic-Con, part 8

At this point, you're probably thinking, "holy crap, why not just dump the rest of your Comic-Con pictures in one fell swoop and get it over with?"  This would be unacceptable.  But thanks for asking.  Honestly, there are only a few left to post.  But what great ones they are, those that are still to come.  Let's get started!

Petco Park, home to the San Diego Padres (who are terrible but still managed to take three of four from the Pirates in a recent series), housed the "Walking Dead Escape", in which you paid $70 to run from zombies through a gigantic obstacle course.  On Friday night we walked by and talked to some of the people who took the challenge.  As we were wearing sandals at the time, there was no chance we could sign up, so we decided to come back ready to go on Saturday.  In anticipation for an upcoming baseball game, however, the attraction shut down early on Saturday - just as we were walking up to the gates, in fact.  That was pretty dumb.  Oh well.

Hey, look!  Famous people!  Eating!!

Hey, look!  Giant dog!!

This was a pretty impressive effect.  The guys driving the van were advertising their Halloween decoration/effect company outside of the convention...I'd say they were pretty successful.

Maybe Pac Man can eat Pikachu as a substitute power pellet.

This guy's makeup was pretty good.  I wonder if he had to keep his mouth like that the entire time.

Dr. Horrible!  Nice job.

I loved these guys.  They got to spread their message about social conformity and dress up in cool zombie masks at the same time.  It must have been the best of both worlds for them.

I made it to Ben Edlund's panel on Sunday, which was lots of fun and over too soon.  He talked Tick, Venture Bros. and Supernatural, and had fun guests all throughout the panel.  It was a funny 60 minutes.

Multipass.

These three had the scariest costumes at the show.  I didn't recognize them other than being generally terrifying.  I see them as three of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  But where's the fourth?

Ah, there he is!  It's Earthworm Jim, who probably represents Pestilence or something.

This guy (I think it was a guy) walked around with duct tape rolls around his wrists and had people tape business cards and flyers to him.  You'll see several of my own added to the collection.

Did Panthro wear jeans?  I don't care - this was very well done.

This guy looks more like Will Riker than Jonathan Frakes these days.  He's even got that smug confidence down.

Was the guy in the background with her?

I'm...not sure if this was a costume or not.  The two women in the background look sufficiently unsure of the situation.

Silver Surfer & Son.  This should be a Marvel book just because of the alliteration.

On Saturday, Marvel unveiled the new Iron Man 3 armor.  I'm not a fan of so much gold, but it looks pretty cool regardless.

We took this picture to prove that people actually did come to the Wagon Wheel Comics booth from time to time.  Sure, I happen to be giving out free movie posters in this image, but booth traffic is booth traffic!

This is easily the best Galactus costume I've ever seen.

And here's a shot of the floor from another level.  The WWC booth is pretty much directly below this.

Until next time...and there will be a next time...

Pictures from the 2012 Comic-Con, part 2

I've been surprisingly stingy about sharing pictures from Comic-Con.  Who can say why this is happening?  Perhaps only the Shadow knows.  But here I am again, with more pictures and stories to share.

This batch comes from the Tuesday before the show started - set-up night!  I was excited as I walked down the aisles to find my booth, because I realized that I was seeing everything before almost anyone else got a chance to.  I took these pictures and thought about posting them right away, as if I were a reporter with a scoop, but then I started to wonder about any litigious repercussions that might come from spoiling the secrets that any of the booths might have held, and I decided against it.  Who knows if I was being overly cautious or not.  Perhaps only the Shadow...wait, I used that joke already.  Oh well, time for pictures.

Hooray!  Here's the booth, all barren and lonely, like a dry gulch before the Gold Rush.

The exhibit all is so huge that you have to strain to see from one end to the other.  And you rarely see a Comic-Con hallway that's not teeming with people.

Sideshow had most of their display set up by the time we got there, though many things were covered.  They had, and always seem to have, some of the most impressive items at any con.

Here's Oni Press's booth as they get things ready!

Marvel's booth seemed to be under construction right up until the minute the show opened.

Overheard at Boom! Studios: "Well, we got that damned banner to hang from the ceiling.  ...Let's pick it up tomorrow."

The unreachable inner square of Image Comics.

An early look at Castle Greyskull.  We were all very excited.

The Walking Dead display before Michonne and her two zombies were installed.

These guys went to bed early, apparently.

These pictures don't show it well, but there were a surprising amount of people outside of the convention center even though the show didn't start for another 22 hours or so.  I don't think that all of them were fellow exhibitors - some people just wanted to soak in the Comic-Con atmosphere a little bit early, and I can't blame them for feeling that way.

I wonder how long it was before someone eventually stole this prop (it was originally sticking out of the bushes).  And I wonder how that person got it home...because you certainly couldn't check it as luggage, could you?

HGTV and the Frankenweenie movie combined forces on an outdoor display.

This great Adventure Time balloon(?) was a sight to see.  It sat right over a small jungle gym that was, apparently, open all the time.  It was too enticing not to give it a try:

What fun!  It was hard not to be at least a little bit giddy from getting this little taste of Comic-Con on Tuesday night.  Wednesday was a lot more stressful.  But I'll save that for next time.