Pictures from the 2019 Comic-Con International, part 2 (Wednesday, 7/17)

Let's look at Wednesday's pictures at Comic-Con 2019!

Preview Night started early for me this year, as I was lucky enough to get tickets to the Conan O'Brien taping that took place before the convention officially opened. This means getting up early and waiting in line - a Comic-Con tradition! - to officially get the tickets you had semi-reserved. I got in line at about 7:30am; there were several hundred people in front of me. But I got my tickets and was set loose at around 10:00.

From there I hopped back over to the convention center to complete the booth setup...and to see some of the displays while there was time.

The Comic-Con tarp thing that hangs outside of the convention. Still looking good after another year in storage!

One of the nearby parking garages was dressed up in an Avengers promotion.

I saw a few interesting things on the show floor. This Marvel Two-in-One cover caught my eye, for some reason.

And, oh, this Action Comics #1, graded 8.5, as well. That's a $2 million book right there. Sheesh. The other ones aren't bad, either.

The Conan taping started at around 3:45 that afternoon. The Spreckels Theatre looked snazzy, as always.

Here I am with some friends! I'm apparently showing off my bracelet.

The guests on this day were from the It sequel. Bill Hader giggled through most of the interview. It was a weird show - more raunchy than I had expected. I know that Conan recently moved to a new 30-minute format, but this show ran an hour. Everyone was excited to be there! And when the show ended, we burst out of the theater and galloped toward the convention center. It was great to be able to see the show without having to miss any time at the convention.

I got inside about a half hour before the floor opened. It's always fun to see things right beforehand - there's a nervous energy going through the crowd of exhibitors.

And here's the Dark Horse staff getting those yellow bags ready...

...and I saw Robert Kirkman walking around the floor...

And then it was open! And it got crowded fast.

One of my first stops was the Marvel booth. I'm a sucker for SDCC comics and Marvel has had some interesting ones the past few years.

Some Captain Marvel costumes and props were on display by the booth!

I passed by Grae Drake, former Rotten Tomatoes gal and current Ms. Moviefone, and we got this very natural picture together.

In years past, I was able to do most of my shopping on this night (to be fair, I shop every day, but I get the bulk of my "must have" items on Wednesday if I can). This year, for whatever reason, the lines seemed to move more slowly than I remembered. I stood in the Marvel line for quite some time, and when I got out, there wasn't a lot of time left to see and do other things. But I did see this Alien statue!

So, I apparently have a three-issue comic series coming out this fall from Keenspot? This was interesting to see. I'll write more about it at another time, but a lot of this was unexpected.

Here's my friend and collaborator Mario Wytch, who I met for the first time in person, despite knowing him online for about 15 years. I also learned at this show that his last name is not pronounced "witch".

After the show ended for the night, I stopped by the Chuck Jones Gallery in the Gaslamp district, one of my go-to locations every year. It's always a fun place to stop and see.

There were some neat Fantastic Four prints on display among the other items.

NBC's The Good Place had a pancake diner right in the Gaslamp, which seemed to be one of the more popular attractions during the show.

Super7 once again had a neat offsite pop-up shop; this year it was called the "Boodega" after being Skeletor and Hordak's Lair for the past few years. The line was just as long as it always was, though, and because I don't have any particular affinity for the Universal movie monsters, this was as close as I got.

It was a pretty low-key night all around, but it was a big day with Conan in the morning and early afternoon. After getting some pizza, I was ready to head back and get ready for Thursday. We'll look at those pictures soon!

"Weird Al" Yankovic Strings Attached Gilford, NH poster - and an update on the Pittsburgh tour date

In June, I posted some images of the first poster I worked on for "Weird Al" Yankovic's Strings Attached tour, July 7th's Pittsburgh stop. I actually worked on three different posters, the second of which was the July 18th show in Gilford, New Hampshire. For this one, I worked with my pal and frequent collaborator Duane Redhead, artist on The Tick and Teddy and the Yeti. You can see the final image above; let's take some time and look at how it was put together.

"Nature Trail to Hell" is a Weird Al deep cut, but it's also one of my favorites (though I suppose you could say that a lot of Al's songs are my favorites). When I was contacted about doing these posters, I specifically suggested Nature Trail, so I'm pretty thrilled that I was actually able to do it. The song itself is a throwback to both old scary songs and scary movies, so I knew that I wanted the tour poster to reflect that. One really fun aspect of making the poster was just getting to go through images from old 1950s-era sci-fi and horror movie posters. I took some inspiration from a lot of different images, but the above and below images provided some obvious impressions.

The triptych image at the bottom of this one was something I had to try and duplicate, if nothing else than so I could cram more art into an already crowded poster.

I also loved the title cards at the bottom of this one, and I was happy that I could duplicate the "See" font pretty easily in the new poster - and it reflected lyrics from the song, too!

After I had a basic idea down, I contacted Duane about doing some of the heavy lifting, and thankfully, he was up for it.

Duane produced some of the most detailed art of his career, I think, for this poster. He drew a number of the elements on separate pieces of paper, scanned them, and then put them all together digitally.

The three images at the bottom of the poster could easily have been afterthoughts, but Duane put a lot of work into these, based on some pretty obscure references that he and I thought would add something to the poster.

There's a backwards message in the song that says "Satan eats Cheez Whiz", which I think is one of the greatest sentences in human history, so I knew that I wanted to see that somewhere in the poster.

This reference isn't from the song itself, but since it includes both Al and monsters, I thought it'd be appropriate to reference. It's Al as the Cabbage Man from the TV show "Amazing Stories". Duane later added glasses to complete the look.

Jason (later with a tennis racket) was Duane's idea, as he thought the juxtaposition would be funny.

Here's a look at some of the pencils...

...and some early color work.

The jar of Cheez Whiz that Satan is pouring from is taken from a 1950's era glass jar.

This poster was probably the most detailed of any that I worked on, just because it had so many elements coming together in a pretty busy image - but one that I hope evokes the impression of an old drive-in scary movie poster. It also involved the most work on my end, with the title fonts and the credits and just trying to fit everything in in an appropriate manner. I got some good feedback from both Al's team and regular folks who saw it when Al posted the image on Instagram. I hope you all like it, too!

While we're here, let's look at some pictures from the July 7th Pittsburgh show, which I attended!

As mentioned, this is the poster I worked on with Jeff McComsey for that show.

I also took the label I created and made some actual soup cans. I gave these to Al, some band members, and a few fans and tour workers. I also left one outside and posted a picture of it online as an impromptu scavenger hunt...

...and someone actually went and found it!!

One of the more surreal moments of the night was when I actually got to meet Donald Warhola, who is Andy Warhol's nephew and one of the curators of the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Life is strange sometimes.

The show itself was, of course, wonderful. I'll never get tired of seeing Al in concert.

Al played "You Don't Love Me Anymore", after which he smashed his guitar on stage. What happens to those broken guitars after every show??

Sometimes I end up with them, I guess. Also, there's my cat.

I'm sure this comes as no surprise, but I really like Al and his shows. So it was a pretty big deal for me to get to play a small part in these three tour dates. I've got one last poster to show off, which I'll do soon. It was already announced so maybe you've seen it! I'll write again about that one soon.

Pictures from the 2019 Comic-Con International, part 1 (Tuesday, 7/16)

COMIC-CON IS OVER! THERE ARE PICTURES TO SEE! IT'S STILL JULY! LET'S LOOK AT THE PICTURES!

Well, here we are once again. How long will it take me to finish posting this year's set of Comic-Con pictures? If history is any judge, quite a while. But who can say for sure? Let's start out and see where it gets us.

Comic-Con 2019 was once again a complete and wonderful thrill for me to attend. This year, the convention celebrated its 50th year, and I dare say that it's currently in its prime. I flew into Los Angeles the Monday prior to the show and eased my way into convention mode. I stopped at Manhattan Beach on Monday evening; I needed a jacket; the beach volleyball courts were closed. But I carried on.

The Happy Diner in nearby San Pedro is a wonderful restaurant that I discovered last year; it didn't disappoint in 2019. There's even some cool murals in the surrounding area.

There's even one of Popeye's dad, Pappy!

On Tuesday, I made my way down to San Diego. But first I stopped here. If anyone ever wants to question my fandom, please consider this picture of "Weird Al" Yankovic's childhood home in Lynwood. No, I did not knock on the door, nor did I take a lemon from the tree. But I was there, dammit.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's see downtown San Diego the day before the big show. It surprises me how signs and attractions are being worked on until the last moment. This new Star Trek: Picard banner was draped over the Gaslamp Hilton, right across the tracks from the convention center.

The first thing I did after entering the building was, of course, take the escalator to the Sails Pavilion to get my bag and program.

There was a new rule that had just come down from the mountain as I was entering the main hall: no open-toed shoes were allowed. I was wearing sandals, and the event staff was emphatic. So I might have borrowed a pair of shoes from someone who was already inside just so I could walk in the doors. You do what you have to do to make it in,

The small press section was waiting, the same as always.

Once again, I shared a booth with my friend and collaborator, Jennie Wood. We got everything set up and ready for Wednesday so that there wouldn't be any rush beforehand.

And then it was time to check out the day-before attractions. I was very excited to see the Star Trek: Picard offsite. I peeked in the window for sure.

The Gaslamp was coming together quickly as I walked through. "The Good Place" had a themed restaurant with pancakes!

The signature banners were back for another year. Even though Avengers: Endgame had come and gone by this point, Marvel still used that for the banner images. I was okay with that.

Hey, look, it's a promo for The Boys, the new Amazon show that effectively replaces The Tick. It's not like I'm bitter about that. Okay, I'm bitter about it.

Some last minute preparations leading up to the show.

Everyone who gets a badge on the days before the convention begins wears it around like a medal of honor. I certainly do.

That Star Trek: Discovery banner is almost done!

This is also about the time that I met up with Tick artist Ian Nichols. Hi, everyone! It's almost time for Comic-Con!

Come see me at Comic-Con 50!

I'm getting ready (at the last minute) for this year's 50th Comic-Con International in San Diego! As in the last few years, you can find me at a few different locations at this year's show, with a few new exclusives.

Did you know that the Black Terror: Social Insecurity books are finished? And that I'll have them with me?? Well, both of those things are true. I'm sharing a booth once again with Jennie Wood in the small press section, at booth M06.

I also wrote a new issue of The Tick, and it's a Comic-Con exclusive! I'll be stopping by the New England Comics booth (#1807) to sign copies at different points over the duration of the convention. Similar to last year, this book comes from a Ben Edlund plot, and is drawn by Ian Nichols, who will also be at the show.

There are two covers to the issue, including this blank sketch cover!

Also, Ian drew this cover to IDW's new Usagi Yojimbo series! How neat!

If you're at the show, stop by and say hello. I'm looking forward to kicking off Comic-Con in...a few days?? Okay, back to packing.