Pictures from the 2016 Comic-Con International, part 2: Wednesday (Conan O'Brien, Sergio Aragones, Nancy Cartwright and more!)

It's time for more (very exciting) pictures from Comic-Con in San Diego, this time with images from preview night, Wednesday the 20th!

Just like Tuesday, Wednesday was a busier day at the show than in previous years. Usually, I'm able to wake up whenever I want to, eat breakfast, and head down to the convention at a leisurely pace. This year, Conan O'Brien returned to San Diego and I was able to get tickets to Wednesday's taping. That meant lining up to pick up tickets (and secure an assigned seat) at 10am. Through some stroke of luck, I actually had a whole gaggle of tickets (that's the proper term) and was able to trade two of them in exchange for Thursday tickets as well. After picking up wristbands and tickets, I got a picture with some new friends against the Conan backdrop inside the theater.

After that, it was off to try and score more tickets, this time for the Star Trek Beyond premiere that was taking place later that night. The line supposedly opened at noon. I got there at 11:30 and...it was already spilling out across the pier behind the convention center.

While I was waiting, I did get to see the IMDboat. That's about the extent of my Star Trek line excitement, though, as I went thought twice and wasn't able to get any tickets. Bummer.

I did score a pretty great sunburn, though, which you can start to see taking shape in this image. After the line didn't produce any tickets, I went inside the exhibit hall to finish setting up for the day. Here I am with the first cosplayer of the convention! Great job, lower half.

While setting up, I ran into Terry Moore, who I had seen speak the day before at the "Comics & Law" panel at the library. We chatted for a while and he left with a copy of Teddy and the Yeti. Then it was off to the Spreckels Theatre for Conan.

On the way there, I saw this fine gentleman wearing a 2014 Tick shirt drawn by Duane Redhead!

The theater was about six blocks away and the sun beat down on us every step of the way. When we made it inside, we waited in a gigantic line in a suffocating hallway on the second floor. There were a lot of sweaty people there that day. But we eventually made it to our seats just before the show started.

I had a seat near the front of the upper balcony, which was actually a pretty good view of the show. The cast of HBO's "Silicon Valley" was the main attraction, though there was a fun cameo of Will Arnett tossed in there as well.

I'm used to shows filming the same scene over and over again for hours on end, but this one flew by in right about an hour, which was surprising. It was a good time and when it was over, we all got Conan Funko bobbleheads. On leaving the theater, we were met with throngs of people asking if they could buy them.

I made it back to the convention center just about ten minutes before it opened for preview night, which was some good timing. I was able to jump in a line and pick up some cool items right as Comic-Con officially began. Preview night is such a feeding frenzy of buying that it's almost hard to imagine. Above are some folks who are probably wondering how they're going to get all of their new stuff into their car. Lookit all of that!

The Walking Dead had a big presence again, including this scene where you can pretend that you're about to get your head smashed in by the show's new villain. What fun!

Here's a shot of the floor. For preview night, it was fairly orderly.

Marvel, for some reason, commissioned a bronze statue of Captain America that was unveiled here before moving to a park in New York. I'm not entirely certain that a fictional character should get an official statue before, say, the creators of said fictional character, but I guess there's already one of Rocky and Robocop out there in the world. So to each his own...and the statue did look pretty cool.

You don't usually see a lot of costumes on preview night, but there were some to be found.

Leaving the show, I ran into none other than legendary MAD Magazine artist Sergio Aragones! One of the greats.

I make sure that I stop at the Chuck Jones Gallery in the Gaslamp District every year. This year had a small space devoted to the works of Nancy Cartwright, the voice actor for Bart Simpson and an artist in her own right. In the middle is a Bart Simpson bust! I also love the shadow it creates on the wall.

Apparently Burger King had an after party at an offsite location in the evening. The place was roped off and people who were dressed extremely well were entering, so I didn't make an attempt, though I probably should have. What in the world was happening in this place?

I managed to make a relatively early night of things as I had a busy Thursday planned. Look for those pictures soon!

Pictures from the 2016 Comic-Con International, part 1: Tuesday (the day before!)

It's time to once again check out some pictures from the recently concluded 2016 Comic-Con International in San Diego! There's a lot to get to, but let's start out slowly with some pictures from the day before Comic-Con, Tuesday the 19th. I usually arrive in San Diego the day before the convention in an attempt to function like a human being once things start on preview night, but this year was a little different in that for the first time since 2012, I was able to do some setup on Tuesday.

Getting to enter the convention hall a day early is a lot of fun, if for nothing else than the fact that it's an experience not many other people get to have. Comic-Con instituted some changes with their badges this year, sending them in the mail weeks before the show rather than having on-site pickup. This eliminated one of the long lines to enter and I appreciated that. Not everyone is a fan of the new RF tagged badges, but I had no problems with them and thought the process went smoothly.

Another cool thing about getting to enter a day early is getting to run around the convention floor before it opens. A lot of sightseeing happens on this day from exhibitors.

There was no air conditioning inside the hall on this day, which was fairly terrible as the first few days of the convention were hot and sunny. So I didn't do too much inside other than getting the boxes where they needed to be and getting the appropriate lanyards and tags.

To the left of the above picture, you can see the new electronic monitors at the entrances. Other than having to go in and out of specific doors, it wasn't too much of a hassle.

Here's the inside of Comic-Con while setup is still happening at a furious clip. In the above picture we can see DC Comics on the left and Sideshow Collectables on the right. Lotsa freight to unbox on Tuesdays.

Comic-Con sprawl continues, and on Tuesday afternoon I went to my first Comic-Con panel...before the show officially opened. This was the Lindley Lecture on Law & Comics, held at the San Diego Central Library. I signed up to attend online, and when I entered the auditorium, I was asked to write down my name and bar association number.

Apparently, a vast majority of attendees were practicing lawyers (this probably counted as some sort of continuing education lecture), but the panel was nonetheless enjoyable for someone who was there as a fan. Terry Moore (and his entertainment lawyer) was the featured speaker and it went well. It was also nice to get out of the heat for a bit.

The banners adorning the light posts this year had Dr. Strange branding. These stayed up until several days after the show ended. Maybe you can just take one? Let's find out next year, shall we?

This was easily the busiest Tuesday that I've experienced at the show in the few years that I've been attending. I had a lot of fun but it did make the rest of the show a little tougher to get through, as I didn't relax nor did I go to sleep early this night. And Wednesday came early this year, too! But I guess that's what to expect with Comic-Con. More pictures to come soon!

"Rotten Tomatoes: Adrift in Space" Comic-Con poster

My love for the folks at Rotten Tomatoes should come as no surprise. Ever since Larry and I were interviewed by EIC Matt Atchity at Comic-Con in 2012, I've been a big fan of not just the website but of the people behind it as well. This year, I decided to put together a comic strip with artist Ian Chase Nichols and I was able to hand it out to the participants at the "Your Opinion Sucks!" panel at Comic-Con.

I've got pictures from the event, but for now I thought I'd just post the comic strip itself, which I had printed as a 24"x36" poster. As you can see, I went back to the well one more time and set the strip in space, but I think it works.

As with the Weird Al print I made, I might have tossed in some recognizable characters, ones that had some history as movie critics of sorts. I think Jay Sherman turned out especially well.

I might try to elbow my way into doing another one of these for the New York Comic-Con, but we'll see. For now, I'm happy that I was able to write my own little love note to the folks at Rotten Tomatoes.

"Weird Al at Comic-Con" poster

I'm back from another fun time at Comic-Con, and before the inevitable deluge of pictures, I thought I'd share this image from a poster I created just for the event. "Weird Al" Yankovic made a few appearances in and around Comic-Con, so I decided that it would be fun to mark the event with my own tribute in the form of a poster, itself a tribute to a 1905 "Little Nemo in Slumberland" strip by Winsor McCay.

I gave the posters away on Wednesday and Thursday of the show, and before Al's Thursday-night appearance at the Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre in San Diego, about ten miles away from the convention center.

I took the opportunity to, I suppose, skirt the edges of legality and toss in some of my other favorite fictional characters, such as the Thing, the Tick, Spider-Man 2099 and others from Futurama, the Venture Bros. and the like. This is me living on the edge.

Artwork on the print is by none other than Duane Redhead, who did a lovely job at squeezing a lot into a little bit of space. I'll talk more about this in a future post, but it went over pretty well and I was able to get a few copies to Al and his band during the convention. It was a lot of fun to put together.

Tick exclusives at SDCC! Plus a Tick panel!

I'm leaving for Comic-Con in...about 15 hours, but that doesn't mean there's not time for a new blog post, right? ...right? Well, anyway, I just wanted to point out that there will be a brand new issue of The Tick on sale in San Diego! Duane and I put this book together a few months back and I'm excited to see it in person. It's limited to 260 copies and it'll be available exclusively at the New England Comics booth (#1807) during the show. I'll also be signing books there at various points during the convention!

There's a blank sketch cover as well! This one is also limited to 260 copies. I'm pretty sure it's not 250 this year so I can get some copies for myself, ha. Each issue will cost $7.99.

And if you're coming to the convention, don't forget to check out this Tick panel with creator Ben Edlund! It's happening on Friday, 7/22 from 2:30-3:30 at the Hornet Grand Theatre. This will be a ticketed event, as space is very limited. Tickets are free, but you have to grab 'em in the Sails pavilion the day of the event. Good luck!

Honcho: 3 Cheers preview

As I mentioned in my last post, I'll be premiering a new mini-comic, and the first "Honcho" publication, next week at Comic-Con. Here's a preview of the book, titled "3 Cheers". It's got art by Jeff McComsey and a short backup written by Jennie Wood! I'm pretty happy with it.

Backers of the Kickstarter will get a copy of this book with the first volume. I'll be taking a first look at the full series with me as well, showing it off to publishers and the like. I'm happy with how quickly this is coming together (though we've still got a way to go). If you're at Comic-Con, stop by booth M-06 to pick up this book!

A quick Honcho update

As the title states, here's a quick update on Honcho: we're working on it. More specifically, here are some pages that Jeff McComsey has been posting of roughs, pencils and inks:

I'm very excited to be working on this project and it's moving along speedily! We're probably going to round this volume out at about five single issues, or 125-ish pages. That's a hefty number but we're on pace to hit that and then some. Working with Jeff is great because he's strong in a lot of the areas that I'm weak, so we seem to complement each other well. I guess that's for others to decide, ultimately, but that's how I feel about it, anyway.

We'll have a mini comic available at Comic-Con (next week!) and I'll show a preview for that soon. At the very top is the cover for that comic and directly below is a sticker we'll have for backers of the Kickstarter campaign!