Well, once again the San Diego Comic Con again proves it's the big daddy of the shows. Whew I am beat after the 4 day (and 1 preview night) jaunt. This was my wife's first show ever and I think her brain was blown from the sheer amount of craziness and stimulus in the air. At first she was wierded out but then I couldn't get her to leave! I'm glad she got to experience it all and I think I have the 'all clear' sign to go again. I wasn't in artists' alley this year (will be next year) but did a lot of walking around networking and meeting friends and fans. I made a lot of great new connections and have a lot of interest in my work in the Marvel Comics/DC Comics/Wildstorm camp going back into comics after what...12-13 years now since I did "Morbius, the living vampire" for Marvel. Seems like not a day has passed but it indeed has (grey hairs prove), and comics seems to be getting it's act togeather again like a place I would finally like to be creating again. I'm adding a few pics here of some initial new pages I worked up for the show. As I'm more of a horror artist it was kind of a cool change to do some superhero work to pass around. I'm going to be doing some "Swamp Thing" samples next per request from the editors. So I planted the seeds of interest at the show and now it's a waiting game to see what comes to fruition with clients and work. I'm very excited. I also traded cards with hollywood production designers Richard Hudolin (Battlestar Galactica) Alex McDowell (Watchmen, Corpse Bride), J. Michael Riva (Iron Man, Spiderman 3), Barry Robinson (Wolverine), and John Muto (Terminator 2 3d, Species) and hope to be working with them in the future on some movies coming to a theater near you. Call me guys. Hopefully the SAG/AMPTP crap will all get settled soon and we can all get back to makin' movies. Curiously enough I ran into the agent for IATSE 790 and hopefully I can finally get my union card for their local (LA/Hollywood) and can get on some major project and finally acheive what I am out here on the west coast to do! I met up with some old comic buddies like Jeff Parker, Chuck Wojtkiewicz (from the old Artamus studios days) and Steve Leiber. Jeff and Steve are now in a huge studio in Oregon. I ran into Andrew Robinson and he showed me some of the killer work he's doing over at DC and on his own "Dusty Star". You have to check it out. It's fantastic art as ususal from Andrew. I ran into my old studio mate Scott Hampton and some of my other North Carolina comic buds John Van Fleet and Tommy Lee Edwards. It was good to see those guys and reminded me that NC is still there and how much I miss being in NC. Make sure to pick up Tommy Lee's "1985" series over at your local comics shop. It's awesome. I ran into a crazy little character named "Tofu, the vegan zombie" and his creator(s). My wife and I loved loved him and I may be working on some stuff with the creators in the future. We bought a couple of action figures at the show. I caught up with Jay Beard and Erik Medina from BottleRocket Studios after many years and hope to work with them on some of the exciting video game stuff they are doing. I worked with those guys on "The Mark of Kri" at SCEA and always like working with them. Also on the video game front I met with Microsoft and have a lot of interest from them to do some work coming up. I have some more interest from other agents to handle my illustration. I'm weighing options. An interesting note on San Diego Comic Con that I read in a local San Diego buisness paper. There is mention of moving the con to Las Vegas in 4 years when their contract expires to a larger facility. I hope not and I know the revenue lost in San Diego would be a big blow to the city. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it stays as is. Vegas for the most part sucks. My mind is reeling from the show and I am trying to prioritize all the things I need to do this week so I will write more another time. All in all, it was a great time at the show and as usual Comic Con was bigger and better than ever! We hope to be back in North Carolina in September. We will see how things go. That's it for now! Stay tuned for more. Same bat time, same bat channel.
Craig
