Friday, August 15, 2008

SAN DIEGO COMIC CON: part 3

<- -These sketches are from my two hour HERESY signing. I did an alternative cover which features a very curvy vampire chick with some overt bondage overtones. Suffice to say, the cover got some attention. I also had the pleasure of meeting Danny Greenspun (Creator) and John Brady (writer). So most of the sketches (like this one) are of the curvy vampire chick.

I think the nicest thing that happened to me during this con was actually getting recognised. And I don't mean by my alcohol soaked, brain damaged friends who can barely remember to chew let along my name. I mean by total strangers. It's a huge jazz. It happened to me three times.

1. THE LIFT: On Friday I was heading back to my hotel room. I'm in the lift with one other dude. And he leans across and sees my yellow con badge, "Professional, huh? What do you do?"

<- More curvy vampire chick action for Death.

Always open to a random conversation, I replied "I draw the online comics for the tv show HEROES."

He goes, "No s#it? I love those!" Then he looks at my badge again, "Jason Badower? Holy shit! I loved Road Kill!"

I was shocked that he not only knew my name but he could cite something I've done. I shook his hand, gave him my card and told him how much I appreciated his comments and recognising me. I was grinning from ear to ear.

<- A Heroes fan found me!

2. THE DC BOOTH:

A bunch of Aussie friends of mine had given me a huge shopping list. One of the things on the list was the Adam Hughes, Women of DCU poster. I heard that they were giving them out at the DC booth. During my break on Saturday I elbowed my way through the throng to the counter at the DC booth. I caught the attention of a lovely lady there and inquired about the poster. "I'm sorry," she replied, "I have no idea where they are," then she peered closer at my badge and said, "But I loved your work on the Death of Hana Gitelmann!"

<- Hey Ivy, here's your pic! FINALLY!

I almost fell over. She introduced herself as Kristy Quinn who works on the editorial staff at Wildstorm. Apparently she had a fair bit to do with the HEROES graphic novel. We had a great little chat and I left her feeling like I was walking on clouds. I was so happy I almost didn't notice the geek stench from the masses around me.

As a post script to that story, Kristy emailed me saying that she found another copy of the poster. She then emailed it out to me. Again, she humbled me with her generosity. Thank you Kristy! Given how much this poster now means to me, I just need to figure out whether I keep it or send it back to Australia...

<- So this girl was asking about getting into comics and I was giving her advice. She then tells me that her uncle is Jim Lee! I tell her the best advice I can give her is to ignore everything I said and go talk to her uncle.

HAYDEN PANETTIERE: I had the day off on Sunday so I decided to just wander around the con like a punter. I was walking along pushing my way through the crowd, when a security guard yells, "The line to Hayden Panettiere starts here!" And points to the guy in front of me. So I stop, and figure it'd be really nice to meet her and give her one of my sketchbooks which has a couple of pictures of her in it.




<- One lovely lady lined up for this Spawn sketch and then called her brother over when it was done. What a good sister!

So the first guy goes through and I'm standing there trying to explain to the guards who I am, what I do for HEROES and how I don't want a photo and I don't want to pay $25. Hayden is sitting there looking a little quizical at the proceedings while the skeptical security guards bar my way despite looking over my sketchbook. Then from a couple places down the line, a dude goes, "Oh my god! Jason Badower! Can you sign my HEROES dvd for me please?"

My grin almost takes in my ears. I scribble my sig and thank the guy. The guards, now convinced of who I am, let me through. Hayden was sweet and waxed lyrical about how she keeps running into Aussies. I left her a sketchbook and wandered off. It's only then I realised I should have got her to sign my sketchbook! D'oh!


<- Another Heroes fan!















<- This guy was really nervous about asking for Spiderman. I guess it's cos I'm not a Marvel or DC artist. I think he was surprised as to how elated I was to get to draw something different.















This guy lines up and when I ask him what he wants sketched, he looks around and then goes, "Could you please sketch her?" And points to this lovely lady behind him (I think her name was Lauren). She was quite taken aback and it became clear that the two had met standing in my line. I'm thinking to myself, "This is one smooth dude." He was really sweet about it though, and she was lovely. I did what I could to help the conversation and the two exchanged details. Even if nothing comes of it, I thought it was a really nice story.

















So when Lauren gets to the front, and I ask her what she wants she says she really liked the portrait I did of her and asks if she could have one of her own. Voila!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's so ace, all those people that knew you through your work - why on earth this should be ever be a surprise to you I don't know! I was chatting to somebody yesterday about the first Heroes GN and he was waxing lyrical about the Death of Hana Gitelman :D

Noo - member of international Jason fanclub ;)

Anonymous said...

WOW! ...why should it ever surprise you? ... and you DO have an International Fan Club, after all Lol
....can't wait to get Zero-G!!
Sheindie
(noo and I are both calling ourselves anonymous, these days =) )

Alexandre Togeiro said...

Good work will eventually bring recognition, no denying that :) (I can certainly say I was waxing lyrical about Death of Hana Gitelman as well!)Interestingly, in the previous post you talked about meeting some of your idols, and now you had a taste of being one :)

Kelly J. Crawford said...

I'm suprised that you're still surprised that people immediately recognize your name and face. You're a world-famous comic book artist, Jason! Deal with it.

You're so sweet, so humble, I just want to crush you to my busom and pet you. :-)

KJC

Anonymous said...

Dude, that's so awesome that you had such a great time meeting all these people at comic-con! Actually I missed your signing Saturday because I was at the Heroes panel, and as I was waiting in line to get in, I grabbed the third Heroes comic and realized that "Blackout" pt.1 and 2 were in there, so I immediately thought I'd try to track you down to get it signed (and also since I'm the guy who you gave your Heroes comic to last year, I was gonna see if you received the third comic because i got an extra and figured you might have missed the chance to get it so I'd return the favor) but sadly I couldn't find you anywhere for the rest of con. I guess I'll just have to catch you next year.

Eduardo Aguirre - member of the fanclub

Ororo_Munroe said...

Aww, that was such a sweet story. I hope the couple comes on your blog to tell you they are getting married. Badower's love connections!

psst, are we supposed to mention we are members of your fanclub? Everybody luffs Jason!

Anonymous said...

...I cannot ruin this love-fest with even a virtual display of man-love for my Aussie bruva. *hits chest with fist, holds out two fingered salute sideways* Peace Out.

Anonymous said...

Wow, what an awesome and beautifully humble post. As always, I really enjoyed reading it.
Thank you!

jasonb said...

noo: While I'm getting more and more familiar with people liking my work, it still takes me aback that people remember my name.

Oh, and I'm hoping to outdo Hana with the upcoming arc...

sheindie: ah! So that was you a couple posts back you anonymous sneak!

alexandre: Aw, I don't know about being an idol yet, but it was just so great to be recognised. But hey, they were nicely complementary posts weren't they? I uh.. .I totally meant that.

KJC: I feel like some sort of artistic chihuahua... but much loved nonetheless.

Eduardo: You totally rock. Thank you so much for thinking of me. Hopefully I will be easier to find next year.

ororo: It's such a sweet story isn't it? I love it. God, i should really upload some stuff to my fanclub. Maybe i can make some wallpapers and upload them there?

Paul: right back atcha, mate!

nat: Sarmy Nat now! Thank you. And some stalker action right back at you!