SAN DIEGO 2007

I’m going to come back to the con sketches later. I’ve got them and some original pictures that I did for the con as commissioned by my competition winners to post.

NEWS: I have a new HEROES story coming up. It's a two-parter written by Mark Sable. It's set after the finale and details a small adventure my Mohinder. It's called BLACKOUT and while it doesn't have any major revelations, it's a cute little story that I hope everyone will really enjoy.

Ok, back onto the trip.

All I can say is that the San Diego Comic Con was the highlight of the trip. You might think that it was just because I was in geek heaven. But Simbo and Nicola (while they both read comics are far from geeks) thought it was the peak of the trip also. Perhaps it was a combination of Team Australia all being together: Mitch, Simbo and I from NYC, Lee and Nicola from Australia, and were all heralding JAn’s final farewell to London. San Diego was pretty awesome and pretty out of control. Everytime I thought it couldn't get any better - it did.

Friday I sat and signed and sketched for about 4 hours. I was forced to take Saturday off, as Gene Simmon’s line was basically a wall of sedated soft metal-heads around my booth. I made up for it on Sunday by sitting there for 7 hours solid. I loved meeting the huge range of people. Fans come in all shapes, ages, genders and sizes, and everyone had such a great story to tell about the con. One highlight was running into Willow Polson who has been so supportive of me and my artwork. She came by bringing gifts and cheeriness:

I didn’t get out into the con much, but I was smart enough to buy all the stuff I wanted on the first day before it disappeared. Adam Hughes sketchbooks, a John Van Fleet artbook, Jason Pearson’s sketchbook (acquired by Mitch at the very last minute as I was stuck drawing at the booth), and Mike Mignola’s sketchbook.

Here’s some of the visual highlights of the con for me. As a new World Of Warcraft player, I totally dug this Night Elf:

The Iron Man mark 1 armour was revealed Sunday. It was pretty awesome:


The Smallville panel (where I met a great guy called Jared, from Penny Farthing Press, who minded my place in the line while I ran off and got my HEROES comic. Oh yeah, I got the cover of the San Diego Comic Con exclusive HEROES comic! Ryan had told me, but I don’t believe anything like this until I see it. But here it is:

It’s now going for up to US$100 on ebay (less if you look harder)! I couldn’t be more excited. The funny thing is that I knew that I needed copies, but I couldn’t contact Aron Coleite or anyone. So I went to the HEROES booth which was guarded by cheerleaders and told them that I was the cover artist (and showed them my badge) and that some copies had been put aside for me. Against all rules, they snuck me some – swearing not to tell anyone. The gambit worked so well I did it again Sunday.

Late Sunday a guy came by the booth virtually in tears that he had missed out on his copy. He was such a huge HEROES fan that he had camped the theatre since 530am the previous morning to make the panel. He offered me any amount of money for the comic. He just seemed so sad and so genuine, that I signed it and gave him one of mine. The pleasure it gave me to see the expression on his face was priceless. Whoever you are dude, enjoy. Here’s him with the Hiro I sketched for him:

So anyway, the Smallville panel. While I don’t think Smallville is the greatest show on Earth, I do have a soft spot for it. Here’s the beautiful and spunky Erica Durance (Lois Lane – she’s so pwetty!):

The incredibly well-spoken and wise Phil Morris (Martian Manhunter) and the new Supergirl, Laura Vandervoort:


The dry and funny Justin Hartley (Green Arrow):

At the con I got to meet some incredible people. Rick Basuldua (inker of the new Aphrodite 9). I caught up with Renae Geerlings (ex Top Cow editor) and her husband Tyler Mane (Ajax in Troy and Sabertooth in Xmen) and his kids Shania and Lysander. They are the loveliest family on the planet. I’ve got my fingers crossed for Tyler’s involvement in the new Wolverine film.

Signing next to me at the Top Cow booth was Paul Jenkins (writer of more comic books than I could possibly list) and his pal Rob Prior and his lovely wife, Beverly. I also met Beverly’s mother and aunt, the twins Shelly and Sondra. The entire family and Paul were plugging their soon to come film, Tatua. Of which, the band Helmet are doing the soundtrack. Here’s JAn flanked by Sondra and Shelley:

Their promotion culminated in a huge rooftop party on the top of a 5 star hotel, where Helmet played. It was an incredible concert and reinvigorated my love of the band:

Afterwards, Page Hamilton (the lead singer) mixed with the crowd and we had a great chat and got some photos:

We waxed lyrical about his Aussie gigs and had a great laugh with Page who is an incredibly genuine, passionate and lovely guy. Then we wandered over to find artist extraordinaire, Tim Bradstreet a little star-struck by Page and reluctant to go pester him for a photo. We introduced the two and got some photos.

Tim then introduced us to his business partner, Thomas Jane (the Punisher) who is a party animal. A. N. I. M. A. L. I won’t write any of the stuff he did here, but buy me a beer and it’s game on. =)

Here’s myself, Thomas Jane and JAn (for those of you who want to know, Thomas is smoking a Monte Christo Super Ruebens – I think that’s right):

Here’s me with the nicest and coolest guy in comics: Mr. Tim Bradstreet looking all mean. If only it was down-lit in the traditional Tim Bradstreet fashion, we coulda been a cover:

Here’s the crew decompressing at the end of the con at this AMAZING Brazilian restaurant. JAn and I went last year and we had to drag everyone out to what was unanimously proclaimed the “Meal Of The Trip”. That’s Nicola and her husband, Lee on the left. JAn standing up with the camera, Simbo with the Tatua tattoo still unwashed on his filthy arm, and Mitch on the far right:
Then we went to the San Diego Zoo the next day. We were told to go as San Diego has the best zoo in the world. I wandered around unimpressed until JAn told me that Melbourne apparently has the third best zoo in the world. The difference? Not much. Look at that, I’m now a zoo connosieur.

I’ve already blown my load about Matt Haley, so here’s some shots of animals:
I can't tell you how big this damn gorilla was. It was actually bigger than Mitch.
It was either "Where's Wally" or looking at animals that could have been stuffed and mounted in a cage. I'm sure this panda wasn't real.

I did fall in love with this polar bear. Look at the little girl's hand on the right to show you, not only how big he is, but how close he was.
Man, I just really like this shot. So there. Move along.

Here’s the Zoo crew: Lauren (my lovely production editor – one of the nicest people in the world – seriously), Alexis next to her in the matching top was my booth partner in crime for the weekend, Simbo not wearing a tank top (amazing!), JAn in the red looking disgruntled, a friend of someone’s in the hat to JAn’s right, Chris Moreno (my art director and Lauren’s partner) looking down, Matt Haley in the sunglasses peering over JAn and the main man Mitch looking at whatever the hell Chris is looking at.

So then we said our goodbyes and JAn, Mitch, Simbo and myself all piled in our minivan and made the pilgrimage to Vegas for the wildest and most drunken part of the trip!