Click Here For SDCC 2010 Pics/Sketches
Read at your own risk…
Preview Night: It was a blast and quite packed with people. When walking into the con you are immediately bombarded by so many giant robots, creatures, vehicles, sculptures, and structures that you’re immediately hit by the sense of scale. Comic Con is like no other Con I’ve been to, save perhaps, Dragon Con which sprawls across multiple hotels. The main exhibition hall in the San Diego Convention center takes roughly 30 minutes to walk from start to finish, and that’s without people or looking at anything! And boy does your eye wander…Check out the pics for just a taste.
After walking the hall and seeing what was in store, next came meeting with editors, publishers, and friends. There were quite a few artists that were on my list to make sure I ran into/met, and thankfully only a few I didn’t get to see or chat with.
Thursday: Soo Epic. Woke at the beach house, and water was too cold to do any surfing without a wetsuit. Funny enough the weather was pretty mild the whole time. Nothing like last year. I was really looking forward to getting as much if not more surfing in while I was staying there, but it just didn’t happen. Most of the time the temperature was in the low 70’s during the midday and around 55 at night! I set off for the con early, and walked around artist alley and some of the vendor booths, mostly taking in and noting things to buy. I spent most of the con talking to artists chatting about various techniques and tools of the trade. Likes and dislikes of digital work, and sharing samples of our various projects. I also got to connect with old friends from TheOneRing.net, and talk to the folks at Weta Workshop and Sideshow Collectibles. Old pals from my Tolkien days. Took a ton of pictures of course.
The con wrapped and I hit dinner at Cafe de Diem (from SyFy’s Eureka). Awesome drinks, good food, though overpriced on all counts. Then came the Drink and Draw at Hennessey’s. It was awesome. I met a zillion artists and got to drink some Guiness and whiskey and ink-sketch with some fine folks. Among those I got to meet and chat with, the pumped Dan Panosian and inker Ryan Winn who I got to introduce to Copics. Next came the Boom! party at the Hyatt. It was a great time and I got to meet one of the folks I was hoping to see: Ming Doyle. An amazing up-and coming artist whom you should check out: Ming’s Website. I had a smashing good time catching up with many of the Zuda crowd I haven’t seen in a very long time but chat with pretty often: Bobby Timony & his lovely wife Danna, the illustrious Kevin Colden, the dashing Sheldon Vella, my good lad Aluisio Cervelle Santos, the dynamic duo of Zito & Trov Stayed out chatting to various writers and artists and editors at the party until around 1:30 or so and called it a night.
Friday: Met artist Travis Hanson, creator/illustrator of The Bean a fun webcomic you should check out. That dude can draw like nobody’s business and blows anyone I’ve seen away when it comes to speed. Inspiring is putting it lightly. I also got a shwanky sketchbook from Ming Doyle with a cool sketch as well as a little quickie portrait of me. (grr) That lady is too cool for words. I wandered around artist alley and had a quick lunch with all the Zuda folks and ComiXology guys before the signing to end all signings. I started sketching and signing for my hour allotment and passed out about 50 (half!) of my prints I brought with me. The sketches lasted for not one or two but three hours! (Thanks to Sheldon who let me work through his session for some folks that had waited in line for about an hour or so. This was a fun session, getting a ton of character requests I’d never worked on before. I think my favorite of the bunch went to Rachel of Kyle Rainer with his ring failing him.
That night we drank like gentlemen. Showed up to the Geek Girls Tweet up and was denied entrance due to too many people. :/ However, we ran into awesome friend Esti who works at Diamond and chatted with her for a bit only to notice that the Marvel talent party was going on a stones throw away. We all got an invite to come on over and join in the soiree and had a grand old time. When the Eisner awards let out pandemonium ensued as Cameron Stewart, my editor, Kwanza Johnston, and Andy Belanger arrived with an Eisner in hand. A bit unfortunate that Cameron the Great beat out pal and co-Zude Jeremy Love for Best Webcomic, with his brilliant Sin Tutulo, but what can I say, Cameron deserves it. Hilarity and many shots ensued. By the time I got home I was sufficiently done, but evidently had a hankering for the beach as I woke the next morning with sand in the sheets and covered in sand. evidently I sleep-walked onto the beach where I was staying and decided to frolic in the water.
Don’t ask.
Saturday: Another signing, an awesome lunch with Zito, Trov, and Kwanza, and rushed to my signing which lasted about 2 hours. I had a few meetings and introductions to some people (I still need to email – ack!), and chatted with some digital folk I wanted to catch-up with. I stopped off and looked at Graphic.ly and their iPad app, as well as the ImagineFX guys n gals (<– good people).
Saturday night culminated in drinking and dancing and karaoking with much of the crew from the night before. good times but man, I wish I’d left my iPad at home. Tip: you can’t dance with an iPad.
Sunday: Bought gifts for folks back home, signed for an hour and a half – some good sketches in that one, awesome dinner with Kwanza, and had many drinks that night with farewells to friends; I was pretty drained by that point.
Monday: Trip back home capped with the highlight that Azure #2 (the first paid one) was ranked number 2 on comiXology’s in-app purchases. It stayed there for about 3 weeks and was overtaken by Azure #3 towards the end of that week. They stayed up there for a while! Thanks to everyone who checked it out and please tell your friends 
Some of the folks I’m bummed I missed: Eric Canete (was really wanting to grab one of his sketchbooks. I met and chatted with him at C2E2, and I wanted to hit him up for a comission. Ah well…next time…); Jill Thompson (I tried getting into her master class but the lines and packed crowds made me insanely late to her demonstration.); Adam Hughes (I got to talk to him for a bit and picked up his sketchbook, but would have liked to attend his master class as well); Paul Pope (a scheduling conflict as I had to sign at the DC
This is a little 10 page labor of love cooked up by awesome writers and good pals Johnny Zito and Tony Trov, illustrated by myself, and lettered by the amazing Gabriel Bautista. This was done almost 6 months ago now, and we wanted to wait until now to share. This is a fan short, and I encourage everyone – go see Green Lantern. It looks amazing and if it was a quarter as fun to make as this, then it’s well worth the price of admission.
… More on that later. Look forward to a posting frenzy this next week.
Azure is my first foray into the comics world, and this free issue, includes the first eight pages included in the original competition on zuda. Azure issue 1 was a real learning experience for me, and my goal was always to tell the story of Emelie while attempting to bring a sense of wonder and inspiration to readers. If folks dig the first issue, I encourage you to try the 2nd and 3rd…it only gets better as I’ve learned – every page a creator makes in comics is a step forward in becoming a better storyteller.
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