For the inaugural year of Hartford Comic Con, it was certainly packed with geeky goodness - so much so that my Q & A over at Strange Kids Club was bursting at the seams and had to be split into two pieces! I'm proud to present the second part of that here on my dusty ol' blog, where guests from the Con recount...weird tales of Cons gone by:
Rich Woodall - Artist Alley Comics (Kyrra: Alien Jungle Girl, Johnny Raygun)
Surfin' Dead: What's your best/worst/weirdest Con story to date?
Rich: Best Con Experience: The first year I was doing Johnny
Raygun with my Partner in Comics, Matt Talbot, we set up at Wizard World
Chicago. We had a great time, but the highlight of the show was hanging out
with Erik Larsen until 3 or 4 in the morning talking about Jack Kirby and
comics in general… and then we drove him to the airport and he told us about
the next 2 years worth of Savage Dragon story lines.
Worst Con Experience: Man, it's hard to pick a worst… I
generally love going to cons, and don't see the negative in much, but if I had
to pick a worst, I think it would have to be sitting next to a guy selling a
book called Jacques Da-Cock and screaming the title every time someone walked
by… trying to sell an all ages book next to that was kinda rough.
Weirdest Con Experience: I once complimented a Buffy shirt
as someone walked by. The couple took that as a sign to stop and pitch Matt and
I their Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Scooby Doo Fan Fict. This might not have
been so bad if they took turns pitching, but both were very excited and pitched
at the exact same time. So, for 5 minutes all we heard was high pitched noise
with the random character name thrown in there. After the pitch Matt looked
over at me and said "don't EVER complement anyone again!"
Jack Purcell - Batman, Guardians of the Galaxy
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Surfin' Dead: What's your best/worst/weirdest Con story to date?
Jack: My best con story was in NYC where I sold a beautiful splash
page before the show started, got to be part of a project announcement with
Stan Lee and got offered a part time job teaching at RISD CE (*Rhode Island School of Design Continuing Education). An amazing
weekend!
Mark Frankel - Wayward Raven Media (Signed C: The
Missing, Horsemen)
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Mark: Let me preface my answer with the statement that
I truly enjoy talking to the all the folks who go to cons, no matter
who they are or what they are into. I'm a little unusual, as are the other guys
in Wayward Raven, so I love attending conventions and hanging out with
folks who are as passionate, nerdy and excited about comics and the
conventions as I am. I'm there to sell, but I'm also there to have fun.
Without the awesome people we meet at these things, I can't imagine I would
still be doing it. Every now and again, however, there is that one person
you just can't reach.
The first time I exhibited, we had a guy come up to us and
ask if we wanted to buy his novel. Not buy it to publish it, but just buy a
copy. I think he was asking $30 or $40 bucks for it. I don't think it was bound
normally either (although I'm sure any number of places would have done it for
him. Kinkos or Staples for example), just a general stapled together manifesto.
I only recall ever seeing the one copy too. I tried to politely decline,
explaining that we were there to sell books, not buy them. He visited us
off an on for the next couple days, still with the one copy. I guess no one
else was buying either. Maybe if he only wanted five or ten bucks someone would
have taken it off his hands. Or not, who knows. I have not seen him since, I
hope that with some guidance it has worked out for him.
Joey Esposito - Footprints
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Joey: The worst, and coincidentally weirdest, con story to date is
from Comikaze Expo a few years back in LA. It was the first day of the show,
still early in the morning, and a gentlemen came over to my table to browse my
wares; specifically Footprints, a black-and-white noir comic that was feature
prominently in my setup. He flipped through it a bit, thought for a moment, and
then looked me in the eye and said, "This is exactly the kind of book I
wouldn't order for my store." He walked away after that. So that was
pretty weird.
Ken Kristensen -
Todd The Ugliest Kid On Earth, Indestructible
Todd The Ugliest Kid Facebook Page
Surfin' Dead: What's your best/worst/weirdest Con story to date?
Todd The Ugliest Kid Facebook Page
Ken: The thing that always amazes me at cons is when hardcore Superman fans come up and ask me to sign Superman Returns movie posters. I was in graduate school when I served as location manager on that movie --and I worked my ass off. So it feels good to be recognized years later, but it still blows my mind because it's not like I'm the writer or director. That's one of the great things about fandom -- getting recognized even if you were only a small part of something.
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Surfin' Dead: What's your best/worst/weirdest Con story to date?
Slade: Well at Free Comic Book Day, a Ghostbuster used my kali
sticks in a not so nice pose behind me.
Ryan Browne - ZombiePETZ
Surfin' Dead: What's your best/worst/weirdest Con story to date?
Ryan: Probably the best was last year at NYCC, getting the chance
to meet Stan Lee. He's the reason most of us do what we do. He is a great man,
humble beyond belief! One of the weirdest experiences so far isn't really weird
as much as it was surreal - getting to meet The Crow comic creator James
O'Barr, who is one of my biggest influences. I spent a solid 45 minutes talking
with him while discussing everything from his past writing stories to how he
doesn't tend to do sketches anymore at conventions. While chatting with him he
was doodling in his book and when he finished he had a huge 11x17 crow sketch
that he gave me as a gift. I am still to this day speechless. As far as bad
experiences I haven't really had any yet (fingers crossed). Hopefully I won't
ever have anything bad happen at a con.
Jason Deeble - Monster Haiku
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Surfin' Dead: What's your best/worst/weirdest Con story to date?
Jason: My first time selling my books was at a dog park. It was
some kind of dog parade or dog festival. I can't exactly remember. I know I had
a table out in a field and it started snowing like crazy. I think I may have
sold two books that day. I felt like a rock star.
Alex Cormack - Oxymoron
Surfin' Dead: What's your best/worst/weirdest Con story to date?
Alex: I’ve had a lot of good times at cons to really nail down
one. Meeting people, seeing friends, traveling, but one of my favorite things
is to meet people face to face for the first time who I have been working with
through emails.
The worst, well... hmmm... I’m not sure if I have a worst
story yet, there’s been a bunch of things that people would do to get on my
nerves but nothing too terrible and nothing too interesting.
But weirdest, well that’s another story! One time I was
drawing sketches for people in books we were selling of your basic characters -
Spider-Man, Batman, etc. - and this one guy asked me to draw a self portrait in
his book. And as I was drawing myself, he started to criticize the drawing
telling me that my eyebrows were thicker, or that my nose was bigger and so on.
Another time I was at a show with, at the time my girlfriend now my wife, and a
guy came up and asked us to sign pictures of ourselves that he found somewhere
on the internet. The last one I’ll mention is a guy I met on a Free Comic Book
Day and I asked if he would like to see a book I was selling, and he began to
yell at me that God is dead and that his no good ex-wife did not understand
that and that’s why they are separated, then stormed off swearing. But anyways
it’s all a part of the fun.
Adam Miller - ZombieBomb, Hartford Comic Con Coordinator
Surfin' Dead: What's your best/worst/weirdest Con story to date?
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Adam: A couple years ago we were working on a book called
ZombieBomb. It was a horror anthology and ended up being a pretty good ride for a
bit. At the time we were selling books and having fun and had gained a little
real world notice for it. A filmmaker named Tom Bennett took interest in us and
started documenting our adventures for a web series. At a convention in
Philadelphia, Norman Reedus (of Walking Dead and Boondock Saints fame) showed
up at our table very excited about the artwork he saw. He payed us a nice
compliment and quickly returned to his booth. It happened so fast we were all
caught a little flat-footed and never got footage of him visiting us. We
regrouped and found Reedus again a short time after. We asked him if we
wouldn't mind appearing on our show in support of the book, and he said he'd
happy to do it. Once turning the camera on, Tom asked him to say a few words -
the catch being that Tom thought his name was Sean Patrick Flannery (his
Boondock Saints cast mate). Upon us confusing their names, Sean Patrick
Flannery, who was standing just feet away, caught wind of it all and ambushed
us. He jumped in and began making fun of the whole situation, and all on tape
no less. Both actors were amazingly good sports about it all and despite having
a little egg on our face, we landed on our feet and got a great segment out of
it. It eventually become our most watched video (YouTube link)
and is still one of my all-time favorite con stories.
Juano's Addiction: What's your best/worst/weirdest Con story to date?
Frank: My best con story is that I've pretty much perfected the art of getting into any panel I want to see at NYCC with out having to wait in line. It doesn't work for main hall though...
Frank: My best con story is that I've pretty much perfected the art of getting into any panel I want to see at NYCC with out having to wait in line. It doesn't work for main hall though...
Matthew Fletcher - Station Studios
Surfin' Dead: What's your best/worst/weirdest Con story to date?
Matthew: Weirdest Con story? Haha, that's an easy one!
Early in my career, when I first starting doing sketches at shows (but
still didn't know any better), a college-age kid comes up to our table and asks
if I do commissions. "Of course" I said "What are you
looking for?". Mind you, I wasn't getting nearly as many
opportunities to sketch at shows back then so I was eager to draw and make some
cash in the process. As he starts pulling out an incredibly thick manila
folder from his backpack, he excitedly answers "Well, I was hoping you
could do a drawing of John Mayer!"…...All I can remember is my brain
tripping and falling on its face.
Of the list of hundreds of possible superheroes, villains,
or pop culture icons that could have come out of his mouth, this was definitely
not one of them.
Am I a fan of John Mayer's music? Hell, no.
But, I'm relatively familiar with who he is and what he looks like.
Am I thinking it's a little weird that this kid wants a John Mayer
sketch? 100%! But who am I to judge?
I figured I'm decent with likenesses anyway, how bad could
it be? So, my brain picks itself up off the floor and I say "Sure,
why not."
What happens next is where the nightmare begins.
He of course is ecstatic (My guess later was that no one
else was stupid enough to take this on).
He asks if I know the song "Waiting on the World to
Change". I tell him that I had heard of it. He then goes on,
AT LENGTH, telling me how much this song means to him and how this song changed
his life. How the world is a terrible place with so many awful things
happening for no reason and that we can all change the world. Now, don't
get me wrong, this is a wonderful sentiment that I think many people share, and
I very much appreciate how special this song is to him. HOWEVER!
This conversation just went from weird to creepy in a matter of seconds
and I'm starting to feel a little uncomfortable with the personal information
being shared with me.
Next, as he hands over the incredibly large manila folder
filled with reference photos of John Mayer, he tells me exactly how the piece
should be laid out. "I want John to be sitting in a throne.
With rockets on it. In outer space. And for him to be
floating in front of the Earth. And I want the Earth to be cracking open
and exploding, with the words 'Waiting on the World to Change' written below
the exploding Earth."
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
We've just gone plaid people!
This is literally the worst commission idea I've ever heard!
Every ounce of my body is screaming for me to say "NO" to this,
but for some reason my head keeps nodding, and the word "yes" keeps
coming out of my mouth. The kid finally walks away and I'm left staring
blankly into the crowd with drool coming out of my mouth. My buddy is
looking at me dumbfounded and asks, "Did you agree to do that?".
With a look of horror, I turned to him and nodded.
I then spent the rest of that day at the show, that night in
our room, and most of the next day at the show, drawing and coloring that
piece.
In the end, I charged way less than I should have for a
piece that complicated, and passed up at least 5 other sketches that weekend
while working on it. On top of all of that, because he wanted to save
money, he opted for me to do the piece on 9x12 instead of 11x15 which is
incredibly small for a piece of that description. Especially considering
that I was expected to capture someone's likeness. In all honesty,
telling him "No thank you" really would have been better for both of
us; because what he asked for was a sketch of John Mayer floating on a rocket
throne, in space, in front of an exploding Earth with the phrase "Waiting
on the World to Change", but, what he got was a sketch of a man that kind
of looks like David Boreanaz floating on a rocket throne, in space, in front of
an exploding Earth with the phrase "Waiting for the World to Change".
The moral of this story: Thank god "Your Body is
a Wonderland" wasn't his favorite John Mayer song.
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A big thanks goes out to all who participated! Here's hoping next year is even bigger and weirder...
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