Friday night my pals Dean and Mjit came over and we got our drink on and we played "Cards Against Humanity." Lots of fun! Dean slept over so we could just leave right out in the morning. We left and loaded in the rain and got there around 9:10. I ran into my old pals Dan Hogan, Kevin Leen, Brett Pinson and Connie Pinson. Joe from migeekscene.com was there covering the event and it was good to see him again. I let him store his camera and other stuff behind my booth.
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| Ugh, I'm tired! |
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| I always do a warm up sketch when I arrive at shows. This time it was a Slave Leia. Necessary. |
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| I don't take pics that often with costumers but the 501st are a special case that I sometimes make time for. This pic was snapped at a weird time, and thus I look stoned. I assure, not the case. But still, I don't want that pain stick rammed in my ass by the Emperor's Guard. Hopefully he doesn't know I support the rebellion (Liberal!). |
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| There was a running joke all weekend about "If I cosplayed, what would I wear?" I have an affection for the Ghostbusters and their proton packs. I want one! So my Girlfriend said she'd come home one day to see me playing Ghostbusters in the nude. I had to sketch the moment of what it would look like if she came in the door and caught me doing that. |
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| I did a panel on "THE WORLD OF SKETCH CARDS." How to collect them, how to get into doing them for yourself. I think it went well. I had about 15-20 people in the room. Pretty much every panel was attended like that. I tried to go through my outline I wrote and I showed examples of my work and others like Katie Cook and Grant Gould to help illustrate my points. But when I got back to my table, I realized a couple points I could have expanded on. I recorded the audio so maybe I'll share it if I can get it to sound good. |
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| It was Misty's first true comic con experience. She had fun, and I kept her busy. |
I picked up a few things. An old MAD Magazine from the 80s, some INVINCIBLE comics I am behind on, some STRIP adult comics (reference), "Pins and Needles" by Jack Gonzalez, and "Teacher Strips" by Stu Rase. Some nice reading to catch up on!
Sunday was slow but I made more sales and I finally, finally, FINALLY sold off the last of the old matted 8x11 prints that I had in stock. They are gone, never to return. I sold mostly print cards, prints and some original art. The folks who put on GRASP EXPO, as well as GRAND RAPIDS COMIC CON treated us artists very well and they gave me rock star treatment. I haven't had that before. I really felt welcome and I was grateful to them for their support. I don't have one bad thing to say about the show at all. I think some might have went into the show thinking it would pull in regular comic con numbers, but its a small press show. We were the focus. Our names can only do so much, and thats understandable. But the ones who did show up, truly wanted to be there and truly wanted to check out the indie folks and their work. Its a nice break from those comic show that make you pay $65 per person, per day to go to the show and you pre-pay for your autographs and photos. I think with some small amount of retooling, they will come back strong with it next year. Thanks to GRASP, thier staff and crew, and all who came out and had a good time with us.
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In the week leading up to GRASP, I worked a ton of hours at both jobs. My two days off I had my boys overnight for the first time. The day I dropped them off (when I was supposed to be sleeping) I took my girl to a pizza place here in Grand Ledge, my new home. Its called Cuginos. We had their pizza and breadstix. Very good! (although my stomach hurt for a bit after it. I just cant handle certain foods anymore. Boooo!!!!!)
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This week, a MAJOR event happened. The Supreme Court of the United States passed a law that its is now 100% legal for gay couples to get married. This is something I've supported and voted on for years. Very time the law in specific states would get banned, I would voice my outrage. The whole debate was beyond dumb. Now gay marriage (Now referred to as simply: MARRIAGE) is approved and hey, the world didn't blow up. Armageddon didn't happen. We're still here and nothing has changed! Just that those who are in love can now join in the same unions as straight people can. Oh no! How dare they want happiness!! Of course, the loudmouths came out and bitched, but nothing can stop it now. Not without years of changes. And we're not gonna let that happen. We're one more step closer in our evolution of thoughts and being the way we should be as one race, one species of humans. While horrid things are happening in the South that brings up years of racial issues, we're also crossing the finish line on other things. We're trying to get it all together. We're trying. We have hope. And it was my hope that was rewarded this week. This effects people in my family and friends of mine that I've seen had to struggle through this for a long time. I share their smiles this week. This was big time, man. And its about time!
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On the artwork front, I worked on more STAR WARS sketch cards but also did some STARSLAM 2 pages and a print idea for PLEASANT LIFE 2:
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| Oh man.... the fight begins... |
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| Mortin: Simply Irresistible? |
And now I'm home. Back to the drawing board, literally and figuratively. Thanks all for checking out the site. I'll return soon with more stuff to show. Cheers !
T
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