Dragon Con 1993 - Who I did I see there...
Bradley Keith Whiteside
Dragon Con 1993
There was a lot of things to do at the con this year...a wide array
ranging from movie SF/X to comics to RPG-ing. Also in the dealers'
room, were the guests for comics and painted art down in the dungeon,
um... lower level of the hotel.
Here are some of the guests I talked to at Dragon Con:
if anyone else spoke to these guests or other guests, please post your
experiences if you want.
Adam Hughes - who was busy doing a ton of sketches and autographes
Every fanboy was asking for a "good girl" sketch. Nice stuff!
Dave Dorman - a nice guy. I asked him if he was gonna do any interior
art, and he said that he gets as much or more for his covers, so that's
his bread and butter now. He'll be doing some more Dark Horse CGW covers.
Joe Phillips - I didn't realize how big this guy was, very surprising.
Bart Sears - Spent the time signing tons of Turok and X-O books :) He
musta signed half of the existing copies of the books at the convention :)
He signed any sized stack of comics, much to the chagrin of people in the
lines. He only had the Violator books on the front burners and of
course Wizard - Brutes and Babes. I guess his lateness rep is getting
around the comic compnies. But he was a pleasant guy to talk to. I did
see him talk to Steve Massarsky at the Valiant booth (perhaps to ask, beg
for some work, maybe...)
Lurene Haines - She had some pieces displayed at her table. A nice lady.
Olivia Deberardinas - Who had a looong line of people waiting to see her.
And no, I didn't wait in line, but gladly perused her artwork on display.
Mark Bagley - Who denied any responsibility as to why part 11 of the Max
Carnage was a week late :) Another nice guy and he's *left-handed*.
He was busy drawing a Spidey sketch for someone when I got to his table.
Really nice sketch.
Joseph Michael Linsner - a really cool guy, he did a sketch of Dawn for
me, gratis. I got to ask him if Stewart Copeland was the guy in CFD 7
or 8? Also asked him who the inspiration for Dawn. He said Ann-Margaret.
Yvel Guichet - upcoming Valiant artist. He did a nice sketch of Bloodshot
for me, also gratis (I think I was one of the few people that lugged a
Previews along for him to sign the Deathmate Prelude in it (the Previews
the Plasm #0 in it, too)
Don Perlin - a real pro (old guy, too) who was a workhorse signing
everything in sight that people put ion front of him. He looked over
starving artist artwork, some was really impressive, others needed alot
of work. One guy made the mistake of bringing artwork that showed
Magneto in the pages...Big Mistake!
Kevin Van Hook - did some signing on one day, never showed on Sunday, looked
over submissions by starving writers :)
Mike Leeke - a pleasant guy to shot the breeze with. Since most fans didn't
know him by name (he did X-O 5-13), I got to talk to him about stuff and
there wasn't that big a line for him, so we didn't get interrupted
until Jon Hartz decided to do Valiant Trivia, then the table got inundated
by fans wanting Valiant promo cards and chromium Bloodshot and Turok cards.
Mike W. Barr - He's doing Mantra and ST:DS9. He was nothing like I thought
he'd be, but he was a nice enuff guy and explained what Mantra was gonna
be like...Arnold Schwartzenegger (sp?) in a buxom bod with 2 kids. Weird!
Tony Lobito - Same old story about Image...we're cutting back to the main
core books, trying to get the books out on time (NOT!), and giving away
gold books to placate the fanboys (yeah, I accepted one...what the hell!)
Told me that Wetworks 1 is done, and Whilce was in the middle of doing
both #2 and #3 at the same time (why? I don't know), but Little Lobo
did say that the turned in b/w of WetWorks 1 looked really good. Wetworks
as reported before won't be solicited until all 3 books are done.
What was pathetic about the Image booth was that it was manned by Little
Lobo for 2 days and all 3 days by the support people at Image, like the
fans really wanted to talk to them..."So what's it like to wait on stuff
all the time?" Even these guys expressed the "lateness" lament on the
Image creators, it was like: "Yeah, the books are late, as always, sorry."
Marc Silvestri - Was a No-Show. Little Lobo thought Marc was gonna make
an appearance, and there was a buzz around the room on Saturday with the
rumor of his arrival, but if he inteded on showing up, he was late :)
Granted that he was not listed in the program guide, so I guess I can't
be too disappointed. No "current" Image creators showed up.
Larry Stroman - Confirmed that Tribe #2 will hopefully ship in late August.
The funny thing was that he and Todd Johnson were at the Image booth
siging autographes. Real strange, but I guess until Tribe #2 comes out,
they are still "with Image". I think I overheard them saying that they
left Image, not that they got canned, they were kinda indignant at the
question :)
Upper Deck reps - Said that the Valiant cards should be at the distributors
by Wednesday of this week. I saw the 20 chase cards included in the set.
There are 9 Unseen art cards, 9 etched (a la Star Wars Galaxy) cards that
featured the characters and the issues that contained their 1st appearances
in full color...look really cool, the Joe Quesada (X-0 #0 etched) and
a prism card that says Upper Deck one way and Pyramid another way when you
look at it. The rep said that you should get 6-7 special cards per box,
and 3 boxes will get you enuff special cards for you to trade to get the
rest. Yikes! Very costly set of inserts. There are just as many etched
cards as unseen Valiant art cards, but I like the etched cards better!
Hope that helps, Mark B. They gave away promo cards, and had drawings
and gave away full sets of promo cards (30) and full sets of the Valiant
cards PLUS all the chase cards! and also giant-sized cards (big 2'x3'
cards...really nice!), and promo cards autographed by Don Perlin who was
just the corner, heh heh. No, I didn't win any of the big prizes.
Robert L. Washington - writer of Static. A real excitable guy to talk to.
He was very interesting and he was talking up the upcoming x-overs in the
Dakota universe in the Milestone books later on. I happened to see him
digging thru comic boxes at the dealers tables. He was hunting down
Mort Weisinger Superman-era DC's. Kinda funny to see comic creators
going thru the bins.
John Paul Leon - Artist of Static. He was a nice guy and he was WHITE!
Totally caught me off-guard :) I told him how much I liked his artwork,
which I do, and I do agree with the current Static thread: Go out and
get this book! It's terrifically written and drawn, there is so much
detail in both the writing and artwork.
Michael Davis - The Principal at Milestone Comics. Supposedly he's big
cheese at Milestone. He was sitting at the table when I brought up my
personal copies of Static 1-3, he asked me how I liked the books, and I
gushed and heaped heartfelt praise on the books. He whipped out a platinum
Static #1 and asked if I had seen one. I confirmed and told him that they
were a bit out of my price range now. Well, he flipped the book over to
me, told me that he appreciated me bringing my Static books to the
table, and I was very surprised. I quickly got all 3 of them to sign my
newly acquired platinum Static #1, as well as the other 3 books, and
thanked them profusely. I felt like a little kid, it was great!
Jackson Guice - Artist on Action Comics. Now he was a blast to talk to.
He told me all the trials and tribulations of working at Marvel. He even
related that working on the Superman books was Super-lucrative (he gets
about $85 MORE per page working at DC than at Marvel) He was really fun
to talk to. He couldn't give me the scoop on the current Superman
storyline, but he said that it would be good and that DC chickened out
on some other directions at the very last minute in the Reign of Superman
stuff, so we may be in for a surprise. I recommend anyone who was a Dr.
Strange, Nick Fury, Flash, Superman, Micronauts fan when Jackson was doing
the books to go talk to him if you get the chance, I felt like I was talking
to just a normal guy who just happens to draw comics for a living. Real
personable and down to earth. BTW, he's only doing the first 3 issues of
Alien/Predator: Dealiest Species. I forgot who he said was finishing up
the maxi-series. Asked what character he'd like to do, he said Batman.
He plans to do up to Action #700 before moving on to future projects.
Crystal - The Wizard girl at the Wizard booth...Homina, Homina, Homina!
Very attractive lady who was practically falling out of her costume.
BTW, Maxx 1/2 has started shipping as of last Friday. Expect them to
show up within 2-3 weeks on your doorsteps. Wizard reps were sloughing
blame unto the orignal company that was handling the distribution of the
mailings, but they got some other company to get the Maxx's out. The
Maxx 1/2 has a purple title logo and Wizard had the gall and audacity
to place a "FREE" in the cover of the book. Of course Wizard was pushing
their cheesy comic supplies...Yeecchh!!! But Crystal...Yum!
Steve Rude - He's working on the Magnus/Nexus x-over book. He had the
first 20 pages of pencils at his table. The story takes place before
Magnus 0, so it's basically the Russ Manning Magnus. The pencils look
nice, and had that clean, fluid art that the Dude is famous for. I
look forward to it. I'm kicking myself for not bringing World Finest
squarebound books that he did along with me to get signed.
If I remember some other stuff, I'll post it.
--
Patman
"--Cause your ass belongs to ME." Hardware #4
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
Michael Sullivan
Dragon Con 1993 - Who I did I see there...
Bradley Keith Whiteside (gt5...@prism.gatech.EDU) wrote:
>
> Crystal - The Wizard girl at the Wizard booth...Homina, Homina, Homina!
> Very attractive lady who was practically falling out of her costume.
> BTW, Maxx 1/2 has started shipping as of last Friday. Expect them to
> show up within 2-3 weeks on your doorsteps. Wizard reps were sloughing
> blame unto the orignal company that was handling the distribution of the
> mailings, but they got some other company to get the Maxx's out. The
> Maxx 1/2 has a purple title logo and Wizard had the gall and audacity
> to place a "FREE" in the cover of the book. Of course Wizard was pushing
> their cheesy comic supplies...Yeecchh!!! But Crystal...Yum!
--
Michael Sullivan sull...@fa.disney.com
Walt Disney Feature Animation +1 818 544 2683 (voice)
Glendale, CA +1 818 544 4579 (fax)
- THE SAINT -
>> BTW, Maxx 1/2 has started shipping as of last Friday. Expect them to
>> show up within 2-3 weeks on your doorsteps. Wizard reps were sloughing
>> blame unto the orignal company that was handling the distribution of the
>> mailings, but they got some other company to get the Maxx's out. The
>> Maxx 1/2 has a purple title logo and Wizard had the gall and audacity
>> to place a "FREE" in the cover of the book.
Okay. I'm taking bets here. Who wants to wager that the books arrive
mangled, torn, folded, wrinkled or otherwise useless for trading purposes?
And further, who wants to wager than any and all complaints and demands
for replacement books in mint condition will be ignored by both Wizard
and Image?
I'll say that right now, the odds are 1-1.
The Saint.