SUPER REAL NOTES - misc

WODNERCON WRAP UP
Okay, so just wrapping up from Wondercon, the big San Francisco con hosted by the folks who do San Diego, Comicon International. It was my first time at this event, and man was I impressed. Though it was much smaller than San Diego, they had some solid guests, a decent exhibition floor (up there with the bigger cons I've seen outside of San Diego), and quite an array of local events that tied in with the show in the evenings. To top it off, the weather was unseasonably warm, high 60's to high 70's!

We rode the trolleys, cruised the wharf, shopped, hit the Golden Gate, curved down Lombard, but most of it was like the speed metal version of SF tourism, cuz we only had one day off to take it all in...

We missed out on two smashing parties at the Isotope, the Frank Miller hosted screening of Sin City and after party, the V for Vendetta sneak preview, and the Chinese New Years parade to name a few!

Met lots of great fans, it's neat to have a space with a book out in shops for the first time, and actually get people who've already read and enjoyed the book! Not to mention meeting and converting new fans!

Networking is always key to the cons, and I saw many publishing friends and got to talk shop, meet new great folks like our neighbors Illusive Arts Entertainment (publishers of the very impressive Dorothy), and many more. It's so much fun to peek at aspiring artists portfolios and sketchbooks, and cruise artist alley and see what the pros are up to. I tried to snag a moment from J Scott Campbell at the DC booth, but he had a good sized line and I my wife wasn't around to watch the booth at the time... drats! Didn't realize he was going to be there or I would've planned that one better. However, I did meet one artist I was looking to track down, a certain newcomer with a recent impressive debut over at Marvel, so hopefully something will work out there for maybe a Super Real cover... this guy is perfect for the book folks, and sure to be a rising star!

The 06 sketchbooks came in on time, and they were a hit at the show, with a good percentage of the run of 50 already gone, looks like I may need a new volume before con season is up...

I also attended a panel on self publishing, and hopefully I'll get those notes sent out to ComicCon.com/thepulse soon and will cross link that here for those interested.

I highly recommend this show to anyone in the area, or who can afford to travel to the bay area. It's great! And getting better every year...

ISSUE TWO
UPS stopped by the house yesterday AM and dropped off the advance copies overnighted from the printer in China. The books are printed, and will be hitting the pacific any day now. This leaves the in store date for issue two at either 3/15 or 3/22. A couple weeks late, but the book looks great.

I'll be sending some of the copies out for review shortly, to time with the release!

NEXT CONS
Portland Comic Book Show 3/5 - Think I'm a guest at this one, and I may be able to debut issue two here, but it will most likely not be available til the following week...
Wizard World LA 3/17-3/19 - Still trying to get confirmation from them regarding my space here... stay tuned.
Emerald City Comicon 4/1-4/2 - Edward Pun, our issue two variant artist/interviewee, will be at the show too (along with a metric TON of guests), so perhaps he'll hang out a moment or two at the booth... but if you're there, it's your chance to get his signature and peep his cool swag!
Eugene Comic Book Show 5/21 - I will be a guest at this show.

SAN DIEGO COMICCON INTERNATIONAL 2006 HOTELS
We got one!!

As you may or may not know, today at 9AM PST the hotels for this July's big con became available at the con rates, and it took both my wife and I calling and plugging away online to secure the room we wanted before they all booked up within minutes of opening the availability.

We managed to score the Embassy Suites a few blocks down the road. I was tempted to do the Hilton again this year, as we did it last year, and it's about as close as you can get, but Embassy Suites offer complimentery made-to-order breakfast, and Hilton offers nada in the AM food department. So, ya know, at the same price, I'll walk a few blocks for a free meal every day (and not that complimentary day-old danish and muffin crap we had in San Francisco!).

Anyway, I had the reservations all set on our home pc when pop up blocker wiped out the whole shebang upon clicking to enter credit info... luckily my wife was mirroring everything at her work and we were able to book on her pc, because when I went back to re-enter the info myself, the rooms were gone...
Crazy!

STAY TUNED!
jason