I'm still recovering from another long, travel, con weekend, so sorry for the lack of updates...
On top of that, I'm really behind on production of the book, so I'll keep things brief... (oops, that didn't happen)
This was my first time out to the Wizard World Philadelphia convention, and I was impressed all around.
From the size and attendance of the show, to the wealth of stellar artist alley talent, the crazy cool neighbors, and the general location of the convention hall.
One of the main problems with most big cons are that the convention centers are located away from any kind of necessary amenities required by travelers, like affordable restaurants and shopping. Not the case at the Pennsylvania Convention Center as it is adjacent to a large market that's home to dozens of produce and fresh food sellers, as well as restaurants of all variety. I did find out however, the only drawback here was that the market closed at 6pm (same time the con closed) and on Sundays.
You can't win them all.
Otherwise, most hotels and downtown attractions were all concentrated directly around the hall. Wow, that's nice.
I flew in on the Thursday night/Friday AM red eye direct from PDX to Philadelphia, at just around 5 hours, catching some pretty good sleep en route. I arrived at Philly just before 7AM EST, which is 4AM PST, my time... so ya know jet lag is not gonna be avoided when doing that kind of time warp... any way, since it was relatively early, I had no problem catching a shuttle once I figured out how to.TIP: Here's something I've learned recently, you can take a moderately priced shuttle bus from just about any airport to downtown area attractions for a fraction of the cost of a cab, or rental of course. Usually only having to pay 8 to 10 dinero plus tip.
So got that done and went straight to the convention hall by 8AM (in LA I made the mistake of going to my hotel first, expecting it to be accross the street, to only find out it was several blocks away). Now I thought the hall opened to exhibitors at 9AM and I'd have to wait, but I turns out it was 8 and I went straight in and was able to get set up by the time the show opened at 10 no problem. Even making a trip out for a real sit down breakfast at the aforementioned market across the street!
As for the show, and the rest of the trip, it was a blur...
I had some great neighbors, a local t-shirt designer/aspiring inker/indy publisher/comic shop employee, JD on one side, and Michigan pin-up artist TC Cor on the other. Both stand up guys with cool and friendly friends and significant o's... for JD's crew, that's good, cuz I only had a 4' artist alley space, and therefore split the other 4' of a table with him.He had these really cool "Don't make me choke a bitch" Darth Vader shirts, and "Zod Posse" among others. He needs to update his website some more, but it is PunchThroat.com
There you should find mini comics, indy anthologies and cool silk screened shirts shortly!
He even inked up a sketch of mine on the spot (see sidebar)! His inking portfolio looked top notch to me, so I'd be surprised if he's not working in the industry post haste!!
As for the previously mentioned wealth of artist alley talent to be found, watch for some CON SWAG updates coming soon highlighting some of those...
I also had the good fortune of being interviewed for SilverBulletComics.com live on Friday AM, so you should see a review for issues 1 and 2 of the book and the interview in Stephanie Mangold's HEY SUPERGIRL column up on there soon as well.
I got to meet many folks in person for the first time, or others in genral... such as Jamar Nicholas, creator of the Detective Boogaloo, Hip-Hop Cop webcomic, the crew from Fenickx, some friends from MySpace, my print rep from Regent Publishing, former Marvel Comics editor and kickin creator C.B. Cebulski, BrokenFrontier.com creative director and Super Real advertiser Frederik Hautain (all the way from Belgium I might add!), Super Real reviewer and PaperBackReader.com columnist Dan Head, the crew from IndyComicReview.com (who also review and enjoy Super Real), and many more!
Other than that it was the usual bevy of awesome folks checking out the book, getting sketchbooks or sketches, and stopping by to say hey and get their books signed... speaking of, this con was by far the worst occurrence of mistaken identity for me yet, I had several folks looking for me throughout the weekend expecting to get their Jason Martin "the inker" comics signed... Yes, I'm a Jason, we are legion, but Jason Martin's are rather frequent too, and well, I'm not that Jason Martin. Wish I'd inked Joe Mad, Adam Warren and others, but alas, I haven't.
When I plotted my course into self-publishing, I was hoping this wouldn't be a problem, but more and more it is. It's not fun dissapointing folks all weekend long when they realize they've got the wrong dude... I mean, I know it's not for them, cause it's generally written all over their face, like it's my fault.I might have to do something crazy like adopt my email name or throw in an exclamation point, or as someone else has taken to doing, calling myself "the" Jason Martin. Let me know what you think about that!
So, let me finish by saying it was a great show, not as good sales wise as LA for whatever reason, but still good in that regard, but overall, the con, the people, the city, the coordination, was great. A huge thanks to everyone I met and picked up stuff from me over the weekend!!
THANKS!!
I went straight from sketching past the show close of 5PM to the shuttle and 8:30 flight to PDX and the drive home by 12:30AM Tuesday PST. Monday, I was a bit zombie-ish till noon and then was back on track. Another marathon completed successfully!!
Now stay tuned for those CON SWAG updates, hopefully soon...
jason
8 comments:
Jas!
man, nice report. You mentioned the same thing Heidi did on her report, about having affordable restaruants and shops right next to the Con.
Sounds like ya had a great time. I've read elsewhere that the show was lightly attended (how many times do people need to see Kevin Smith?!). As usual, ya made the best of it, and sounds like you ran into everyone!
Did you take any pics??
Read that SUPERGIRL blog..
Really tired of these bitter, skinny, smallchested chicks speaking for the woman's majority. I don't think women should be objectified and I'm all for "more realistic" portrayals of women, but that includes women with cup sizes larger than a B. I think the "realism" needs to come from how the character themselves are portrayed.. and these are superheroes for one!! The guys are unrealistically muscled up and chizzled, but wouldn't you expect someone with hyper strength and agility to be? Same goes for the girls. I've never heard skinny or fat guys complain that there aren't enough realistically portrayed men in comics.
In fact, I kinda go the other way on this one. I think Hollywood has so sold the idea that women need to be size -2 and flatchested that women who are a normal healthy size and are not anorexic are looked on as being "fat", "overweight", and "unhealthy", which is total bullshit.
This bitch needs to get off her laurels and write come kickass piece of comicbook herself. If being smallchested is a problem for her and she can't accept who she is and make her body work in conjunction with her brain and personality for her.. there's always breast enhancment.
No apologies. I have plenty of female friends who do not fit the anorexia category and they're definately not fat chicks and this kind of mainstream skinny talk always either makes them feel fat and/or just gets on their damned nerves. I like some meat on my women.
WORD PROPER.
-Joel
sagaofbluewing.com
Jav!
Lightly attended? It seemed more attended than WWLA perhaps, certainly busy on Saturday, but I suppose it could've done better.
And yes, it was light on the celebrity (artistic or otherwise) attractions. I agree! I'll never understand how Kevin Smith can be the guest of honor at every single comic con?!?
He's done some good flicks, and is a comic icon of sorts for his vocal support of the medium... but come on already!!! What gives?! It's just Kevin Smith!!
I've thought of brutalizing him in the pages of the book in response to this unparalled geek love he seems to receive endlessly for little reason...
As for pics, you're right... I forgot! I only took a couple, but I'll get those posted as soon as Blogger is functional...
Joel,
Thanks for posting man, and it's cool, say whatever you like, but I'm not sure I see your point here... at least specifically in regard to your take on her column regarding women's portrayal in comics.
I agree with you, that people seem to key in on that a bit too much...
1) it's fantasy, and when you create artistic interpretations of the male and female body as fantasy, shouldn't they be the artists idealized interpretations of them?
2) It's not specific to comics, you don't see overweight or unattractive women in any form of visual media as a rule. Beau Smith did a nice column in CBG recently. Comics are no different than other media in that regard.
However, I read the column you’re referring to, and I think she has a point (and she’s not the first one to make it, or think it), some balance would be good. Not everyone should be one body type, even in fantasy, it would be perhaps more believable if there was a wider range of body types. For instance, more girls under a c cup perhaps. Something I really thought about with my book, but ultimately, the story dictated otherwise. Certainly stories that don’t actually focus on the stereotypes of comics and Hollywood, like Super Real, could stand to have women with varied features, and as she admits, many do. I think ultimately it’s up to the artist creator, and their vision, but one would think the realistic portrayal of life and society would seep into their thought process, as an artist, or perhaps should, depending on the story.
A good example of a current book, that’s sexy as all hell, but features a woman of smaller frame is Daughters of the Dragon. DotD has two female leads, both attractive, but one is built like a brick house, with the breasts to match, and the other is lithe with smaller breasts, and I don’t think anyone would say it’s not a sexy book, or featuring two extremely sexy women. So kudos to Gray, Palmiotti, and my man Kari Evans for that!
So, back to the discussion, I guess I see both sides here, yours and hers, and I do think it’s a valid one, but again, I think it’s about balance. So, I don’t begrudge either of you for your takes.
Whoops, and rereading your post and mine, let me add, while I think you made some good counter points, I do think you took your response to her a bit too personally, and that wasn't cool.
I'm not going to delete it, but I just ask that you maybe think more about your comments before posting them next time man. (I know things can get heated when talking about a hot button topic online, and I certainly think this is one of them!)
Also, I misspelled Khari's name... sorry Khari!
Darn blogger comments and no edits!
It's your blog. Too much goin on here on my side of the screen to really express myself properly. I just feel that there are normal sized girls who these days are regarded as being "fat" and there is too much hype these days telling girls they need to be anorexic, because that's sexy and healthy.
-Joel
Look at Jenifer Biel. A lot of guys think she's sexy and I've seen people go on about her C-cups, when I'd be surprised if they even registerd an A. It's like if you don't have a superthin body and no breasts, then you're fat. I have a problem with that. Her argument seems to support the anorexia craze. I mean Wonder Woman is supposed to be an Amazon and these days they're drawing her like a petite sized A-list WB actress.
The problem with mainstream comics these days is that the characterizations and writing is generally bad on all fronts, whether they are portraying male or female characters. I'm not a big fan of the Top Cow line of certain comics myself, but the solution is to provide better alternatives. I'm just saying rather than criticize, she should, like many indie artists/writers, get out there and start putting together material to fight against that.
But like I say.. she seems to focus too much on breast size rather than character portrayal. I don't think simply reducing breast sizes on these characters would make much of a difference other than support the "skinny is better" argument. Her viewpoint needs some balance is what I'm saying.
ha! thanks for the kind words, sucka!
yeah, i'm working on a redesign of punchthroat, hoping to get that together!
you still looking for an inker?
>you still looking for an inker?
Perhaps...
We'll have to talk if you're game.
I am first and foremost, interested in talking t-shirts with you, for SDCC, member I mentioned something briefly?
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