C2E2 2012

[Pat Loika]

You must have been at Challengers on thursday.  And dammit, that same jeep was parked outside since wednesday

Oh and this girl is a friend of mine.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/patloika/6933002902/

She's awesome.

[JohnnyNoPrize]

Nothing personal and I feel like to total ass to Johnny who I even took the time to text, but had a family incident happen.  Again, meeting the guys was great and I really hope to meet more of you next time around.  If I remember Johnny goes to Wizard World here in Chicago, so we can meet up there.     

No need to feel bad. Things happen. This just means I can still look forward to our being able to meet. I dont normally do Wizard World, however. C2E2 is my one con of the year...so lets make next year the year we do it!

[LA Rabbit]

C2E2 was fantastic. Each year is better than the last. Feeling extremely fulfilled and exhausted. Came back with a ton of great comics. Here are the remaining sketches I nabbed (minus JK Woodward, who will hopefully be sending mine through the mail):

Green Lantern Hal Jordan by Bill Willingham:

How did you score the Willingham sketch? I did not know that was possible. Great job.

[Gordie]

What a wonderful time it was.
Arrived on Thursday night and took the train over to Challengers for the Smoke and Mirrors event and met up with fellow EOC’ers, met Art & Franco and Pat & Dal. Saw Norton and Crank but decided to wait til Friday to introduce myself.
Friday, I got there early to take advantage of my “pro” pass and was met with old friends Nesemen and Sal. Hugs all around. Vince walks up and embraced me with a hug and said  “I’m never gunna let go.”  and tells me he’s intimidated by my knowledge.   
I’m intimidating?
David is as great as I expected and warmly greets me.  Chris disappears and I don’t see him until Saturday afternoon. Sal’s table becomes the meeting spot.
I run off to get on Mike Norton’s sketch list and he likes my Rick Nielsen idea.
Chat with Crank about television for a bit and head out to find some books.
Magazines were hard to find, but I grabbed a few books and roamed about meeting EOCer’s as the day went by. “GORDIE!” shouted Bean, across the floor as I was headed back to the hotel for a break. He went off to get a tattoo from the AWESOME Brian Stringer, who couldn’t have been any cooler.
Presented David  “Mr. Mc Feeley” Newell with his senior yearbook from 1956 since he went to my mom’s high school and he signed it all these years later and a 40 year old story was realized. Never got close to Art & Franco’s line, because they are supremely popular. Gabriel and Corrina and I talked Apes for awhile and I trudged home to the hotel to eat pizza and read monster mags.
Saturday was low key, with lunch in Chinatown with Bean and Wendi, talkin’ music most of the time. Walked the floor with Vince, becoming fast friends, looking at more mags and reminiscing about dressing up as KISS in our youth. Still can’t get near Art & Franco, so I make due with chatting with Tony Moore about haircuts and firearms and gabbing with Skottie Young about early hip-hop and Soundgarden. Keep running into EOCers and the Ramon Perez phenomenon while dodging cos-players.
I get to have a solo Mike Norton moment, while sharing UK photos and discussing how awesome old castles and neolithic sites are, while waiting for the LIVE Aw Yeah podcast to begin. Seeing the podcast live adds another dimension and I head back to the hotel to change clothes and come back to the Hyatt for drinks and conversation.
Everybody is there and I end my weekend with a nice long talk with Sal and a little Hilary and all the EOC crew. The Blackhawks win at the last moment and I bid farewell to all, as the skies open up and pummel me with rain and lightning, so I jump into a taxi and go home to pack for my Sunday journey.
Sunday is my farewell to the awesomeness of Chicago and I can only have good things to say about C2E2. Many new friends have been made and I hope to see all of you again in days to come. Thanks for all the good vibes.

[MarkS]

Love reading everyone's tales of the con & perusing the photos.

Making me insane with jealousy that I can't be there. Sadly Chicago is a long way from Australia. Perhaps I'll make it someday. In the meantime I'll live vicariously through the forum.

At least Oz has a few folks such as Rowland over there representing the team.

[JohnnyNoPrize]

Meeting Rowland rocked!!!  You need to get yourself here, Mr!

[EmperorZurg]

When do we get to see the NEW INK???? 

[David]

When do we get to see the NEW INK???? 

Vince's?  Right here.

[JasonF]

How did you score the Willingham sketch? I did not know that was possible. Great job.

David Peterson told an awesome story at the Archaia panel.  He's doing another Mouse Guard anthology, and he approached Willingham about contributing.  Willingham said he'd love to write a story, but Peterson said if he wanted to contribute, he'd have to write and draw.  "But I don't draw!" said Willingham.  "You used to!" said Peterson, and now Willingham is coming out of retirement as an artist, at least for long enough to do that Mouse Guard story.

[turtleboy8]

How did you score the Willingham sketch? I did not know that was possible. Great job.

I happened to check the Hero Initiative's website prior to the show and it said he would be at their booth for 2 seperate 2 hour blocks daily.  I assumed signing, but when I got there he asked if I wanted a sketch.  $25 for a headshot is pretty sweet.  I wanted to go back later and get another one inside my Fables Deluxe editions, but he could only do about 5 sketches in a 2 hour block, so he booked up pretty fast.  I'll have to post my haul as well. 

Another sweet thing was George Perez was doing head sjetches for $25, and on Sunday his line wasn't that long at all.  Never thought I'd actually own a piece of Perez art!

[Rustyautoparts (Russ Otto)]

How did you score the Willingham sketch? I did not know that was possible. Great job.

I happened to check the Hero Initiative's website prior to the show and it said he would be at their booth for 2 seperate 2 hour blocks daily.  I assumed signing, but when I got there he asked if I wanted a sketch.  $25 for a headshot is pretty sweet.  I wanted to go back later and get another one inside my Fables Deluxe editions, but he could only do about 5 sketches in a 2 hour block, so he booked up pretty fast.  I'll have to post my haul as well. 

Another sweet thing was George Perez was doing head sjetches for $25, and on Sunday his line wasn't that long at all.  Never thought I'd actually own a piece of Perez art!

Turtle tipped me off about this while we were in line for Snyder. I hit him up early Sunday morning. I try to make a habit of checking the Heroes Initiative booth first thing, but I didn't realize Willingham was sketching as well as signing until Turtle showed off his beautiful sketch. I wish I knew about Perez sketching! I hope I have another chance with him.

[Christopher Stark]

And NOW I am pissed. (Okay, not exactly pissed) but YES, Pat told me who she was a couple of years ago and since then I have wanted to meet her like I want to freaking meet the cotdamn 11TH DOCTOR!!! Tia Rodenmeyer, right?!  Dude, she is like a cosplay GODDESS to me ever since I saw her as Kitty Pryde.  And BEAUTIFUL??  the fuck outta here, LOOK at this girl.  UNEARTHLY pretty.

WHY

did I not remember it was possible she'd be here?!!?

WHYYYYYYY?!?

I'll make sure to introduce you next time she goes to a con.  But true master of Coldplay?  Bellechere

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bellechere/

[EmperorZurg]

Thanks for the link to the ink, Mr. Wood.  When I saw it at the con, it was just a seeping piece of gauze...

[StringerTattoos]

What a great convention!!!

Had a little navigational mishap on the way up...  Yes, I drove across it.  

You know, just catching a ride to dinner...

Biggest dinner tab I've ever paid. (everybody kicked in, but still...)

David, the Malbecs were both excellent.

Here's what I came home with...

Brion Salazar

Templesmith

Eric Canete

Gabriel Hardman

Katie Cook (for my daughter)

Katie Cook (for my apprentice)

Jeremy Haun

Khary Randolph

Tom Scioli

Skottie Young

The only books that I picked up were my copies of the EOC Anthology vol. 2 (thanks for dropping them off at my booth, Jon!), Marc Draven's "Rage", and Eric Canete's "Encore".

Cliff Chiang surprised me with this:

It's from a collabo that we did at the Baltimore convention 2 years ago.

A box o zombies to paint:

For the kiddo, I also picked up a t-shirt, a book of paper airplane designs, and a kit to build a robot out of recycled stuff.

It was cool to see a lot of familiar faces stop by the booth. It can be tricky for me to get away, so I appreciate y'all coming to visit. Great meeting some more 11 'o clockers this year. Thanks to Vince and Bean for letting me tattoo them. Gordo is awesome, wish we could have talked more. Fillipe is a cool dude.
Wish I would have made it over to meet Slurmo.    
Thank you Chris for the Scioli introduction.  
This was my best C2E2 so far (except for missing Jason ). I worked less. Played more. Bought awesome stuff. Hung out with great people. Bumped dirty south gangster rap in a stretch Hummer with my homies.

Good times. I'm in for next year  

[Sal!]

Just wanted to stop by and say thank you to any and all that stopped by my ad-hoc table and said hello or got a print from me. My head is still spinning so i have no idea who did or didn't, but thanks to any and all.  

[Jeppe]

What a great convention!!!

Here's what I came home with...

Holy hell, you got a great haul! There is just so much pure awesome in those pieces, and I absolutely love the Templesmith, Canete, and Haun ones 

[Pat Loika]

Slowly recovering from the weekend. Despite having a roommate throw up on my foot and part of my bed, I had an amazing weekend.

It was kind of surreal, to be honest. This con was attended by a HUGE chunk of my friends. Not just in message boards, but from twitter and Facebook. I literally couldn't walk around the hall without being stopped by people that knew me or listened to my podcast. It was a very humbling experience. I wish I could name check everyone I saw, but there's too many, and I don't want to leave anyone out.

As far as hauls go, this is the smallest con haul I've ever gotten. To be quite honest, I wasn't really interested in picking stuff up. I wanted to see friends and take pictures and talk to the folks who put out the books that I love reading.

Picked up a commission from Clay Mann, an original Tale of Sand page from Ramon Perez, and a bunch of prints and some books. A good number of the books I picked up at stores around Chicago, too.


My grail over the weekend, though, was to assemble as many people who've appeared in my podcast as possible for a class picture. The crap phone signal at the convention center caused 7 people to miss the initial shoot...but I still got this.

THIS was the highlight of my weekend.


Thanks to everyone who took the time to say hi, and took the time to chat. You were all a part of one of the best experiences of my life.

Pat

[Wood]

What a great convention!!!

Had a little navigational mishap on the way up...  Yes, I drove across it.  

You know, just catching a ride to dinner...

Biggest dinner tab I've ever paid. (everybody kicked in, but still...)

David, the Malbecs were both excellent.

Here's what I came home with...

Brion Salazar

Templesmith

Eric Canete

Gabriel Hardman

Katie Cook (for my daughter)

Katie Cook (for my apprentice)

Jeremy Haun

Khary Randolph

Tom Scioli

Skottie Young

The only books that I picked up were my copies of the EOC Anthology vol. 2 (thanks for dropping them off at my booth, Jon!), Marc Draven's "Rage", and Eric Canete's "Encore".

Cliff Chiang surprised me with this:

It's from a collabo that we did at the Baltimore convention 2 years ago.

A box o zombies to paint:

For the kiddo, I also picked up a t-shirt, a book of paper airplane designs, and a kit to build a robot out of recycled stuff.

It was cool to see a lot of familiar faces stop by the booth. It can be tricky for me to get away, so I appreciate y'all coming to visit. Great meeting some more 11 'o clockers this year. Thanks to Vince and Bean for letting me tattoo them. Gordo is awesome, wish we could have talked more. Fillipe is a cool dude.
Wish I would have made it over to meet Slurmo.    
Thank you Chris for the Scioli introduction.  
This was my best C2E2 so far (except for missing Jason ). I worked less. Played more. Bought awesome stuff. Hung out with great people. Bumped dirty south gangster rap in a stretch Hummer with my homies.

Good times. I'm in for next year  

That's a kick ASS haul Stringer!

And yeah, I was all set for some new ink. Have to make up for it in the 'Teen (13)

[Wood]

Slowly recovering from the weekend. Despite having a roommate throw up on my foot and part of my bed, I had an amazing weekend.

It was kind of surreal, to be honest. This con was attended by a HUGE chunk of my friends. Not just in message boards, but from twitter and Facebook. I literally couldn't walk around the hall without being stopped by people that knew me or listened to my podcast. It was a very humbling experience. I wish I could name check everyone I saw, but there's too many, and I don't want to leave anyone out.

As far as hauls go, this is the smallest con haul I've ever gotten. To be quite honest, I wasn't really interested in picking stuff up. I wanted to see friends and take pictures and talk to the folks who put out the books that I love reading.

Picked up a commission from Clay Mann, an original Tale of Sand page from Ramon Perez, and a bunch of prints and some books. A good number of the books I picked up at stores around Chicago, too.


My grail over the weekend, though, was to assemble as many people who've appeared in my podcast as possible for a class picture. The crap phone signal at the convention center caused 7 people to miss the initial shoot...but I still got this.

THIS was the highlight of my weekend.


Thanks to everyone who took the time to say hi, and took the time to chat. You were all a part of one of the best experiences of my life.

Pat

What a great pic Pat. Was it hard to get everyone together? Strikes me like herding cats, particularly that DAP guy -- who can be a real handful.

[Christopher Stark]

THIS was the highlight of my weekend.


Thanks to everyone who took the time to say hi, and took the time to chat. You were all a part of one of the best experiences of my life.

Pat

That is awesome.  It sucks that the signal in the center was complete shit.  As soon as you walked outside the door, no problem.  But hit that red carpet and you might as well just turn your phone off.  I know I tried hitting up Bean and JohnnyNoPrize a few times and it took forever to send if it went through at all.