Wondercon 2012 recap

Wondercon, held this past weekend in Anaheim, CA, was a 3 day weekend of seemingly non-stop action! 

I hadn't exhibited at Wondercon in about 10 years or so. But since they relocated this year to Anaheim from San Francisco, I thought I'd best give it a try. And I'm glad I did. There was no shortage of memorable moments during the show, and that always makes these events worthwhile. I was splitting the table with friend and fellow comics creator Ted Seko, so that in itself made the weekend worthwhile as well.

 Since I've started self-publishing in 1998, I must have done at least 75-100 conventions, store signings, book fairs, festivals, etc. But each time I have to give some thought and planning to how to lay out my table. So for the first time, I brought along a comic box (on the left) and filled it with my my entire catalog of comic books (save the one that's currently out-of-print). This was also the first time I debuted my Poster Comics, so a plastic 'milk crate' was the best way to display those.


The good thing about doing a local show is being able to go home after the first day and bring back either more product or display fixtures. I was thinking of retiring my ancient EL MUERTO banner, but there was plenty of room behind me, so I brought it and hung it up. Which was good, because I think it really helped get more attention in the isle I was in.

One thing about our location that I wasn't too thrilled about in the beginning was to our left was this massive, monolith:

This wall, surely the tallest wall I have ever seen, was one side of a bathroom planted right on the floor of the convention hall (because putting the bathroom along the side of the hall would have been too much extra work!). Anyway, that wall was one of the reasons I brought the banner the second day. May as well make the best visual impression you can given the circumstances. Thanks to STEAMCROW artist/co-owner Daniel Davis for mentioning that bit of advice to me on Friday...

WONDERCON is a pretty big show, so there were lots of vendors and lots of attendees. On Friday, the traffic in the Small Press area was light, but Saturday picked up tremendously, and in fact that was our best day. Sunday, while not as busy perhaps, still had plenty of buyers stopping by our table and picking up our goods.

It's always good to see so many artists setting up at a show to sell their work. There's always way space occupied by retail vendors and larger comics publishers, but it's the Artist Alley and Small Press area that gets me excited about the art of comics. I don't look at any of these artists as competitors, but rather I look at how do I keep my work in the public's eye, and how good of a job am I doing in being an effective exhibitor. There's only so much you can 'pitch',  people either respond to the work or they don't.


Couple of things that stand out to me about this weekend: As the years go on, I hear from more people who've seen the EL MUERTO movie, which sometimes helps sell some DVDs. That just shows the constant and pervasive power of movies and television.


I was visited by a writer who moderated a panel I was on at the LA Latino Film Festival back in 2004, and another guy who interviewed me on JoBlo.Com back in 2005. A former student of one of my comic book workshops, from some 9 years ago, stopped by as well. He's in his early 20s now, which really shows me how much time has passed.

Also, two former employees from a comic store I used to shop at, (and later do signings at) back in the late 90s/early 2000s came by the table. A young lady whose doing her doctorate on comics made into films picked up some of my books, and I let her know she could contact me later if she had any questions I could help her with. Plus the usual mix of new readers ("Where do you suggest I start?") and old fans ("What do you have that's new?").

There were of course other friends and acquaintances I saw as well, but the ones I mentioned stand out because it really underscores to me how long I've been doing 'this'... Making my own comics and all the other experiences that have come with it. The movie, the teaching, the signings.... Man, it's been a great 14 years so far.

I did get a chance to walk around the convention hall and visit some of my friends, such as Neil Segura and Ray Mendivil, creators of FOREVER FRESHMEN:

 John Narcomey of DRAW HARD STUDIOS in talks with an armored Batman fellow:

Back at my table, more of my friends stopped by to say 'Hello'. Here's the Queen of Hearts herself, the lovely Jenny Dos Santos:

My old pal Dean LeCrone , cartoonist, filmmaker, All-American Yancy Streeter, was walking the floor presenting some of us with his 2012 DOC SMITH YEAR OF DISASTER CALENDER. Dean's one cool dude, always has a positive attitude and twinkle in his eye. And another friend of mine, the exceptional Ms. Bernyce Talley, also came around at the same time to add some class and charm to my table, and to bust my chops (always a pleasure, believe me!):

Ted and I handled the weekend pretty good, I'd say. But there were times when the long days and slow patches would get to us!  But then, a new wave of folks would stop by the table and liven things up. Here's Ted doing some free sketches for some appreciative kids:

All weekend long, Ted was producing some great little drawings using a $1 box of crayons! Most of these went to fans at no cost, and I even snagged a couple, the Man-Thing and Robin:

I had my marker brushes with me, so once in a while I'd do a sketch myself. Here's one of my character The Wake:

I even asked Ted if he'd like to make jam piece. I drew another of my characters, The Coma, and Ted really blew it out of the water with his crayon coloring! Photoshop? Bah, big deal!:

I only bought one comic that whole weekend. I walked by a booth called 'HIPPY COMIX' and knew I had to stop and look. I immediately started looking for back issues of Gilbert Shelton's WONDER WART-HOG and found this little gem for $10:

Hey, I might be at the convention to showcase my own work, but as a fan, there's so much to see and buy at every show that sometimes I gotta indulge myself! 


Evenings of the convention were dedicated to dinner with friends, both local and out of town. That's one of the great reasons I love these conventions, meeting up with friends you don't get a chance to see normally. Sure, as I mentioned, the days are very long, and you're working every minute, either talking to endless streams of people, or fixing up your table, or wandering around the hall meeting friends and such. After dinner, it's a drive home, fall asleep, then get up for another 8, 9, 10 hour shift.

But at it's best, I get to make my comics, set up at a show, meet lots of interesting people, sell my goods, make some money, and generally have a great time, filled with some rich memories and experiences. Makes it all worthwhile.

Back at WONDERCON this weekend!

WONDERCON is being held this year in Anaheim (after 24 years in the Bay Area) and I'll be exhibiting the full 3 days.

This Friday thru Sunday, find me in the Small Press area at table #33, which I'll be sharing with long-time friend & fellow DIY comics creator, Ted Seko. We'll have these signs behind us, so you better not miss our table!

When I started my self-publishing career back in 1998, I attended WONDERCON for a couple of years when it was held in Oakland. Eventually it moved to San Francisco, and I've only been to it once in that city about two years ago, as a visitor. But with their temporary move down here in Southern California this year, I didn't want to pass up on the opportunity to do a 'local' show, particularly one as big as WONDERCON.

I'm going to officially debut my Poster Comics as, well...posters! I've been releasing these online as webcomics since December, but now they'll be available as 11" x 17" prints, on glossy cardstock. I have a special Poster Pack featuring all 4 Poster Comics plus a free 4" x 6" postcard print of THE SPIDER-CALACA.

That's four glossy, full color posters, featuring my newest characters such as THE WAKE, THE WANDERING JEW & CATHOLIC BOY and THE SPIDER-CALACA!

I'll also have all my other comics that are currently in print, including WEAPON TEX-MEX Vs EL MUERTO and THE COMA, copies of the EL MUERTO DVD, buttons and anything else I can find! Also, I'll have a few sketchdolls available.... 

 Undercover spycam footage of the THE WAKE sketchdoll!


Get your WONDERCON tickets here, and stop by Small Press #33. Hope to see you there!

Original art on Ebay

I've put some original art pieces on the auction block over at my Ebay page.

Earlier in the year, I drew a pair of sketch cards featuring two of my favorite Peter Sellers characters, Dr. Stranglelove and Inspector Clouseau from PINK PANTHER fame:
 

I found them in a drawer in my desk and decided to put them up for sale.  I ended up drawing up some new sketch cards featuring some of the recent charactes from my Poster Comics, such as The Spider-Calaca and The Wake:

And I also drew cards with The Coma and El Muerto:

I also put this up for auction, an EL MUERTO Vs THE COMA illustration I did last year was I was working on the THE COMA comic book last fall:

If you'd like to bid on these, please visit my Los Comex Ebay page. Auction ends Sunday evening, March 11!

New interview on LOS ANGELES EASTSIDE SCENE

I was interviewed for a local website called EASTSIDE SCENE, which covers events and culture in East Los Angeles and the surrounding neighborhoods. The upcoming COMA CON (this Saturday at GEEKS Comics in Whittier) is talked about in the interview. 

 Give it a read, as there are a good round of questions (and hopefully, answers!).

Michael Lapinsky COMA artwork/Javier Hernandez FEEDING GROUND artwork

Michael Lapinski, freelance illustrator and designer, is also the co-creator and artist of FEEDING GROUND, published by Archaia Comics. Earlier this year, Michael asked me if I could contribute a pin-up to the FEEDING GROUND series, which I was more than happy to oblige.

FEEDING GROUND is a story about border crossings across the Mexican/U.S. border, with the twist being that the story involves werewolves! But beyond that, it really highlights the very real drama in human trafficking, geopolitics, and the truly perilous trip across the land, both natural and supernatural. An innovative approach to a very modern and relevant political issue.

Flash forward a few months later, as I'm prepping my premier edition of THE COMA. I only had room to include one pin-up in the book, but it was a natural decision to ask Michael to contribute. I really liked his expressive artwork in FEEDING GROUND, and thought that he made a very imaginative use of color in the book as well. I had actually mentioned to Michael that just as Ennio Morricone's scores greatly enhanced the onscreen drama of Sergio Leone's 'spaghetti westerns',  so too did his evocative coloring bring out so much of the story of FEEDING GROUND.


Here's Michael's Coma pin-up:

If you follow this link to Michael's blog, you can see his original sketches he came up with before finishing the final piece. And here's a brief, informative interview with him over at sketchmaven.com. 


As of this writing, there's exactly one more copy left of THE COMA Premiere Package, featuring the limited edition, digest-sized copy of THE COMA and some additional extras. Available via my blog while supply lasts!)

Creating THE COMA

As announced in a previous post, I've begun working on a comic book featuring a new character of mine, The Coma.

Here's page 6 of the story:

  

I've always liked the idea of mixing artwork with typography. Kind of like the James Bond films with their opening titles featuring the credits and lots of visual eye-candy.

 

In my next post, I'd like to share with you where many of the inspirations for the Coma may have come from. I say 'may' because who can really say what motivates someone to create something. Sure, I always mention the artists and things that gave me that creative inspiration to pursue my own ideas, but often the variety of sources that may inspire a project come from a tremendously wide range, seemingly unconnected. Until of course, you start crafting the project and then see clearly where everything came from and how you choose to use it.

 

This comic, by the way, is going to be published in what the printing company calls 'manga size', which is 5" x 7.5". Why print it that size? Well, one reason is that I haven't put out a comic book in that size, so it's always fun for me to experiment with varying sizes of comics. I don't feel that a comic book should always be in the same 6.625" x 10.25" format. Also, because of the nature of this story, with it's landscape of a character's dreamworld, a universe inside the mind, I felt that a smaller book would offer a more intimate reading experience. A book you might be more prone to up close and personal with, so to speak.

 

 

A doodle I drew one day while 'warming up' to work on a page. This

was drawn on a 5.5" x 5.5" piece of scrap Bristol paper (the same paper I use to draw the comic,  Strathmore Bristol Vellum). 

I was also trying out some new Tombow color markers I bought. The drawing was kept in a much looser style than I'm drawing the

 book in, but for a warm-up that's good enough.

Sometimes to break up the process of the book, I'll switch from drawing the pages to working on some design work. Here's what I came up for the back cover (which will give you a bit more idea of what you'll find in the final story):

The color image is one I did a few years ago, with the new logo I created for the character. I penciled the front cover image over the weekend as well, with the intention to paint it with acrylics. I'll show that here when it's done. I'm going to print a limited number of this book for it's first release, and then most likely create new front and back covers for it once it's reprinted. The book is scheduled to debut at the Alternative Press Expo this October 1 & 2, so releasing a linited version of this is actually continuing a tradition I've had at APE over the years.

In the next post, I'll reach into the archives and share with you where oh where this Coma character may have come from....