I know you've been waiting for my Baltimore Comic-Con story. You'll hear a shorter version on tomorrow's Episode 105 of Comic News Insider. For the audio impaired...
To sum up: lotsa crabs, some Harvey's, MICA, a Goddess, and some rock band called Pope/Jean. If you must read all about it, please dear reader...read on.
From previous posts, you know I was having huge hotel issues. SNAFU in full effect. I thought I had a cheap hotel to share with some peoples in the heart of downtown. Not big on the sharing rooms, especially with loads of folks, but this would have been just 3 of us. 2 days before, I find out there is a problem. So, I literally booked a room at around 4 a.m. on Friday morning. My train for Baltimore was leaving at 2 p.m., mind you. The hotel was about 15-20 minutes away from the convention, yet still a bit costly. Not to mention a $30 cab ride to and fro. Already spending way too much. Fucking Red Sox were in town so all of the hotels were jacked up price-wise and booked to the hilt.
FRIDAY, 9/7: I arrive and drop my bags off at said hotel. Cab it back into town to meet my boy, Paul Pope, and his awesome publisher (Adhouse Books), Chris Pitzer. They were starting on the crabbage early. Pope and I discovered this little joint last year called Luna Del Sea. A quick jaunt from the con. Awesome food, friendly staff and much with the crabby goodness. We vowed to return again this year and I was happy to hear that's where I was meeting them. James Jean was also joining us. I hadn't met Jean yet, so was pretty stoked since I dig his beautiful work.
Crabbed out, Pitzer drives us over to MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) for an exhibit of Pope and Jean's work. Famed colorist and professor at MICA, Jose Villarubia, whisks us in to a room full of eager and excited students. Jose had blown up a bunch of their work and had it on the wall. It looked even better all big and bold and displayed.
The boys just stood in one place as the students clamored around them. They graciously drew, signed autographs and posed for many a picture. Only downside, with the room so tight and packed, it was hotter than a whore on nickel night. We were sweatin' all up in our areas.
The juggernaut that is Pope/Jean soldiered on though. Hanging out for over an hour or so. It was pretty fun watching the kids get all giddy over these comic book rock stars. Even funnier in the beginning when a lot of them came up to me and asked, "Are you James Jean?" Oh, us Asians. We all look alike. I should have said I was and we could have had dueling James Jean's in each corner. Who's the real one? Sketch off! Which I would have lost within a second. Good thing it never came down to that.
Post MICA, we head over to the Marriot lobby and bar. We join up with Dustin Harbin (Heroes Con organizer) and some friends. Dustin is one of the funniest cats on the planet and we had a blast all weekend. Few drinks there and we head over to Burke's for some dinner. More drinkage and then end up back at the Marriot. Running into many a friend. Some of us, I wont incriminate though, found our way to the very nearby club that gentleman frequent called Goddess. Kind of a dive and very small. Now, as you know, I'm an aficionado of these places. And let me tell you...skankalicious. Less of the "alicious" and more of the "skank". Being the brave souls, we stayed for at least a drink. I'm used to aggressive strippers but not when they come up to you after dancing on the bar and ask, "Will you tip me? Are you going to tip me?" One cute girl was dubbed "Leeloo" because her outfit slightly resembled the white medicinal tape one that Milla Jovavich wore in The Fifth Element. Another girl came over, boobs out, and claimed how she's "shy". We soon left due to too many Red Sox fans, scary girls and a smell that can only be described as hooker's ass. I was hoping to come across some nerd strippers like I did at Heroes Con. Not this time. More drinks in the lobby bar and finally, a late night cab back.
Saturday, 9/8: I arise a bit late and take the light rail to the con. Quickly grab my press badge and enter. It's quite bigger than last year and a bit confusing at first. The floor plan was "L" shaped. I did a quick run through just to become acclimated. Stopping at various tables to say hi to past interviewees and friends. I run into Jose Villarubia and some of his MICA students. He turned his table over to them so they could experience a convention. They got all into it and even started doing commissions. Pretty talented lot! I interviewed Jose for a bit and then turned the mic on a bunch of the students to get their views on comics, the convention and art in general.
Ran into my new buddy, Dustin ("Dusty" or "Dharbin") Harbin, and sat him down for a quick interview. I went to Heroes con for the first time this year and I will be back every year if I can. He's such an easy going and fun guy to hang out with and chat. We discussed their con, the Baltimore show and various other comic and nerdy things. More walking around and seeing folks. Mucho thanks to John Lucas for letting me stash my bag at his booth. I'm rarely a big purchaser at shows, but did pick up a few things. I like to find new things to cover for the show. Ran across a guy all pimped out with great looking t-shirts and a comic called Black Bastard. I haven't had a chance to read it yet. Glancing through, it is clearly an homage/spoof of blaxploitation films and the like. If I dig it, I'll mention it on the show in the future. If not, well...
I head over to Pope's hotel and chill a bit. Change for the Harvey Awards later that night. Dharbin meets us and we pop back over to Luna Del Sea for much more crabbage. It was D's first time having crab. Big mistake. Within minutes, he blew up like a balloon and turned bright red. Clearly an allergic reaction. Who knew? Paul and I just kept on eating and figured he'd snap out of it. He eventually did. Especially, since that never happened. Oh snap! Gotcha! At one point, one of us sneezes and the girl next to us says, "Goddess bless you". Uh oh. One of those. Clearly she wanted us to say, "Huh? You said Goddess instead of God!" and then engage her in conversation about it. Nah. Though I was tempted to say, "Hey, are you advertising for the strip club?" After enjoying our crab, the 3 of us go back to the Marriot for the Harvey Awards.
After a quick cocktail hour, we are seated at Table 8 with Pitzer, Jean, and Dean Haspiel and his girl. Table 8 also known as Table Troublemakers. Yeah, that's right bitches. We're punks and you had to sit us in the back! Soon the food came. Uh oh. Dharbin and I were stuffed to the gills and declined most of the food. We all chatted for a bit and eventually the awards started.
As you can see, a good size crowd at the Harveys. Named after famed cartoonist, Harvey Kurtzman. Which reminds me...the swag bag! There was an awesome copy of EC Archives: Two-Fisted Tales Volume 1 and various other items. We got to pick 1 of 4 Harvey Comics Toon Tumblers. Naturally, I went with Richie Rich as that was my first comic book ever.
As for the awards themselves, well, you can find out who won through many a website. Go on. Find out! K...you back? Great. Kyle Baker once again hosted and sped things along. Unfortunately, there was some audio/visual fuck up that totally screwed up Kyle's cartoons and we didn't get to see them in full. What little we did see...ROCKED! After Kyle's intro, Sergio Aragones got on stage as the key note speaker. Kyle later joked that he stole his style from Sergio.
Dharbin had a fun moment when his friend won the award for best web comic. Said friend was not in attendance and had D represent. They had worked out a haiku and D wrote it down on this big piece of cardboard and rolled it up like a scroll. Pretty funny shit!
We had some Table 8 pride later on when James Jean won for Best Cover Artist. Again. For the 476th time. Each, well deserved. James went on to tell a great story about how Adam Kubert helped discover him. Adam was sitting at the first table and look befuddled. Afterward, Adam admitted he did not remember helping James, but is glad to see how successful he has become.
One of the best moments of the evening had to be Joe Kubert accepting his special recognition award from The Hero Initiative. This legend in the business slowly strode toward the podium. He was handed the award and people came up and took pictures as we all gave a standing ovation. As we sat, Joe approached the mic. What words of wisdom would this living legend expound upon us?
"Thank you very much".
And then he walked off stage and sat down! Everyone kind of laughed nervously, but it was kind of funny. Way to go, Joe! Keep it short and sweet. Son Adam later joked that they had been rehearsing that speech all day.
As I said, the awards moved along swiftly with a nice audio/visual aid when nominees/winners were announced. (Take note, Eisner Awards!) It was over pretty quickly and we were all able to enjoy our kudos.
There's Jean and I posing with our awards. Pitzer adding some flair in the background. And then, me with the coveted "Best Podcast Ever in the Whole Universe and Anywhere Else There Might Be Sound Waves" award. Yeah, pretty proud of that one. I was disappointed that we didn't get the "Best Podcast Moment". Our "Death of Uni" submission fell short to those punks over at Comic Geek Speak who won for "Hump and Dump The Rios". I'll get you CGS!!!
Post awards, back to the lobby bar for more drinkage. Saw a ton of folks to chat up and a ton of drinks to drink. Which I did both quite swimmingly. Cab back to hotel. Sleep.
Sunday, 9/9: Once again, the rail to the con. I run around for a short bit. Lucas, Jean and I chat for awhile and then Pope calls to meet for some eats before his panel at 2. He and Jean were doing a panel later with Villarubia moderating. After our eats, we go back to the con and head towards the panel. It was to run for 2 hours, so I asked if it would be cool to get a quickie interview with the 2 of them after. Both agreed. They mentioned a signing at the Adhouse booth later, but didn't specify a time, so I assumed it was all good. Figured we had plenty of time with the con ending at 6 p.m.
They both spoke about many aspects of their career. Ranging from process, analog/digital, types of material, their work in comics and graphic design and philosophy on the biz. Each ended with a great power point presentation. It ran a bit over, but no other panel was behind them. I grabbed them for a quick 10 minute interview (apologies to Pitzer) and then went back to the floor trying to find some last minute interviews. soon found out that the con was over at 5 p.m. that day and had to rush like a mad man to talk to people. I secured a future interview with the always busy/ever elusive Amanda Conner.
Earlier, I had commissioned one of the MICA students, the cute as a button "Babs", to do a drawing of Batgirl and Harley Quinn fighting. I didn't pay attention to how much they were charging but figured it couldn't be that much since they were students. I went to pick it up and she says, "$50 since I had to draw 2 figures and it took awhile." YIKES! My bad for not looking at the small sign they had posted with pricing. Still, as much as I like the print, an art student charging that much seemed a bit steep. Many of my pro friends in the biz only charge a bit more and they've been doing it for years. Plus, I'm press and I had them on the show. We're supposed to get perks and freebies!
But, I ain't hatin'. As I said, my fault for not getting specifics earlier. I'm not one to buy art at a show normally, but I had really liked her style. Pretty damn good, eh? A bit of Adam Hughes and Frank Cho in there. 2 great artists I highly admire. Be on the lookout for this one, kids. But, you'll have to wait awhile. She's only a sophomore at MICA.
The show closes down, but there's still time to run around even though they are announcing what came across like, "Thanks for coming...NOW GET THE FUCK OUT!!!" Paul finishes his signing. Getting everyone who waited in line. Jean joins us for dinner at...you guessed it...Luna Del Sea. We had met the owner earlier during lunch and he had set a table aside for us. VIP, bitches!!
A couple of more folks join us for some more crabby goodness. I got all excited because someone said my idol, Miss Heidi "The Beat" MacDonald was joining us. Alas, not to be. She was off partying with the other folks still in town. Mucho thanks to Jean for generously buying us dinner. I had a great time hanging with him all weekend and he's genuinely one of the nicest people I have ever met. Humble, and such a pro.
After dinner, the owner has a shuttle take us to the train station for our trip back to NYC. The amalgamation of POPE/JEAN had the express train and soon left me. Lucas and his girl, Mindy, joined me for the later train and we had a nice ride back together. Though, I fell asleep half way through.
Overall, I really enjoyed the show. Sure, the hotel fuck up and spending way more money than planned sucked, but...hey, comics can cure all. Crabs too. Unless they're crabs from Goddess and not Luna Del Sea. It's a nice intimate show that is growing each year. My only complaint is that I wish it could be on a weekend when a game isn't in town since the hotels jack up the prices when that happens. Though, being the end of baseball season and the start of football season, it's kind of hard to plan something like that. I'll be back next year for sure. For the con. For the crabs. Or for this girl.
See what I did there? I started with a Hellboy cover and ended with a Hellgirl model. Devilish!
See you all next year. Meet me at Luna Del Sea. I'll be the one surrounded by king crab legs and comic books.
Yo Jimmy!
Great hangin, great crabs and great recap. Sorry bout the Heidi-tease!
Posted by: JahFurry | September 11, 2007 at 11:06 AM
Hey Jimmy! You've been BEAT!
http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2007/09/11/baltimore-and-stuff/
Posted by: mike. | September 11, 2007 at 01:55 PM
Dude we're totally crabbing the weekend away next time. I'm so going to Baltimore!
Posted by: Raph | September 11, 2007 at 08:20 PM
Jimmy! sry to charge so much! XD im a starving college student! lol
thanks so much for the commission and mentioning me hehe
next time we meet ill do you on fo free! ;D
Posted by: Babs | September 17, 2007 at 08:50 PM