2005 Pittsburgh Comicon
I’ve always enjoyed the Pittsburgh ComiCon because the atmosphere of the show is somewhere between a large Con’s expansiveness and a smaller Con’s relaxed feel. Plus it is one of the few Cons I can actually drive to. I don’t understand why we can’t get a decent sized Con in
Cleveland
!
As usual my son Ashton and I got to the Con about a half hour before the doors open on Friday and the line was already about 50 people deep. There were plenty of good artists to see. Unfortunately Michael Turner could not attend because of help reasons and neither could Michael Kaluta. George Perez was there as always raising money for the Make a Wish foundation. Sal Buscema was one of the headliners and he had a steady line at his table where he was also doing head sketches for the Make a Wish foundation – when I snapped his picture I dropped a dollar in the bucket. J.G. Jones, Scott McDaniel, Ron Frenz, Ron Garney, Mark Texiera, Joe Linsner, David Mack, Angel Medina, Tommy Castillo, Gene Gonzales, Tom Smith, Scott Rosema, Billy Tucci, Casey Jones, and many many (many) others were in attendance.
The show must not have sold out of as many booths as the past two years because Artist’s Alley used to be in an adjacent hallway but this year it was mixed in with the main floor. The position of the tables was not very well documented, and some of the artists got squirreled away in between comic and video dealer booths like Dave Hoover, for instance. I didn’t try to gauge whether or not this worked out well for the Artists or not. I know that Casey Jones and Mitchell Breitweiser were both pretty busy doing sketches the entire show. Friday and Sunday were pretty slow compared to recent years, and Saturday seemed a bit off as well.
There are always fun events at the Con and one of the most popular is the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s Quick Sketch. Several artists get on stage and take requests from the audience regarding subject matter for them to draw. The people in the audience purchase raffle tickets and at the end of the hour numbers are pulled and the sketches are given out. On Saturday there was a Spider-Girl Appreciation Panel with Tom Defalco, Ron Frenz, Pat Olliffe and Sal Buscema were in front of the audience answering questions and talking about the character. I missed the Tea Time with Terry Moore and the Pizza Party with Billy Tucci! For the kids they do the usual Anime video room, but they also have a game room set up where kids can play on X-Box and GameCube. Not the best place for my 6 year old (or me having to watch) but it did help kill some time and keep him interested in the Con.
On Friday I spent about a half hour chatting with Steven Lee. We did the usual show-and-tell of the new pieces we brought with us. Steven is one of CAF’s beta testers of the upcoming premium features so it was good to get his opinion on how things were progressing. From the positive comments I would say we are on the right track.
I also ran into Tom Fleming whom I haven’t seen in years and completed a trade with him for some artwork. I picked up the cover to X-Men #43 by Andy Kubert, an X-Men Unlimited cover by Brett Booth, and a page to Elementals #4 by Bill Willingham. All very cool stuff. Thanks, Tom!
Back on the floor I didn’t set up too many sketches though I did get on Casey’s list, as well as J.G. Jones and Tommy Castillo. Casey did a really nice Huntress for me which I picked up on Sunday. J.G. did a decent Fox ink wash and Tommy’s Batman ink wash turned out nice but really really dark!
I met Scott Kress from Catskill Comics at his booth for the first time. He was set up near many of the artists he reps – Ron Frenz, Pat Olliffe, and Charles Barnett. Charles was really nice and my son asked him to draw a Spiderman head sketch. I bumped into Scott Rosema a couple times during the show and he introduced me fellow CAF Member Matthew Lyons. Scott is a great guy and a talented artist!
Saturday was my big day at the Con. I had learned that George Perez had done a special auction on eBay for ACTOR where he would do a lunch with a person in
L.A.
and do a sketch. Since I wasn’t going to make it to
L.A.
, I asked ACTOR - since ComicArtFans.com is now maintaining their web site - if George would be willing to do something similar for me. So with a healthy donation to ACTOR George agreed. On Saturday afternoon Ashton and I had an incredible lunch with Mr. Perez. He brought the first two photocopied issues of his inking work over Garcia Lopez (pencils)/Phil Jimenez (writer) Return of Donna Troy story. I was totally blown away. This wasn’t an interview so our conversation will never see print, but I had such a great time asking him incredibly candid questions about his artwork, his profession, and his peers – and he answered all my questions candidly. The lunch was completely worth the donation to ACTOR – and we still have a take-home sketch coming from George for Ashton and me!
That evening Ashton and I attended the Charity Auction put on by the ComiCon. Even though this was my third
Pittsburgh
show I had never attended the auction since I usually leave on Saturday night. The auction had many of the artists in attendance represented. Terry Moore, Mark Texiera and George Perez had the primary pieces up for auction, but there were many nice pieces by other artists. I bid on several pieces, and ended up second on a couple items… Ah well. You cannot win them all!
On Sunday I picked up my awesome sketch from Casey. I hung out a bit with him and Deputy Dave before heading back to O-HI-O.
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