Calgary Comic Con 2009 (April 25-26)

[Vagabond142]

Well, the comic con is but two months away and I'm already drooling over the guests list o.O I KNOW I'm not the only comic geek on this forum, hence the thread :P

Here is the current guests list: http://www.calgaryexpo.com/guests.php

Was just wanting to spark some discussion, maybe share freebies sketches/comissioned works from previous cons, etc etc.

The artists that I am definitely lining up to see this year are:

Mike Golden. Need I say more? The man that helped CREATE my favorite X-men character (Rogue), and has worked on Iron Man, Dr. Strange, and a whole bevy of other pieces. Hoping to get an old-style (80's big hair, green/black uniform with the cloak) Rogue comission from him

Joe Ng. Awesome UDON Studios artist. Works on Street Fighter and did work on the GI Joe vs Transformers series (which a lucky beyonder purchased his series of 8 inked 11x14 bristols off me when I didn't have room to keep em)

Mike Choi. Those that know me know that I have a thing for the Witchblade series. So who better to see than a Witchblade penciller?

Also, gonna line up to see Jewel Staite (Kay Lee Fry from Firefly) and Tahmoh Penikett (Karl Agathon from BSG)

And to share some previous comissions/freebies that I got at Comic Con 2007 (I missed 2008 due to working that weekend T_T)

This is actually a FREEBIE done by a Witchblade penciller (Francis Manapul) and a guy that was trained directly by Michael Turner (RIP, the creator of Witchblade) for the Fathom series, Marcus To. There is a total of about 60 minutes combined work on this board. They drew it so bloody fast and precisely

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Manpul's Pezinni on the left, To's Pezinni on the right

More from Manapul. Because he did his side of the Witchblade Duo poster totally for free, I felt it was fair recompense to buy one of his custom-cover sketchbooks and have ANOTHER Sara Pezinni done (Can you tell I love the Witchblade series? )

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Joe Pekar's comissioned pencil sketch ($10, awesome awesome dude, great sense of humor) of his unique take on Rogue. I love his old "bubblegum girls" style of artwork, and he loves doing Rogue, so it was a very cool thiing to see him bang this one out in about 15 minutes.

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So come on, comic book geeks! POST EM UP!

[ZEDGE]

I'm not a huge comic fan but I would really like to go to something like this.

[Vagabond142]

EDGE: The cons are great. I mean, at sci-fi cons, you go, mingle about, MAYBE meet a star, shake their hand, and move on. At comic cons, all that seperates you from an artist is a $10 wooden con table and some cheap table dressing XD But it's all part of the ambience. And if you have a sketchbook or bristol boards with you, most of the artists will happily do a sketch for you.

A great example of this is the UDON Crew (GI Joe VS Transformers, Street Fighter, etc). They are there every year, 4 extremely good artists, and if you don't get your sketch request in early on the first day, you're SOL. They do free sketches all con long, until their hands bleed, and they love doing it (seriously, one guy got a blood blister and just kept drawing).

Also, there are comic writers and inkers there, so you can chat to them about how inking works (much more complex than just tracing, I've learned from talking to one at 2007 Con) or how to write for comic books.

My only advice is if you go, take a couple hundred bucks. It's like impulse buy heaven there XD So much excellent art on sale, the live auction, everything :P