I was only able to attend BENTcon 2 at the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown LA on Sunday December 4th. It was, I’m told in full swing from Friday night, and I’m sure I missed some good events and panels but what can one do? I am rather kicking myself that I misread the time of the Women in Gay Comics panel and missed it. Oh well, I got to talk to lots of cool artists and exhibitors on my one afternoon at BENTcon 2.

So here’s who I talked to that day:

THE HORNSMYTHE
www.thehornsmythe.com

Cal Cotton of the Hornsmyth. Specialize in drinking horn, blowing horns. He and his wife have been making horns for 23 years and his wife was making horns for five years before they met. They are based in Westminster, CA. They do events like BENTcon, the Ren Faire in Irwindale, and various Sci-Fi and Fantasy conventions. He said his wife makes 75% of the things in their booth and he’s her helper.

Also in the picture is Jeannette Smith wearing a costume from Pendragon costumes, which was so busy I never got a chance to talk to anyone there.

ELVIS SCHOENBERG’S ORCHESTRA SURREAL
www.eschoenberg.com (please click for the swingin’ music on the cool cartoon intro)

I spoke with The Fabulous Miss Thing (and is she evah). The orchestra has been around since 1996, they put out their first CD in 1997, and now they have three CDs out. It’s a very cool and twisted hybrid of classical music and orchestrated rock songs turned on their sides. The song playing on the monitor was Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in a jump swing arrangement which I thought was Night in Tunisia at first. The Orchestra has been trying to do more conventions and because they have a burlesque comic book feel they’re doing more comic book conventions. The Orchestra, well, part of it, offered to do some live performances at their booth, but the convention nixed it. I think this is a terrible shame because Miss Thing can really belt ‘em out.

The Orchestra has a performance coming up on December 26 at the Typhoon Restaurant in Santa Monica.

RICK WORLEY
www.rickworley.com

Rick was fighting a cold so he was on Dayquil but still lucid. Full disclosure: I have a copy of Rick’s wonderful comics collection, “A Waste of Time,” sitting on my desk waiting for a review, so I spent a little time apologizing for that. He said the book is doing pretty well, that it’s a gradual thing getting people to know it exists (like, y’know, through reviews and stuff like that). He’s had a good convention even though he’s been sick all weekend. (Everybody get a flu shot!) Rick’s been drawing “A Waste of Time” for the past four years, but he’s been drawing comics since he was a little kid. He used to make his own comics in fourth grade, usually Spiderman mash-ups, but he’s only into Grant Morrison’s work now. He worked at Borders until he got laid off, he said they were a horrible company to work for: arrogant, abusive, and stupid. This is sad because it should be fun to work in a bookstore. He’s mostly self-taught, but has taken drawing classes here and there. Rick grew up in southern California, but has lived in San Francisco for the three years now. There’s another book with the same characters in the works.

ZAN CHRISTANSEN, NORTHWEST PRESS
www.northwestpress.com

I spoke to Zan Christianen of Northwest Press, the publisher of “A Waste of Time.” Zan actually sent me the review copy sitting on my desk, waiting to be reviewed (so, as you can imagine, there was more groveling about it). Northwest Press has been all over the country, but BENTcon is the biggest and gayest convention of the year, so they got the biggest and gayest booth at the convention. He was even opening a bottle of champagne, that’s how cool this booth was. He had several big comics, one of them was “The Power Within,” a very timely comic to help kids deal with bullying. Last years, Zan and the artist on the book, Mark Brill, were trying to figure out what to do for 24-hour comics day and this is what came out of that. 24-hour comics day is in October, and the previous September there had been several gay teen suicides in the news. In doing research for the book, Zan discovered that there were eleven suicides in September 2010. So, he and Brill did the 24-page comic for 24 Hour Comics Day and afterwards they polished the work up and released it as a self-published comic in the Spring of 2011. Then Zan recruited some guest artists—Phil Jimenez, Greg Rucka, Gail Simone, to name a few—to contribute more pages. They did a fundraising event so they could do a big print run and started sending them out for free to schools, gay alliances, and other resources for gay teens. The book is designed as a life-line to isolated, alienated kids. Zan says it tells kids that they might not have a supportive family, or teachers or they might not have friends they can reach out to, but even if they don’t have any support, each kid has the strength to get over the hardest parts of their life with the power within. They can make it through and get to the better part of their life. So Zan and his people sent the book out over the summer of 2011 and Zan and Brill got an email from OUT magazine letting them know that OUT would be honoring them as two of their OUT 100 for 2011. Zan encourages anyone with any kind of skills to try to help kids who are being bullied because it’s been going on for far too long and it’s time to stop pussy-footing around it. It’s time for parents to realize they’re better off with a live gay teen than a dead one and stop freaking out about it. I asked Zan why it was getting worse, why there were more gay teen suicides now, and he said it’s actually getting better because it’s getting more attention. It’s not being swept under the rug and he thinks that people are more willing to call it what it is. When a child kills him or herself because they’re queer or harassed for being seen as such, it’s not just swept under the rug and ignored by mainstream society. Surviving your teens is tough enough without bullying, but it’s worse if there isn’t even a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s not a freight train, it’s Zan and people like Zan throwing you a rope. Sorry for the mixed metaphor. It really does get better.

Speaking of Dan Savage, Dan wrote the introduction for another Northwest press book by David Kelly (of Boy Trouble fame) called “Rainy Day Recess.” This books is about a tween boy growing up in the 70s, liking Wonder Woman and Charlies Angels, and being a very sensitive boy. “Rainy Day Recess” is a window into the life of a kid before he starts having to conform or being bullied.

Northwest Press has recently released “A Waste of Time” by Rich Worley (grovel grovel grovel), which Zan describes as Calvin and Hobbs meets lots of butt sex with adults. In 2012 Zan plans to release their first “L” book (as in G”L”BT), their first lesbian book by Lea Weathington’s “Bold Reilly.” An action adventure heroine who always gets the girl. Zan describes Bold as kind of like Conan the Barbarian except she’s a better conversationalist and has smaller breasts.

So far of Northwest’s GLBT alphabet soup, they’ve done “Glamazonia, the uncanny tranny” (T), “A Waste of Time,” “Rainy Day Recess” (G) “Teleny and Camille” (G, B), and “Bold Reilly” (L). Hopefully the Northwest press will be around for a long time and do many other wonderful titles like these and “The Power Within.”

Northwest books are available in print, but also in the iPad e-book store.

DAVID KELLY
Prism profile

Is the co-editor of Boy Trouble and more recently, the author of Rainy Day Recess. Rainy Day Recess is about a boy growing up in the 1970s in a family dealing with separation and divorce and him dealing with all the struggles with that. He finds joy in having a crush on a boy in his class and drawing this own comic, Star Woman, in which he is her sidekick, Star Boy. Lots of 1970s pop culture references. The strip ran in gay and lesbian newspapers in the 1990s, and it’s only recently that Zan Christenson and Northwest Press have collected them into the edition I saw at BENTcon.

David would like to do more young adult graphic novels with older teen characters. So there is something to look forward to.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of David. This is too bad because he’s very handsome. I also could not find a link to a David Kelly webpage, so I linked to his profile on the Prism website.

ALEX WOOLFSON, YAOI 911
www.artificecomic.com

He started the Yaoi 911 project in 2006 when he wanted to write guy and guy romance comics that were in a particular action genre and involved a rescue theme. He wanted to write for a broad audience that included women, especially since he wrote his work for one woman whom is a good friend of his, he was looking to write for a predominately female audience. At this point in 2011 his audience is 60% women and 40% men. His men look like men, which takes it out of most of the yaoi genre. For Alex, plot and character come first and the erotic element comes naturally into the story, contributing to the story, not overwhelming it. Alex is striking a middle ground between yaoi comics and traditionally gay erotic comics by creating the comics he’s always wanted to read himself, and he’s very gratified that there’s an audience out there for it.

Yaoi 911 used to be a review site, but has morphed into an original comic website. He does all the writing and works with a variety of artists. So far he’s been working on a gay sci-fi comic and next year will be doing a gay superhero comic. The two artists whose work was at Alex’s booth were Winona Nelson and Adam Dekraker.

Alex’s next book will be Artifice, currently being serialized on the web (it was at page 56 when we spoke), it’s science fiction and will be collected and published as a book in 2012. His superhero comic will also be a webcomic and then a book and should be on the web sometime in 2012.

STEVE MACISAAC
www.stevemacisaac.com

I hadn’t seen Steve in a year and in this past June, he published Shirtlifter 4, two and a half years after his “Unpacking” story cliff-hanger (for me) in Shirtlifter 3. He said it will probably be two and a half more years before Shirtlifter 5 due to having a life and a day job. There’s 60 pages of “Unpacking” in Shirtlifter 3 and also 4 and he goes through a little post-partum depression after each book comes out. He said he hasn’t really written anything since Shirtlifter 4 came out, but he does have the final part of “Unpacking” planned out in his head, and he’s started working on Shirtlifter 5, so there is something to look forward to.

I bought a copy of Shirtlifter 4 because I’m totally hooked on Steve’s story, “Unpacking,” and it was totally worth the wait. “Unpacking” began in Shirtlifter 3 and was serialized on the web, which is where I fell in love with it. It’s got a good story, good characters, and bears! I don’t usually like bears, but I like these bears because they’re Steve MacIsaac’s bears. “Unpacking” can be read as a complete story, with a beginning-middle-end, in each volume, but the story wraps up in Shirtlifter 5. Well, wraps up as much as Steve wraps things up; he always leaves something open ended in all his work.

BRADLEY RADER
www.raderofthelostart.com

Brad has just had a wonderful book called “The Art of Brad Rader” published by his comic book store in Burbank, The House of Secrets, which has a publishing arm called The Art of Fiction. In December of 2009, they asked Brad to be part of their line of small art books by local animation artists. Brad provided them with 300 image files Art of Fiction culled into a gorgeous 60 page, 5.25×8″ semi-paperback book. There’s more information about how to get your hands on a copy at Brad’s website. Right now, Brad’s comics projects are in stalled-out mode while he works full time storyboarding “Bob’s Burgers.” But he said that in early 2012 when he’s on hiatus from animation, he’ll be back on top of the comics projects.

Brad said BENTcon 2 has been a fantastic event. He’s staying at the convention hotel, the Boneventure Hotel (awesome con rate of $109!!!) and it’s been a blast. The food and parking are expensive, but there’s a Subway across the street. Brad went to the film festival the previous evening and one of the standout short films for him was Michael Derry’s “Troy” 2-D, possibly flash animated, cartoon. He also said he really enjoyed Wendy Pini’s “Mask of Red Death” cartoon.

IN SUMMARY…

I am told by reliable sources that BENTcon 2 was a success! The exhibitor area completely sold out, the room block sold out, attendance was high, and there was interest from abroad in attending this one and the next one. So look forward to BENTcon 3 in 2012.

Here’s the J LHLS coverage of BENTcon 2010.

Review by Ida Vega-Landow

Sure, and if it isn’t another fine book by that fine Irish laddie, Patrick Thomas! This one is about another of the regulars at Bullfinch’s Bar, a forgotten Sumerian fire god who goes by the name Negral. He’s the chief of Hell’s secret police, 666th Precinct, who channels Humphrey Bogart. I kid you not; Negral is such a big Bogie fan that he manifests himself as a tall, dark man in a suit wearing a trench coat and a fedora. He talks tough like Bogie too, and doesn’t bother to tell his suspects their Miranda Rights. That’s because most of them are the damned souls who inhabit Hell, or the demons who own them. Satan thinks so highly of him that he gave him the right to investigate and interrogate any resident of Hell, answering only to His Satanic Majesty.

Despite his tough guy persona, Negral is really a nice guy at heart. When the devil isn’t looking, he performs random acts of kindness for any stray soul that deserves it. In this slim volume, whose front cover is colorfully illustrated by Patrick himself, you’ll find six stories of Hell’s Detective walking his beat in Hell and on Earth, rounding up the escaped demons and damned souls who are the rightful property of Satan, or helping the innocent souls escape from his clutches, making sure that the devil gets his due in return for refuge from wherever it is that forgotten gods go when they no longer have worshippers.

Patrick Thomas gives us a funny and touching account of life in Hell, consistent with Christian theology as well as some ancient folklore that has managed to survive to this day, along with Negral. Nobody escapes roasting in Patrick Thomas’ version of Hell; lawyers, politicians, bureaucracy, even supposedly sacred institutions like marriage. Speaking of which, wait till you meet the demon named Nupchuel, who specializes in punishing vow breakers, married people who cheat on their spouses. His realm looks like a ghastly Los Vegas wedding chapel, all the souls who end up there, male and female alike, are forced to marry him (they wear black, Nupchuel wears white) and promise to “honor, respect, and obey him without question or complaint”; the vows are enforced by a cursed wedding ring that can “electrocute, deep fry, freeze, and dismember among other things,” if the wearer is the least bit disobedient or tries to run away. While Nupchuel promises to “punish, torment, abuse, cheat, and otherwise make his spouse’s afterlife miserable”, starting with the wedding night. According to Negral, he’s been known to “line up his spouses twenty deep and perform his husbandly duties working his way from the outside in,” with a manhood—I mean a demonhood that’s “a combination piranha, chainsaw and jackhammer”. Ouch! Well, like Negral says, “Hell isn’t supposed to be pretty”.

If you think that’s bad, pray that you never end up as a contestant on Hell’s highest-rated reality show, No Survivors, where all the contestants are damned souls that are killed off one by one in various sadistic and painful ways for the amusement of the demonic audience. Oh, did I mention that there’s no death or unconsciousness in Hell? You can be raped, tortured, and killed in over a million ways, but you won’t stay dead or unconscious for long. Your wounds always heal, your missing body parts always grow back, and there’s always another demon waiting to take its turn tormenting you.

A small sample of stories from Negral’s casebook:

“Dysenfranchised” is about Negral’s search for a newly damned soul who has the power to put demon lords into a coma, earning herself the title of the Comanator.

“Dysembodied” is part two of a story from “Empty Graves”, Patrick’s collection of zombie stories, about a body-snatching demon that turns his victims into zombies so he can prey on the living. In this one, Negral gets help from two of New York’s Finest tracking down the living dead serial killer.

“Dysenchanted” tells how Negral helps out a hard-boiled dame with a body that won’t quit, a beautiful succubus named Bambi who wants him to find her lost virginity. If you think that’s weird, wait till you meet Balchain, the Lord of the Dance, a pink tutu-wearing demon who loves ballet.

Not to mention Myrth, a demon lord who looks like a clown and runs his Hellish realm like an amusement park, the sort that only the Addams family would love. (Imagine a merry-go-round with beautifully carved horses and other fantastic animals, but with the naked bodies of the damned impaled on the poles while the animals chew on them.) This clown prince of darkness appears in another story entitled “Dysconnected”, where he helps Negral track down The Great Betrayer, Judas Iscariot, Satan’s greatest prize, after the deceitful disciple is stolen from him. Not only does Negral find Judas, he helps him escape from Hell long enough to see Jesus and beg His forgiveness for the act of betrayal that resulted in His crucifixion. Does Jesus forgive him? Sorry, sweetheart, you’ll have to read the book to find out. Go ahead, buy “Lore and Dysorder” and get to know Hell’s Detective. It’ll be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Review by Ida Vega-Landow

While wandering through the dealers’ room at this year’s Fest for Beatles Fans at the Parsippany Hilton in March, I met a charming lady named Aviva Rothschild. She was selling copies of a book she had written, a privately published fanfic about the Beatles, along with homemade soap. I got two pieces of soap, shaped like a cat and an octopus, for free by buying the book, which was a big, pink tome. I wasn’t expecting anything other than your average piece of fanfic about my favorite British rock group, stretched to epic size. What I got was a lively romp that made “Magical Mystery Tour” look like an Afterschool Special. The author started this magnum opus 29 years ago and finally published it last year. I found it poignant that the story begins on April 11, 1980, eight months before John Lennon’s death in the real world. In this alternate universe of Ms. Rothschild’s, the Beatles are reunited on an alien world by a group of alien Beatle fans, who enjoy their music so much they want to thank them by giving them the gift of an adventure.

The adventure begins on the above date at 3:00 a.m. London time, with Paul McCartney sleeping peacefully with his wife Linda, while dreaming of sheep grazing in a pink field. But soon a giant hand brushes away the field and deposits Paul into a living room with a couple of comfy overstuffed chairs, a table full of snacks, and a wide-screen TV, which turns on as soon as he sits down and begins showing him scenes from various movies of men having adventures; cowboys and Indians, knights in armor, spacemen and so forth. This gets boring after a while, but there’s no remote, so Paul just has to put up with it until a shadowy humanoid figure materializes in the other chair and asks him how he likes the movie. After a short discussion about adventures, the alien gets Paul’s consent for him and his friends to send him on an adventure, and he proceeds to do so, after telling a stunned Paul that this is not a dream, but a “hypnagogic telepathic contact. It’s a lot less scary and intrusive when the subject is not used to telepathy…”

Shortly afterwards, Paul McCartney and John Lennon wake up on a grassy plain as younger versions of themselves, dressed in generic jeans and tee shirts, freshly shaven and shorn with their original Beatle haircuts, minus their wedding rings. Each of them suspects the other of having set him up in this bizarre scenario for a laugh; the ensuing dialog is painfully accurate, reflecting the hostility between the real John and Paul at the time. “This was one of Yoko’s little ‘instructions’, right?” an angry Paul says to John. “Don’t you have better sense than to do every daft thing she says? You take me home right bloody now or I’ll hit you with the biggest lawsuit you ever saw!” Poor John is as confused as he is. By the time the younger editions of George and Ringo join them (Ringo having been snatched from the set of “Caveman”, the movie he was making back then in Mexico, while George, newly converted to Hinduism, is convinced that he’s been sent on a mission by Krishna), it has finally sunken in that they are here, wherever here is, and they have to make the best of it. So all four of our lads from Liverpool, together again for the first time, go forth to explore this brave new world, which surely isn’t Earth.

It doesn’t take long for our lads to discover that the planet they’re on is called C’hou (pronounced cuh-HOW), where magic is as common as talent, and just as unequally distributed. The ruling class is a bunch of parasitic fascists who invaded and conquered the country years ago and now oppress the people with their phony religion because the symbol of the true religion, called the Vasyn, has been stolen by the local gods, disassembled and relocated in areas impossible to reach for ordinary mortals. That’s where our lads come in. One by one, they are given extraordinary magic powers—sometimes without even asking for them!—and gradually they learn what their mission is on this world: to recover the missing pieces of the Vasyn and put them back together.

Of course the lads like having magic powers, at first. But when it starts to sink in on them that their new talents could be quite a hindrance when they get back to their own world and their normal lives, well, that’s when disillusionment starts to set in, and their grand quest to save the world doesn’t seem so grand anymore. Sometimes they’re so busy fighting among themselves that they’re in more danger of beating each other up than they are of being beaten by the bad guys. It’s only when the bad guys start coming at them fast and furious to prevent them from recovering the Vasyn that the lads “come together” and start acting more like the Fab Four they used to be, one for all and all for one against the authority figures trying to keep them down.

Little do our lads know that their extraterrestrial fans are really a group of college students using them as subjects for their psych project, without their professors’ knowledge. After one timorous fan bows out because he’s a Goodie Two Shoes who can’t take the pressure of acting covertly, the remaining aliens, Varx and Shag (she’s a girl, but they’re both the same species, which seems to be part lizard and part bird), are forced to recruit an exchange student from another galaxy (who, from the brief description, seems to resemble a white slug) to help them continue their project. This geek(and I do mean geek, he makes Bill Gates look like a party animal)turns out to be a dedicated gamer, who decides to change the rules of the experiment behind the fans’ backs and put our lads into a perilous sword and sorcery adventure, starring one of his own most popular characters. Just when our lads have finally gotten the hang of their newfound powers, they find them being put to the test in the company of the most obnoxious swordsman you ever saw outside of Conan the Barbarian.

Dedicated Beatles fans everywhere will appreciate Aviva’s jaundiced view of gaming and the role of heroism in the modern world, as well as her realistic view of the Fab Four and how they would interact with each other after their split-up. Remember, despite their much vaunted musical talents, they were just four working class lads from Liverpool who got a lucky break when their music took off. That means they’re not quite as reverent toward traditional sword and sorcery tales as today’s generation. The Beatles were much too pragmatic to be swayed by mysticism—except for George, who became a Hindu because he craved spiritual values that he couldn’t find in Western religion. But even George was basically the same sensible, working class lad from Liverpool as the others, whose attitude toward their appointed task is more in the manner of “Let’s get this daft thing over with so we can go home” rather than “We must save these people to prove our moral superiority over the villains”. So they’re more anti-heroes than heroes. And they’re funny, too, even when they’re being stubborn, snotty, or downright stupid. In other words, our lads act like real people, not idealized heroes out of epic tales like “Lord of The Rings” or “Star Wars”.

This has got to be the best book of Beatles fiction I’ve read since “Paul Is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion” by Alan Goldsher, which I reviewed last year. Now that was a riot, the Beatles as zombies. Granted, most of the humor was dark, to the point of being gross at times, but a splendid time was had by all in the novel. I’d have to say the same for Aviva’s book. In fact, I’m looking forward to her latest reissue, in which she promises to include illustrations of the lads along with her original characters as well. To get a copy of this big, pink tome, just go to: www.rationalmagic.com/Strings/Strings.html
There you can either buy the book or read the half that’s online. Oh, by the way, the author is already working on a sequel. Let’s hope she has more luck publishing this one. And I hope you have as much fun reading “With Strings Attached” as I did. When you’ve finished the book, look her up on her Facebook fan page and let her know how much you liked it.

Our new contact number is 323-201-7147 Yeah. If you have J LHLS business cards, please make a note when you hand them out. I’ll be generating new cards soon-ish.

Cosplayer dressed as Psylocke from X-Men


Walking through the Exhibit Hall

Masks sold at the Exhibit Hall

A look at the new Spider-Man costume for the upcoming movie.

Cosplayer dress as the main character from Assassin’s Creed

Kevin Conroy (voice of Batman from Batman: The Animated Series) talks about the new Batman: Arkham City game.

The DeLorean from the Back to the Future Films

The Batmobile that was used in Batman Returns

Cosplayers dressed as various DC characters

Cosplayer dressed as Batwoman

Batman toys

People dressed as Zuul (a possessed Dana Barrett) and Vinz Clortho (a possessed Louis Tully) from Ghostbusters

Cosplayer dressed as Xena: Warrior Princess

A display of the Captain America Suit

A Nerds display

Oscar the Grouch

Toy

Mr Potato Head with a Star Trek Theme

Magneto Statue

A Jawa Cosplayer

Many thanks to Eric Chu for these photos. This is as much of a New York Comic Con 2012 report as we could get this year. ED

Kumoricon moved to Vancouver, Washington and expanded to occupy two hotels: the Vancouver Hilton and the Vancouver Red Lion on the Quay. In contrast to the previous two years in downtown Portland, where the space sometimes felt cramped and inconvenient, the new location was a treat. Having a huge park with a farmers’ market directly across the street from the hotel gave people an obvious place to go for food, photo shoots, and relaxation. It made Kumoricon feel kind of like a temporary small town of its own, with about 4,000 attendees roaming the area.

Registration lines were remarkably short, and many attendees breezed through in just a few minutes. I overheard some people mention that they were stunned by how quick it was, compared with previous experiences at this and other conventions. I’m sure everyone would be thrilled to see this become the new standard for conventions, and let stories of hours spent in a registration line fade into legends to be passed down to disbelieving newbies.

Kumoricon made this year’s schedule available in multiple formats, including downloadable content for the Guidebook app for mobile phones. If you have a supported device, Guidebook is the easiest way to organize your convention schedule. The app can display maps, keep track of the events you want to go to, and even create automatic reminders to tell you when an event is about to start. Some conventions only provide the names of events, but Kumoricon also included full descriptions of each event in the Guidebook app, which put everything in one place for easy browsing.

Though Kumoricon is a convention about anime, limiting its definition to that would be kind of like saying that Burning Man is a bunch of people camping. Kumoricon is also a social event for the cosplay subculture, a place to get together with friends and make new friends. Look around, and you’ll see lots of people greeting and hugging each other. It’s a giant 3-day party that transcends the individual events.

Actually, although it officially lasted only 3 days, there was also a “Day 0″ on the day before the convention started, with no official events but a very similar atmosphere. People dressed in cosplay, and got together for photo shoots or just to hang out. There were also two different Day 0 “pre-parties.”

This year’s Day 0 was quite large, partly because a lot of people arrived Friday morning for the earliest possible badge pick-up, and then had the rest of the day available to start the convention early. Naturally, for some cosplayers this meant a final frenzy of last-minute costume construction. Some people finished costumes only hours or even minutes before an event or photo shoot began, a pattern soon nicknamed “Procrasti-con.”

Fans at Kumoricon value audience participation, and during events it’s not uncommon for some audience members to occasionally shout back at the people on stage. Usually this is done in a good-natured and humorous way, and is generally tolerated if it doesn’t go too far. It’s a bit like being at a screening of Rocky Horror. And this fan-instigated humor sometimes leads to bizarre situations, like the fact that the most popular character at the cosplay contest was an empty chair.

It all started when a cosplay contest skit got off to a slow start, and at first the stage was empty except for a single chair. During the awkward silence before the first cosplayer in the skit had made his entrance, a few fans started cheering for the chair, and shouting “Chair! Chair!” People thought this was funny, so more and more people started cheering for chairs during subsequent skits, and booing when chairs were removed from the stage. The hosts played along, made references to chairs, and even held a “Chair vs. Table” popularity contest, which “Chair” won by a landslide.

During the intermission, while the judges deliberated, four empty chairs were positioned on stage as if they were the main chair accompanied by three backup singers. Then music played, and the crowd cheered and danced as if they were at a concert by “Chair.” It was truly a strange moment to see a crowd going wild over four empty chairs on a stage.

Chair received over 700 votes in the Audience Choice category of the cosplay contest and technically won this category, though the actual award was given to the human runner-ups. However, not everyone thought this was funny. Some people were understandably disappointed that a joke about an empty chair got louder applause than people who had worked hard on their costumes. The chair joke wasn’t the best thing about Kumoricon, but it was a good example of the type of quirky thing that often happens there. (The next day, people joked about possibly cosplaying as Chair next year.)

Apart from the sideshow of “Chair,” the cosplay contest also contained some great costumes, skits, and dance routines.

(See all the Cosplay Contest photos here)

The panel “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” exemplified the Kumoricon style of entertainment. A standing-room-only crowd filled one of the largest hotel ballrooms to watch improvisational comedy by Kumoricon staffer Jon Bressler and friends. Although some of the participants wore cosplay, and the conversations touched on some anime themes, it wasn’t really an “anime event,” it was just a fun and witty show. The event was laugh-out-loud funny from start to finish, and featured a guest appearance by voice actor Todd Haberkorn, whose hilarious Godzilla impression was one of the convention’s most memorable moments.

In Cosplay Chess, cosplayers act as chess pieces on a giant board, and dramatize a battle whenever a piece is captured. This year at Kumoricon, Cosplay Chess also had “color commentary” by two guys who cosplayed as the old men in the balcony from The Muppet Show, and told jokes done in the style of those characters.

Every year brings new trends in cosplay, and the biggest one this year was cosplay based on the web comic “Homestuck,” a huge and complex story that currently is 6000 pages long (and still going). Maybe part of the appeal of Homestuck for cosplay — besides the popularity of the comic — is that it offers both easier and more difficult cosplay options. The human characters look like normal kids who wear characteristic T-shirts, which is pretty straightforward to do, but cosplayers looking for more of a challenge can play the roles of the gray-skinned, horned trolls.

Many people showed up for the Homestuck photo shoots in Esther Short Park, and at one point a large group of Homestuck trolls took photos of an even larger group of Homestuck humans.

Other popular cosplays came from Black Butler, Hetalia, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Naruto, and the Vocaloids. Crossplay (cosplaying as a character of the opposite sex) was very common, especially females cosplaying as male characters. It’s probably fair to guess that at Kumoricon, if you chose a male character at random, he was more likely to be portrayed by a female cosplayer than a male one.

Genderbend cosplay (reimagining the character to be the opposite sex of the original character, but the same sex as the cosplayer) was somewhat less common, but still established. At the Panty & Stocking group photo shoot, a cosplayer showed off a very amusing male version of the character Panty (above, center).

As good as the official events were, some of the best times I had at the convention this year just involved talking to various people and joking around, which seems very characteristic of Kumoricon. One night when a group of us were in the park, we saw a group of Vancouver police headed our way. We wondered what was going on, and one of my friends speculated that perhaps they intended to tell us to leave the park. It turned out that actually they wanted to talk with us about anime! That led to a very fun conversation. I left for a little while to take some cosplay photos nearby, and when I got back the police were still there talking to people about anime and movies, and everyone was smiling and laughing. We went our separate ways, and then the night ended with a few quick photos on the bridge.

Some kinds of situations naturally create a feeling within a group of people that might be described as a spirit of shared destiny. (Well, at least that’s how an anime might describe it.) People who may have just met start acting more like a “clan” that naturally pulls together. One of the quirks of human nature is that it is often some sort of bad external event that causes this — I’ve personally seen it happen after an earthquake, for example. But the cause need not be a disaster, it can also be something good, like an anime convention. This doesn’t make Kumoricon some sort of utopia where everything is perfect, but it does create a special sense of community, in a way that few other events can match.

Kumoricon will return to Vancouver, Washington next year on September 1-3, 2012. The Kumoricon forums are active all year long, and can be a good way to plan for next year’s convention. I’ll see you at Kumoricon next year!

(See the collection of all my Kumoricon 2011 photos here)

So, Comic Con 2011, yay! As usual I took the train from LA to SD, but this was the first time I did preview night and I loved it. So, I think I’ll do preview night from now on. I got to talk to a lot of artists under less stress than the usual Thursday through Sunday show. Anyway, as you can see from the list below, those reports will be up in the next few days.

The show was as crowded as ever even though I learned later that several big studios (Disney, Warner Bros) didn’t exhibit this year and that there’s a 125K cap on tickets. It still felt like there were way too many people in the hall, but maybe that’s just me.

Arkham City was everywhere. I saw a billboard from the train; the side of a bus; the entire side of a hotel, the trams:

And one of those billboards that get driven around town:

I guess it worked because I added it to my pull and I’m enjoying it so far.

Also Batman, Batman in Legos:

There were also leafleteers:

I hope she was still smiling on Saturday

And cosplay,

That wasn’t his car

I wasn’t expecting to see a Lolita at Comic Con, but she was there and I took her picture

They were a cute family, but why would you bring a babe in arms (costume optional) to Comic Con?

They were sweet and kept their CCSD bags when I asked them to

It was a warm day so I hope she got into air conditioning soon

Loved the goggles

I’ll have more on Comic Con 2011 in the near future, so please keep an eye out for reports on these artists:

Anson Jew (agoynamedjew.blogspot.com)
Ron Brown (freefallart.com)
Sabrina (sabrinabellydancer.com)
Ben Henderson (goldencrusader.com)
Steam Crow (steamcrow.com)
Kirstie Shepherd (curioandco.com)
Paul Roman Martinez (19xxad.com)
Ryan Claytor (elephanteater.com)
The Frantic Meerkat (franticmeerkat.com) and
The Mincing Mockingbird (mincingmockingbird.com)
Karen Knighton (birdenvy.com)
Mary Bellamy (marybellamy.com)
John L. Brooks II (11thhourbooks.net)
Mike Bocianowski (artistmb.com)
Anthony Hon (motenaicomics.blogspot.com)
Shannon Wheeler (www.tmcm.com/tmcm)
Brett Bean (2dbean.com)
Celine Chapus (purpletophat.com)
Amy Mebberson (mimisgrotto.com)
Sho Murase (shomurase.com)
Katie Cook (katiecandraw.com)
Cat Staggs (www.catstaggs.com)
Bryan “Kaiser” Tillman (dark-legacy.net)
Sze Jones (szejones.com)
Maddox (maddox.xmission.com)
Thien Pham (thienisawesome.blogspot.com)
Ben Costa (shilongpang.com)
Jeannie L.S. Galster (jeaniels.com)
Debbie Huey (bumperboy.net)

and my recap over the next few days.

Mayerson arrives at Comic Con 2011.

Anson Jew

This year was my first preview night. In the past, I’d always turned up no earlier than Thursday to get the most bang for my buck because a hotel night for 3 hours at the con seemed wasteful to me. After the crush last year on Thursday, suddenly that didn’t seem so wasteful. Even preview night was intense, but it was easier to talk to people in Artists’ Alley and I started the con right by talking to Anson Jew first. He’s busy as usual, more with storyboarding commercials than making comics, but he did have a copy of his latest 24-hour comic “The Hand of Fate.” Anson said it’s loosely based on Oedipus Rex. I haven’t read it yet, but I still think Anson is a noir wunderkind, so if he says it’s based on O. Rex, then it must be based on O.Rex. He’s still drawing comics (that’s not something a goy named Jew could just stop doing), but not working on a comic book at the moment. He is working on a non-fiction book on storyboarding, which will be useful for those interested in such things. Anson didn’t say what it’s based on, but I’m sure it will be a noir book on storyboarding and it will be wunderbar.

Anson Jew (agoynamedjew.blogspot.com)

Ron Brown

After talking to Anson Jew, the next artist I spoke with was Ron Brown. He’s mainly an illustrator and fine artist (one of his paintings was on a cover of Harlan Ellison’s “Dream Quarters”), but he has self-published his own comic. He’s tabled at Comic Con six times, but he was on a five year hiatus getting a masters in fine arts at the Laguna Collage of Art to go with is undergrad from Art Center. Attention aspiring artists: Ron is teaching art at Mount San Antonio in Walnut, California, you could learn something.

Ron Brown (freefallart.com)

Sabrina

Sabrina! I was fascinated by her eyes, her eyeglasses, and her highly stylized cosplay/belly dancer bra. So much so I had to apologize for staring at her breasts. She’s nice; she said it was okay. Sabrina is an award winning dancer, teacher and a craftsperson. She was having a panel on how to make a cosplay bra that fits and won’t hurt your boobs on a long hard day of cosplaying. Looking, once again at her upper torso, I’d say she knows what she’s talking about. She has two new books out: “How to Build a Better Bra for Cosplay” and charity book for the Hero Initiative of belly dance themed comics (hotcha!). I can’t find links for either of these books, but if Sabrina! sends me links, I’ll add them. I should have taken a picture with her, but she’s so gorgeous, she just wipes the floor with me and would lower you readers’ opinions of me. If that’s possible. Anyway…Sabrina!

Sabrina (sabrinabellydancer.com)

Ben Henderson

First Comic Con ever! From Orlando, Florida. Has always wanted to come to Comic Con and this is the year to do it. He’s been an illustrator, but this is his first comic book. His comic book is about a retired superhero coming back into the spotlight out of necessity. This is his first comic book and first attempt at comic drawing. Found it a lot of work and has new respect for comic book artists now that he realizes how much goes into it. He came up with the art first (elderly superhero) and then wrote a story about it. He printed his books himself due to time constraints. He has been reading comics all his life.

Ben Henderson (goldencrusader.com)

Steam crow

I headed out of Artists’ Alley for the long walk to the Small Press area and came across the half end-cap booth for Steam Crow. Steam Crow was mostly prints and a few books (I didn’t see any actual comic books), but, interestingly, as I was talking to Daniel Davis of Steam Crow, I realized that I read his Web comic Marketing blog. I read this blog because it’s unlikely that I’d ever put the words web comic and marketing together, but he does have some interesting ideas on how to generate buzz for your web comic, how to managed your convention exhibitor forays and more marketing stuff like that. Steam Crow is a personal brank that he and his partner dreamed up to illustrate the things they wanted to see illustrated, like monsters and things they like. They’ve done five books so far: Hot Creatures, a monster haiku book; Clawberry, like a Grimm fairy tale; After Halloween, what monsters do after Halloween to make a living, and two volumes of his web comic, Monster Commute. They’ve been doing Comic Con for six years. They started in Small Press, but found it easier to get more attention with their own booth. He studied art and became a graphic artist. He paid his dues as a screen print artist and worked his way up to his own company. The larger prints are glecee prints, there were a few prints on canvas, but most of them are what he called color process. I don’t know what color process means, and I couldn’t ask because the booth got busy and I never stand in the way of commerce.

Steam Crow (steamcrow.com)

Kirstie Shepherd

Kirstie (rhymes with thirsty) Sheperd is the writer on “Finding Frank and his Friends,” the Eisner nominated Best Graphic Album New. These are the lost images for everyone’s favorite comic that never existed. These images were hidden in a garage that never existed for the past 60 years, so no one has ever seen them. Kirstie is co-owner of Curio and Company, which creates entertainment memorabilia for books and things that never happened. (I have mucho simpatico with that idea; the idol of our parent company, Fabrice Eugene Wapshott, is the most fabulous gay man that never lived.) Kirstie is an American living in Vienna (I’m so jealous), she and her partner came over for Curio and Co‘s second Comic-Con. Curio and Co is a new company, only a year old. Last year they debuted “Frank and his Friends.” This year they are debuting “The Gadabout GM 10-50,” which is user’s manual for a time machine. “Everyone says they need more time,” Kirstie told me, “We’ve finally got the book that gets it.” Kirstie is originally from San Diego. She and the artist, Cesare Asaro (sp?), met at the Discovery Science Museum in Santa Ana, where the Gadabout idea sparked and gelled. They share an interest in science and making sciency things more accessible. Now that they live in Europe, they have that “the farther you get from home, the better you see it” thing, so a lot of their products are based on Americana. One such item is “Spaceman Jax,” a 1950s TV spaceman show that never existed. They’ve been in Vienna for 10 years, so, she mused, maybe this is a way of dealing with voluntary ex-pat homesickness. They had cool stuff; I’ll keep an eye on the webpage to see what they’re up to next year.

Kirstie Shepherd (curioandco.com)

Paul Roman Martinez

This is Paul Roman Martinez‘s first book and his first booth at Comic Con. “The Spirit of 19XX” takes place in the 1930s about a group of adventurers who are trying to prevent WWII from happening. Another alternate timeline of things that never happened that’s been well received. The book is has magic, adventure and history. PRM said he didn’t try to stray too far from history with it. PRM is nominated for the Russ Manning award for Most Promising Newcomer. Decorating his booth were historic posters from the era. However, the girl on the tank is his original poster. He’s only been making comics for a year and a half, but he’s loved comics all his life and has been attending CCSD since 1997. I was somewhat surprised he wasn’t in Artists’ Alley, but he ran the book through his graphic design company thereby making him a Small Press. He’s looking for a publisher for his next book, but he didn’t divulge any details.

Paul Roman Martinez (19xxad.com)

Ryan Claytor

Ryan Claytor‘s father had a saying about any big project: It’s like eating an elephant, just do it one bite at a time and before you know it, you’re all done. Sage words for anyone trying to get a big or small project done. In honor of this wisdom, Ryan named his company Elephant Eater to publish his series of autobiographical. He’s been making comics since 2004 after he got his art degree from UC Santa Barbara and then a MFA from UC San Diego. His thesis on autobiographical comics was on sale at his table. His table had thinky words, comics, prints, and cool bookmarks.

Ryan was born and raised in California, but is now living and teaching at Michigan State and loving it. He said the long cruel winters are good comic-making weather.

He’s just finished the third part of a three part autobiographical story arc. He’s musing on a story about his father, who grew up in rural Arizona. I think this will be a good story because his father grew up to such a philosophical guy, and that must have come from some kind of background worthy of graphic storytelling. So there is something to look forward to.

Ryan Claytor (elephanteater.com)

The Frantic Meerkat and The Mincing Mockingbird

Matt Adrian (the Mincing Mockingbird) and Kim Bagwell (the Frantic Meerkat) were sharing a table, I think they’re married, but I never assume anything. Kim got into making comics because Matt needed a comic for one of his books and she came up with her first clip-art comic, the outlaw one. That one went over so well, she continued to make clip-art comics of serious looking animals with soap-opera relationship issues where the text is so outrageous with the art, and vice versa, the finish comic transcends it’s elements and to become a satire on romance, relationships, honor, etc. David Rees’ Get your War on did that with more serious material, but it works here as well. At least I liked it, but I like things that take a moment to sink in. Her background is in fine arts, but her bread and butter has been in graphic design. She’s been using clip-art up to now because she didn’t have time to paint. But more recently, she’s been painting.

Matt started painting “troubled” birds about three years ago and he’s done three books with unusual titles. He’s a fine artist educated in art at Columbia College in Chicago. He didn’t paint for a long time after he graduated, but didn’t start painting again until five years ago and then exclusively birds about three years ago. His paintings are done in acrylics. His troubled birds are lovely paintings with punch-line titles that make you look at the painting until you get the joke and smile (or don’t).

This is their first Comic Con. They know Karen Knighton of BirdEnvy.com and she inspired them to get a table in Small Press. That doesn’t surprise me; I find K Knighton very inspirational and I just met her.

The Frantic Meerkat and The Mincing Mockingbird (mincingmockingbird.com and franticmeerkat.com)

Karen Knighton

I learned from Karen Knighton that to get a table in the Small Press area, the artist must have a new comic for the convention and that comic must pass CCSD’s approval. Ms. Knighton’s new comic this year is Snowsville; it is a 20 page, printed and handmade, edition of 50. Snowsville is more visual poetry than sequential art. It is a sequential story, but not a linear narrative and has no dialog or narration. The main character is injured and journeys to Snowsville, as much externally as internally. This book does for me what only certain kinds of art do for me: it stops the world for the duration I’m engaged with it. It’s an ontological pause in the chaos of being. I am very grateful to Karen Knighton for making it and Comic Con for having it where I could find it. There were only 49 remaining of the numbered edition after I left with mine. I hope 49 other lucky folks are having an experience similar to mine with Snowsville.

As with many other artists at what Comic Con has become, Karen is selling more cute pillows than comics. I find this sad, but if she wasn’t here selling more pillows than comics, I would never have read Snowsville, so how can I not be okay with the pillows? But in a perfect world…we’d all die of boredom. Anyway…

This is Karen’s sixth Comic Con and she’s been making comics and art for a long time. She’s always been an artist. The comics split a table at Comic Con in 2003 and she put together a book with the bird and bunny she’d been drawing for a while. She does a new book with those characters every year. She went to Cal Arts for animation and is an animator by trade. I met a few animators at Comic Con that made comics because they love comics and it got them away from the computer screen for a few hours. I can dig it.

Karen Knighton (birdenvy.com)

Mary Bellamy

Mary Bellamy writes comic books about a girls who are not princesses. “Ah Heck” is about a girl who ends up in the underworld (y’know, Heck) and her adventures in different realms while trying to get the heck out of Heck.

In one realm, she’s forced to be a maid to evil bunnies (I think this is an all-ages book). After she escapes the evil bunnies, she ends up in a realm where she’s turned into a doll, forced to wear cute clothes, and she hates that, too. That’s volume 1; in volume 2 we learn that this is a retelling of the Job story, except God and Satan are using a video game for this bet. The other book I asked about, “Faux Facts,” is about a group of friends who have supernatural things happen to them. Mary has always been into comics and cartoons, she has a degree from the Art Institute of Orange County, and she finances her self-publishing with animation jobs. She’s been attending Comic Con since 1999, but has only been exhibiting there since 2007. She’s planning volume 3 of “Ah, Heck” and will be making some new merchandise to go with the buttons.

Mary Bellamy (marybellamy.com)

John L. Brooks II

John L. Brooks II has been publishing books and comics at 11th Hour Books since 2008. This is his first Comic Con, he said he got in at the 11th hour, no less.

The name “11th Hour” refers to the endangered species his books champion to children and, hopefully, their parents. Trying to teach kids environmental stewardship, which can only be good for all of us. John was inspired to start writing books after a 26 year career as an agent for the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service. He saw a lot of people breaking laws and doing hurtful things to nature just because they didn’t know any better. He hopes his books, some of them translated into other languages, will bring a little more environmental consciousness to the next generation and anyone else who reads them. He is a native, from Oakland but now settled in San Diego for the weather. He’s the writer on the books and has been working with a variety of artists. I think he’s publishing lovely books and the next time I know a kid who needs a gift, this is what they’re getting. And they will LOVE it.

John L. Brooks II (11thhourbooks.net)

Mike Bocianowski

Mike Bocianowski writes comics about critters that have no names yet, so they are called Yets. It’s a story about an adventuring guinea pig and a chihuahua that go looking for dragons in the great magic tree world. And then it gets weird.

Sounds good to me! Mike also works with 4th graders teaching them to draw comics while teaching them math and English skills. At the end of the course, they compile them and print their own comic book. I don’t remember fourth grade being that much fun, but things might have changed since the last ice age. Mike’s background and education are in commercial art and animation, but he loves comics and has always been drawing and publishing comics in whatever spare time he can carve out. He’s been attending comic con for 10 years. Coming up, he’ll be reprinting volume 1 of Yets with a new introduction by Donald Duck drawing Patrick Block, he’s working on volume 4, and also has a new comic with those lucky fourth graders called “The Field Guide to Yets.”

Mike Bocianowski (artistmb.com)

Anthony Hon

Anthony Hon Was helping promote Wahab Algarmi’s “Society of Unordinary Young Ladies,” which is about 1980s sitcom heroines doing unordinary things, like fighting communism and stuff like that.

I recognized Christina Ricci, but that was it. Anthony’s most recent work is “Barry the Benevolent Ninja.” The crocheted ninja doll was the inspiration for the story. Anthony’s been making comics since 2002 in his off-time from making video games. He said he has no time to draw at his job, where he’s on the computer all day, so coming home and working on comics is a joy. Making comics is another way for him to continue to write and draw. He has a degree in Illustration from the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Originally he wanted to work for Disney in 2-D animation, but the animation industry changed before he could do that. A friend offered him a job designing video games and he’s been doing that ever since. Anthony’s been attending comic con for about 8 years.

Anthony Hon (motenaicomics.blogspot.com)

Shannon Wheeler

Between now and the last time I saw him, Shannon Wheeler shaved off his beard. Then he won an Eisner. Is there a connection? Discuss.

Shannon’s upcoming book from Top Shelf is “God is Disappointed in you” in which the other author Mark Russell boils each book in the old and new testament down to three paragraphs/book and Shannon draws a gag cartoon for it. What would William Tyndale do? As Shannon says, the old testament is just a string of God being disappointed in man and doing something about it: flood, tower of Bable, plagues, Elijah, etc. The sampler is only seven books (I don’t know which 7, but I took Shannon’s word for it), but Mark has finished the 66 books and Shannon’s finished cartoons for 52 of them. Shannon is working on a book with Boom (publishers of “I thought you’d be funnier”) called “Grampa won’t wake up,” which sounds absolutely charming. That book will release in October. Shannon’s been doing Comic Con for the past nineteen years and has seen the show change a lot, but all his friends are still here so he’s happy with it. He also does APE and Stumptown in Portland Oregon where he lives and where you can no longer swing a cat without hitting a comic artist. When I lived in Portland in the late 90s, it was the other way around.

(By the way, Shannon isn’t the only one who changed his look this year. Bryan “Kaiser” Tillman did. He also fine tuned his Dark Legacy game and wrote a successful art book. Is there a connection here as well? Discuss.)

Shannon Wheeler (www.tmcm.com/tmcm)

Brett Bean

Brett Bean was selling art prints and original commissions. This is his first Comic Con behind the booth. He’s working on a digital comic book. He makes video games, role-playing games; he started out as an environment artist.

Brett Bean (2dbean.com)

Celine Chapus

Celine Chapus has been working as an illustrator since 2007, but she’s been drawing her whole life. She decided to pursue this full time after she accidentally walked into a pirate themed store in North Hollywood (Chest of Divas, I think she said), and there was a small gallery in the back of the store. The store manager, Crystal, was curating shows on a monthly basis and Celine had her portfolio with her and got a show! And it was a hit! And that’s how she got started devoting all her time to art making.

She made her first comic in 2009 and started doing conventions shortly after that. She’s done MegaCon in Orlando, FL, and got into CCSD in 2009. She’s primarily an illustrator, but she loves drawing characters, so her comics are more illustrations about relationships between characters. (I’m not sure where the line is between a one-panel comic, an illustration, and an artwork are and I won’t presume to expound on it here.) Celine feels the life drawing course she took curtailed her development as an artist. She always recommends to young artists that learn to draw bodies. She dropped out of an art school she declined to name because they said her art was too commercial. She continued her art studies at UC Irvine.

Celine Chapus (purpletophat.com)

Amy Mebberson

Amy Mebberson draws very pretty girls. She had some cool artwork. She’s been a comic book artist since she moved out of animation at Disney at Sydney when it closed in 2006. After the studio shut down in Sydney, she and her husband moved to Portland, Oregon, the comic artist vortex of the universe. She didn’t decide to become an artist right away, she has a degree in music, and spent one bad year in design school before she started making a living at it.

She got the job at Disney on the strength of her drawing and they trained her in everything else she needed to know. Her table at Comic Con was her own work, but she’s drawing Strawberry Shortcake comics for Ape Entertainment. Maybe Strawberry Shortcake will get a bit of cheesecake from Amy. This is Amy’s third Comic Con, her first with her own table in Artist’s Alley. She’d been at CCSD as a guest of Tokyo Pop when she was one of their original English language manga artists. She was drawing for T Campbell on Divalicious, it lasted for two volumes, and then it ended. She’d like to revive her webcomics “As if” called “Thron” (sp?), but she had to quit doing them because she had paying work to do and we all have to pay the rent.

Amy Mebberson (mimisgrotto.com)

Sho Murase

Sho Murase has been working in animation as a freelance character designer and storyboarder for the past ten years. At this year’s Comic Con, she’s showing and selling her personal work. She was raised in Spain and went to art school in Canada. She’s been exhibiting at CCSD, APE and WonderCon for the past five years. I got a copy of her comic book, “Sheila,” volume 1.

“Sheila” is the story of a little girl named Sheila, who isn’t like other little girls and this this story, that works in her favor. This is a charming comic and becomes charming squared when you get to the end and have three, count ‘em, three endings to choose from. The comic is subtitled “How Dark are You?” and the choice of ending scores you on the darkness meter. The story is dark, but cute (yes, it is), and I love the artwork, but I’m a sucker for negative space in black and white comics. Sho will be at APE, NYCC, and Austin Wizard World in October and November (more information on her webpage where I was hoping for a shop, but, alas there isn’t one).

Sho Murase (shomurase.com)

Katie Cook

Oh my God, can Katie Cook ever draw! I got a copy of “F*ck you Box,” a mini-comic about her cat’s inner dialog and, um, challenging approach to his environment and I was laughing my ass off reading it on the train back to Los Angeles.

Katie Cook calls herself a comic artist, illustrator, and nerd. She draws comic books and children’s stories. Her own comic is called “Gronk, a monster’s story,” which debuts this year. As an artist, she’s worked for Fraggle Rock, Star Wars, and Marvel to name only a few. This is her sixth CCSD in Artist’s Alley. She loves CCSD because the fans are there to have fun and be nerdy. She lives in Ann Arbor Michigan and says they don’t have cons like CCSD there. She has volume 2 of “Gronk” in the works, which runs as a free webcomic at gronkcomic.com every Friday and has several more cons scheduled. She also has a seven month old that she’s raising. I imagine that takes quite a bit of her time, but she said it’s fun. She left the baby with the grandparents because, and I totally agree with her, that CCSD is no place for a babe in arms.

Katie Cook (katiecandraw.com)

Cat Staggs

Cat Staggs has been doing CCSD Artists’ Alley for seven years. She has a comic in the upcoming Womanthology from IDW in December. She started out in comics doing trading cards. She’s been drawing her whole life and has a bachelors degree in art from University of Texas as San Antonio.

Cat Staggs (www.catstaggs.com)

Bryan “Kaiser” Tillman

I talked to Bryan “Kaiser” Tillman last year (CCSD 2010 scroll down) and was a total idiot because I know nothing about gaming of any kind except you use these cute dice and cards and everything is so elegant and organized. Thank God Wendy Lee was there taking pictures for me (my camera battery was locked in my luggage at the train station [total idiot that day, really]) to smooth things over by laughing her ass off at me.

Bryan is not laughing at me in the 2010 picture, he’s too nice for that. By the way, that’s my hand holding a tape recorder, not some unspeakable horror. Anyway. As you can see Bryan, like Shannon Wheeler, changed his look since the last time I saw him. He’s wearing the same shirt though.

Well, Bryan is still a very nice guy and still making a very nice game called Dark Legacy, which will make its official debut at GenCon in August 2012, which is very soon.

He also published a book on life drawing, “Creative Character Design” (Focal Press), between now and the last time I talked to him.

Betwixt and between all this, he’s busy running Kaiser Studios and making comics.

Bryan “Kaiser” Tillman (dark-legacy.net)

Sze Jones

I am a big fan of Sze Jones! Anyone who can draw an octopus girl like that has my worship.

She’s an illustrator. Part of her work is trying to combine traditional Chinese ink painting with gouache on subjects from the mythical realm. She said it’s kind of like a journal. She thinks vampires are romantic subjects because of their immortality and power in the mythical realm. She’s been working for a video game company for the past three years so she likes to get off the computer and do some drawing and painting. Her mother knew she liked to draw, so she sent her to classes from a very young age. Sze went on to get a Masters of Fine Arts at William Patterson University and she’s been working in the arts ever since. Some of her artwork at CCSD were in acrylics, but most were gouache and Chinese ink. She showed me her ink stone and brushes (I should have gotten a picture, but I didn’t, sorry). A few were oil, acrylic and color pencil on watercolor paper, like the one below:

This is her third Comic Con in Artists Alley. She’s currently working on a children’s book for the 8-10 year old set that will include music. So there is something to look forward to.

Sze Jones (szejones.com)

Maddox

So, I met Maddox! and his lovely companion, Marie the Lumberjack, this year.

Comic Con Gothic

His bestselling book, The Alphabet of Manliness, was inspired when he was reading a field guide to lesbians. Well, that’s what he said.

The Alphabet debuted at number four on the NY Times Bestseller list and went up to number two before dropping off. After having a writer website for nine years, he “came out of the blue,” as they bizarrely say in mainstream publishing, with The Alphabet, which was released in 2006 and re-released in 2009. He has a new book, I am Better Than your Kids, which is based on a piece that went viral last year where Maddox! graded children’s artwork. This book will be published next year by a publisher whose name I didn’t get, alas.

Maddox! also did an indy comic, The Best Comic in the Universe, for which Leah Tiscione did the artwork.

Maddox! doesn’t consider himself an artist, but a writer who draws. He’s been doing CCSD for the past six years. Maddox! is doing a show on YouTube and he’s making a line of hot sauce.

Other than promoting I am Better Than your Kids book, YouTube and hot sauce, the rest of Plan Maddox! 2012 are under wraps for now.

Maddox! (maddox.xmission.com)

Thien Pham

Thien Pham was more into talking about the other artists at his table than his own work.

Actually, the table belonged to his wife, Lark Pien. Ms. Pien’s book, The Long Tail Kitty, was published by Blue Apple Books in 2009. Thien and Lark had been publishing the story as a mini-comic with hand silk screened covers for a few years before a publisher picked up a copy at a comic convention and the rest is history. I love these kind of comic book success stories, don’t you?

Thien, Lark, and Gene Yang, (American Born Chinese) the other person’s work at the table, have all gotten book deals from their mini-comics. Thien and Gene have a new book, Level Up, about video games and being adopted that they’re promoting this year.

Also to promote Level Up, they did a mini-comic called Legends of the Joystick, which is a behind-the-scenes look at superheroes growing up. Gene’s third book, Prime Baby, is nominated for an Eisner.

And because you can never start too early in comics, there were a few of Gene’s kids comics on the table.

Thien has been doing Small Press at CCSD for seven years. He’s always loved comics, he drew and copied them as a kid, and eventually graduated from the Academy of Art in San Francisco in 2000. When not making comics, Ben teaches art at Bishop O’Dell High School in Oakland California, where Gene teaches computer science.

Thien Pham (thienisawesome.blogspot.com)

Ben Costa

Ben Costa

won a Xeric Award

and made Pang, the Wandering Shaolin Monk, which he worked on for four years before publishing the book. It was inspired by his interest in Kung Fu movies that inspired him to take martial arts classes and then make this book. He’s working on volume two of three. The books are set in the 17th century and are a mix of history and legend and Kung Fu.

Yay! And he also made Eight Herbs Mtn.

Yay! He’s always loved comics and is self-taught as an artist. Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk is also online. The next volume will be published next year. This is Ben’s second Comic Con.

Ben Costa (shilongpang.com)

Jeannie L.S. Galster

Jeannie L.S. Galster is the author and artist of Reverence.

Volume one was published last year, volume two and three will be published this fall and 2012

Reverence is the story of a girl who takes the name Reverence whose tragic past leads her into drugs and crime and least of all tattoos. During one tattoo session a gun fight breaks out in the parlor and during it the electricity from the tattoo gun infuses Reverence’s body and her tattoos come to life, thus activating her superpower to right a few wrongs in her past.

Jeannie grew up on horror films and comics, and took art classes in High School. This is her first CCSD.

Jeannie L.S. Galster (jeaniels.com)

Debbie Huey

Debbie Huey publishes Bumper Boy comics and toys and they are adorable.

She’s been making Bumper Boy since 2003.

Prior to Bumper Boy, she was an art student at UC Santa Cruz. Bumper Boy is an all-ages comic about the adventures of Bumper Boy and his Pals. She has many more stories for Bumper Boy. She’s been exhibiting at Comic Con since 2004

Debbie Huey (bumperboy.net)

Comic Con 2011: ninjas, smart phones, crowds walking and looking at their smart phones, gah

So, the links below are my Comic Con San Diego 2011 reportage. I didn’t have a Smart Phone, so I missed out on a few things. Like these ninjas. This is their front side:

Adorable!

And this is their back side, which is important if you have a Smart Phone:

I don’t have a Smart Phone, so, yeah…

The other Smart Phone experience I had, which I don’t have any pictures of, was of convention goers crashing into me, each other, baby-conveying strollers, really anyone and anything because they were glued to their Smart Phone for events and swag and whatever instead of watching where the fuck they were going. I mean, it’s bad enough in the exhibit hall when the crowds are paying the usual amount of inattention. Yeah, and babies of the infant human kind. Parents, please please stop bringing your infants and toddlers to Comic Con. I like kids, most of them will grow up and pay my Social Security benefits, so I really do like them if for no other reason. But, for God’s sake, parents, just the bacterial level alone in the Convention Center during CCSD, not to mention the crowds and possible injury from said crowds, should make you think twice about bringing your little bitty kids. I know you parents want to be at CCSD, I understand, really I do, but it would be better for the kids and the elderly women who worry about kids, if there was a minimum age of about 8 years old for admittance to certain parts of the convention, particularly the exhibit hall. And if you can’t leave the under 8 kids home, then stay in a hotel that has day-care or get a sitter or do the convention in shifts or bring a spinster aunt and take her to the Zoo or Balboa Park or a host club as a thank you for child care but for the love of God please don’t bring babies into the exhibit hall. End of sermon.

A very big thank you to all the artists I spoke with this year. Please click on the links below to read about the artists I talked to. Whatever Comic Con SD might or might not be now or might or might not become in the future, there are no comics or comic book movies without the creativity and steadfastness of the artists and writers who make them. And God Bless them each and every one.

Mayerson arrives at Comic Con 2011 and talks to:
Anson Jew (agoynamedjew.blogspot.com)
Ron Brown (freefallart.com)
Sabrina (sabrinabellydancer.com)
Ben Henderson (goldencrusader.com)
Steam Crow (steamcrow.com)
Kirstie Shepherd (curioandco.com)
Paul Roman Martinez (19xxad.com)
Ryan Claytor (elephanteater.com)
The Frantic Meerkat and The Mincing Mockingbird (mincingmockingbird.com and franticmeerkat.com)
Karen Knighton (birdenvy.com)
Mary Bellamy (marybellamy.com)
John L. Brooks II (11thhourbooks.net)
Mike Bocianowski (artistmb.com)
Anthony Hon (motenaicomics.blogspot.com)
Shannon Wheeler (www.tmcm.com/tmcm)
Brett Bean (2dbean.com)
Celine Chapus (purpletophat.com)
Amy Mebberson (mimisgrotto.com)
Sho Murase (shomurase.com)
Katie Cook (katiecandraw.com)
Cat Staggs (www.catstaggs.com)
Bryan “Kaiser” Tillman (dark-legacy.net)
Sze Jones (szejones.com)
Maddox! (maddox.xmission.com)
Thien Pham (thienisawesome.blogspot.com)
Ben Costa (shilongpang.com)
Jeannie L.S. Galster (jeaniels.com)
Debbie Huey (bumperboy.net)
CCSD 2011: that’s it for me.

So, yeah, Comic Con has changed. But if you’re me, and you refuse to be anywhere except Artists’ Alley and Small Press areas, it hasn’t changed all that much.

See ya next year.

CCSD 2011: that’s it for me.

Adorable!

And this is their back side, which is important if you have a Smart Phone:

I don’t have a Smart Phone, so, yeah…

The other Smart Phone experience I had, which I don’t have any pictures of, was of convention goers crashing into me, each other, baby-conveying strollers, really anyone and anything because they were glued to their Smart Phone for events and swag and whatever instead of watching where the fuck they were going. I mean, it’s bad enough in the exhibit hall when the crowds are paying the usual amount of inattention. Yeah, and babies of the infant human kind. Parents, please please stop bringing your infants and toddlers to Comic Con. I like kids, most of them will grow up and pay my Social Security benefits, so I really do like them if for no other reason. But, for God’s sake, parents, just the bacterial level alone in the Convention Center during CCSD, not to mention the crowds and possible injury from said crowds, should make you think twice about bringing your little bitty kids. I know you parents want to be at CCSD, I understand, really I do, but it would be better for the kids and the elderly women who worry about kids, if there was a minimum age of about 8 years old for admittance to certain parts of the convention, particularly the exhibit hall. And if you can’t leave the under 8 kids home, then stay in a hotel that has day-care or get a sitter or do the convention in shifts or bring a spinster aunt and take her to the Zoo or Balboa Park or a host club as a thank you for child care but for the love of God please don’t bring babies into the exhibit hall. End of sermon.

A very big thank you to all the artists I spoke with this year. Please click on the links below to read about the artists I talked to. Whatever Comic Con SD might or might not be now or might or might not become in the future, there are no comics or comic book movies without the creativity and steadfastness of the artists and writers who make them. And God Bless them each and every one.

Mayerson arrives at Comic Con 2011 and talks to:
Anson Jew (agoynamedjew.blogspot.com)
Ron Brown (freefallart.com)
Sabrina (sabrinabellydancer.com)
Ben Henderson (goldencrusader.com)
Steam Crow (steamcrow.com)
Kirstie Shepherd (curioandco.com)
Paul Roman Martinez (19xxad.com)
Ryan Claytor (elephanteater.com)
The Frantic Meerkat and The Mincing Mockingbird (mincingmockingbird.com and franticmeerkat.com)
Karen Knighton (birdenvy.com)
Mary Bellamy (marybellamy.com)
John L. Brooks II (11thhourbooks.net)
Mike Bocianowski (artistmb.com)
Anthony Hon (motenaicomics.blogspot.com)
Shannon Wheeler (www.tmcm.com/tmcm)
Brett Bean (2dbean.com)
Celine Chapus (purpletophat.com)
Amy Mebberson (mimisgrotto.com)
Sho Murase (shomurase.com)
Katie Cook (katiecandraw.com)
Cat Staggs (www.catstaggs.com)
Bryan “Kaiser” Tillman (dark-legacy.net)
Sze Jones (szejones.com)
Maddox! (maddox.xmission.com)
Thien Pham (thienisawesome.blogspot.com)
Ben Costa (shilongpang.com)
Jeannie L.S. Galster (jeaniels.com)
Debbie Huey (bumperboy.net)
CCSD 2011: that’s it for me.

So, yeah, Comic Con has changed. But if you’re me, and you refuse to be anywhere except Artists’ Alley and Small Press areas, it hasn’t changed all that much.

See ya next year.

She’s been making Bumper Boy since 2003.

Prior to Bumper Boy, she was an art student at UC Santa Cruz. Bumper Boy is an all-ages comic about the adventures of Bumper Boy and his Pals. She has many more stories for Bumper Boy. She’s been exhibiting at Comic Con since 2004

See Comic Con 2011 for these artists:
Anson Jew (agoynamedjew.blogspot.com)
Ron Brown (freefallart.com)
Sabrina (sabrinabellydancer.com)
Ben Henderson (goldencrusader.com)
Steam Crow (steamcrow.com)
Kirstie Shepherd (curioandco.com)
Paul Roman Martinez (19xxad.com)
Ryan Claytor (elephanteater.com)
The Frantic Meerkat and The Mincing Mockingbird (mincingmockingbird.com and franticmeerkat.com)
Karen Knighton (birdenvy.com)
Mary Bellamy (marybellamy.com)
John L. Brooks II (11thhourbooks.net)
Mike Bocianowski (artistmb.com)
Anthony Hon (motenaicomics.blogspot.com)
Shannon Wheeler (www.tmcm.com/tmcm)
Brett Bean (2dbean.com)
Celine Chapus (purpletophat.com)
Amy Mebberson (mimisgrotto.com)
Sho Murase (shomurase.com)
Katie Cook (katiecandraw.com)
Cat Staggs (www.catstaggs.com)
Bryan “Kaiser” Tillman (dark-legacy.net)
Sze Jones (szejones.com)
Maddox (maddox.xmission.com)
Thien Pham (thienisawesome.blogspot.com)
Ben Costa (shilongpang.com)
Jeannie L.S. Galster (jeaniels.com)
Debbie Huey (bumperboy.net)

Volume one was published last year, volume two and three will be published this fall and 2012

Reverence is the story of a girl who takes the name Reverence whose tragic past leads her into drugs and crime and least of all tattoos. During one tattoo session a gun fight breaks out in the parlor and during it the electricity from the tattoo gun infuses Reverence’s body and her tattoos come to life, thus activating her superpower to right a few wrongs in her past.

Jeannie grew up on horror films and comics, and took art classes in High School. This is her first CCSD.

See Comic Con 2011 for these artists:
Anson Jew (agoynamedjew.blogspot.com)
Ron Brown (freefallart.com)
Sabrina (sabrinabellydancer.com)
Ben Henderson (goldencrusader.com)
Steam Crow (steamcrow.com)
Kirstie Shepherd (curioandco.com)
Paul Roman Martinez (19xxad.com)
Ryan Claytor (elephanteater.com)
The Frantic Meerkat and The Mincing Mockingbird (mincingmockingbird.com and franticmeerkat.com)
Karen Knighton (birdenvy.com)
Mary Bellamy (marybellamy.com)
John L. Brooks II (11thhourbooks.net)
Mike Bocianowski (artistmb.com)
Anthony Hon (motenaicomics.blogspot.com)
Shannon Wheeler (www.tmcm.com/tmcm)
Brett Bean (2dbean.com)
Celine Chapus (purpletophat.com)
Amy Mebberson (mimisgrotto.com)
Sho Murase (shomurase.com)
Katie Cook (katiecandraw.com)
Cat Staggs (www.catstaggs.com)
Bryan “Kaiser” Tillman (dark-legacy.net)
Sze Jones (szejones.com)
Maddox (maddox.xmission.com)
Thien Pham (thienisawesome.blogspot.com)
Ben Costa (shilongpang.com)
Jeannie L.S. Galster (jeaniels.com)
Debbie Huey (bumperboy.net)

won a Xeric Award

and made Pang, the Wandering Shaolin Monk, which he worked on for four years before publishing the book. It was inspired by his interest in Kung Fu movies that inspired him to take martial arts classes and then make this book. He’s working on volume two of three. The books are set in the 17th century and are a mix of history and legend and Kung Fu.

Yay! And he also made Eight Herbs Mtn.

Yay! He’s always loved comics and is self-taught as an artist. Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk is also online. The next volume will be published next year. This is Ben’s second Comic Con.

See Comic Con 2011 for these artists:
Anson Jew (agoynamedjew.blogspot.com)
Ron Brown (freefallart.com)
Sabrina (sabrinabellydancer.com)
Ben Henderson (goldencrusader.com)
Steam Crow (steamcrow.com)
Kirstie Shepherd (curioandco.com)
Paul Roman Martinez (19xxad.com)
Ryan Claytor (elephanteater.com)
The Frantic Meerkat and The Mincing Mockingbird (mincingmockingbird.com and franticmeerkat.com)
Karen Knighton (birdenvy.com)
Mary Bellamy (marybellamy.com)
John L. Brooks II (11thhourbooks.net)
Mike Bocianowski (artistmb.com)
Anthony Hon (motenaicomics.blogspot.com)
Shannon Wheeler (www.tmcm.com/tmcm)
Brett Bean (2dbean.com)
Celine Chapus (purpletophat.com)
Amy Mebberson (mimisgrotto.com)
Sho Murase (shomurase.com)
Katie Cook (katiecandraw.com)
Cat Staggs (www.catstaggs.com)
Bryan “Kaiser” Tillman (dark-legacy.net)
Sze Jones (szejones.com)
Maddox (maddox.xmission.com)
Thien Pham (thienisawesome.blogspot.com)
Ben Costa (shilongpang.com)
Jeannie L.S. Galster (jeaniels.com)
Debbie Huey (bumperboy.net)

Actually, the table belonged to his wife, Lark Pien. Ms. Pien’s book, The Long Tail Kitty, was published by Blue Apple Books in 2009. Thien and Lark had been publishing the story as a mini-comic with hand silk screened covers for a few years before a publisher picked up a copy at a comic convention and the rest is history. I love these kind of comic book success stories, don’t you?

Thien, Lark, and Gene Yang, (American Born Chinese) the other person’s work at the table, have all gotten book deals from their mini-comics. Thien and Gene have a new book, Level Up, about video games and being adopted that they’re promoting this year.

Also to promote Level Up, they did a mini-comic called Legends of the Joystick, which is a behind-the-scenes look at superheroes growing up. Gene’s third book, Prime Baby, is nominated for an Eisner.

And because you can never start too early in comics, there were a few of Gene’s kids comics on the table.

Thien has been doing Small Press at CCSD for seven years. He’s always loved comics, he drew and copied them as a kid, and eventually graduated from the Academy of Art in San Francisco in 2000. When not making comics, Ben teaches art at Bishop O’Dell High School in Oakland California, where Gene teaches computer science.

See Comic Con 2011 for these artists:
Anson Jew (agoynamedjew.blogspot.com)
Ron Brown (freefallart.com)
Sabrina (sabrinabellydancer.com)
Ben Henderson (goldencrusader.com)
Steam Crow (steamcrow.com)
Kirstie Shepherd (curioandco.com)
Paul Roman Martinez (19xxad.com)
Ryan Claytor (elephanteater.com)
The Frantic Meerkat and The Mincing Mockingbird (mincingmockingbird.com and franticmeerkat.com)
Karen Knighton (birdenvy.com)
Mary Bellamy (marybellamy.com)
John L. Brooks II (11thhourbooks.net)
Mike Bocianowski (artistmb.com)
Anthony Hon (motenaicomics.blogspot.com)
Shannon Wheeler (www.tmcm.com/tmcm)
Brett Bean (2dbean.com)
Celine Chapus (purpletophat.com)
Amy Mebberson (mimisgrotto.com)
Sho Murase (shomurase.com)
Katie Cook (katiecandraw.com)
Cat Staggs (www.catstaggs.com)
Bryan “Kaiser” Tillman (dark-legacy.net)
Sze Jones (szejones.com)
Maddox (maddox.xmission.com)
Thien Pham (thienisawesome.blogspot.com)
Ben Costa (shilongpang.com)
Jeannie L.S. Galster (jeaniels.com)
Debbie Huey (bumperboy.net)