Highway 62

First things first, over to the Dark Horse booth to try and nail down the mysterious editor person who’d proved so elusive. Didn’t find him, but I found Drew Melbourne (another Engine denizen and scripter of ARCHENEMIES, which I’d managed to miss, but then I hadn’t been to a comic store more than a couple times in the last several months.) Chatted with him a bit until business ate up his time, and we’re all at SDCC for business. Well, some of us, anyways. Watched the alternately beautiful and wrong-side-of-the-uncanny-valley trailer for HELLGATE: LONDON while I waited for my quarry to return. Which he did. Finally. Got to make my connection and show off a little art. Nothing firm, but another step in the continual process of chipping down the walls between myself and paying work. Or at least the shot of paying work. Maybe. One day.



That was something of a relief, actually. There’s only so much you can accomplish sending in cold scripts (which is precisely ZERO, so don’t do it unless you’ve an established track record) or pitches with art (which I was finally in a position to do, as Dark Horse had asked to see some new art from one of the artists handling STRANGEWAYS.) Incremental progress beats zero progress. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.



Talked with Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá a bit at the DH booth as well. Though now it occurs to me that the conversation didn’t take place on Saturday at all, but on Thursday and I’m only grafting it onto Saturday for some unknown reason. That’s what you get with this kind of low-rent blogging… Anyways, got to see some original pages from SMOKE AND GUNS, which is always lovely and art from their ZOMBIE TALES contribution, which I’d missed entirely and will have to rectify. Oh, I did see the announcement of THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY, featuring art from Bá and am looking forward to that, even though it’s written by a guy from a band that I don’t particularly care for (who always seemed to me like one of those teenangst merchants who are packaging up and selling the kids that which they already have.) But hey, it’s Gabriel Bá on art with James Jean covers, so you know that the art will at the very least be worth the cover price.



Also managed to talk for a moment with Becky Cloonan (who was also speaking with Fábio and Gabriel) and got the news that the second volume of EAST COAST RISING was going to have to be put off until next year sometime due to other commitments piling up. A shame, as I liked the first volume quite a bit and thought it among the more interesting of the Tokyopop “nissei-manga” offerings. Bet I got that slang wrong.



My memory is fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure I wandered over to the Dark Horse horror panel, which I actually blogged about that night, since nobody on any of the main comics sites could be bothered to. Granted, there isn’t as much audience for that sort of thing as there is for the where’s and why’s of CIVIL WAR, and you have to go where the clicks are. Odd, but if I’d known that CITY OF OTHERS was going to be such big (as these things go) news, I’d have mentioned it when Berni Wrightson told me about it in artist’s alley a couple days previous. I know I’m interested in seeing that and the preview art looked pretty good in that oldschool horror sort of vein. I’d love to see it done in black and white, but I know that’ll never happen in this day and age. Talked briefly with Steve Niles and more extensively with Arvid Nelson (ringleader of REX MUNDI, which I’ve been enjoying since it started in singles) about the business and getting things off the ground and the differences between being handled at Image and at Dark Horse. Illuminating. He’s a good guy to track down and talk with, should you get the chance. Bring up Egon Schiele’s art and watch him light up. Both Nelson and Niles are good eggs, at least in terms of sharing time out of their schedules with fumbling noobs.



Afterwards, I spent some time back in Artist’s Alley, chatting with Ryan Sook, among others. I’d known and loved his work in the ZATANNA book from SEVEN SOLDIERS, but was utterly blown away by the black and white pages he had for HAWKMAN. His run on that had completely slipped under my radar, but I’ll be going back to take care of that. Anyways, he has this masterful touch with expressionist lighting and a spareness in detail that doesn’t leave anything off the page. I’m almost afraid to see it colored. Tried to catch up with Eric Wight as he signed/sketched over at the Tokyopop booth, but I ran into the omnipresent “Sorry, I am the last person in this line” sign (which seemed to show up a lot around the DC booth) and figured I’d just catch him tomorrow. That sort of thinking only ensures that things won’t turn out the way you expect them to.



Ran into Eric Shanower, looking sharp in his suit and newly-platinum hair and got a look at the huge OZ omnibus volume he’s recently completed for IDW. It looks spectacular, meticulously produced and art cleaned up for this presentation, with work going as far back as the early eighties. I’m a big fan of Eric’s work and you’re going to have to go a long way to find a more gentlemanly creator. Found out that I’d missed an issue of AGE OF BRONZE, but took care of that in short order. If you’ve ever needed an excuse to try a new book, please for the love of all that is good and pure in this universe, pick up an issue of AGE OF BRONZE. It’s both epic and supremely human, a compelling story of men and women at war, meticulously researched and illustrated. No, I’m not a shill, just a big fan.



Also talked briefly with Uncle Larry over at AiT/PlanetLar, and he seemed to be doing well, eagerly pressing copies of CONTINUITY and SHATTER on folks stopping by. (Not to mention many fine offerings out of the AiT backlist and what appeared to be a flock of yellow plush puppies, but I didn’t feel brave enough to ask about those.)



Spent a fair bit of time talking with Gina (and I must apologize Gina, but I can’t remember your last name. It’s a failure of my brain’s wiring, you understand) from First Second. They’ve got a bunch of interesting offerings (including Eddie Campbell’s FATE OF THE ARTIST) which I’d picked up earlier in the show. I’m interested to see how their offerings work out in the markets, both the mass and the direct market (the DM seems to be receptive so far, which is nice, as First Second is offering stuff that’s pretty out of the ordinary as far as the DM is concerned.) I’m especially interested in their undated but upcoming BATTLING BOY by Paul Pope. No, I’m not holding my breath on it, but it should be pretty great once it hits. Between folks like First Second, Pantheon and the Random House group of publishers, it appears that there’s going to be a bunch of options for works that may not have the best chance in the DM, though I have to say, my work is probably too genre for their tastes, but who knows?



Oh and I’ve completely forgotten Mr. Parker in all this. He finally received his Toth books from the printer (actually he’d gotten ‘em on Friday) and I snagged myself a copy. While I was there, I had the pleasure of seeing the sketchbooks owned by a friend of his, sketchbooks filled with such wonders as a double-page WATCHMEN spread by Dave Gibbons, work by Brian Bolland, Steve Rude, and an entire host of others that were all dazzling. A good sketchbook is a lot of fun, mostly because you get to see the artists relaxing a bit, and not worrying too much about being publishing perfect. Instead, they’re trying to outdo one another and blow each others’ work out of the water.



I didn’t stick around for festivities that night. The family was frazzled, though hot water service had been restored late in the day. Better that I get back to hold down the fort than go out carousing. Besides, I was in full metal frazzle mode.