The Power Cosmic 2000, Part 1

My C2E2 trip to Chicago was over a week ago and I'm still trying to get a post up about the show. Sad, eh?

The short of it is the con went well for me. I got to meet new people, visit with people I knew already, buy cheap comic trades and get some invaluable reviews of my Marvel sample.

The long of it...? Well, it goes a little something like this...

Thursday afternoon, I flew into O'Hare without any problems... other than trying to figure out how to get downtown to my hotel without it costing $28+. I was already on the hook for $25 cab rides to and from my house to the Vancouver airport so paying more for cab rides was not the option I was looking for. Along came the Chicago Transit Authority and their Blue Line train. $2.25 to go downtown. Sold! Just make sure you have exact change, though.

The train ride was pretty cool. I got to see different parts of South Chicago from the safety of a moving train. The stations were kinda dodgy and I felt like I was being cased as an easy victim (middle class white dude with suitcase looking for maps trying to figure out where to go) but I managed to find my hotel without incident.

It was on the walk to the hotel I wished I had a camera. This was surprising as I've never had that urge when in other US cities. Maybe it's because the city is so old, unlike the western coast cities I usually go to...? Anyway, the architecture and the city planning were very cool to look at. Very inspiring to a guy that likes to draw stuff like that.

I was to meet Michael May, Grant Gould and Uko Smith in the hotel lobby around 4PM. It was 3:45PM when I got there so asked the clerk to tell them I was in the hotel diner/bar having a drink. Time passed slowly as I waiting for their arrival. I ordered some food and another drink, all the while Top Gun was playing on the TV overhead. I broke out the brush pens and paper and did a few drawings (see the 2 images in this post and the image from the previous post):

It was around 6PM that Michael and Grant got to the hotel. We went up to the room to wait for Uko. He arrived shortly after that and we headed out for dinner to a pizza place just around the corner from the hotel. It was my first real Chicago deep dish pizza. It was... fine. 'Nuff Said. Early night to bed as I was exhausted from having no sleep the night before. I was literally working on my Marvel sample pages 15 minutes before calling for my cab to the airport at 4AM. Anyways...

Friday morning, Michael and I arrived at the con around noon, as we didn't have to be there early to set up a table like Uko and Grant. I like the feeling of not having to set up, actually. I get to come and go whenever I like. It was cool of Grant let us use his table as home base, though. Carrying all my stuff around the con is a drag, so having a place to drop it off at is very cool. A tip o'my hat to you, Mr Gould!

It was time to hit the con floor!

Check out the next installment, tomorrow !

Me and Brent Schoonover chatting about... tune in tomorrow to find out!

Let There Be More Light

Here's the fourth page of the Kill All Monsters! pitch. Hell yeah, this stuff was fun to draw. Maybe more soon....?

Lines by my and colours by Scott Keating.

High Hopes

Click the image to see it bigger

The Kill All Monsters! pitch pages are complete! They have been colored (by Scott Keating) and lettered (by Kel Nuttall) and are now ready to be sent out in the hopes that they'll find a good publisher to call home. Michael and I are so jazzed about the pages that I feel like I just have to share one of them with y'all! So, here's page 1 for your entertainment!

I'll make sure to keep you all posted on any developments that occur during the publisher hunt!

Remember When (Side A)

Remember when I said we weren't showing any finished pages from the Kill All Monsters! book? Well, it seems like that sneaky KAM! co-creator Michael May* went ahead and posted a page on his blog today!

Fine! I will, too! Behold page 1 of the new and improved Kill All Monsters!!

you gotta click the image to see it in all its glory!

* Michael isn't really that sneaky
** tip of the hat to my grammar editor, Jackie Copland!

Your Gold Teeth

click image to see it bigger

Another inked panel from the Kill All Monsters! pitch pages. My part of the pitch work is almost done. Michael May and I are looking to get the pages coloured and lettered and then the publisher search will be on.

Run (I'm A Natural Disaster)

Click on the image to see it bigger...

I'm working hard on the new Kill All Monsters! pitch pages. Michael and I have decided to hold off on showing any substantial images for the book while we work our way through it. But, for the sake of having something to look at (as this is an artist's blog), I'm posting this look at my process for working out a particular panel. That last image is pretty much ready to ink, although I think I may put something in the foreground to help give the reader a sense of the monster's scale.

Too Much Time On My Hands

iTunes Meme (thanks Michael!)

Instructions: Open up your iTunes and fill out this survey, no matter how embarrassing the responses might be.

How many songs total: 7480
How many hours or days of music: 22.2 days
Most recently played: "Just Like U Said It Would B" Sinead O'Connor
Most played: "Closer" Nine Inch Nails
Most recently added: "Magic Potion" by The Black Keys

Sort by song title:
First Song: "A.D.I./Horror of It All" by Anthrax
Last Song: "99" by Toto

Sort by time:
Shortest Song: "Yeah" by Kyuss (00:04)
Longest Song: "Thick As A Brick." by Jethro Tull (43:36)

Sort by album:
First album: Abacab by Genesis
Last album: 90125 by Yes
First song that comes up on Shuffle: "Forbidden Love" by Madonna

Search the following and state how many songs come up:
Death: 33 (including band names) 6 (just in song titles)
Life: 140 (including band names and album titles) 62 (just song titles)
Love: 429 (including band names and album titles) 282 (just song titles)
Hate: 37 (including band names and album titles) 5 (just song titles)
You: 1055 (including band names and album titles) I'm not even going to try and count just the songs
Sex: 56 (including band names and album titles) 11 (just song titles)

She Sells Sanctuary

I just flew back from FallCon in Minneapolis and boy are my arms tired. (groan)

But seriously, I had a great time at Fall Con, even though the hot temperatures and high humidity were slowly killing me. Hanging with my good friends Michael May and Alex Ness (and their families), getting to know Jessica Hickman, Grant Gould and Darla Ecklund and meeting tons of comic readers who were very eager to get their hands on a book like KILL ALL MONSTERS! were all highlights of my weekend in Minnesota.

This was my first con that I spent behind a table instead of being a homeless creator that roamed the con floor looking for people to talk to or good deals on comics. It was a great experience. Thankfully, Michael and I were sharing a table so the pressure to be constantly greeting and chatting up people was lessened. I’m not much of a salesman but by the end of the 2-day con I was starting to get into the groove.

The selling of books was all fine and good but the main reason Michael and I were there was to talk up our Kill All Monsters! book to anyone who was interested. And, according to the number of people who flipped through all the preview pages of the first issue and picked up a full color KAM! print, we have a book that seems to have a lot of interest! Now we just need to find it a publishing home that can take advantage of all that interest.

Pictured above is me (left) and Michael May (right).