The Baltimore Comic-Con

So, the Baltimore ComicCon has come and gone. The final verdict, pretty good. I’m not sure that it was the best one I have ever been to but I think it’s because my collecting habits have changed in the past year. Then again, it may be that I had a lot less money to spend this year than usual and that colored my perceptions as well.

Picture #1: Jim and I. I am the one with the fancy shirt! Jim is the older gentlemen in the photo. You can tell by his pained expression that I made him have his picture taken.

Back to the con... I’ve found that I have less and less time to read floppies these days so I really went to the Con looking to get some trades and HC’s. I did really well and managed to get 30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow HC and 30 DoN: Bloodsucker Tales HC for $10 each. Far and away that was the best deal I got. In addition, I managed to pick up old trades of Machine Man and the Marvel 2-in-1 Pegasus Project Saga. For those unaware, both were huge series at the time and quite fondly remembered. AND, both have fantastic art by Windsor Smith (Machine Man), John Byrne, Gene Day, & George Perez (Marvel 2-1). My greatest find was a HC reprinting Mickey Mouse dailies from the 1930’s. The art is fantastic and stories that could only be done in times long before political correctness. Some of the same stories were printed in Gemstone's free comic book day book this year and worth checking out.

Picture #2: Rusty and I. Rusty is the owner of the store we frequent. Another case of "I really don't want my photo taken" face.

Back to the con... After stocking up on reading material, my other mission was to meet as many creators as I could. I am always pretty good at this and have fun but this year was different. This year I had my little buddy Jim with me. And I have to say, what a hoot! It really makes a difference having someone in line to talk with. And, it even makes a difference when talking to people because when I couldn’t think of a question, then Jim had one, and so one.

Picture #3: Tim Truman and I. Tim was great and as you can tell we had some very "serious" discussion.

Back to the con... Jim and I chatted up Tim Truman for quite a bit. We seemed to leave his table, walk around, go back to his table, walk around, go to his table, leave again... you get the idea. And, no matter how many times we came back Tim always said Hi and talked to us some more. We talked about everything from his love of the Grateful Dead (until '72-73) to a new Grimjack series. Tim also did a fantastic head sketch in my Grimjack HC. Seriously, there are more lines and words than I have ever seen. He darn near filled the page with art.

Picture #4: Walt Simonson and I. Walt's line finally got short enough for me to get a picture taken with him.

Back to the con... Walt Simonson was another great guy to talk to. I waited until the end of the day to talk to him and get signatures but he was exhausted and begged off. Even though I didn't get a sketch, he told us how he never sells his art. Except for the 4 Thor covers he traded for some original Modesty Blaise art. The story was far better than a sketch.

People not pictured that I chatted with include Joe Kubert, Erik Larsen, and John "Monster Hand" Lucas. All were great and really took the time to talk to you.

Pictures #5-6: From Red 5 comics, Atomic Robo penciler Scott Wegener and Jim Starlin. Jim Starlin was great because he talked new projects and his love of all things comics. Scott from Atomic Robo was a hoot. We talked about his book and he even remembered our review. I really liked Atomic Robo so I hope it does well. PLUG PLUG.

FINALLY, Back to the con... I talked to as many publishers as I could. Especially, the smaller guys who have new and exciting things. I managed to get on the publicity list for both Top Shelf and Adhouse Books. So, you may be seeing more reviews of books on this blog sometime soon. Overall it was a good time and I look forward to going again next year.