The Demian Rant

AAAHHH! WE WENT TO SUPERCON!!!!

Hrmm... doesn't quite have the same effect as announcing we got engaged, but in case you live underneath a rock and you don't know whats been going on you can see Siu's post below with all the details of what we've been up to and why we've been MIA. Wedding planning is quite zeh busy.

Anyways, we're NEVER too busy to go to a comic book convention! We went to SuperCon last year but it was in Oakland and so we were pretty sure we weren't going to be going again unless there was an artist there that I REALLY wanted to see, but not only was SuperCon's guest list super ultra mega exciting, they moved it to San Jose! Some of the guests included: Buzz, Frank Cho, Mike Choi, Terry Dodson, Ale Garza, Michael Golden, Aaron Lopresti, Philip Tan, and INDUSTRY ICON JIM LEE!!! (tee hee, I still think its funny how they refer to him as an industry icon) but I mean anyone in our generation who follows comics knows Jim Lee. If you grew up reading comic books in our day and age, he was THE man, most famous for his X-men run and the founding of image comics with Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefield, Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, and Whilce Portacio.

Jaci was only able to come with me on Saturday, but thats really where we got our bounty! The layout of SuperCon was kind of lame as it was just in this real big hangar-type place (South Hall in San Jose Convention Center) but I image it was nice and cheap for them. Saturday really consisted of a lot of line waiting, saying hey to a couple of artists who we see pretty regularly and meeting some new ones. Sunday was primarily me going back (this was right before my last week of class so I was pretty busy) so I just went back for an hour or so to pick up a couple of things. Without further ado, here are the pictars!

The beginning was pretty hectic cus as soon as we got in there was a line forming for Jim Lee, but he wasn't even there yet! So Siu oh so willingly offered to stand in line for Jim while I looked around and tried to see what else I could get. While she was waiting I found out Terry Dodson had just arrived and he was taking commissions. I was last on the list and unfortunately wasn't able to get anything from him, but it was still great meeting him and talking to him and his wife (his wife inks over his pencils! pretty cool huh?)

Either way, while we were standing line Siu noticed that Frank Cho was giving out sketches. (He wasn't supposed to be, but who are we to say otherwise!) So I jumped into his line and got a sketchbook and asked for a sketch. He looked at me and told me that he wasn't doing female sketches (even though thats what he's best known for) and I thought he was joking... until he started drawing the below sketch!

Probably one of his "famous-er" non female characters -- Ralph, a midget circus bear from his comic Liberty Meadows.

I was actually pretty surprised to find Philip Tan there! Apparently he wasn't listed until a week before the event (by that time I stopped checking) and this was his first bay area appearance! I commissioned a pretty cool SuperGirl piece from hime awhile back, and he turned it into a print! You can check out the commission in my gallery. Philip was such a nice guy and I got a quick sketch from him in my sketchbook.

He's probably most well known for his Spawn. He still does a lot of covers and stuff for them and recently just did work on Godslayer.

I have like a gazzillion Ale Garza pieces, but he keeps making me want more! You can check out the Supergirl piece and Rogue piece we got from him awhile back, but I still had never got anything in my sketchbook from him. So I decided to snag one from him this time!

I've been getting supergirl commissions from him since before he started working on the comic for DC, but he clearly is an EXCELLENT fit for this comic book.

Most of you already know that I help out Aaron Lopresti with his website from time to time, so whenever he comes in the area I try to see him and say whats up.

He did a White Queen drawing before that Siu really liked and he was kind of enough to do one in my sketchbook!

Well, after much waiting in line, we got to meet the man, the legend, superstar ultra mega mecha comic book artist Jim Lee.

Documented proof we got to meet Jim.

After waiting in line, I overheard Eddy (the guy manages pretty much everything in WildStorm) saying that Jim wasn't taking sketches. We figured it couldn't hurt to ask though! So after we saw Jim, Siu asked him about a sketch (I got her to ask because #1 She's a chick (although that probably wouldn't make any difference) and #2 The sketch we were looking for was Rogue, which is Siu's favorite character and one that Jim really redesigned. When we got there Jim said he wasn't doing any sketches yet, but he gave us a number in our sketchbook and that we should come back around 4:45 to see what he was doing.

When we came back, they started a sketching line and we were #7 and were able to snag this beaut!