Overheard on the bus tonight … a guy in a seat behind us was reading Black Summer, the Warren Ellis-penned super hero comic from Avatar that just so happens to kick ass. The guy across the aisle from him? The book’s colorist, Mark Sweeney. Which resulted in an impromptu signing session right there on the bus.
“I love San Diego,” said the fan.
Three hours of Preview Night felt like about five days. The show floor was packed, lines were forming everywhere for signings, Snoopy merchandise, Smallville/Superman: Doomsday bags … a guy in line behind us as we bought a Tick T-shirt said getting one of those bags was like braving a feeding frenzy; he actually grabbed the last one from “a mass of people who were climbing over each other” and gave it to a little kid. We saw these things all night, as well as 300 shields, lots of Dark Horse bags and Harry Potter bags.
I was able to get several con-exclusive items, like the oversized RASL preview from Cartoon Books. It’s just a glimpse at the project, is nothing at all like Bone, definitely Jeff Smith … and it left me hungry for more. (Update: You can see the preview yourself over on the main site, and you don’t even have to worry about the oversized preview getting crumbled on the plane ride home). I was also able to get enough of the 5 book for my Blog@ compatriots; Becky Cloonan asked if I was a retailer because I wanted six of them. Awesome book; if you’re there, get one … they were going fast. We stood in line at the Snoopy merchandise booth because they had an exclusive con T-shirt my wife wanted. While she was in line for about 20 minutes, I circled around to talk with Ted Mathot from E-Ville Press, who had copies of both editions of Rose & Isabel for sale. Ted was one of the first, if not the first, person I interviewed when I joined The Great Curve. Also talked with Ryan Claytor, who I interviewed several months ago before his big summer tour … he survived and had a great trip. He had his new book on hand, the “interview” book he talked about when I interviewed him. Awesome stuff.
Our bus driver almost hit a Porsche on the way back to our hotel.
Saw lots of other folks tonight … Matt Maxwell, Marc Mason, Josh Howard, Ash and Josh at the AiT booth, Pat Donley, Matt Silady and Daniel Goodbrey … Daniel, BTW, passed on an issue of Tripwire that features his artwork. I also hear Cory Doctorow picked up The Homeless Channel, so maybe Matt’s wonderful GN will get Boing Boing’ed. Talked to Chip Mosher, Dan Vado and Jennifer de Guzman, all of whom were extremely busy readying for tomorrow and selling a load of comics. Got to meet one of our former guest bloggers, Cecil Castellucci, and Jim Rugg, her co-creator on the Plain Janes. The DC booth was fairly packed, as usual. Of course, I saw our friend and The Great Curve founder Alex Segura, who like everyone else was busy but still made time to talk and introduce me to David Hyde. David asked what the buzz on the floor was like … it was busy.
Didn’t make it down the row to where all the movie studios were, so I’ll try that tomorrow. But I got some great comics and talked to a lot of really cool people, so it was great night.
We took a lot of pictures, but I left the connecting cord in the car … so I’ll have to upload them tomorrow. Now I need to go to bed so I can hit the floors again tomorrow … more things to see, people to meet and panels to cover.
