Wrapping up the series, I caught up with Ben Roman to see how San Diego treated him. Roman, artist of TokyoPop’s I Luv Halloween and Image’s The Cryptics, also works for Gentle Giant Ltd.
You can read my pre-San Diego interview with him here.
JK: Overall, as a fan, how did Comic-Con go?
Ben: I’ve attended the con for the last six or seven years, and it’s amazing how much bigger it gets every time. As a fan, I love everything about the SDCC.
JK: Same question, but from the professional angle … how was Comic-Con? Did you make any deals, pick up any new projects or network with someone you’d been hoping to?
Ben: I went to SDCC just to have fun and meet up with old friends. My plate’s full with work through next year, so the pressure was off to pitch something to the publishers. No need to network this year; just have fun and booze it up.
JK: Speaking of boozing it up, what parties did you attend, and who did you see?
Ben: Gentle Giant, Dark Horse and WETA had a group party on Friday, and it was definitely the highlight of the weekend. I was five feet away from Frank Miller and Peewee Herman; it doesn’t get any better then that.
JK: You said before the con that you were going to give away a bunch of art to your fans at the show. How did that go? How did fans react?
Ben: I gave away over a hundred pages of art from the I Luv Halloween. It was great to meet with fans of the series and give something in return. A lot of people seemed surprised that the art pages were free. Don’t get much free these days.
JK: I think every time I walked by the Gentle Giant booth, the place was packed. Were you in the middle of all that madness?
Ben: No way! I went by to see the Cryptics statue on Friday and that’s it. GG’s booth was insanely busy; I can’t handle huge crowds like that. I think we had the best booth of the show.
JK: Now that I Luv Halloween is over, what are you working on next?
Ben: Now that I Luv Halloween is complete and I’m done with Tokyopop, I plan on doing more Cryptics comics with Steve Niles. I have a bunch of projects I plan on doing, but I’d love to work with smaller publishers. Something about seeing your characters in a music video just leaves a weird taste in your mouth.
D2C also has some cool stuff planned for the Cryptics, so things are going great.
