iFanboy Video Podcast
Show Notes
This week iFanboy are talking about the great holy grail of comic conventions: the sketch. If you’ve never been to a convention, and wanted to know how it works, or just want to see what kind of things you can expect from artist sketches, we’ve got you covered. We’ll talk about who is going all out, and who’s phoning it in on the sketch circuit? Plus: Gordon the Intern’s Big Day!
Do you have any sketch hound horror stories? What is your favorite sketch in your collection?
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Josh is lookin hunchy in that screen capture again…
This sketch is from Wizard World 2005 Texas and it was done by Ethan Van Schiver. He had drawn it on the table at the Wizard booth while signing autographs. It is of Batman getting a thug and the thug asking for an autograph… Think Ethan was getting frustrated with doing autographs maybe? 😉
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/TGipson/either%20my%20art%20or%20art%20I%20love/PICT0055.jpg
“I hunch.”
Here’s my favourite, got it from Ethan Van Sciver at the first and only Wizard World Boston in 2005. It’s incredible, and he told me he had a blast doing it, was even up in the middle of the night getting it perfect. The digital camera photo of it doesn’t do the original justice, and only after I got my sketchbook back from him was I annoyed I didn’t get it on a separate art board, because this I need to frame. Apparently he showed it to some of the people at the DC booth before I got it back, and they were wanting to buy it from him.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g259/600dollarbananasuit/Sinestro.jpg
That was way too much Conor in the shower scene
So that’s what the bare chested Conor teaser from the POW podcast was about!
For someone like me who’s never been to a con this was a really informative episode. I had no idea most sketches were for free! I just figured that they were basically just a bit cheaper than commissions and that people waited in line for hours just to pay 50 bucks for a stick figure. Coz you know comics fans ARE crazy!
But apparently not as crazy as I thought…
The awkward moments are not just you guys. I think any comic fans with some social skills feel that, so maybe not the majority, but a fair number.
I always like getting sketches in the book itself, I don’t care about adding value but it’s nice to see it every time I go back to re-read it. I also like knowing about when a writer used to do art to so you get the surprise sketch (I’ve got a cool Bill Willingham one that no one else thought to even ask for).
Going to a signing at the comic shop is kind of cool too. Darrick Robertson was showing me and a friend his favorite books just walking around and recommending art books that helped him which was extremely cool of him to do, plus the sketches were great.
Josh, what’s up with the box of tissues right next to the computer? Your wife know what you’re doing with those double screens?
…and Conor in the shower. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, that is just too much man to watch on a low res ipod, everyone really needs to check it out hi-def at revision3 to get the full glory.
Josh, what’s up with the box of tissues right next to the computer? Your wife know what you’re doing with those double screens?
Hey, that’s her desk they were on. You tell me.
It’s funny, I saw that when editing, and I wondered if anyone would think it was funny. What’s a matter? Brotha can’t have a drippy nose?
That was the most entertaining episode yet. I enjoyed all of it but the intern thing was great. Seeing guitars was a nice bonus too.
Bravo, iFanboy.
Bravo.
I’ll be getting my sketch-on at APE tomorrow.
I hope someone has me draw another DC character and tell me their keerazy Elseworlds story idea again : C
Lars Brown:
You’ll be at APEcon in SF? or are you talking about something else entirely?
Back in 2005 I went to my first convention in Auckland New Zealand, I had only discovered that NZ actually held this convention in Auckland at the end of the year, Wellington at the start (and now Christchurch just before the Wellington one) a few weeks prior too it, and not only did we hold a convention… and keep in mind , it’s not really a ‘comic’ convention, it’s more of a pulp culture expo, so we had Mark Waid come along, who was wheeling and dealing the Hard Cover of ‘Kingdom Come’, little did I know at the time that it is what it is and how important it is , even thou Mark kept hinting the fact in both my conversations with him and in his panel (in my native nature of the time I was more impressed that he was the writer of City of Heroes and Impulse, I FOOL), got a cool ‘classic’ Batman sketch from him, and by sketch I mean, “I’m a writer who can’t draw, let me fill your page with that Signature on it with something fun”, which was cool….. now turning around in a spot, was the booth that I wanted too see, the Aspen Booth, I was and still am a big Micheal Turner fan, I wish I knew the whole ‘bring your comics to get signed’ thing…. but anyway, spent a few hundred on sketches and books and what not, can check out those MT Sketches here
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/24845520/?qo=19&q=by%3Aspock-tm&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps
and
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/24848752/?qo=18&q=by%3Aspock-tm&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps
Colours have been added by me
Was an amazing first con for me…. would have loved a few other artists and writers, but great things in small doses leave you wanting more
I’ve only been to one Con, but I have two sketches that I really like:
Mike Norton does Molly Hayes:
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=4biyyhv
And Derek Fridolfs doing Darkhawk:
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=4bxpbaa
That was a great episode–the GTI part at the end was hilarious. Josh, I was wondering how you all didn’t bust a gut as you played your song for Gordon, so the outtake at the end made sense.
You guys continue to improve.
Great show guys.
Really liked this episode guys. I’ve only been to one con (NYC this year!) but that’s exactly how I felt meeting most of the creators that I wanted to see. I basically brought BKV books for him to sign, not cause I was interested in the autograph, but mostly because I wanted an excuse to talk to him.
Anyways, here’s the only sketches that I’ve gotten, but I dig em.
Mike Norton does Molly Hayes:
http://i19.tinypic.com/4biyyhv.jpg
And Derek Fridolfs doing Darkhawk:
http://i17.tinypic.com/4bxpbaa.jpg
That is a gorgeous looking Darkhawk!
Yea. I really like it. Lots of people (see the covers of the Loners books) have NO idea how to do the angles on his helmet and Fridolfs version is just a new take.
I dig it.
I wasn’t impressed with DH on the cover of Loners, but inside it and that sketch are both really nice.
What blues song was that a the beginning of the skit?
possably the most frighting shower scene sence phyco. (hitchcock version) takes balls bro. nice. very nice.
Another great episode! LMAO at that “drink refill” scene.
I attended my first ever con at SDCC ’06. That was something! I went with a seasoned vet con-goer that helped me prepare.
A couple of tips to pass along. First, if you like collecting hardcovers of your favorite stories like I do, then it might be a good idea to bring a few hardcovers to the con where you know that the creative team is going to be there. Most hardcover collections have a few blank pages at the front and back that are perfect for getting a sketch and autographs.
The artists that I did approach with hardcover collections at SDCC, Jason Alexander for Queen & Country: Operation Blackwall and David Lloyd for V For Vendetta, both spent a considerable amount of time working on the sketch. 20-30 minutes. Jason did a great Tara Chace inked and all at Artist Alley. His table had a sign on it clearly stating his prices for sketches and such. He refused to take my money! Greg Rucka wrote “Sex Sells!” and signed it on the page right beside the sketch (I actually had Greg sign 3 of my favorite Q&C hardcovers and he added comments in all of them).
David was at the DC Vertigo booth. He spent an unusual amount of time on his “V” sketch. About twice as long as the people that were in front of me. I think he knew I was a real fan, which brings me to my 2nd tip.
If you ask the artist for a sketch and ask him/her to personalize it by adding your name to it, it might encourage the artist to spend more time with you and the sketch. Before David began drawing V, I asked if he could make it out “For Clayton.” I think seeing that he was drawing in a hardcover of V For Vendetta and writing my name in it, he was comfortable in knowing that I wasn’t going to try and sell this thing. You have to ask this before he/she starts the sketch. It is like an unwritten code that signals to the artist – “hey, this is a real fan.” I’m not saying this will work everytime, but I think it does certainly create an opportunity to get some added details to the sketch that may not of happened otherwise.
Again, great show guys!
Clayton.
Oh, I forgot to add something!
The whole point to getting sketches and autographs done inside of collected hardcovers of your favorite stories is to enjoy them when you decide to read these stories again. It is nice having everything under one cover.
Okay, enough yapping from me.
Clayton.
Nice episode guys. It was really funny and entertaining.
I have yet to go a comic con yet (blasted MidWest!), but I would probably not get any sketches. Like Conor, I would just feel too damn uncomfortable to get them. I love to see other people’s sketches though. The one’s posted here are pretty bad ass, and the one’s from the show were really cool too.
Where is that, Astoria?
BTW – Maybe there needs to be more shower-based podcasting, i.e. what type of louffa Conor uses. Just throwing ideas out there; use
Because of this up episode I decided to get a sketchbook and a little book to get writers signatures in. Well when I went to get Mark Millers and Jeff Lobes signature in the little book this Saturday they gave me sketches! It was the envy of everybody in the shop and I was extremely thrilled and surprised that writers would do sketches Mark Millers is particularly good! I made a whole thread about my experiences that day which happened to be the same day I got accepted to a drama school it was pretty fantastic. Here’s the link with pictures of their sketches with them and myself: http://www.revision3.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5585
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/24848752/?qo=18&q=by%3Aspock-tm&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/24845520/?qo=19&q=by%3Aspock-tm&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps
The sketches I got from Micheal Turner when he came to the Auckland Armageddon end on ’05 (my first “con”, also, colours by me), I didn’t know too take books to get them signed….. so yeh, lesson learned
Mark Waid was there too, flogging off the Hard Cover ed of “Kingdom Come”…. I had no idea what that was, in my noobish unknowing ways, so I kinda dismissed that and thanked him for making the CoH comics good and he talked about some mysterious project he was working on that would totally change the DCU…. heh, it’s funny looking back at those things…
Good times.
hahaha such a perfect episode! awesome
You recommended getting a sketch book; is it a foible to ask for a sketch in a book/tp/gn itself?
Nope.