Ron’s San Diego Comic-Con 2010 Haul and Wrap Up

Just in time for you to think all this chatter about the San Diego Comic-Con was finally over, I'm here to beat that dead horse just a little bit more.  But this isn't about any announcements or further rubbing in that you weren't there.  Bo, this is purely my oppportunity to share with you all the cool stuff I picked up atthe con.  So let's get right to it, what do you say?

 

The above photo is everything I snagged at San Diego, all nicely laid out on my kitchen table.  Hard to believe I was able to bring all this stuff home and not have to pay extra for my bag being overweight. 

Starting at the top and going clockwise:

– Dark Phoenix print by Cliff Chiang – Walking into the con one morning with the intrepid Ben Simpson, he reminded me that Chiang was at the con and was selling prints of his Dark Phoenix/Pretty in Pink remix piece.  I immediately motored to the booth Chiang was sharing with Gabriel Ba' and Fabio Moon among others.  For a mere $40, I got my hands on this print that was practically made for me. This is getting framed ASAP and placed somewhere prominent on my wall.

– Image Comics 2010 Yearbook – a fantastic idea, Image Comics put together a nice little hardcover art book showcasing all the talent that was at the con.  Image's booth has become one of the must stop spots, with it's arena of indie creators.  Sure, you may be going to see the guys from Chew or Phonogram, but along the way you can discover other great creators, and this book represents it well.

– Top Cow Books – I had to stop by and see my pal and fellow Taste of Comics host, Top Cow publisher Filip Sablik, and while I was there, I was immediately drawn to the beautiful hardcover con exclusives they had for the Cyber Force/Hunter Killer mini series and Berkserker.  Cyber Force/Hunter Killer is worth it purely for the wrap around Kenneth Rocafort cover and the Berserker book has an awesome design, black with those red tear highlights.  I also snagged the trade paperback containing the Top Cow first look, which is a sampler of all the new titles they announced at the show.

– Moving Pictures from Top Shelf – I've heard nothing but rave reviews about Kathy and Stuart Immonen's book, Moving Pictures, so as I browsed the books at Top Shelf, I knew this would be one that I'd have to pick up.  Completely nothing like what I would expect from the Immonen's, this book looks like it's going to be one I'm glad I picked up.

– Pim & Francie from Fantagraphics – Not a new release, but one that's been on my list for a while, this work by Al Columbia is one that I'm glad I stopped by Fantagraphics to pick up.  I've heard so much about the…uniqueness of this take on early animation style characters with a touch of insanity, I can't wait to finally read it

– Sketch by Marley Zarcone – the only sketch in my sketchbook from this con by one of my favorite new artists in comics, Marley Zarcone.  This sketch shows the kids from Forgetless with a nod to one of my personal favorite musicians. 

– Oni Press Books – It's always a pleasure to stop by the Oni Press booth, and this year it was mobbed thanks to Mr. Bryan Lee O'Malley and all the Scott Pilgrim fans.  But I was able to sneak in and pick up a bunch of books including Spell Checkers, Super Pro KO (which I've heard nothing but good things about) and Mondo Urbano (purely for the Rafael Albuquerque art).  A nice little trio of indie books to enjoy.

– Top Cow Issues – While I was at Top Cow, I snagged the SDCC exclusive issues they had for Velocity #1 (more Rocafort! yay!) and Artifacts #1, which I read on the plane back to SF and have to admit, was really quite good.

– Jamie McKelvie/Becky Cloonan print – Many of you know that I'm a huge fan of McKelvie's work, so I had to stop by his table at the Image Comics booth and pick up one of the cool jam prints he did with Becky Cloonan celebrating their appearance at a comic book store in London in May.  I also picked up some pages of original art from Jamie's most recent work in Uncanny X-Men: The Heroic Age, but they're not pictured as Jamie is touching them up/cleaning them up and I'll probably pick them up at the New York Comic-Con.  But trust me, I got some good pages.

– Scott Pilgrim: Ramona t-shirt – The only new t-shirt they had at Oni for Scott Pilgrim was a women's sized shirt of Ramona, which I picked up to give to give to the only girl I know who's as bad-ass as Ramona is.  Let's hope she likes it.

– Archaia Books – I swung by the Archaia booth and picked up the hard cover of Fraggle Rock, first for me to read and then to give to my nieces, as well as Syndrome, which I heard was the book to check out from Archaia at the con.  I loved the Douglas Coupland-esque cover to Syndrome and look forward to reading it.

– The Rocketeer Artists's Edition – And the gem of the con, the book at that nearly everyone from iFanboy drooled over and then broke down and purchased, the $100, oversized artist's edition of The Rocketeer by Dave Stevens from IDW.  What makes this book so special? Editor Scott Dunbier worked to track down all the original art from The Rocketeer and reprinted the series with the original art pages in this collection.  It's like owning a version of the book made up of all the original pages, in order and oversized.  It's a thing of beauty and was clearly the best book at the con.

Not a bad haul if I do say so myself and what's even better is that now I've got a lot of new books to read, along with some bitchin' art to hang on my walls.

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There have been a ton of post-San Diego Comic-Con 2010 articles and posts on Twitter with thanks to people and lots of love around the con.  I haven't really done that as of yet, mainly because I dove right back into work, but also because I wanted to take a few days to absorb and reflect about the experience.  Sure, it's easy to complain about San Diego being so big and taken over by movies and tv shows and video games. But even despite all that, I can honestly say that this year was one of the best San Diego cons in recent memory. 

Looking back at the con, the 2 biggest stories, from my point of view, were the Walking Dead TV show and the Scott Pilgrim movie.  2 media properties based on creator owned comics, from smaller publishers literally took over the con. I don't think it can get any better than that.  Robert Kirkman and Bryan Lee O'Malley were the kings of the con (when Thomas Jane let them borrow his crown), and they exemplify what can come from a career in comics.  It's not going to happen to everyone, and the chances are so slim that it will ever happen to anyone again, but if you step back and look at it, it's an amazing feat that we should all be celebrating.

In addition to the succcess of the Walking Dead and Scott Pilgrim, Marvel and DC both had strong presences at the con, with tons of traffic to their booths and lines for creator signings as well as cool sneak peeks at upcoming movies, video games and cartoons.  Beyond the Big 2, the other publishers all seem to be growing healthily.  Smaller publishers like Dark Horse, Image, Oni, Archaia, IDW, and Boom all seemed to have bigger booths this year and a stronger presence. 

The one thing I took away from the San Diego Comic-Con was that it's good to be a comics fan right now. 

 

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In addition to walking the floor, doing interviews and covering the news, we were lucky enough to be surrounded by friendly faces both at the con an after hours.  Dinner and drinks with friends, associates, co-workers and many others were enjoyed every night of the con.  The one thing that struck me was how everyone was smiling and happy to be there.  Such a positive experience. I'm not going to list everyone I got to hang out with, because the list would be long and boring, and I'd probably forget someone, but I'll just say that I had a great time with everyone I hung out with for every minute of the con.

On top of that, the iFanboy crew killed at the con.  Josh, Conor, Gordon and Mike Romo worked their butts off to deliver you some excellent video programming over the next few weeks.  And back at home Paul, Jim and Tom held down the fort giving everyone at home all the news that's worth knowing.  Seeing other iFanboy staffers like Molly, Ryan and Ben at the con just made it that much more awesome to see not only how much iFanboy has grown, but how well respected and well rounded we've become.  Sharing a booth with our partners at Graphic.ly, with Micah, Adrienne, Jon, Audrey and Kevin was a delight.  The entire Graphic.ly/iFanboy team works their butts off and I truly believe it shows in the work we produce.  I couldn't be prouder to be a part of this team.

And ultimately, at the end of the day, the most important people are you, the iFanbase.  It was such a delight to see iFanboy t-shirts at the con, as well as to meet many of you who came up to say hello.  That is the best part of the con for me, to see all of you who enjoy what we do and to hear what you think of the con, of iFanboy and just to put faces to names, is the most rewarding part of it all.

I think I've rambled and gushed enough.  It's safe to say that we had a blast this year and while all I can think about is catching up on lost sleep this weekend, I did wonder earlier today, "How long until next year's San Diego Comic-Con?"  I'm going to start prepping to get my hotel reservations now.

See you next year San Diego!