big show wrap up!

This is Scott and Heather, two of my Vegas friends that let me hang out with them every now and then. This was little Davy Smuckers' (I've given him that as his new middle name because with a name like Smuckers he has to be good) first convention and he told me that he'll definitely be going again and his favorite part of the convention was visiting with JH Williams III and his lovely wife Wendy. JH Williams III had another awesome sketchbook this year and you may be able to get one if you visit his site. This week's Batman #667 is the first part of his three part story with some little known writer named Grant Morrison and it's all that and more (great jumping on point)!
Thursday night of the convention I managed to get into the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) party with an hour to spare and I wished I was there longer although I was busy having a nice dinner with my friends Dave, PJ, Brooke, and her brother and his friend. Pictured here are some of the Sequential Tarts (www.sequentialtart.com) who aren't my wife. Next year Sequential Tart will be ten years old!
This is me and my friend Todd after the long, but very entertaining Eisners. Sadly I only got to hang out with Todd at the Eisners and with him and his wife, Brandy, at the Warner Brothers panel on Friday morning and I don't have a picture of Clan Murry from this year's convention. Next year they'll have a new daughter that they'll have to introduce to the craziness of this big show!
For several years now, me and some of my Vegas friends skip Saturday at the convention and do what we call beach day. Beach day is awesome because it's the beach and it's a good way to get a break from the big show (especially Saturday which is the off the hook day as the kids would say). In this photo we have Harry and his son Jake and they're always gracious in sharing their digs with those of us that do beach day (this is also my shout out to the Fagal family, whom I also didn't get a group shot of this year). Scott, Heather, little Davy Smuckers, and Alex, along with the Fagal family helpd give everyone a little more elbow room by being at the beach instead of the con on Saturday. I spent the early part of beach day with my friends PJ and Brooke who drove me out to and let me sit at their IHOP table for breakfast.

All in all, I'd say this was a successful convention. Personally I think that as long as you stay away from the big huge movie / tv panels and those areas of the convention you're less apt to not have a good time. For me the movie / tv panels and their respective areas of the convention are too draining and I can better appreciate what happens in those panels by reading about them later. You can only really experience some of the comic centric parts of the convention while at the show (like the Alison Bechdel and Miriam Katin panels). I lament not seeing people / creators / or panels that I didn't find out about until the convention was over or they were competing against something else, but that's just going to be the nature of a convention this big. My favorite purchase was this awesome import dvd on Alan Moore called The Mindscape of Alan Moore. It's $40, but it's got great production values, has some great insights into the idea space that is Alan Moore's head, and also features many great interviews with cartoonists that have worked with him over the years. I bought some great looking books from some cartoonists that were in the small press section of the convention, but haven't gotten a chance to read them yet (that'll be an entry in about a week). Although I didn't get to talk or say thank you to many of my favorite comic creators, I did get to do so with some. That and hanging out with friends (and my wife Kate, who actually enjoys the convention more than I do) in an environment that is a huge celebration of the many facets of this wonderful medium we call comics is what will have me returning to this 18 ring circus year after year.