Phoenix ComiCon 2013

Torchsong

I know most of you are gearing up for a certain East Coast convention, but we have our own slice of fun out west starting today and running through the weekend. Each year it gets progressively bigger and is getting a rep as one of the nicer conventions to go to. If you're ever unsure what to do with your Memorial Day weekend, you could do a lot worse than hit the convention trail.

Here's some stuff I'll be hawking. My first ever sketch-cover books for a couple Guardians of the Galaxy #1:





In addition to a couple fun new prints:



This is a composite of a series of head shots I did. Last year on a whim I made a MLP painting...and promptly spent the entire weekend doing sketch requests for ponies. I didn't mind too much - bought a new grill with the proceeds. :)



This is a cover/back cover to a sketchbook I'm doing with eight other local artists (this one is MY cover). Blank pages inside. You buy it and take it around to get your sketches from the Con.



Yet more Pony stuff...Princess Luna is my fave - right after Rarity. (Don't judge...the show is great and Katie Cook writes the comic!)



Another painting I'll be bringing out. I do a Blackmage/Whitemage every convention I go do.



Finish up with a Wonder Woman I just completed right down to the wire...

If I get time to take photos I will definitely post them up!

7h0m45

It was good seeing you again @Torchsong and glad you had a successful show!

I will try to post some pics and art this week when I'm not being lazy!

Torchsong

RECAP:

To say this was my most successful show to date doesn't do the word justice. Here's some highlights:

- Not only made my $$ back, but made enough to pay for next year's booth in cash.
- A print I made SOLD OUT. That's never happened before.
- Have a line on seeing my work done on t-shirts down the road!
- A lady came in, saw my paintings and bought SEVEN of them. No haggling. She wanted them all.
- I had two (2) requests from women to draw then naked. And yes I did... :)

Here's some highlights...I didn't get to take many photos because I was freakin' BUSY!!!


Yours truly, horrible part in the hair and everything, but hard at work!


Yup. I drew ponies again this year. Fortunately I got to draw other stuff...


Like this cool Cassie Cain Batgirl!


And Totoro!

I didn't get the opportunity to shoot too many cosplayers, but lord we had them in droves. Here's a few I *did* get!


This female Spawn was one of several around the convention floor. Big Mac (McFarlane) is huge here (because he lives here).


This Ms. Marvel wanted to pose with my painting. I said, okay, but I get to take a picture as well...


My favorite cosplayer of the whole shebang...Manahmanah!!! Doo doo de doo doo!


This nice lady bought my Wonder Woman painting. I found out later we actually knew each other from facebook but had never met in person!


And of course...anyone in a Supergirl costume got their picture taken. :)

To be continued...

Greg

Grats Al, saw all of your posts on FB, looked like a great show.

Torchsong

So, did I get any cool swag?

Not much, really...the downside of working the convention is that you have precious little time to shop, get sketches, meet people, etc. I have a sketchbook that I keep and if I can't really afford you, I have you sign the back of the book. This time around I got Frank Cho (bought some prints), Kevin MaGuire (more later), Neal Adams (more more later), Terry Moore (already have a print from him), and a few others to sign the back. It's filling up!

Neal Adams - charged $10 for a signature, but I figured he's Neal Adams and I was having a good convention so I ponied up the dough. Then I got a 10-minute lecture about how all the creators needed to be charging money for signatures. He didn't seem to like it when he saw Marv Wolfman's signature and asked if I'd have paid for him to sign my book and I responded "I would pay $20 or more if he asked. He's the reason I got into reading these funnybooks."

Kevin MaGuire - I always save up to hit one Major League artist for a con sketch, and Kevin was it this year. Got in on the list early but he was trying to space it out based on who was going to be there the longest. As I was there all weekend, he said he wouldn't start mine until Sunday. You can see where this is headed...he never got to do it. :( Fortunately, I didn't pay him beforehand (his advice), so I contented myself with him signing by sketchbook AND a copy of JLI that I had. A bummer, but hey...the money I didn't spend on him I got to spread around buying prints from other people.

And I added four cool new sketches to my Legion section of my sketchbook. Take a look!

Cosmic Boy - Brett Blevins (he worked on the animated series doing storyboards!)


Dawnstar by the incomparable Dave Beaty - a friend of CGS!


Brainiac 5 by another friend of the show - Mike Norton (who thinks I hate him even though I told him it was mguy! :) )


Dream Girl by Denae Frazier - she had the table next to me and we're both locals. I try to get as many local people into my sketchbook as possible.

I got some cool prints from people, but sadly have no images to share. If you follow Frank Cho at all, I got his two most recent jungle girl prints.

On Sunday at about 5, there was a kitchen fire that caused the whole building to have to be evacuated. I don't see why everyone was worried...it's not like there's a lot of paper products in the dealer room. :) They kept the convention open an hour and a half later once order was restored...several of us had "fire sales" that last hour to get rid of stuff...and it worked! I'd sell something, then run over and pick up something I was eyeballing from another vendor...

It was a great time, and for the first time I really felt in control and like I knew what I was doing. I've come out of it with many great plans for future conventions and projects, and hey, I even made a friend or three...

LibraryBoy

Torchsong said:

- I had two (2) requests from women to draw then naked. And yes I did... :)

Nice work if you can get it! But I have to ask, were you drawing how you imagined them naked, or did they provide reference material.

If the latter, please share both the reference and the finished product. Purely for comparison purposes, of course. It's scientific! ;)

Torchsong

They provided reference - one was a woman whose husband had photographed her and she wanted an "artistic rendition" of it. The other was a young couple. Both let me take snapshots of their images from their phones - my wife promptly took them off after I was done. :)