2008 Fan Appreciation Event Report
I woke up at 8:30 in the morning, showered, brushed my teeth and had a long stick of toast. Kathryn told me that she’d meet me at the con a little later. Then Shane “Motherfucking” Heron called and said he was downstairs, so I packed my shit and booked it. Heron drove up in his De Lorean and we got there at 1986 sharp.
The brothers Truong (Jason and Danny) were first in line, with their Steve Epting books in one hand and breakfast bagels in the other. Fifty-cents of Digital Kontent with special guest celebrity artists Shane Heron and Brian “The Bood” Boodnarine showed up carrying ungodly amounts of trash. We brought everything from a tripod to a copy of Master T’s “One VJ’s Journey”, which we ended up unsuccessfully attempting to sell for $5.00 or best offer. The peeps at Hobbystar told us that we had to get into a different line, for SPECIAL people. We were hesitant at first, but when Scott Chantler lined up behind me, I knew we were in good company. Then THE volunteer for the Hobbystar show (there apparently was only one) took us to our con table. As per our requests, we were seated towards the back of the con and facing a wall. I won’t reiterate the reasons because Johnboy outlines them pretty clearly in his convention report.
Kent Burles is the absolute best. I know that I’ve said this before, but I can’t possibly say it enough. He’s such an incredible guy and an amazing artist. I contacted Mr. Burles through the social networking explosion that is FACEBOOK and asked him if he was willing to marker up some paper for me. I really wanted a kick-ass zombie/pirate coming out from a swamp and fighting Elijah Wood. Then I heard there was this girl running around asking for sketches of Harry Potter fighting Elijah Wood, so I scrapped the Elijah Wood part of my commission request. Kent Burles replied and seemed very excited to draw a filthy, decaying pirate for me.
When I saw Kent Burles at the con he surprised me with a larger than usual piece that he had already spent time working on at home. WHAAAAA?!?!?! Yeah, fo’ realz! It was looking stellar and I was super impressed, but then he tells me, “I’m not done yet”. The thing was looking done to me, but apparently he wasn’t happy with just knocking one out of the park. He was looking to break records and top 10 lists. Kent Burles was looking to top the best con sketch I ever got – which, by the way, was a gnome he did for me at last years fan appreciation event
This is the finished piece:
I love this piece. I really, really love it. You can see just how much hard work and time went into this. Also, this is marker. It looks painted, but I’m pretty sure Kent Burles used a variety of markers to create this. Insane, no? There is so much amazing detail put into this. Look at the intricacies on the sword handle and even on the blade. Look at the shadow on the water, that’s some serious attention to detail. The swamp vines hanging in the background really set the mood, more so than even the main character. Nah, who am I kidding? That’s one scary pirate/zombie. Thank you so much Kent Burles!
Be sure to check him out at the Paradise Comic Convention running from July 12-13th at the Holiday Inn on
Steve Epting surprised many by attending the con both the Saturday and the Sunday when it was previously stated that he would only be attending on the Saturday. The line-up for Steve Epting actually stretched right outside of the convention grounds and ended somewhere near the Tim Hortons where Jason and Danny Truong got their breakfast bagels. I wasn’t able to snag an Epting sketch, but that’s okay because I wasn’t about the Epting, instead I was all about the MALEEV!
Alex Maleev is a very talented artist. It was actually his stellar covers that got me reading Daredevil. His work on that book was just amazing. I love how unique his work in the comic book industry is and that it finds its way into a variety of main stream titles. This was my second goal of the con, to score a Daredevil commission from Maleev. Luckily, he was taking down a commission list for the weekend. I ended up paying a little more than I wanted to, but I think it was worth it.
Eisner-Award nominee Jeff Lemire was also in attendance. I’ve just recently started getting into Lemire’s work. Shane let me borrow Tales From the Farm and I just loved the story. The artwork really grew on me and I needed to see more, so I checked out Jeff Lemire’s website and saw some of his amazing commissions and paintings. His style is definitely his own and most would say that it wouldn’t really work for a superhero book, but I disagree entirely. I love Lemire’s superheroes because they look so different. I was lucky enough to get Jeff Lemire to sketch up a Daredevil for me.
Alfonso Espinos was the artist that had to deal with Digital Kontent sitting next to him during the entire convention. He was a really awesome guy that was ALSO giving out free sketches to his adoring fans. His comic book, “The Night Spike” was originally published in Spanish and this was the very first time you could pick it up in English. I didn’t pass on an opportunity like that so I snagged issue #0 and #1. Mr. Espinos was even nice enough to draw a super-cute sketch of me in a bear suit from our postcards that we were selling.
the postcard image by Iby
Alfonso Espinos’ version
Be sure to check out Alfonso Espinos at the Paradise Toronto Comic Convention running from July 12-13th at the Holiday Inn on
Mark Englert showed up all classy-like with his shirt and tie and his sixty dollar haircut. I didn’t know too much about him, but he had some books laid out that he had worked on. I noticed he worked on The Savage DRAGON! Let me tell you a story about comic books. When I was just a wee lad, there were two books released that were said to be the next big thing. Spawn and The Savage DRAGON. I had just enough money to buy one of those books. I had a big decision to make; I could either pick up Spawn #1 or I could test my luck with THE SAVAGE DRAGON #1. I went for the dragon and then I promptly lost interest in comics until about four years ago. I watched Englert draw a really amazing Wolverine, so I paid him his ten bucks and asked for a SAVAGE DRAGON! This is the first Savage Dragon sketch I’ve ever received and it turned out wicked. I think the next time I get a Savage Dragon it’s going to be from Erik Larsen…or I’ll never get another Savage Dragon sketch again…dun dun duuuun!
I headed back to the Digital Kontent table to see what was up and this is what I found:
Johnboy: (waking up) Huh, wha? Where am I?
Johnboy: I was just resting my eyes.
Johnboy: Yessum.
…that’s the way I would’ve liked it to happen… but here’s how it really happened:
Johnboy: (still sleeping)
Scott Chantler is the author of the Joe Shuster nominated series, “Northwest Passage”, which I don’t know much about, but what I do know is that Mr. Chantler draws “Tek Jensen”, the Stephen Colbert comic book. Kathryn found a nice stack of Secret Invasion sketch covers for $3.00 a piece so we picked up a bunch and then I had the whacky idea of getting Scott Chantler to draw Stephen Colbert as a SKRULL! Chantler happily obliged, even though these sketch covers were defective because of an unwarranted glossy cover. Why make a glossy cover on something that artists are expected to draw on? Anyway, Scott Chantler did a great job and I was really happy with the sketch. Unfortunately, I put the comic back in the bag and board a little early and “Stephen Skrullbert’s” nose smudged. I was upset at first, but these things happen, no point in getting too upset over it.
We started our raffle at
Brian Boodnarine, Shane, Michelle (Shane’s lady friend that helped sell his stuff), Johnboy, Kathryn and myself all headed over for some nachos at Sneaky Dee’s after the con closed for the day. This was my first experience with Sneaky Dee’s nachos and they blew me away. There were far too many nachos, but they were so delicious. Sneaky
SUNDAY
Kathryn and I woke up pretty early. We headed down to the con and stopped at Country Style to pick up some donuts – COUNTRY STYLE. We got to the con 15 minutes before opening and were the first ones from Digital Kontent and crew there. We quickly set up with some moral support from Alfonso Espinos who cheered us on. After we got the gear all set-up, Iby and Brian magically appeared. Since Iby and Brian were able to man the table, I jetted over to the creator of Venom to get some of my books signed.
Creator of Venom, Carnage and a whole lot of comic books, David Michelinie was in attendance. He was signing books from opening ‘til close on both days. He didn’t take a single break all convention. I think David Michelinie is a robot. You be the judge.
Bob Layton was the editor-in-chief of Valiant Comics for the year and a half it was publishing books. He’s also a pretty talented artist. During the 80’s he worked on Iron Man with David Michelinie and apparently it was liked…a lot. What better way to celebrate the coming of the new Jon Favreau film than having a couple dudes that worked on Iron Man show up as the GOH. Personally, I think the real Guests of Honour were Transmission-X, who have a total of X Shuster Award nominations this year.
Agnes Garbowska was sitting directly across the aisle from Transmission-X’s crazy antics. I had to pop by and say, “Hello!”, I also asked for a sketch of a baby Punisher because I’m a greedy motherfucker. I was lucky that this was one of the rare times in the weekend that Agnes Garbowska wasn’t too busy. She was able to work on my sketch right after she finished up Jason Truong’s commission of some G.I. Joe’s.
During this time Iby had been churning out some awesome sketches for Digital Kontent’s adoring fans.
It was also around this time that Brian Boodnarine finished my awesome sketch of a girl in a hot dog eating contest…in fact, she was the champion of hot dog eaters.
David Watkins has been a convention favourite of mine since my first
Alvin Lee drew me a Luke Cage. I’m happy with it, but I think he rushed a little bit because he had a Quizno’s sub next to him that was ready to get eaten. Quizno’s subs are toasted and because of that I think he wanted to finish my sketch before the bun got soggy. Whatever, though…that’s my fault for pressing for the sketch. Quizno’s should also take some of the blame, what with their delicious toasted sandwiches and whatnot. Fuck Don Cherry, that game-calling, no-neck-having, sub-pimping fuck-head. I blame him the most.
It’s actually a really good sketch
So after doing my last run of the convention, I came back to the Digital Kontent/Brian Boodnarine/Shane “Motherfucking” Heron booth and saw that besides Paul, Johnboy, Iby and Kathryn there was ANOTHER member of the crew doing free sketches for our adoring fans. I was taken aback because this sketch artist was only eleven years old and was drawing better than me on my best day.
Christian was some random kid who became friends with Johnboy. I don’t know how it happened, but Johnboy was able to get him to work at our table. I think that Iby’s wrists were sore from drawing so much so it was good we actually found a talented replacement instead of John, Paul or myself taking over. His dad came by later and saw him drawing away with a sign that said “Free Sketches” next to him. I think his dad was a little upset, but then we gave him a Digital Kontent t-shirt and it smoothed things over a little.
The raffle was a complete success. We had a line forming at
These are just some of the happy winners from Sunday:
That’s all from me this time around. The convention was probably our best yet. A lot of people felt the impact of the Digital Kontent explosion. For our next convention we already have some really amazing ideas in the works. Digital Kontent can’t wait to see you at
Comments
“some G.I. Joe’s”? Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow will cut up The Punisher, and they’ll do it silently, ninja-style!
Country Style? I don’t know you anymore…
In all seriousness, AWESOME REPORT!
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