late PHXCON recap

oh man, it's been way too long since i last posted, not counting the post i made about the Phoenix Comicon. which went well by the way.

and speaking of Phoenix Comicon, how about some...

PHOENIX COMICON REFLECTION TIME!!!

Phoenix Comicon was a couple weekends ago over Memorial Day weekend where i shared a table with the lovely Angela Montgomery. it was our first convention where we were on the other side of the table and it was great! it was such a good learning experience and definitely gave us a lot to consider for next time: table set-up, book display apparatuses, not going overboard on handing out promo items or just plan on bringing more, banners, etc.

if you weren't there, you can hop on over to the Chu Chu Chums blog to get a closer look at how our table set-up looked.

for the convention i whipped up a new set of pins, girls eating desert, to go with my guys eating food. i also had a special pin that came free when people bought my mini or was available for individual purchase.

and here is my 8-page mini comic, Monster Movie. if you picked up a copy with a white cover, don't worry, this is the same book. i ran out and had to make more copies and thought green would appear more eye-catching whilst sitting upon our table.

plus, if you were there and you saw me, but only from behind the table, then you may have missed me wearing THESE SWEET PURPLE HI-TOPS!!

i think these will be my convention shoes from now on. yes.

there were plenty of cosplayers running around everywhere, something you'd expect from a mainstream comic con. There was a mixture of US comic book cosplayers (Black Canary, Green Arrow, Powergirl, retro Catwoman, Scarlet Witch) and an abundant crowd of anime/manga cosplayers (Inuyasha, Bleach, Naruto, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, some assumed to be from CLAMP titles). the best ones were the obscure ones i wouldn't have expected to see at a convention, like Invader Zim, Gadget from Rescue Rangers, Ponyo, or Flint and Sam from Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.

also, good times were had with friends aplenty, new and old. many from Phoenix and Tucson that Angela and i haven't seen in a lonnnng time.
we saw our friend Toby's student film, Dorm of the Dead (which i starred in as an extra), screened as part of the con's film festival.
it was also a pleasant surprise to see former classmates stop on by, like Adam, Pat and Autumn, Jay and Natasha, and Christi and Bek. so good seeing those guys.
Ken Wright and his awesome family stopped by our booth for a bit before heading over to see his fellow Tucsonan comickers and our friends and yours, Dave Baker and Eric M. Esquivel.
we had the pleasure of being part of Tiny Army, an Phoenix-based independent artists collective, thanks to Tiny Army and Steam Crow founder Daniel M. Davis.
we also saw fellow artists in tiny arms Denny Riccelli and Eric Mengel.
across the way from us Chums were supercool artists and comickers Sam Spina, who has some pretty rad journal comics, and Jon Garza, who has some unbelievably snazzy designs.
we were lucky to have a nice table neighbor, Teel McClanahan, who also happens to be Phoenix-based, as well as write words for books and poems and things.
we also met another Phoenix-based artist, Jennifer Skarupa, who wore the wore a very cute lolita-ish dress, has some pretty cute things over at her site here.
i also had the chance to meet Javier Hernandez, the guy behind the El Muerto comics that the Wilmer Valderrama film was based upon. super nice guy. i've seen him at a few cons before, but never had the guts to go up and say hey to him, so i'm pretty glad i did this time around.
also also...i got some pretty sweet deals from Arizona based comics dealers Spazdog Comics and Atomic Comics. like..a couple trades and a full short box for $30 for myself and a bunch of X-Statix and X-Force comics for Angela. sweet. deals.
it was also nice to see former Atomic employee and comicker Jeff Pina again, as well as meet current Atomic employee and co-host of the webcast I Have Issues Thomas Healy.

sooooooo many peoplllllleee. it was only three-and-a-half days, but it felt like forever (probably cause i was sleepy). even so, i was supersad to see it end, but i am totally bitten by the convention exhibiting bug now and am excited to hit up future cons with my wares!

late Comic Con recap: part2

part2part2part2part2

now with more photos!!

BEING LOST AND ASSORTED THINGS
a bunch of other good and interesting and stuff stuff happened at the con, too. i saw Ross Campbell again and bought some minis and prints off of him, but it seems like every damn time i manage to swing by the Oni booth when he's there, it's always toward the end of the convention day when i'm all jittery and tired from no food/water and large crowds. so i ended up looking like a doofus when talking to him, but he was still pretty nice about things and signed stuff. oh well, i could try to explain myself in email or comments to him, but that'd be overkill, so i'll just wait until the next con.

double thumbs up from Ross!!

at one point in the convention Angela and i were making through the floor with our portfolios trying to talk to people and ended up getting separated in the large mass near the WB booth. it was hectic because i lost contact with her for a while, but i got to see Chuck from Chuck signing at the booth, so that was neat.
so i set up my phone to get twitter updates from people going to the con and text updates and so on, right? well my phone ended up crapping out on my, overloading from too many texts and shutting off after being on for a few minutes. super sucked ass. my phone ended up dying just before that, so i ended up with no way of getting a hold of Angela. so i rushed around and stopped and rushed around the aisles, torn between trying to find her and figuring that if i stayed in one spot, that she would find me. during one of the stops i saw Claudio Sanchez (frontman of Coheed and Cambria walking by with this looking like "oh man,i hope noone recognizesssss meeeee." i tapped on shoulder and asked him casually where i could buy his new comic (KillAudio) and he pointed the other way, told him i liked his stuff, said thanks and walked in that direction. i'm glad i didn't go up to him all fanboy like to embarrass the shit out of myself like i probably would have done in high school. (i was a big Coheed and Cambria fan in high school. i still am, but i've toned down a bit.) even so, i was still a little giddy when i walked away. while the big people may bring big crowds surrounding them and high security to ward them off, it's still cool how the convention floor makes everyone equals. sort of? yeah?
anyway, so then i rushed around again and then ran by the Dark Horse booth trying to ask if they were handing out their green bags, figuring it to be the top of the hour. these bags were super popular because they weren't like the big plastic bags they had in past years, they were slightly more durable fabric bags. i asked about bags and then went to ask bout the time at one of the tables and realized i was standing in front of Stacy Wheeler, creator of Too Much Coffee Man. so i asked him about the TMCM operas he released in the past few years and how it was doing cartoons for The New Yorker. he was such a nice guy! after he signed my books, i decided to be bold and gave him my business card.
after that, i ran to the trolley, waited forever and ran back to the hotel to charge and use my phone, running into Jay and Natasha when i got back. so lucky. Natasha was nice enough to let me use her phone to call Angela and then they rode the trolley back with me to the convention center to try and find her when she called again to let me know where she was. phewwww. another big thanks to Jay and Natasha for the phone call and support. and the cookies. Jay bought so many cooookieeeessssss so good.
she was up in the portfolio area, so i ran up to meet her and everything was oookay. she said she just went up here right after we were separated. i probably would have been lost on the con floor till it closed if i hadn't have gone back. hahah...ehhh.
another random thing that was great was walking through downtown San Diego in the Gaslamp Quarter just outside the convention center and running into Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer. i was with Angela, Dave and Eric, and Natasha K and Margarita from school. i didn't realize what was going on at the time, but Dave and Eric just about shit themselves when they saw them. it was pretty funny and pretty damn cool on Dave and Eric's part mostly because they were able to strike up a conversation with them. a lot of it was Dave and Doc talking about fashion, relating about wearing tight, skinny jeans, and how far you could go leaving your shirt unbuttoned without looking tasteless. i wanted to say something to them, too, but it probably would have been dorky and nerdy with a lot of wheezing and nose wiping and asking if they could sign my volume 1 dvd box that i left back at the hotel. so it was pretty enviable and admirable. good show you two. after Jackson and Doc left Dave sorta broke down with Joy by some building. yes Joy with a capital "J". it's understandable. i probably would have done the same. i think i sorta did that after meeting Scott C, but i'll talk about that in the next part.

Dave and Eric striking a pose with Doc and Jackson.

BEST TIMES
the next part!
so EA had a booth and they were sporting the Brutal Legend demo which i had the great fortune of playing. oh god was it amazing. it was like everything in my life had been leading up to that point. so. amazing. (i know it was the demo and that the games been out for a while, but i can't really play it at the moment...at least until i get a console. but i have faith it'll still be as facemeltingly amazing.)

thumbs up with Scott C!!!

that experience was then topped once i got the guts to go up to Scott C's portion of the table at the Flight/Gallery Nucleus booth. he was the nicest, coolest guy EVER. i'm sure he still is, but man, good meetings! i re-introduced myself, told him i had made contact with him before about interviewing him for my watercolor/illustration classes, and that i was here to say hi. he noticed our portfolios and asked to check them out right on the spot! man it was so cool. and he said such nice things that totally upped my confidence and desire to get out there. i told him about how i wanted to do the same kind of stuff he did, character design and conceptual stuff, and he gave me the low down on what it entailed. that you need to be well-versed in everything, not just characters. need to be aware of environments, vehicles, objects, etc. so helpful.
and i told him that i was pretty decent with watercolors but that i wanted to improve my acrylic painting skills. he then told me, why not have watercolors be my thing? and work that further? i can tell why Tim Schafer made him an art director. very friendly and supportive and good at looking at the positive things, bring the best out and all that, encouraging nudge and such, beside from the amazing art and deadline handling skills. he then invited us to his live art jam that he was going to be doing with Jim Mahfood at some club in the downtown area, which lead to dancing that i'll talk about later.

Oh Man! Tim Schafer!!

i think the same day Tim Schafer was supposed to make an appearance at the EA booth to sign some Brutal Legend posters, so i hightailed it over there when it came to be that time. i was super nervous to meet him, so excited. so when i got up there i showed him that i had my copy of Psychonauts for him to sign, he told me to bust it out and hand it over for some inking. when i opened the case to pull out the cover for him to sign, i found my memory card for my PS2 and was all "OH there it is!" and then he was all "YOU FOUND IT! here, i'll sign that, too." so i now own a signed copy of Psychonauts for the PS2 and a red PS2 memory card with "Tim S" written upon it. man, he was so nice, too. and i told him about how amazing it was to play Brutal Legend, that it was the high point in my life, and that it was then topped by meeting Scott C, and now by meeting him. he was so great. everything that seems fun and awesome and nice about him in his blog entries and video clips was there when i met him. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. i even told him that i was a big fan of his since playing Grim Fandango. when i told him that i beat it, he seemed pretty amazed because apparently not too many people were able to finish all of the puzzles, which actually amazed me. i tried telling him that i used the Prima walkthrough guide and was about to tell him that i had it because of the concept art and his awesome developers diary that was included in the back...but then i was cut off so we could take this awesome photo together. so he probably figures i'm a cheater. A CHEAAATTTERRRRR. BUT I'M NOT...i only used the guide for a portion of the second and third year....so..not a total cheater.
anyway, playing Brutal Legend, meeting Scott C, and then meeting Tim Schafer were pretty much the best experiences i've ever had at a Comic Con. EVER.

DANCING
when i was talking with Scott C, he was super nice to invite us to a live art jam that him and Jim Mahfood were going to be a part of at some club in the downtown area, and gave us a postcard giving more details about it. well i was pretty excited to go because i know Jim Mahfood's a pretty cool dude and produces the most amazing shit at those live shows, and Scott C's stuff is amazing, so it'd be cool to see what he'd pump out at something like that.
it took quite a bit of time to get down there. once Angela and i dumped our stuff off at the hotel after the convention was done for the day, we went back to the trolley and waited for our ride down there. since it was after convention hours, there'd be some change overs we would need to make in order to get there. so we ended up looping back and forth on the train for a little bit because we made the mistake of standing on the wrong platform a couple of times.
on one of the rides, Angela and i sat in this empty seat, which had another empty seat across from it, so we put our feet up, enjoying the ride and anticipation of seeing the live art that night.then in comes this old man, wearing a denim jacket and hat that probably said something about the military. i was hardly interested in looking to see what it said. he carried with him a slightly worn bag and one of the worst attitudes. he stands next to our seats and tells us to put our feet down. "what, do you think you're at home??" something like that. he then tells us that this is his seat and he has to sit on it and doesn't need our feet dirtying or roughing it up. yes, i know it wasn't a good thing to put our feet up like that. people do sit there. if my mother had been traveling with me, she would have scolded me the same, but at least my mother would show loads more courtesy. putting my feet up and then
expecting courtesy from this old man? yes, i did, because that old jerk just gave us crap for where we put our feet and then proceeded to sit down across from us, provided next to little leg room for me to the point that i was knocking knees with him. i have long legs so it sucked and made me very agitated. there was also another couple sitting close to us, but they were sitting opposite each other with their shoulders to the window. there was more than enough room for that old coot to sit next to them, but he had to go and pick a fight with us. whatever. i may come off as bitter with these words, but if you had been there you would have felt the same sour taste in your mouth after riding the rails with him. suffice it to say that it sucked, but at least it was the only crappy thing that happened during the Comic Con excursion. so whheeewwwwww.
i think we had planned to meet up with Dave and Eric at some point, telling them about the Jim Mahfood/Scott C artmagicexperience. while Angela and i went down the main street trying to find where it was we stopped for hot dogs at this cool little hot dog place that was standing room only. i'm not much of a big city person, so places like that seem pretty cool. ordering and eating at a counter or on the go. Toby gave us a rang, so i filled him in on what was going on that night and planned to meet up with him, Chris and their friend, too. after many calls and shouting to each other across the street once everyone was found, we proceeded to the nightclub. it ended up being one of those snooty upscale ones where you had to dress supernicely and wait inline until someone left and then, if you looked okay to the bouncer, you were let in. i'm not a clubber either, but i do have a set idea of how they are thanks to tv, and this one came off as way snootier/haughtier.
anyway, after much deciding and me accepting i wouldn't get in to see them do their thing, we left in search of other spots to hang out at. it ended up being a really fun and adventurous night. a lot of walking up and down of the streets and checking some bags in at a hotel for safe keeping. we ended up at this one club...i think it was called Thin?...and it was pretty crazy in their with the smoke machines and the lights and the everything. like i said, i'm not much of a clubber. i sort of wallflowered it for a bit but there was this one big dude who was dancing over by us that tried to get me to loosen up and enjoy the beats. there was a lot of Michael Jackson played, so Toby cut loose to that. he is a superdancer. not like Michael Flatley or Baryshnikov, but he is up there for sure. it was cool because it was the sort of group i wish i could have stood/danced around with at some of my high school dances, because we were just having fun nerding it up and not giving a shit. awesome.
after three or so hours of hanging out there, Dave and Eric dancing with some latina bachelorette party that was there, and us hanging with that dude (who happened to be tabling at the con. man i love how San Diego gets turned into Nerd Town when Con rolls through.) we went back to the hotel to pick up the bags and parted ways with Toby and his crew.

our first big con together.

i've had some pretty awesome Con experiences before, but this had to have been the best year so far.

THINGS FOR NEXT YEAR
i always tell people who've never been to Con to plan things out and bring supplies for surviving the crowds and lines and whatever may come their way, but i end up forgetting to listen to my own advice next time i go i NEED to remember to bring in plenty of water and bits o' food so i won't end up getting cranky or getting the shakey hands. that's where the blurry photos come from, so i definitely need to beat the shakey hands next year. sick of them showing up when they aren't needed.

i also have to obviously rebuild my portfolio if i plan to bring it again. i ended up bringing my senior portfolio, which was a bit of a scholastic retrospect rather than a focused package, so it wasn't really geared for what i was looking for.
also maybe bring different sets of images to trade out so i have mulitple portfolios for various jobs?
that sounds good. worth trying, right?

EPILOGUE
after that, Natasha was supernice to host me and Angela for a few days in Burbank, showing us little bits of the city and giving an awesome tour of Cartoon Network (her place of work). aside from getting to see Phil again, who was nice enough to give us another tour where we got to meet a lot of other people who worked there (who were also really nice). Natasha's friend Thaddeus showed us his sketchbook, which had a lot of amazing inked drawings colored with Dr. Marten's dyes. i've had some professors recommend them to me before, but seeing them in action like that really made me want to try them out. i also got to see a bunch of the sweet 3D props used for Chowder.
Angela and i went and had lunch with Natasha and Pen at Chipotle, who was was supercool enough to serenade
us while we scarfed down our burritos. Angela, Jay, Natasha and i saw Bruno later that night, too. it was alright. it had it's good moments. not funnier than Borat, but definitely more absurd.
we all went to Hollywood the next night, my first time going there. having lived in San Diego until i was eight, i had never travled any farther north than Disneyland, so this was pretty exciting. but when we tried walking the streets for a bit we got bothered by this bum, so that wasn't exciting at all. kind of like the old man on the train, but ten times worse. at least it was a learning experience if, so i'll be prepared if i ever go to a big city again. upside of the Hollywood trip was i got to see the cement shoe prints at Grauman's chinese Theater and snagged a picture of Steve McQueen's brick.

so. cool.

it was a really great trip, all of which i owe to Jay for getting us to and from San Diego, to Jed for hooking us up with tickets, and to Natasha for being an awesome host in Burbank and showing us her new, awesome workspace/community!!!!

late Comic Con recap: part1

AUGH!

sorry about that...hopefully nobody's noticed i haven't updated since...August?
this isn't soon for me, by the way.

anyway, i have more things to update with, but i was planning on writing a recap of Comic Con first before i posted anything else...but i guess it's taking longer than i thought and ending up lengthier than i expected, so i'm going to break it down into two installments. let's see how this goes.

somehow i forgot to mention that i went to San Diego Comic Con this past summer. it was a pretty good
experience as always. was probably my seventh time going, or something like that. it was my first time
going with the intention to find work though. before that i was just fanboying it up with the rest of
them. i still managed to do that...which probably wasn't too good, but i still looked for work! i think
the next time i'll try to be more focused about it, plan it out like my friends Dave and Eric
who broke it up into pleasure for preview night, business the next couple days after that, and then
fun again on the weekend.

i don't remember everything because it blurred together so much by the end, which anybody who attends
can agree upon. so i'll just lay down the highlights (yes...these are highlights) of the event with some pictures and links.

BIG THANKS TO JAY
Angela and i left Tucson Wednesday morning with our friend Jay driving. we wouldn't have been able to make it there without him, so a superbig thank you to Jay. (you don't have worry, i already told him thanks tons of times while we were there. probably not enough, but i did tell him thank you in person.) we got to San Diego in the afternoon to check in. after that was all done, Jay took off for LA to pick up Natasha from work. she got time off from work so she was able to attend all of the con if she wanted, so that was awesome.

OH. also big thanks to Jay, because he was the one who secured the room for all of us. so more superbig thanks are in order!

BIG THANKS TO JED
Angela and i got to the convention center a little late because of me and having to wait for the trolley. when we got there we met up with my friend Jed, another friend who i owe a lot for getting me to Comic Con. he was more than kind enough to offer to order extra tickets for me and Angela after 4-day passes sold out. so a superbig thank you to Jed, too!

ANGELA'S FIRST IMPRESSION
it was great once we got inside because Angela's jaw dropped automatically. her first comic con was the Phoenix Cactus Con, so this was a pretty intense step up for her. we tried going through the con with Jed and his friend, but i kept getting sidetracked by some of the booths and the crowds got too thick to keep a group larger than four people together. we decided to meet up again later.

MEETING UP WITH JED
didn't meet up again until a couple days later, but we still met up. we interrupted there lunch, which was pretty funny because their restaurant was only a block down from ours. what wasn't funny was they were eating at Dick's. i don't care if it is their schtick. i don't need that kind of asshole service from a waiter. Jed said he was planning on taking off for home because he had some extra work that his employer wanted done by weekend's end, so i was pretty lucky to see him again before he left.

CRAZY SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS
well...not for me. not complaining. it was just crazy because Angela and I ended up sharing a room with Jay and Natasha, as well as Dave and Eric. Angela and I met up with Dave and Eric after the con closed for the day so we could take the trolley back with them to the hotel while they hurked their two-ton comic manuscripts around with them. somehow Dave hurt his leg earlier that day just from waiting in line, so carrying the manuscripts didn't help him too much. by the end of the convention he was this hobbling little, old, babyman. sad sight to see, but his leg was better the next time i saw him.
anyway, so Dave and Eric ended up sleeping on the floor. sometimes near the door. sometimes under the table. sometimes near the bathroom door.
one night, Natasha's friend and lead from work, Phil Rynda (he's the lead Character Designer on Cartoon Network's new show, Adventure Time), as well as his wife, stayed with us. Natasha and Jay were super hospitable and let Phil and his wife take their bed. sorta made me feel like a bum, so i'll bring a pillow along next time i go, just to switch it up with people.

PANELS
i dunno if i made it to as many panels this year as i have in the past, but i made it to some pretty big ones, so i was super satisfied. the biggest panel for me was making it into the Disney/Hayao Miyazaki panel in Hall H.

-Disney/Miyazaki
i never thought i'd see the inside of that hall! the line usually snakes on forever, and if you don't get there in time, you're totally shitoutofluck. i can say this from experience, because one year Jack Black and Kyle Gass were there to perform and promote the Tenacious D movie and i remembered about the panel 15 minutes before it started so hahah no luck.
anyway, the panel was pretty AMAZINGGG. Angela and i were getting pretty tired out there...i think i got sunburned too (the line wraps around outside the convention center because it's a high capacity meeting hall), but once we got inside we were all superjazzed and mouth-agape and everything! we were handed these spiffy 3d glasses that had sensors in them so people couldn't rip them off, and then we tried to find seats in the almost-filled, half-lit room. it was convenient that they had multiple screens around the room broadcasting the stage because we ended up some where in the middle back.
i can't remember what happened in what order, but it all happened and ended with Miyazki appearing. the panel started with John Lasseter introducing the director of Toy Story 3 and a segment of Toy Story 2 in 3d (the opening sequence where Buzz flies to Zurg's planet, raises hell, and gets blasted to bits). then Lasseter went on introduce the directors from Beauty and the Beast who spoke about the task of reformating the movie to 3d for re-release in theaters on Valentine's Day 2010. they also spoke about the upcoming The Princess and The Frog, showing an awesome clip with Keith David's witchdoctor character. he was singing and dancing and all of this trippy stuff was happening, reminiscent of The Three Caballeros. totally makes me want to go see the movie for his character and that segment. they then showed an unfinished clip from the movie, which was pretty cool because you were able to see the process as it jumped from colored to roughs in an instant. there was also a trailer for this upcoming made-for-TV holiday movie called "Prep and Landing." if you're skeptical about the movie because of the look of the commando elves or it's a holiday movie or whatever, watch the trailer. it's soooo good.
so then Miyazaki came out and everyone went crazy, giving him a standing ovation before he could even say hello.

Lasseter chatting it up with Miyazaki at SDCC '09

it was pretty great to see him. he introduced a clip from Ponyo where she was running by the cliffs on the large waves of fish and spoke about his inspiration for it. i took video of the conversation between Lasseter and Miyazaki, as well as some of his responses from the Q and A. i haven't even looked at it yet to see how it turned out! so once i do, i'll post it...y'know..if anybody is interested.
i felt lucky to see him and thought it great that i got to video tape it, but i feel like i lost a bit of the "magic" because i spent a bit more focus on getting him in the shot and can't even remember what he said. but i can't remember what Lasseter said either...so i don't know if that's any better..hmm...
anyway, i do remember this one girl from the Q and A noted that he featured quite a few strong female characters in his movies and asked him what his intentions were, to which he responded that, paraphrased, he felt women to be strong people, what with birth and all that, and admired that...something like that.
yeah, maybe i'll post the movie anyway.
does anybody know what happens to the video that they use to record the panels? is it archived some
where or is just a for fun thing or whatever?? i always wondered what the hell the point was if you
never saw it outside the convention.

-Adult Swim/Venture Brothers
was lucky to make it to the Venture Brothers panel, too. so much running around and close calls from trying to portfolio and see the convention floor, so i was pretty grateful that Jay and Natasha were holding spots in line for us. i tried to record their panel, too, but by then i had the shakey hands, so i was only able to snap off a bunch of shakeyblurry photos. their panel was more than amazing, too. i think a majority of the panel was just them (Jackson Publick, Doc Hammer, Michael Sinterniklaas (the voice of Dean Venture), James Urbaniak (the voice of Doctor Venture), plus some other producer guys) responding to audience questions, because i don't remember much else in from the main discussion aside from the awesome trailer for season 4.1.
in case you weren't aware, the new season has already started. the third episode airs this Sunday.
man, that panel was a whole lot innuendo, due in part to all of the sexual advances made by Doc toward the people asking questions. the panel wouldn't have been funny if that didn't happen though, and you know it. people asked the panel about continuity, if they would bring characters back, what Doc and Jackson's musical influences/preferences were (because of certain character cameos), who the voice actors' influences were for developing the sound of the characters, which one of them had better legs (which they proudly displayed to the audiences hootin and hollerin), and if they'd play the trailer again. such a good panel. and then after that all of the Venture Bros cosplayers were grouping up outside of the hall for photos, so check out the photos Angela and i snapped up, plus others, HERE.

-Cartoon Network panel
the Cartoon Network panel was some sad fun. it was sad because CH Greenblatt (the creator) and Tara Strong (the voice of Truffles) were saying goodbye to Chowder. he said that the current season is the last, which i heard is because Chowder's voice actor is getting older and his voice is changing, so he won't be the same loveable little apprentice when the show started, so Greenblatt wants to end it now rather than try to continue it and risk the quality. the fun was Thurop Van Orman (creator and voice of Flapjack) and Jackie Buscarino (the woman who sings "TWO PIECES OF CANNDYYYYYY") and Steve Little (Doctor Barber) representing Flapjack. Pen Ward was also there to introduce his upcoming show Adventure Time, which will be out around summer or fall of 2010...i think...
Greenblatt and Tara Strong were also fun, too. everyone just got goofy and had fun talking to each and interacting with the audiences. panels like that are always so damn cool because you can tell that the people, the animators/directors/producers/whatever and the voice actors, really love their jobs and have tons of fun with it. Thurop (used to have) posted videos on his journal of some office guys messing around with these knit K'nuckles and Flapjack masks somebody sent to him, and he and Pen actually put them on at the panel. so cool. and then while everyone was talking about their shows, Pen was cutting up minicomics he had been working on for the con. and man that guy has so much enthusiasm, he kept YEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAing and HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOing. hahah it was so great.

-Bryan Lee O'Malley spotlight
the Bryan Lee O' Malley spotlight panel was fun and informative. it was basically him and Scott McCloud shooting the shit about Mal's comics. McCloud looked into how Mal changed his style, still trying to develop it from his work on Lost at Sea, eventually finding it with the crisp, machine-aesthetic brush strokes evident in the most recent volumes of Scott Pilgrim. he also asked Mal about his music influences, since music is a big part of the story, as well as his life, and talked about how real world settings make a difference when trying to develop a story that will appeal to everybody. (Scott Pilgrim is set in Toronto, where O'Malley lived for some time before moving to the States a few years ago.) they also talked about the upcoming movie and his involvement with that, the development of the characters, how he goes about writing the stories, his love of Sailor Moon, and a little bit about his relationship with Hope Larson, since McCloud deemed them to be one of the "power couples" in comics industry. when McCloud asked about if Mal and Hope were able to focus on their work at home, since they shared studio space, she spoke up from the crowd to say she had an office now (which she's tweeted about). kind of wish i went to see her spotlight panel. maybe another time. did anybody manage to go to it? was it just as fun and informative?..yes? maybe?

hope that wasn't too overkill. be ready because there's still a part 2 coming. more photos and links will be in part 2.
part2part2part2.

also, as a reminder, the rest of my convention photos can be found HERE.

it's time to

it's time to update. thats. that's what time it is.
jeeze...a month? i'm sorry.
it's been a while so it would be good if i did. just to get some fresh content up, add to the little i have right now, maybe keep those who've sort of been following this a little interested to continue following.

here are things that i made for my final portfolio exit interview for the VisCom program at U of A, stuff i touched up for that, and something i did that wasn't part of that.

these are a few character designs i had been playing with for the last project in my senior capstone. i had some others (i'll try to post those later) but they didn't seem to stick together as well as this group did. so i colored them up and pasted them together in Photoshop. starting to get used to the program's basic mechanisms, but could still stand to learn more about it. finished this up to use in my portfolio for my exit interview.


this is just the colored version of the Heads for Sale guy i posted a few entries back. not much else to say, other than i like how the colors turned out.

OH, and if anybody is interested, i was talking with my friend and she manged to help me out with screenprinting some shirts of just the straight inks of Heads for Sale. So, if anybody is interested in purchasing a shirt, let me know.
i'll post more on this in another entry, hopefully soon? with a better example of the art and the placement on the shirt and prices and everything.
just saying so i can get people excited and possibly interested in grabbing one.

i was playing around with some Stabilo pens, just playing with circles and working on drawing straight to pen. the fancy, hip new scarves a lot of people seem to wear nowadays. or maybe just scenesters? maybe. i'm out of the loop on trends most times. just remember this asian kid wearing one when he came into the coffee shop.
the circles were pretty challenging. not too used to just doing abstracted doodles or patterns or anything like that. need to work on that some more.
i included this in my portfolio as well. thought it was a fairly good piece, which my professors agreed upon, but thought it a bit too rough, so it'll be part of my rough, sketchy, process examples then. i guess? yeah, i'll go with that.

this was the irrelevant, just for fun piece. this was for Harvey James' sweet meme calling for Cat Girls in Hats that he busted out at the end of the activity week he hosted on his livejournal. was especially cool cuz he was nice enough to extend the deadline of the meme an extra week, so i whipped this out later that night after i finished up with my exit interview. i think it turned out pretty well. would maybe redo it or pick another catgirl to work with. might do that too..hmm.
but if you haven't seen it, you should definitely go over there because a lot of people turned out some awesome catgirl reinterpretations, including Harvey James himself.

i'm hoping i will be able to make at least one post in the next month, but if not expect an update from me in July. reason partly being that i recently graduated!

YAY.

but...technically i'm not fully graduated....

huh??

yeah...i'm actually short two credits in an upperdivision VisCom course. most likely because of taking Japanese the past three or so semesters WHICH I DO NOT REGRET. just....sucks that i'm short these credits.
so i'm going to be taking a summer course to make up for it, specifically taking advantage of the Orvieto Arizona in Italy study abroad program. i will be making books and working on picture book development in Italy! will be tons of fun. i also managed to score a flight to Paris during the three day weekend that takes place during the program, and will be hitting the town with Angela. wooooooooooooo.
will definitely be coming back with fancy French and Italian things, along with plenty of comics and pictures.

like i said, i will do my best to update during the program, but if i fail to do so...expect another large lag in my updating..hahah...ehh...and i will be starting up a more consistent posting schedule in July.
so until then! have a good summer/winter!!

sketches and a foto

i figured it would be good to try and stay consistent with posting, keep up the rhythm that was started up again by the last post. so here are some sketches of some animal-y people.
i was originally thinking this blog should be used for finalized, professional-type pieces, but whatever. i think using it as a housing unit for ideas, in-progress, sketches, fotos, whatever, as well as finalized, would be best. i can save all of the finalized stuff for a website or portfolio unit.

but enough of that.

here's Chevre from Animal Crossing (Wild World, specifically).

she's my favorite character, or at least favorite in my village so far. hope neither she nor anybody else has moved away. haven't played in a few weeks. eeshh....

and here's Carl the Lumberjack Elephant. my co-worker/friend Rian from the cafe said i should draw him, so i did. good call on everyone's part. i think he turned out pretty awesomely.

i discovered Carlos Nine's work last semester and had the need to draw an anthropomorphic/superdeformed woman, so that's where this bunny lady came from.

Bryan Lee O' Malley held a contest earlier this spring for people who couldn't make it to New York for the midnight release of Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5 so they would have a chance to win the sweet stuff the New York people had a chance to pick up. For the contest, people had to submit an image that was clever, funny, cute or whatever would most likely snag them the prize. it also had to show a plausible reason why they couldn't make it out to the New York release, including some sort of local landmark to signify that. I was in Tucson during the release and couldn't think of any interesting landmarks since i'm not too familiar with the city, so I teamed up with my friend Toby, who's a native, to take pictures for the contest.

we didn't win. which is okay, i guess. it was still pretty fun.

you can check out this image, as well as Toby's, over here in Mal's flickr set.