Emerald City Comic Con 2018

[TacomaDiver]

(I thought that I would start a new thread since I'm going to use lots of words and have lots of pictures.)

I've never attended a full blown Comic Con before - although I do remember going to the Seattle Center for something about comic books, but couldn't quite recall when it was, or what it was. I kept telling myself that I had attended the ECCC before it was a "thing" and had to have been about 17 or 18 years ago. What I do remember is I met Terry (Strangers in Paradise) Moore at this show - which was the reason I went to this show in the first place. I remember that my ex thought he was hot, and that he signed my first Complete Strangers in Paradise hardcover. (Funny story - I almost always leave my book covers off, and the SIP book had a gold embossed Kathchoo on the front - and Terry didn't even realize that until he saw my copy.)

While looking for some of my original Strangers in Paradise comics, I did stumble upon the actual newspaper featuring his appearance in Seattle. It was back on March 14, 1999!



While looking at this old article, two things that stand out to me are:

1. It only cost $5 to get in (or $4 if you brought a can of food)
2. Bernie Wrightson was there. This makes me sad because he passed a way a couple of years ago, and I didn't even realize he was there.

Where was I going with this . . . oh yeah - I've never attended a full blown comic convention before, but once I discovered that Terry Moore was going, I had to, especially once you also factor in the fact David Petersen was also there. He's the artist who draws all of those mice I'm obsessed with.

So we bought passes for Thursday (Saturday, and the 4-day passes were already sold out) and then made plans of what to bring.

I decided that since I already had the first Complete Strangers in Paradise collection signed, I needed to get the rest of them signed, plus my Rachel Rising Omnibus, and a slough of other Terry Moore comics.

When you added in the various David Petersen books, plus what K was bringing, we were lugging quite a bit of stuff with us!

Onto more pictures!

Oh - before I show all of these off - I just want to say that yes, I brought A LOT of stuff, but at every stop, I apologized for the number of books I had, and if a line ever formed behind me, I would also step aside, go to the back, and start again. Everyone had no problem with what I brought, and there never ended up being a line. Plus Terry's wife Robyn said the best thing about this - since they self-publish everything, the simple fact that I had the books meant a lot to them because it meant that I bought them from them. With all of the items I had, it also gave me plenty of time to talk to everyone and make it more of a real event, rather than just a signature.

So for Strangers in Paradise, I decided that I wanted to get the first issue of each volume signed, but discovered that I had already gotten the first issue from Volume 3 signed way back in 1999, so I got all of Volume 1 signed, and the first issue from Volume 2:


(left to right) Strangers in Paradise Volume 1: Numbers 1 through 3.

(Funny story about #3 - Terry told me that that was the issue that made him realize he needed to self-publish because the publisher used a low rez scan of the cover, rather than the high rez version.)


(l)SIP Volume 2: Number 1
(r)SIP Volume 3: Number 1 Wizard edition - I didn't even remember owning this one.


I also found a Spider-Man comic he drew (the writer, Brian Michael Bendis, was also at ECCC, BUT was only there on Friday and Saturday. I realize I need to plan better . . .) and found my Fall of Stardust portfolio (other artists provided artwork based on Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess's Stardust comics) which featured some of Terry's artwork.


I haven't read this one yet, but was lucky enough to get a hardcover version a few months ago. Since the pages are black, we even brought our own silver pen.

Strangers in Paradise returned this year (it'll be a 10 issue series I believe) so here is the first issue signed, along with a quick sketch on the blank variant cover that seems to be what all the cool comics are doing today:

(I forget how he described this sketch - something like the safe one to do - but his wife told him to draw something good and he said too late, he is doing it bad already.)

On his Twitter account, he mentioned that he had a few sketches available for sale, and since I was only there one day, there was no way I would be able to get a commission done, so I knew that I was going to be buying a sketch.

There were two that I wanted - they were basically companion pieces. One featured Francine from SIP, and the other, of course, featured Katchoo.

I really, REALLY wanted both, but it wasn't in the cards. So as K said, always get the brunette.


Words don't even begin to accurately describe how much in love I am with this sketch. It's just so so so perfect. And it really makes me want the Katchoo one . . . I wonder if he still has it . . .

[TacomaDiver]

Part Two!

I don't believe I have any comics that Jae Lee has drawn, BUT he did do the artwork in the Grant Edition of Stephen King's Dark Tower Wind Through the Keyhole. While my edition came signed, I still wanted to meet Jae Lee, and have him sign it again.

I know there are those in the collecting community that would be aghast that I had someone sign a book that was already signed, but I really wanted him to sign his artwork and not just a signature page:


Plus I also bought this pretty cool Gunslinger print he had for sale at his booth:



Another artist that contributed to the Fall of Stardust portfolio that was at ECCC was Stan Sakai. Here's an artist that I am well aware of - he is the writer/artist of Usagi Yojimbo - a series that has he's been doing for 33 years now! And even though I know of him, I haven't ever read anything from him.

I had a brief conversation with Kurt Busiek (Marvels, Astro City) on Twitter one day, and when I asked him where I should begin, he said anywhere. Stan echoed that sentiment - you could start anywhere.

So I bought the first Saga book, which reprints the first three series.

I love the fact he doodled a rabbit! (He did this for everyone.)

When I went back to his stand (because I forgot to have him sign something else . . .) he was taking pictures and after sitting and standing a few times in a row, he started asking if anyone else wanted pictures (so he wouldn't have to stand and sit again) I said sure, what the heck.

(l) Stan, me; (c) Stardust; (r) cute little Usagi Yojimbo pin

Entirely by accident, I discovered the day before, that Steve Lieber was attending. At first I didn't recognize the name, but then I saw his art, and it all came together. He's the artist of a series called Whiteout that he created with one of my most favorite writers, Greg Rucka. Whiteout (and Whiteout: Melt) was recently published as a compendium edition, which is supposedly the first time both series have been published together. This isn't a correct statement since I own a signed/numbered hardcover edition that was published quite a few years ago.

Since that edition was already signed, I was glad Steve had a few copies of the new compendium version at his stand so I bought a copy from him, which signed and drew a cool little sketch in for me. He also signed this Whiteout bookplate that I had (it came signed already by Greg Rucka.) He doesn't know where the bookplate came from - I don't either. (I'm hoping Rucka responds to my tweet asking about its origins . . .)


Now these next pictures are really due to K going, but I still wanted to share them because they were really cool.

K buys more comics than I do - and it's funny because she buys them like I used to back in the 90s - and by that I mean since every comic nowadays seems to have multiple covers, she's out there buying all the covers for every issue. Silly girl.

Three of the comics she buys - My Little Pony, Jem, and Disney Princesses, all had people who either wrote or drew (or both) these series attend ECCC, so she had a big pile of her own stuff to sign. (See, it wasn't all about me.)

One of the artists we visited is Sara Richard. I recognized her covers to MLP and Jem based on her style which I think is pretty amazing. She also draws a lot of owls (and has a book coming out soon!) We picked up a couple of prints from her - I did control myself and NOT buy her Pennywise print because let's face it, where would I be allowed to hang it up at?

(l) Hobbes! (r) Owls!

Katie Cook is known to me as the writer of the original MLP comics (which I guess she was asked to write because she tweeted how much she loved the cartoon) but is also known as an artist. And a damn fine one too! Her watercolors are so much fun!

We picked up this fun Harry Potter print form her - each book is pretty much summarized in one panel, plus it's freaking adorable!

The middle image is this fancy foil print, signed and numbered, that was the featured cover art of the ECCC 2018 program. Jen Bartel is the artist, and K LOVES her covers from the Jem comics. (Jen wasn't at her stand, which we didn't know at the time, but when K got to the head of the short line, Jen just happened to be popping in for a minute, and signed all of K's stuff.)

[slayn666]

Going to a comic book convention to see comic book guys, WHAT BLASPHEMY IS THIS?

Seriously, though, that's all really cool and makes me want to get back into comics.

[TacomaDiver]

I laughed because you sound like me!

I think the biggest reason I have avoided conventions like this is because even though they have COMIC in the name, they are not about comics. Heck, this year at ECCC, you could have spent $80 to get a picture taken with a DeLorean from Back to the Future. I'm not sure if it was THE DeLorean, or just A DeLorean. Regardless - NOT RELATED TO COMIC BOOKS.

(Yeah, it would have been cool to get a picture with David Tennant and Billie Piper . . .) I was more excited about meeting the comic people that were there.

Walking through the con made me want to get back into comics too - and not just the random one book here and there either.

And keep reading - I'm adding more pictures to this thread.

And if you find a comic you like - shout it out and share because I'm always looking for something new to read.

Going to a comic book convention to see comic book guys, WHAT BLASPHEMY IS THIS?

Seriously, though, that's all really cool and makes me want to get back into comics.

[TacomaDiver]

And now - the Mouse Guard stuff.

Yes, I probably have a bit of an obsession with David Petersen's creations, but I don't care. These little mice make me so happy.

David's stand was actually our first stop since he was on the first floor, and really close to where we entered the convention at.

We spent a lot of time (and money) talking to David, and his amazing wife Lydia. He remembered me from Twitter even! We talked about papercraft, signing and numbering books, and his mom (who is in pretty bad health - yeah, this turned sad all of a sudden.)

The first things I had to get were the new "flower" print that premiered at ECCC, along with two of the new 5x7 prints he just came out with (funny though, I didn't even see the second one, so we had to go back later in the day and pick it up.)

(l) Elderberry - note how I somehow managed to get #1!
(c) Conrad from Mouse Guard
(r) Em from The Black Axe (I didn't see her originally) - I love Em!

(His wife asked him awhile back to do pretty Mouse Guard prints, so he does these annual flower prints. If you look closely, there's always a weapon somewhere, and of course, flowers.

The biggest and heaviest items I brought where the two Black and White editions of Mouse Guard Fall and Winter, along with the giant Art of Mouse Guard books. The best part of these three books is, while they're giant, they reprint the artwork in the original size - and what the art looks like before color is added - which fully shows off just how much detail is present, and how good of an artist David is. Later this year, the Black and White edition of The Black Axes comes out. The odd part of the new book is that it's also signed, in addition to being numbered. The previous versions weren't signed, so I brought them to be signed.


I love how he doodles a mouse on everything! (More about that a little later . . .) I also picked up all of the Mouse Guard pins that came out last year - I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I have them. Plus, I don't mind buying all of these things from the people who created them.

We talked about why the previous versions didn't have signature, and he explained to me it was how the publishers handled the numbering, where they were printed, the type of paper, and the expense of shipping books and pages all across the world.

Recently, I started picking up the various variant covers that David has drawn, but I only brought two to be signed.

First is the Avengers cover he did where he made The Hulk, Thor and Captain American into animals.

And second, because it crosses my fandom, I had him sign the variant to Joe Hill's Lock & Key.

Couple of other random things I picked up and had signed:

(l) I bought all of his signed/numbered bookplates (not sure why they have to be numbered)
(r) And Wind in the Willows that he did for IDW (I actually had to go back and get this one signed since I forgot it the first time. And yes, this means I went to his stand three times because my memory is bad . . .)


(l) I haven't watched it, but David does a video podcast called The Plotmasters, and this is a print from that project.
(r) Last year, David teamed up with Serena Malyon to do a Mouse Guard alphabet book. He did the words, she did the art. At the Boom! Studios stand, they had these prints of the alphabet, so of course, I had to pick one up.

And now the last items.

There's a series of Mouse Guard books called Legends of the Guard that feature the stories and artwork from a wide variety of writers and artists. And not necessarily those who normally work in the comic book field. For example, my utmost favorite Mouse Guard story - The Watcher's Stone by Ryan Lang - is done by a guy who normally does special effects for movies.

The premise of the series is that mice are trading tales in a tavern, and the mouse that has the best tale has his bar tab waived.

Since K was going to see Katie Cook, and I remembered that she had done a Legends story, I decided to look through the series to see who else had contributed their own stories. Imagine my excitement when I saw that not only Stan Sakai had, but also Terry Moore contributed their own stories.

Originally I wasn't going to have David sign these two books because I already had him sign so many other items, but eventually I kind of had to. And this is because it seems David is very possessive about "his space" where he signs, and since not only did Terry, but also Katie, make such a big deal about David's space, I figured I had to have him sign it after all. (David says this is not true and he'll sign wherever, there is definitely a preference to where he signs. Plus it's fun listening to these artists have their fake fights about where their signatures should appear in a book.)

My favorite part of these signatures is how everyone not only signed the books, but they also doodled a mouse - just like how David does.

(l - clockwise) Katie Cook; David Petersen; Terry Moore
(r - clockwise) David Petersen; Stan Sakai

[TacomaDiver]

Even though we only stayed until about 3:30 (we had a Sounders match to get to later,) we were both exhausted, and hungry. We didn't spend too much time wandering around. What we did see was so overwhelming - there's just SO MUCH STUFF there. Wow.

It's not obvious, I had a blast.

And we are thinking about going two days next year. I did learn that I need to plan what I want done earlier than the night before.

Whew.

[Martin]

Glad you had success! Sounds like a fun, but long, day!

[TacomaDiver]

It was definitely a long day! Friday was tough since I was running on a little over four hours of sleep.

I'm ecstatic about my prizes and glad I went. My checking account isn't happy though . . .

Glad you had success! Sounds like a fun, but long, day!

[Brian861]

Awesome adventure and great grabs, Jason! Thanks for sharing!

[TacomaDiver]

Thanks!

Awesome adventure and great grabs, Jason! Thanks for sharing!

There were a couple of things I wanted signed that I didn’t get signed. Arthur Adams was there and I was only able to find one comic of his that I still owned (I did a huge purge quite a few years ago) and even though he didn’t seem to have a line when I walked by, it just wasn’t important enough.

And Chris Claremont. I thought it would be fun to get his first novel signed (I own a SFBC hc edition, so nothing fancy) but he was charging $10 a sig, and while the one maybe had 15 people in it, there were people with literally stacks of 100 comics to get signed. I waited about an hour and the line never moved so I bailed.

Maybe next year.

[Dave1442397]

Sounds like you made the most of that expedition! I love Greg Rucka's books - I should get the Whiteout series and check it out.

I've really been limiting the amount of stuff coming into the house. We probably won't stay in NJ after retirement, and I doubt we'll buy another house this size, so I'm gradually clearing the attic and basement. I must have a good 5,000 paperbacks upstairs, and I've only re-read a few of them over the years. A lot of them can go to a new home at this point.

[mhatchett]

Glad you had fun!!

[RonClinton]

Great you enjoyed your time there. I'm not a comics fan -- though I read more than my share back in my teenage days, way Back in the Day when there was no such thing as "graphic novels" -- but can certainly appreciate the enthusiasm a fellow collector has for something they really love.

[TacomaDiver]

I stopped collecting quite awhile ago, it just got too expensive, plus my life was topsy turvy for awhile there, and cuts had to be made. But now I'm seeing some of the appeal of that hobby again, but still finding it kind of hard to dip more than a toe into that world . . .

Regardless, ECCC was a blast - I got to meet two people who created something that made a definite impact on my life, and that's a wonderful feeling.

Great you enjoyed your time there. I'm not a comics fan -- though I read more than my share back in my teenage days, way Back in the Day when there was no such thing as "graphic novels" -- but can certainly appreciate the enthusiasm a fellow collector has for something they really love.