San Diego 2005: Greg's journal - Friday (#4)

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greg
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San Diego 2005: Greg's journal - Friday (#4)

Post by greg »

FRIDAY (07/15/2005):

Friday morning we overslept a bit, though it was clearly needed,
and were on our way by trolley to the convention center when
Chris Gould (k_c_collectibles) called to let us know that he
had arrived at the airport from New York. We exited the trolley
at the next stop and headed back toward the hotel as quickly
as we could. Chris S. had hoped we might attend Kevin VanHook's
session for Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Taking the car to the airport, we picked up Chris and Kristie.
Both were ready for a long nap, so we dropped them off at
the same Motel 6 in Chula Vista where we were staying, as
they had arranged reservations there as well.

We visited SoCal Comics shop which purported to have the
largest backissue selection in town. It was located in
a warehouse/storage area behind a locksmith. While I'm
sure that the number of books was probably highest,
I found no books of interest. Chris S. was able to find
twelve non-Valiant books that he needed for a total of $10,
so it wasn't a complete loss.

It appeared to me that someone (who knew Valiant) had visited
the store and cleaned it out at some point in the past.
It was probably 90degrees inside that building, and the
air conditioning had either just been turned on,
or was completely ineffective.

Friday's visit to the convention center gave us an opportunity
to check out the meeting room we would be using for the
ValiantFans.com gathering on Saturday. We drove to the convention
center and parked behind it, in a metered lot near the water
and Joe's Dockside Restaurant.

We found the meeting room we would be using and checked out
the internet connection and layout of the room. There were
two tables with six chairs and a podium on the stage,
and about 150 chairs available in the audience. An additional
four tables were situated in the back of the room. We determined
that we should arrive early on Saturday, in order to connect
to the internet and re-arrange the tables for the number of
former Valiant creators we expected to attend.

I had a few of the "Fighting Cystic Fibrosis" backerboards
in order to help Chris S. in his fundraising efforts, so we
went back into the convention to see what we could accomplish.

I first spoke with Phyllis Novin at the Bongo Comics booth.
She is currently an inker for Bongo with Futurama and Simpsons Comics.
Though she was under contract not to create "new art" as it would
be on the backer board, she indicated that she might be able
to donate some original art pages for the fundraiser.

I found the iBooks booth (shared with Komikwerks) and bought a couple
copies of the new Magnus graphic novel written by Louise Simonson for $5 each.
I don't believe the book is available yet, since Amazon.com still shows
the book as unavailable with an August 2005 release date.

Finding Justin and Chris S. in the D.C. Comics area, I watched too
as Wendy Pini created an Elfquest sketch on a "Fighting Cystic Fibrosis" backerboard.
I'm not very familiar with the Elfquest storylines, so I only recognized
the character as having a striking resemblance to Mrs. Pini herself.
Wendy Pini photo #1, #2, #3

I next spoke with Terry Moore of "Strangers In Paradise". I did
my best to describe the fundraiser, and he agreed to take a backerboard
for the cause. I was asked to return on Saturday to pick it up.
Strangers In Paradise booth

Wandering through artists' alley, I noticed a Magnus artwork on a print
for artist Paul Guinan. I asked about the print and Mr. Guinan mentioned
that it was to be used as the cover for an upcoming Magnus book.
I confirmed that it was the Louise Simonson series, and he mentioned that
his contact for the project had only recently been killed in a car accident.
He didn't have many details about the situation beyond those points.

I asked if he might be interested in sketching Magnus onto one of the
"Fighting Cystic Fibrosis" backerboards. He said "sure" and that it was
a bit of a 'rarity' to get a sketch since he now works primarily in digital.
I also bought the last remaining Magnus print that he brought to the con.
(I finally had a return gift for Magnus R. after he had given me two!)

Leaving Mr. Guinan to work on the backerboard sketch, I made my way
to the CGC booth, in order to thank Steve Borock for the convention badge.
When I arrived, I found a man by the name of George Pantela sitting
with the rest of the CGC staff at the booth. I know Mr. Pantela as
the "GP" of "GPAnalysis.com", though I believe they claim the "GP"
stands for "Grade Pricepaid" on the website. I have only emailed
back and forth with Mr. Pantela before, so it was nice to meet him
in person, especially considering his home is in Australia.

I still needed to purchase a mailing tube for the Magnus print,
so I located Bill Cole's booth and bought a tube and an 11x17 portfolio.
It was nearing the end of the Friday portion of the convention (7:00pm),
so I returned to Paul Guinan's table to collect the backerboard and print
(which I had Mr. Guinan enscribe to Magnus, with a small headsketch).
Paul Guinan

There were a number of tables across from artists' alley along the wall
which allowed for a nice congregating (and resting) spot for the rest
of the group. Magnus was planning to go to the airport on Saturday morning,
which meant we would not see him after Friday night. Luckily, he was able
to join us in Chula Vista as we met up again with Chris Gould and Kristie
for dinner at the Black Angus restaurant.

Dinner was excellent on Friday night, and I heard that the Harbinger #1
displayed for $60 on Thursday was sold when it was checked again on Friday.
After dinner, we returned Magnus to his hotel at which point our only
language difficulties resulted in a wild five-second ride.

Magnus navigated us back to his hotel by telling us that we should
take the next exit from the highway. So, the car (driven by Justin)
veered right onto the exit, Magnus mentioned that we should take a left,
so Justin veered left back onto the highway, thinking that we had exited too soon.
Since we actually did need that exit, we swerved right back onto the exit
at the last moment and determined that the exit immediately split into
a left and a right. So the appropriate order was indeed, exit first, then left.
I believe that if our maneuver was viewed from above, it would have looked
something like the "S" on Superman's chest, as draw from the bottom up.

We dropped Magnus off in his hotel parking lot and took a moment to
say our goodbyes and pose for a photo. Of the four guys in the photo,
Justin, Chris S., Magnus, and Chris G., one waited until the last moment
to surprise another with what can only be described as a "Kodak moment".
[Edit: photo removed by request of Chris S. ]

From Magnus's dropoff, we headed to Dino's pickup... which was at the
end of the Hotel Circle area of town. Arriving at Dino's hotel, we found
out that he was actually at Kansas City Barbeque miles away.
So, off we went to find him. We picked him up at his restaurant
and searched a bit for a parking spot. Our next destination was
the Hyatt Hotel.

Walking from the car to the Hyatt, I realized that as the
"designated driver" for the evening, I probably should have
paid more attention to where we had been around town,
in order to know better how to get back later. Still, I was
pretty sure that if you know Interstates 5 and 8, you can
navigate pretty well from there.

Entering the Hyatt, we proceeded to the 40th (top) floor where
we hoped to meet up with a few of the artists. The first was
Marc Wolfe, who spoke with Chris S., Justin, and Dino.
Chris G. and I were chatting with Matthew Mohammed.
Matthew Mohammed at his booth on Saturday

After a while, someone mentioned that Gene Simmons of KISS was
down in one of the bars on the first floor. We headed down
and there was a large crowd in the main lobby area.
Later, we heard that Gene Simmons had been seen heading
upstairs via elevator, and Justin saw Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit
leaving the hotel shortly afterwards.
In the Hyatt, Justin-Brian-Dino-Chris G.

The Valiant guys hung around for a while, and Chris S. continued
talking with artists like Mark Sparacio who had joined the crowds
in the hotel bar. Just before 2:00am, Chris G. mentioned that
he really needed to get back to the hotel (it's still his first day),
and that he would just take a taxi. We suggested that he hang on
for just a few more minutes because the bar closed at 2:00am anyway.

Just after 2:00am, we were walking back to the car, and within minutes
we had dropped Dino off at his hotel. I was looking for the quickest
way back to Interstate 5 and took what I thought was the right exit
for that highway. We ended up in a construction area, where a U-turn
showed me only that the overpass was not open. So, I followed the
road a while longer and before I knew it we were on the streets
surrounding the San Diego Zoo. Well, at 2:30am on a Saturday morning,
I, and the four others in the car with me, did in fact visit the San Diego
Zoo, though it was not open and we did not get out of the vehicle.

By 3:00am, we were back at the hotel, since Interstate 5 was only
minutes from the zoo, and the trip to Chula Vista is simple from there.
I believe it might have been 4:30am before the lights finally went out.

-Greg Holland
Last edited by greg on Thu Sep 22, 2005 10:13:42 am, edited 2 times in total.

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betterthanezra
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Post by betterthanezra »

I was wondering what happened to you guys after we all left the Hyatt......now I know. I walked close to a mile back to my hotel room and met a nice sprinkler on the way :x


Next time Greg I better get that ride to the Zoo too.... :wink:

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Post by Chuck »

:twisted: :lol: :P

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Re: San Diego 2005: Greg's journal - Friday (#4)

Post by shadowmite »

Knightt_333 wrote:
Greg wrote:We dropped Magnus off in his hotel parking lot and took a moment to
say our goodbyes and pose for a photo. Of the four guys in the photo,
Justin, Chris S., Magnus, and Chris G., one waited until the last moment
to surprise another with what can only be described as a "Kodak moment".
Yep, that Kodak moment with Magnus JUST about planting one on me was uhhh... classic.

:D
:o

SD went gay!

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magnusr
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Re: San Diego 2005: Greg's journal - Friday (#4)

Post by magnusr »

Knightt_333 wrote:Yep, that Kodak moment with Magnus JUST about planting one on me was uhhh... classic.

:D
I regretted my childish joke immediately. But I still laugh at it :D Classic, but a pity as it would have been a nice picture.

/Magnus

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Post by Vault-Keeper »

Knightt_333 wrote:Actually man, I thought it was hiliarious !!!

:thumb:

LMFAO!!!

Good one, Magnus!


Betcha it would make a great T-shirt! :thumb:

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Post by k_c_collectibles »

Vault-Keeper wrote:Betcha it would make a great T-shirt! :thumb:
Hmmmmmm.... I am thinking about making shirts for the NY show. :twisted:

ONLY KIDDING! I would not do something like that! If I do shirts for the NY show they will be similar to the ones I did for the SDCC.

Chris
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