Big Wow Comic Con in San Jose

[Bone-A-Fach-ee]

but we want our oompa loompa NOW daddy!

[Dr. Solar]

It is currently 2:15 in the am on Monday morning.
But I got home safe, so that is good.
I need to wake up in 3 hrs and teach my AP kids ... So that is not so good.

I'm glad you made it home safe!

Make it through the day, and get some sleep tonight!

[Elveen]

It is currently 2:15 in the am on Monday morning.
But I got home safe, so that is good.
I need to wake up in 3 hrs and teach my AP kids ... So that is not so good.

I'm glad you made it home safe!

Make it through the day, and get some sleep tonight!

thanks. I'm tired for sure less than 3 hrs of sleep), but I have The Patriot on in class..... so not bad.

[Ramses818]

Good luck getting through your day!

[Elveen]

So here is my quick few words recap and then I'll do some more later....


This is not a small show, it is not a big show (there were big show guests by the plenty) so I don't know what size it is.

Orginized well with LOTS of comic book vendors (the usual suspects, the same dudes I do most shows with, but with a bunch of dudes I have not seen in the past) so there were lots of good deals to have.

[Jace]

Big Shout out to Elveen for hooking me up with a badges so my son and I only had to buy one. It was a decent show. Lots of good artist, I had three in mind I wanted sketches from, unfortunately since I didn't go Saturday their commissions list filled up super fast. I actually didn't get any sketches, though my son got two. What this show was really good for was bargain books. I picked up a ton of Crossgen stuff I was missing and my son got a lot of Michael Turner books. He collects anything Michael Turner pretty much. One booth had about 40-45 long boxes of books, some pre 90's but mostly post 2000 stuff and a sprinkling of 90's dreck. You could buy whatever you could fit in a long box for $100, short box for $60 or a canvas type bag for $40. Most of these books were in pretty good shape, even though they were not bagged and boarded. Jaeden and I managed to easily fit 201 books in our bag and probably could've fit more, but just didn't see much else we wanted. So that was 20 cents a book, pretty good. The main thing I got at that booth was a near complete run of the weekly series 52 from DC, I think I am missing 10 issues or so. Then at another booth the books were 50 cents each, we dug out 88 books and I offered the guy $30 and he took it, so 34 cents a book, also a good deal. About 60 of those books were Crossgen. It's been a long time since I have left a convention with about 300 books, but it was fun to dive into those long boxes like the old days.

I also should mention I meet and talked to some creators, always a highlight of any show. We hung out with Matt Hawkins from Top Cow for about 30-45 minutes and gave him a custom made Think Tank shirt we had made for him and us. He loved the shirts immediately wanted to take a picture with us. I met Greg Rucka for the first time, super nice guy, very articulate and intelligent. Right next to him was Michael Lark, also a really nice guy. They both signed the first 5 issues of Lazarus I brought with me. A big reason I went to the show was Mike Zeck, but unfortunately he wasn't sketching. He had a huge table with lots of prints and it was certainly nice to meet him. Still whenever someone charges just to have books signed it bother me some. I understand if they have the little donation bucket for CBLDF or Hero Initiative, but to just charge for signing and pocket the money ... I don't know it bugs me for some reason. I guess I just feel like if I spent my hard-earned money buying a book you worked on, the least you can do is sign it for me. At the very least sign one book for free so it can remind me of meeting you. If some guy brings 20 copies of the same issue, then that is another story, he is looking to make money off your signature so fine, charge away. Anyway it was cool to meet him and I did get a B&W print of the Web of Spider-man #32 with Spidey in his black costume crawling out of the grave. I also got a bunch of books signed by Jim Cheung and a nice Avengers vs X-men print. Nick Dragotta signed my first 3 issues of East of West and sketched a quick doodle on the first issue. Mark brooks signed two copies of Ultimate Spider-man 200 for me, one on his double page spread inside the book and one on the cover. All in all it was a fun show and I'll post some pictures later.

[Bone-A-Fach-ee]

Big Shout out to Elveen for hooking me up with a badges so my son and I only had to buy one. It was a decent show. Lots of good artist, I had three in mind I wanted sketches from, unfortunately since I didn't go Saturday their commissions list filled up super fast. I actually didn't get any sketches, though my son got two. What this show was really good for was bargain books. I picked up a ton of Crossgen stuff I was missing and my son got a lot of Michael Turner books. He collects anything Michael Turner pretty much. One booth had about 40-45 long boxes of books, some pre 90's but mostly post 2000 stuff and a sprinkling of 90's dreck. You could buy whatever you could fit in a long box for $100, short box for $60 or a canvas type bag for $40. Most of these books were in pretty good shape, even though they were not bagged and boarded. Jaeden and I managed to easily fit 201 books in our bag and probably could've fit more, but just didn't see much else we wanted. So that was 20 cents a book, pretty good. The main thing I got at that booth was a near complete run of the weekly series 52 from DC, I think I am missing 10 issues or so. Then at another booth the books were 50 cents each, we dug out 88 books and I offered the guy $30 and he took it, so 34 cents a book, also a good deal. About 60 of those books were Crossgen. It's been a long time since I have left a convention with about 300 books, but it was fun to dive into those long boxes like the old days.

I also should mention I meet and talked to some creators, always a highlight of any show. We hung out with Matt Hawkins from Top Cow for about 30-45 minutes and gave him a custom made Think Tank shirt we had made for him and us. He loved the shirts immediately wanted to take a picture with us. I met Greg Rucka for the first time, super nice guy, very articulate and intelligent. Right next to him was Michael Lark, also a really nice guy. They both signed the first 5 issues of Lazarus I brought with me. A big reason I went to the show was Mike Zeck, but unfortunately he wasn't sketching. He had a huge table with lots of prints and it was certainly nice to meet him. Still whenever someone charges just to have books signed it bother me some. I understand if they have the little donation bucket for CBLDF or Hero Initiative, but to just charge for signing and pocket the money ... I don't know it bugs me for some reason. I guess I just feel like if I spent my hard-earned money buying a book you worked on, the least you can do is sign it for me. At the very least sign one book for free so it can remind me of meeting you. If some guy brings 20 copies of the same issue, then that is another story, he is looking to make money off your signature so fine, charge away. Anyway it was cool to meet him and I did get a B&W print of the Web of Spider-man #32 with Spidey in his black costume crawling out of the grave. I also got a bunch of books signed by Jim Cheung and a nice Avengers vs X-men print. Nick Dragotta signed my first 3 issues of East of West and sketched a quick doodle on the first issue. Mark brooks signed two copies of Ultimate Spider-man 200 for me, one on his double page spread inside the book and one on the cover. All in all it was a fun show and I'll post some pictures later.

Great report, and sounds like you made out like a bandit! Don't worry, it bothers me too when someone charges for their signature. That's why I never go to the autograph section to meet D-list celebs and pay for their scribble.

[Jace]

So here is my quick few words recap and then I'll do some more later....


This is not a small show, it is not a big show (there were big show guests by the plenty) so I don't know what size it is.

Orginized well with LOTS of comic book vendors (the usual suspects, the same dudes I do most shows with, but with a bunch of dudes I have not seen in the past) so there were lots of good deals to have.

Agree with Elveen here, not a small show, but not a big show in terms of attendance. The guests were certainly TOP QUALITY, like you would expect at a big show. Neal Adams, Charlie Adlard, Jim Cheung, Mike Zeck, Mark Brooks, Nick Bradshaw, Humberto Ramos, Art Adams, Mike Mignola, Michael Lark and Greg Rucka just to name a few, these are top talent guys. Mark Brooks lives in Atlanta and only does one or two West Coast shows a year, ditto with Nick Bradshaw. I expect this show to keep growing if they keep getting this top tier talent.