Just got my copy of the Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer Artist’s Edition from IDW. I missed this when it first came out and I had been kicking myself ever since – but no more.
The following are some pics from 1998 of my one jaunt out to the West Coast to attend the San Diego Comic-Con. Wouldn’t have been able to afford it if not for fellow Kubert School Alumnus Tom Toby putting me up for a couple nights.
Still remember playing a James Bond video game until the wee hours and laughing my ass off with how little I couldn’t control my shooter – the view from other players was my character running in circles with his head down shooting everywhere. Good times.
San Diego Convention Center – August 1998The Convention floor.Bud Plant Comic Art.Who doesn’t like dinosaurs?Original comic art on display.Extensive time rifling through comic book bins – my fingers start to bleed.Caught entering the Con without his ticket.The people I saw dressed as Klingons only spoke Klingon as well.I’m not sure if this is a costume.Spider-Men by the Marvel booth.Deborah Abbott in costume with her husband Manuel Carrasco behind her in the hat.Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez.On the right – Dave Stevens.John Romita and Jim Mooney.Taking pics as we leave the convention. Here’s fellow Kubert School Alumnus Pat Lowry.Kubert School Alumni Mark McMurray and Pat Lowry back at Tom Tobey’s place.Mark McMurray, Tom Tobey and Pat Lowry.
Some recollections I jotted down at the time.
• Waking up and going into Tom’s back yard to get some “San Diego sunshine” only to have my face immediately entwined in spiderwebs that were strung between bushes on either side of me – then running around like a crazy person trying to get them off with the frantic thoughts of the huge spiders (black widows?) we had seen in the front yard the previous day.
• Watching a bootleg copy of a pilot for the Justice League with a pot bellied David Ogden Stiers as the Martian Manhunter.
• Mark’s rental car having the futuristic miracle of GPS.
• Commiserating about the biz for awhile with Jim Mooney – then getting a “discount rate” of $40 for one of his signed Man-Thing pages. He also gave advice regarding selling originals, “Some pieces through a dealer will sell for top dollar, otherwise price to sell.”
• Meeting Steve Leialoha and having him sign a Howard the Duck page I had recently purchased that he had inked.
• Peter Maresca’s booth having a ton of old Sunday comic sections from the 1930’s – Beautiful!
• Handing out some flyers I had brought along promoting my work on Flash Gordon and thinking, “I need bigger breasts to be noticed here.”
• Looking for Mark McMurray before Eisners, but limiting my search to between two food stations.
• Excerpt from Evan Dorkin’s acceptance speech upon winning an Eisner, “Since no one else used their time allotment (for acceptance speeches), I’ll use them.”
My only regret is that I didn’t take more pictures. Hoping to make it out there again in the not too distant future…
