I Survived San Diego Comic Con

July 31, 2008 on 4:15 pm | In Cartoonists, Events

So I attended San Diego Comic Con 2008, which was held last week in sunny/hazy/humid SoCal! This was my first year attending the show and everyone I admitted that to made sure to tell me how exhausted and fed up I’d be by the end (”Wash your hands and make sure to get a lot of sleep,” offered one creator. Sound advice for any trip.). Part of that turned out to be true. I did a lot of walking and had to deal with A LOT of slow moving crowds, but I survived and I’m glad I went! I met TONS of fantastic people and saw a lot of cool stuff. My hotel was about 15 minutes north of the convention center (whatevs) conveniently tucked away from all the crazy rooftop parties and rowdy industry types that swarmed around the Gaslamp District every night. San Diego’s rail system was pretty painless though the ticket I was told to buy for the trolley was never asked for by any sort of conductor or rail official. The only BIG panels I went to were Watchmen on Friday and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia on Sunday. The Watchmen footage was pretty cool and the upcoming episode at the Always Sunny panel bode well for the upcoming season. I also made it out to the Eisner’s on Friday. While I agree it may not be the most enthralling awards ceremony you could attend, I was entertained more than enough. I mean come on, Samuel L. Jackson? That’s awesome!

Enough jibber-jabber. Here are a few (and i do mean few, sorry) photos I snapped during the week.

Here’s the Eisner award winning team of 5, pre-Eisner on Wednesday. Congratulations guys! (L-R: Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon, Vasilis “Cool Shades” Lolos, Rafael Grampa and Becky Cloonan) Gabriel, Fabio, Vasilis and Becky were at the show with Pixu, their new self published joint project. Rafael was debuting Mesmo Delivery, his brand spanking new graphic novel.

Here’s Jim Woodring, putting on his “serious face” and showing off some art.

Philip Bond was giving out money at his booth in artist alley.

Paul Pope’s Masked Karimbah toy at Kid Robot.

A big Pokeman.

Here’s what I picked up at the show…
L-R: Always Elwes by Aiyana Udesen (a mini of various portraits of Cary Elwes. It’s as awesome as it sounds.), brilliantly ham fisted, a collection of Tom Neely’s comic strip poems, Mesmo Delivery by Rafael Grampa, which is destined to be one of my favorite books of the year, World War Robot by Ashley Wood, Stay away from other people by Lisa Hanawalt, and Space Girl by Travis Charest.

L-R: Scott Pilgrim: full colour odds and ends 2008 by Bryan Lee O’Malley, Your Disease Spread Quickly by Tom Neely, a bootleg Garfield comic (Garfield without Garfield is just the beginning…), Boys Club #2 by Matt Furie (another “Best of 2008″), PIXU by Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon, Vasilis Lolos and Becky Cloonan, Bad Asses by Mark Todd, and The Hero With a Thousand Excuses by Jim Woodring.

L-R: Essex County Vol. 3: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire, Stumptown Preview by Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth and Drawing IV: Worf and Wolf by Aiyana Udesen