Sketches, part 1

I'm going to be doing several posts regarding the sketches I acquired during the con. That means I'll be putting up the images and a bit of a story about each one. It's a chance to show-off what I have, plus it never hurts to write down the stories about how I got them. I have 17 sketches, so this is likely going to take about three posts to get through them all. I appreciate this is not everyone's cup of tea, but I really like these sketches, and most have nice stories about them.

1. Todd Nauck - Wonder Girl



After talking to a few people before the con, they always say find a good artist to do the first sketch in your book. Other artists will often take a look at what you have and compare. They want to try and do better than the others. Although I notice sometimes it makes them more depressed.

With Nauck, I've liked his art on "Young Justice", but it was more a moment of opportunity. I was cruising around artists alley. Most of the artists weren't set-up yet, but Nauck was and wasn't taking a list of names. Because of the demand, many artists will do a list. With Nauck, if you were willing to wait, he'd do a sketch. There was only one other person in front of me, so I decided to jump at the chance.

I had this big arctic theme planned, but while I was chatting with him decided to give up on it. Most artists don't have time at these events to do big themes. We batted around a few character names and when I suggested Wonder Girl, he seemed really keen to do a sketch of her. I think it's a pretty nice sketch for the first one in the book and well worth what I paid for it.

By the way, he was a hell of a nice guy. He was joking and carrying on the entire time I was there. I passed by his table several times during the weekend and he looked like he was still in a good mood.

2. Peter Gross - Death



I always like the work Gross did on Books of Magic. He was a little reluctant to sketch Death, and I understand why. It's not unheard of for someone to get a sketch at a con and that night go home, cut the sketch out of the book and then sell it on eBay. It can be annoying if the person paid for the sketch, even more so if it was free. And Death is a very popular character. Still, Gross gave me a nice price on this one, mainly because I think I was one of the first to ask for a Death sketch. I heard him quote a higher price for a similar sketch later in the weekend. Again, I like the job he did on it.

3. Kyle Baker - Anne (From "Why I Hate Saturn")



Baker is one of my all-time favourite cartoonists. I have a lot of his work already - "The Cowboy Wally Show", "King David", "I Die at Midnight" and a bunch of his books that he's done based on his family. But the first book I picked up was "Why I Hate Saturn", and I still love it. I still have my original copy, although it's beaten to shit.

I was chatting with Baker for about 20 minutes or more and it was great. I told him Anne was exactly the kind of person I probably would have chased after in university, to which he responded I was crazy (he's right. Anne is intelligent, but deeply crazy). And then when I was still geeking out about chatting with him, Joe Kubert swung by, told Kyle how much he liked his work, asked him to see a picture of his latest kid and chatted with Kyle's wife. And the whole time, Kyle is geeking out massively because Joe Kubert is hanging out at his table. "I'm working on a war book right now," he told me. "And I'm totally ripping off his stuff."

It makes you feel somewhat better when you're having a geek moment over a creator to watch them have their own over someone they admire. Of course, I was somewhat freaked out as well to be standing next to Kubert. But a geeking good time was had by all.

4. David Nakayama - Ms. Marvel



I didn't really know much about David before the con, but I liked the art I saw at his table when walking by. When I was about to ask about sketches, he told me he was heading over to the Marvel Comics booth to do some sketching and said I should meet him over there. There's a big difference between sketches at the comic booths and artist alley. In artist alley you normally had to pay for the sketches, but you'd get nicely detailed ones. At the Marvel or DC booth, the sketches would be free, but normally rougher.

David's was an exception, though. It's pretty nicely detailed and coloured, which as you will see, is a bit of a rarity. As for why Ms. Marvel, well, I batted around a couple of Marvel characters and he said one of the most distinctive was Ms. Marvel because of her mask. I think he did a lovely job. It got a lot of compliments around the con when I showed it to people.

5. Jimmy Gownley - Amelia ("Amelia Rules!")



Another significant geek out moment. "Amelia Rules" is one of my favourite comics and I'd been waiting forever for the fourth book to come out. And he had copies when I swung by his booth. Again, a hell of a nice man and I chatted with him for about 10-15 minutes. I not only bought the latest book (which he signed), but two Amelia t-shirts - one for me and one for Cathy. And since I was talking about how Cathy uses the books in the classroom, he signed a poster he had and gave it to me for free. Plus, he gave me a signed book for a daughter of a friend of mine named Amelia (we're putting it in the mail soonish, Karin). Oh yeah, and he did this free sketch.

Just a really nice guy. You worry about meeting some creators that they're going to be jerks. But he wasn't and seemed genuinely thrilled about how enthused I was about the books and that Cathy's kids were reading them.

That's the first five. Five more probably tomorrow evening.

Last Five
1. Sisters of mercy - Sting and the Chieftains
2. Weapon - Matthew Good
3. Dreamer - Supertramp
4. Carolina rain - Ryan Adams
5, Fully completely - Tragically Hip