As Torsten pointed out this was National Comics Weekend. Here’s some of what folks saw and wrote:
§ In San Jose it was the Big Wow Con. R.R. Werner has some observations:
Saturday was a day spent at the BIG WOW! convention in San Jose. With no Wonder Con in San Francisco this year, many of us were looking at this and March’s IMAGE CON in Oakland to take the edge off. BIG WOW! has been around for a few years under different names like Super Con. Previous years haven’t always yielded the best of conventions like the times back in the Oakland convention center were guests and artists were leaving early or recent years in its newer San Jose location were one could be done with the dealer’s room in an hour and the masquerade, if the contestants were not called up for a 2nd and 3rd time, could have been done in 5 minutes.
In many ways, this is a very uneven convention but its strength is the line up of artists whom attend. One of the convention owners, Steve Morger, is also the art rep for Frank Cho, Travis Charest, and others so that helps to land the talent. Paying for the big talent to come on out to sunny California and treating them to wine tasting after the con also helps. This is a good relaxing con before the craziness of San Diego two months later where fans and get some good face time with the artists and, I imagine, the artists have time to chat and hang out with their peers.
Werner also has photos of a Joe Jusko painting demonstration, above.
This Valiant fan went to Big Wow but found little on Valiant comics nor could he obtain a copy of Groot’s first appearance. Hopefully others had a better experience.
§ In Detroit it was the Motor City Comic Con. We’ve knicked Bob Waltenspiel’s photo, which pretty much sums up con culture around the world. This story from The Detroit News focused mostly on the dressing up aspects:
Ellie Harvey, 6, from Ferndale said it only took her a minute to dress as Hit Girl, a young vigilante, but her dad, Ray Hollifield, said it took him all morning to get the items for her costume. “She’s a really good character,” said Ellie, dressed in a purple wig and black eye mask. “She’s a girl and she fights (bad) people.”
Michael Nathan Winn gives us his overview:
But there's still one more day to enjoy Motor City Con 2012. Motor City Con is bigger this year then I've recalled seeing it and I've been a frequent attendee. The line was wrapped around the building and there are some great things going on. No it's not the biggest con in the country (..I want to say at least the eighth largest in the country but I may be wrong. Can't remember where I heard that from or if it's accurate today.) Regardless – it's big and the largest in Michigan and in the immediate area next to Chicago-Con and wow is it fun.
No word on the availability of Groot.
§ In Maine, it was the Maine Comics and Arts Festival, with many scenic photos, including this from Instagram User bob_u
And Kazu Kibuishi.
Overall, according to the #meCAF twitter tag, it was a swell time. Raina Telgemeier got her Maine Studant Book Award.
§ In Blighty it was Kapow!. A little more news here. Jock and Peter Serafinowicz are doing a comic together called NELSON::
The comedian’s venture puts a new spin on the superhero concept, telling the story of a super-powered cimefighter who has appointed himself de-facto chief of police in an alternate London.
He said: “It’s about this guy whose mutated and got these huge muscles. He’s got a build like the hulk, but he’s plausible. He’s like the credible Hulk.
“The comic is set in London. Kind of a Gotham city version of London. He’s the de-facto chief of police. He operates a zero tolerance policy to crime, and London has the lowest crime figures
Warren Ellis was also on scene to talk about his upcoming novel and boredom with the comics industry:
On the topic of future projects, Ellis talked about his novel Gun Machine due out later this year. The book follows a New York detective who investigates an apartment only to find a stash of guns, every one of which is linked to a different unsolved murder in Manhattan. In accidentally reopening the biggest cold case in history, detective John Tallow’s life gets very difficult very fast.
Photo above via Starboard Media, which has a big flickr set. Here’s one more from that set. Both photos ©Starboard Media UK.
So there you go, a few quick snapshots of a very busy weekend indeed.
Although comics were not the only focus, Spectrum Fantastic Art Live in Kansas City last weekend boasted a more-than-respectable graphic story presence with, among others, Mike Mignola, Gary Gianni, William Stout, Mark Schultz, Coop, Christian Gossett, Ben Templesmith, Mark Wheatley, George Pratt, Christopher Moeller. Along with a slate of fantasy artists and sculptors that was too long to list.
So you could say it had a comic convention’s worth of talent. Mignola did a program, as did William Stout and Brom. James (Dinotopia) Gurney presented a seminar on world building. Et cetera.
I would have LOVED to have been there for Spectrum. I’ll have to live vicariously through the SiDEBAR podcast for the experience of it. I’m sure Swain, Dwight, and Adrian will have this covered as they were there and always do a great job coving illustration and comic artists with their podcast.