Coming this fall from Half Price Books: a “Literary Pets” calendar. Twelve of my dog and cat as famous author portraits will adorn the interior, complete with the accompanying text I wrote for each. A calendar cover was commissioned however the above color cover will be relegated to a sepia version for their final product.
Jeff de Boer is a Calgary-based multi-media artist with an emphasis on metal. He is best known for creating suits of armor for cats and mice. Bring it on, neighborhood dogs!
Continuing the TV themed art from last week, I recently discovered this beautiful print by Tim Doyle using the subject matter of another favorite show, Breaking Bad.
Spike Press is Chicago-based illustrator and designer John Solimine. He sports an amazing collection of poster illustration and design on his site.
It’s a hot summer Friday and everyone should follow Brodie’s lead and take it easy. Who could argue with this example of lazy bliss?
Michael Myers creates strong graphic images and wonderful caricatures using a pleasing color palette. The Lost fan in me really enjoys his cast portraits. (Dude.)
Lisa Turner has a beautiful collection of Steampunk inspired jewelry over in her Turner’s Tokens Etsy shop. Be sure and check out her blog as well.
Paul Horn, a.k.a. “Cool Jerk” offered great support and advice for our trek to San Diego this year. On top of being an incredibly talented artist with a great sense of humor, he is a seasoned Comic-Con pro with a huge following. Be sure and check out his work and pictures from this year’s San Diego Comic Con Here.
Just released on iTunes this week, a new album by The Mercury Pills featuring my Space Race artwork.
Alexei Lyapunov and Lena Ehrlich are an artistic duo from Russia. They create amazing paper sculptures and follow up with thoughtful and creative lighting in many cases. Visit their site, People Too for more examples of their craft.
So we’re back in the studio, a.k.a. the real world, after an amazing 5 days in San Diego. So many wonderful experiences and connections happened for us and we’re hoping to make it all happen again in 2011. Our paperwork is in for another Small Press table for next year. I’ll be spending some time over the next day or so compiling the huge stack of new mail list subscribers and following up with some interested parties for a variety of new business connections. We were especially happy with the area that we were in and thankful for getting to know a great selection of talented, helpful and friendly booth neighbors. I managed to record just a few in our immediate area with their info after the break below. We hope to see them all next year.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth to laugh together, visit and purchase!
Expecting Sunday, the last day of the convention, to be a little flat and slow proved to be wrong. Some suggested that since most people attended panels and autograph signings on Saturday, they used the last day to browse and shop the exhibit floor exclusively. Once the doors opened it was practically non-stop till the end of the day at 5. Around mid-morning our booth neighbors at Curio & Co. recommended I visit with Bud Plant at his booth and show him what I had been up to. This proved to be a great idea, as Mr. Plant showed a true interest in my Sinister Simian book and the various card sets I had brought. He purchased my remaining 40 copies of Sinister paperbacks for his catalog and also chose a healthy selection of card sets to sell at some of his future shows. It was a fun and exciting way to round off the week with a productive and energizing last day. Sales continued through the “closing bell” and we bid all of our surrounding booth mates a fond farewell. We signed up for next year’s show and hope to have them as neighbors again!
We ended our last evening with a delicious seafood dinner by the bay.
The fourth day of our Comic Con fun started out quietly. Expecting Saturday to be a non-stop busy day, it had a slow start. But by noon the crowds grew and started spilling down our aisle non stop. Met lots of new and friendly attendees and the sales were great by the end of the day.
Friday was a very exciting day for us. Around mid-morning a fellow strode up to our booth and asked for details on my various monkey projects. He introduced himself as a Director of Development for Jerry Bruckheimer Films and told me he was very impressed by the characters and the universe I had created for The Society of Sinister Simians. He went on to say that he thought it was one of the most interesting directions for development that he had found within the Small Press area. Of course I gave him a copy of the book and business cards for him to take back to work for future reference and meetings. Whether or not it goes any further than this point, it was wonderful validation of my efforts.
Our second day of selling at the Con had a slow start to the day. It gave us some time to catch up some from yesterday and also visit with some of our booth neighbors. The couple from Vienna next to us, Curio Co, are now great friends and are promoting a wonderful book they’ve just completed. On our right we have 4 seasoned convention pros that have been loads of help and great fun to visit with. I’ll include info about them in a future post along with links to their great work. As the day progressed the sales kicked in and we received lots of interest and sales with the Society of Sinister Simians book, primarily from a great group of Steampunk characters. Julie’s hand bound version is a big hit and selling fast.
Here are a few photos from the day, including some of our customers who were kind enough to pose for pictures after their purchase…
Our first day in San Diego was a busy one, to say the least. After arriving, getting set up in the hotel, doing the badge line dance and hauling our first couple of days worth of stock to the table to set up, it was enough to call things a full day. But wait, there was more! Preview night for 4 day badge holders began at 5:30 and ran till 9. Once the doors opened, it was a real “release the hounds” experience. Never saw so many people running with so much purpose, all the while dragging huge Warner Brothers bags from their shoulders. It took a while for people to filter down to our area, but once they did we made lots of new friends, enjoyed lots of laughter and pointing at our booth (that’s a good thing, right?) and sold quite a few things. After hearing stories that Preview Night was usually considered a “Lookie Lou” event, we were glad to see some wallets come out to air. Thursday will be the first big full day and we’re looking forward to letting the monkey business continue…
