Toronto Comicon: April 18 & 19

This weekend HobbyStar Marketing did a Fan appreciation event holding a relatively small comicon at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (aka MTCC). We went on Saturday to check it out. It was a pretty small convention, but it was very nice. Not too crowded.

Chatted to some vendors while I continued my search to complete my set of Winnick Green Arrow GNs and was talked into picking up Batman and Son, despite my severe aversion to Grant Morrison. It was Mike from Conspiracy Comics, who told me more about Morrison than I ever thought I wanted to hear and made it all sound so irresistable that I couldn’t help but pick up a book. I’ll read it and let you know what I think, but in orderto slam something (ahem, like RIP) I have to read it. Below are some environmental pics I took. Enjoy!

(This is my new favorite comic bin sign.)

(The Silver Snail Wonder Woman Promo Girl)

(The Bat Signal. Too awesome not to take a shot of.)

More posts on the Con below, including some more sigs on The Shield and some very cool artists we met.

The Shield, Part 2-2: Steve Epting

For more details on The Shield, please click the tab above.

This weekend we were able to check two more people who worked on Cap off the list, one of them being a pretty big deal in the Captain America world. Both Steve Epting and Bill Seinkiweicz were signing at the Con this weekend.

Steve Epting, as you are likely well aware, is one of the bigger names in Captain America right now, having done the art for the large part of the books surrounding his death. The Brubaker/Epting combo has become almost legend in the comics world, considering the amount of ground they’ve covered and the issues they’ve tackled. We were very pleased to be able to meet him. Coming directly off his flight (and checking into the hotel), he started signing and sketching right away. It was mighty tempting to get a sketch from him, at only $80, but we decided we’d skip it this time. We did, however, get him to sign The Shield (of course!). I’m quite annoyed that the last image turned out so blurry, but hey, like I said, another time.

The Shield, Part 2: Bill Seinkiweicz

For the story of The Shield, check out the tab above.

Bill Sienkiweicz is known for lots of things, but probably most recently best known for the Dark Knight production art, including most of the really awesome sketches of the joker that you’ve seen around. Bill worked on a recent book called Captain America Red, White and Blue, in which the artists were only allowed to use those three colours to tell their story. It’s an anthology, but it’s a pretty awesome book.

Awesome Marcus Ninja

One of my favorite things about conventions is the Artist’s Alley.  When I first started going to conventions, we steered clear of this section because usually everyone is selling something and I feel bad saying, no thanks, especially when I was really saying, “I’m not interested.” As my comics taste has grown we’ve started spending more and more time in this section of the convention. I dare say, it’s really the only reason we go anymore: comic artists, indie artists and prints. I loves me some prints. So yesterday while we were wandering through Artist’s Alley, we can into these guys:

Joel & Shane of Awesome Marcus Ninja

I’ll be honest, I’m not sure who the guy on the left is, he was at their table and he was very friendly, I just totally epic failed on asking his name…

Anyhow that shouldn’t diminish the fact that their comic is awesome and, in fact, web based. It’s really cool! You can find it here. They update every Monday.

We also got them to do us some sketches. Captain America (I know you’re shocked) and an original Awesome Marcus Ninja. Check them out below!

Sketch Awesome Marcus Ninja

Captain America Sketch

You, Me and Zombie

Another person we met in the Artist’s Alley is the wonderful, sweet and talented Agnes Garbowska. Her work on the DC universe in that wonderful super-deformed, super-cute style is amazing! She’s also ridiculously sweet and, better yet, she’s working on a project right now called You, Me and Zombie (official blog here) which is exactly what it sounds like: a young girl named Olive and her dog Otis wake up one morning to discover that the world has been overrun by zombies. Together they set out to find a cure. Awesome, right? Check out the blog and see just how adorable this is. Once it hits any sort of medium you can purchase, I know I’m there.

We picked up two of Agnes’ art cards with Captain America (I know, you’re shocked) and Batman (again, the shock), as well as a Batman keychain and a Flash pin. (Oh God it’s SO cute!) We also picked up the You, Me and Zombie cut outs, where you can put together your very own Olive, Otis and Zombies. Once I get them all cut out and done I’ll post some pics. Check out Agnes at her site, MyMisiu.com.

Agnes

Stuff I Bought From Agnes

The Shield, Part 1

It always happens this way. Two weeks before SFX my husband will start pouring over the guest list to SFX (aka FanExpo, Festival of Fear, AnimeCon, Toronto ComiCon, etc). It is during this time of year that I begin to check internet history, start groaning about how broke we are and making any type of advance necessary to get him away from the computer. It never works. Inevitably he will turn to me and say, ‘Honey, I’m going to make a Bat Cowl to be signed by Adam West,’ or some such thing that will cost me buttloads of money and may not actually ever get finished. Last year it was ‘Honey, I’m going to make a Cap shield and get it signed by Alex Ross.’ After discussing just how much it would cost us to have him MacGuyer one up out of fiberglass, his product of choice for this particular hairbrained scheme, I almost fainted. I said ‘Fine.’ Almost $300 later we ended up with this:

It has been said of my husband, by people who are not me and not his mother, that his *first try* at something is the same as everyone else’s *best, finished work*. These people, they are not wrong. What you’re looking at there is his first try at that. Yep. That *IS* intimidating to live with.

Unbeknownst to me, while this man had been slaving over the shield in the shop, he had been dreaming up an ever better scheme: Why stop at Ross, when we could get anyone who’s ever worked on Cap to sign it? So we drag it to the con. I underestimated the effect this article would have on litlte boys of all ages. We barely got 4 feet anywhere before being stopped, oggled and complimented.

So far we have had it signed by the following:

Tim Sale (with a little sketch – FanExpo 08)
Adam Hughes (hasn’t yet, but is a huge fan and will someday – FanExpo 08)
Alex Ross (FanExpo 08)
Mike Choi (FanExpo 08)
Steve McNiven (FanExpo 08)
Dexter Vines (FanExpo 08)
Kurt Lehner (local artist – FanExpo 08)
Kevin Maguire (Toronto ComiCon, Feb 1/09)
David Ross (Toronto ComiCon, Feb 1/09)

And there’s soon to be more. I’ll just keep postin’ ‘em as we get ‘em. Below my husband with Alex Ross and the shield as it was after FanExpo 08.

I Read Stuff: Green Arrow, Batman

So this week I digested a whole lotta comics. I read:

• Green Arrow: The Archer’s Quest – Recommended
• Green Arrow: City Walls – Alright
• Green Arrow Black Canary: The Wedding Album – Pretty Awesome, but now I have to read more
• Time Sale: Tales of The Batman – Highly Recommended

The Green Arrow’s were great, but then I’m biased because not only am I madly in love with Ollie, I’m also married to a man who looks and acts remarkably like him. City Walls was okay, but I didn’t *love* the magic angle, but hey it can’t be supervillains all the time, right? Check it out if you can or are a completest, but it’s not a ‘must read’, even if there’s a few funny bits.

I loved Archer’s Quest though. First, I’m a really big fan of Brad Meltzer’s comic work. Identity Crisis was one of the first books I read that really got me out of my ‘Batman, Only Batman’ rut and into other capes and cowls. In fact, Identity is probably one of my favorite books full stop. I also really enjoyed the ‘hunt’ the book itself entailed. I thought that it had some very essential GA moments and was a significantly engrossing story. Check it out for sure.

The Wedding Album was a very interesting read for me. It’s the first ‘wedding’ issue I’ve ever read because I usually like to steer clear of that sort of thing, but it came recommended highly by a friend who works for Snail, so I grabbed it yesterday while I was waiting in line for a movie. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. I think that the story stayed very true to the characters themselves – ie. married couples DO fight and make up and it’s not a big deal – but they also worked in the villain angle really well. My eyes did start to roll back in my head when they ended up on New Themyscria, because I think the whole ‘Amazons are trying to take over the world’ thing is a little overdone. That said, it fit kinda better than I thought. The ending was a signficant cliffhanger, so I’ma have to run out and find whatever came next, but I stronly recommend hitting this one up if for no other reason than the one page of everyone getting their invitations. Of course my favorite: “Alfred… Tell them I can’t make it.” But only one question: Since when does Mia have HIV?

Last, but certainly not least, Tim Sale: Tales of The Batman. I rank this up there amongst “must reads” because I love hearing from an author or an artist or an inker or a colourist. I love hearing from the people who made it great. This is not a ‘lookit how great I am’ tome. This is a book about how he *learned* to become part of the Batman mythos. There’s comments about what he loves. There’s comments about what he hates. And there’s some stuff in there I’ve never even heard of and certainly would not have read if he hadn’t collected it into this great book. Get it. Read it. Love it.