Super-Con 2009 in San Jose

I attended the first day at Super-Con 2009 in San Jose. With warmer weather hitting the area this weekend, I wasn't sure if attendance would be good or bad at the show. Looked pretty full to me.

The doors opened about 5 minutes late but with a long line already cued up out front, eager fanboys (and fangirls) raced into the convention straight for what seemed like the Adam Hughes table! :) The next large group of people seemed to be around the Eduardo Risso table. The artist of 100 Bullets fame had a crowd about 2 rows deep after I did a short loop around the "main" artist alley area. I was a little surprised to see that artists were in the back of the main show section as well as along the sides and front section of the show floor, generally spread out. This makes sense though since it seemed to prevent large clusters of people in only one area (other than those waiting for a particular artist) and maybe it would encourage more foot traffic throughout the show.

After some more slow geeking and looking at everything, I found the table for Whilce Portacio. Whilce wasn't there yet but his friendly and extremely nice wife (Their entire family is really nice!!) was there to manage the table till he got there shortly thereafter. They had some nice pre-done original art pieces as well as a few published pages so I couldn't help myself and picked up some goodies for me. :)

Feet kept moving me around till I slowed down and browsed the original art portfolios of some of the long time comic book artists --Ernie Chan, Pablo Marcos, Danny Bulanadi, Tony Dezuniga, and Alex Nino. Great great stuff there. Their use of pencil tones are incredible. If you haven't yet seen their pieces up-close, I encourage you to check out their work at the next show. Their fine lines and extraordinary backgrouns will really amaze you. I ended up getting a nice full figured and large Baron Karza sketch from Danny --funny and great guy too. I'm tempted to get another sketch from him now that I'm back from the show and finally have a chance to look at it more thoroughly. hahaha :)

Ended up perusing the many booths to see if there are any new or cool toys I need for my office. Amazed to see those "Super Hero Squad" figures still selling so well, but hey they are kinda cool. Lots of Star Wars toys still. Speaking of my Baron Karza sketch, I'm still waiting for a Micronauts movie and renewed interest for this untapped market and potential mega-franchise --just think of all the consumer merchandising here people. Think Transformers but think less tires and fenders. Just get Megan Fox to be Marionette, it will be a hit. ;)

I ended up finding my way back to Whilce's table and saw Whilce in action working on my piece. Woo hoo!! We ended up chatting for more than an hour about stuff, but it was great catching up. I think the last time I was able to chat face-to-face with them may have been 2004 in San Diego. Hope the next time isn't another 5 years.

Many familiar faces at the show including Eddy "I'm not Jim Lee" Choi. And finally was able to attach some faces of other art collectors to their email addresses as well. Overall fewer original art dealers, but still I'm glad I was able to make this show.