drawmein: Free State Con 2011!

Free State Con 2011!

September 10, 2011

What a great day for a comic book convention!

Artist Greg Smallwood!

First off, yes I've mentioned it before... but a big shout out to Greg Smallwood for putting me in the show's promotional artwork for this year's convention. I got so much mileage with that there, thank you sir!

Second... there are so many comic book professionals in the Kansas City metro area, that we are so lucky to have conventions like this at all! And I'm so glad I got to talk to some of the pro's that I might not have normally got a chance to chat with at a bigger con.

Show promoter Craig Klotz. Also eye squinting contest winner!

Meet the guy who put on the show, one Mr. Craig Klotz. I'd say he did a good job! Thanks for making me feel like a vip dude. As if my ego wasn't big enough (please see Draw Me In... ha ha).

Picked up some convention swag, a poster and a T-shirt too.

It's a TRAP!

Meet C.W. Cooke, writer of a handful of those Bluewater Comics bio comics. I've never picked one up before, but I am a fan of Conan O'Brien... and I couldn't pass picking that issue up!

And since I'm also at the con to be sneaky and hand out DMI fliers to creators, I told him about my campaign and Mr. Cooke seemed highly interested in it! And may I say, you have the best Star Wars shirt ever. Period.

Guess who this is?

Admitidly, I don't have a lot of Steven Sanders' work. But I've talked to him before and he's a very talented and nice guy! So when the dude gets some big time press and praise for his recent Our Love is Real book, I've got to shake his hand and say congrats!

I asked him about up-coming projects and he showed me pages from a future Generation Hope issue. Those were some great pencils!

I kept running into this guy... Buster Moody.

Now this was a helpful gent... Buster Moody (or whatever your real name is.. ha ha), colorist on Screamland. I picked up the missing issues from the current run and chatted a bit. Nice guy.

Mr. Kevin Mellon!

Another local artist who's stock has risen in recent months is Kevin Mellon. How's that you say? Coming in November Kevin has a new book from Image written by Blair Butler called Heart. Please... like you haven't heard about it. It's getting all sorts of buzz!

He also hooked me up with some missing issues of his and Phil Hester's Thirteen Steps. I got a lot of reading material from this convention!

B. Clay Moore as always is a cool guy to chat too. He talks to you. About the industry. Behind the curtain storys about projects. I love to hear this stuff.

Recently a story he did through Oni with artist Jeremy Haun, The Leading Man, was optioned thru Universal Pictures and picked up by Fast 5 director Justin Lin. I'd never read the story, but B. Clay was nice to bring along and sell me his only copies of the book he had left. Thanks man, I feel like I robbed you. And thanks for the updates on Hawaiian Dick. I can't wait for the next chapter.

B. Clay Moore (left) and Seth Peck (right)

Lightning round for the rest of the usual suspects!

Seth Peck has recently wrapped on his Marvel tie-in series Wolverine: Fear Itself. We discussed some of the makings of the book and I got a couple signatures.

Alex Grecian was on hand to sign my last two un-signed issues of Proof. Now that I have the whole run autographed, I feel empty... and sad. I really hope he comes back to comics and busts out some more Proof stories. Until then he's turned his energies toward writing novels. Best of luck man!

Jai Nitz... is a super nice guy. I seriously enjoy his conversations, but I didn't have anything to get signed because unfortunately I don't read a lot of his books written thru Dynamite. Now that I think about it, I don't think we talked at all. Sorry man.

Host of The Basement Sublet of Horror!

And lastly on a non-comic book note, we have horror host Gunther Dedmund! This guy really seems to enjoy doing what he does. In the picture above he is holding a prop comic book he used for a promotion video for the Free State Con, which he had me sign. Unfortunately I missed him on my second go-round of the floor. But hey, I'll give him a plug here. If you're into B horror films, give it a look.

posted by Gjskier (Kal), 11:00 PM