Cool new people we met: Jon Davis-Hunt (below, who recently drew Tempest for the Megazine). We bumped into each other throughout the weekend, and had a great artists' chinwag while waiting in line for a portfolio review - what a nice guy! He's going to be working with Tony Lee on a new series for 2000AD.
Lee Carter was another top bloke (he recently finished Dead Eyes for 2000AD) - I was amazed at how bright and vibrant the colours were on the prints he had of his pages - apparently there was a problem with his monitor's brightness settings when he was working on Dead Eyes, which led to the printed version in 2000AD looking too dark. So to everyone moaning about the "muddy" art, that's the reason!
Caught up with Tony Lee, who is truly the king of conventions - he knows everybody! After Starship Troopers, we're going to be working on something new and very cool, which I'll post about soon. Tony was responsible for the high point of my weekend - he brought none other than Comic Art God Dave Gibbons over to our table at the Ramada bar (I was fighting my inner fanboy instincts all the way). Dave was more than happy to sit with us and look at my portfolio and gave me some great advice and a few compliments too - it was a pure artist/fanboy moment I'll never forget. Thank you Tony - thank you Dave.
Another fanboy moment for me was meeting a very hungover Simon Bisley on Sunday Morning:
Sharon and I were impressed with the Ramada - nice room, great restaurant and (expensive) bar - we'll definitely be making the trip again next year. Another highlight was walking past the massive queue to get into the con on Saturday morning - and getting in for free, no less. It pays to be a creator!! A few more pics:
Lee Carter with Dave Taylor:
Harry Markos at the Markosia booth:
Sean Phillips with his son and friend Lewis:
Matt "Tharg the Mighty" Smith:
Dave Gibbons:
And last but not least, a Dredd page from my portfolio (still no work for 2000AD yet, but I'll be doing more samples when I have time). I did have a good response from some other editors, so I'll post any news on that in the coming weeks. And now... back to the drawing-board :-)
2 comments:
Better luck next time, Jim. That mega-city skyline's looking mightily impressive - erm - I mean 'scrotnig'.
Yowza! Missed you at Comics Expo - not surprising really, given that it was totally RAMMED and by mid-day had become a total sweatlodge.
Good to see you ain't quit yet. Neither have I. Took some time out while my daughter was a baby but now I'm back with a venegeance. Not aiming specifically at comics, as my strengths are more inclined towards covers and posters, but I do keep abreast of what's going on in GeekLand. Things have come a long way since the days of UKCAC but the mixture of old pulp and fanboy sweat is eternal.
Give out, but don't give up, mofo!
Rik
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