Wednesday, August 27, 2008

One more quick UK update with a couple of pictures...

For the last week I've been in the UK and got to see some of the sights in London, go to the Doctor Who Exhibition at Earls Court, attend the Discworld Convention in Birmingham. Here's a quick picture update...

The Model of Big Ben used for Doctor Who on display at the Doctor Who Exhibition.
The real Big Ben, still in one piece (with the London Eye - no longer in use by the Nestene) in the background.

Daleks exterminating!


Me at the Discworld convention with Twoflower's Iconograph and hat from the Colour of Magic miniseries.

My time is up and I have a plane to catch back to Arizona....


Monday, August 25, 2008

Discworld UK & WorldCon

Quick update to the blog.

Still in the UK with reports on WorldCon and the UK Discworld coming soon.

Lee

Sunday, August 3, 2008

The Blog that Couldn't be Killed... More Comic Con Photos

OK, for whatever reason (maybe all of my links to reports on Comic Con), Blogger decided that my blog might be a spam blog and locked me out from editing it until they had a chance to review it. It appears that I do have control again, but they never sent me any confirmation or apology about it. In any case, here's a few more pictures from Comic Con. I was hoping to get more of an organized report up, but I'm in the process of trying to get ready to go to WorldCon in Denver, Denvention 3, this coming weekend.

I've put up a report about Connie Willis at Comic Con over on the Connie Willis blog (it wasn't locked out even though it is under the same account). Connie will also be at WorldCon, and is nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novella.


There were lots and lots and lots of people in costumes, most of which I didn't get pictures of. These three I did manage to catch, though, as well as the Batman and Wonder Woman seen at the top of this entry that were hanging around the Sony DC Online booth.



There were stormtroopers, ghost busters, jedi knights, all sorts of comic book characters running around all weekend. Some of the costumes were OK, but there were a good number that were very impressive, like this pair below.


I caught up with a Rincewind and his Luggage from Terry Pratchett's Discworld. This Green Lantern was busy texting or playing a game while waiting for the Masquerade. I also came across a Hal Jordan Green Lantern and a Green Arrow in the lobby where the Green Lantern was conversing with someone (Black Canary? Carol Ferris?) who he was trying to find and had just been told that she was standing in front of a Starbucks. There's only about five or six Starbucks in the convention center alone. Needless to say, GL was a bit frustrated....


There were also lots of authors and comics writers and artists there. I did catch up with John Howe, who it was nice to meet him in person
finally (after having exchanged a few emails with him). I also caught Dave McKean at the Allen Spiegel Fine Arts booth and had a few things signed, inclding one item that Dave was surprised to see. The original UK edition of Neil Gaiman's Don't Panic, for which Dave did the cover art for when he was just starting out. He wasn't too embarrased, though, since he had to show it to Allen. I also was lucky enough to get a ticket to the Amano signing at the Dark Horse booth and got a couple of things signed. Watching Amano draw a sketch is always a neat thing. I brought a few things for Todd Klein to sign (or letter, since that is how he does his signature, too.) He has some real neat posters available on his website that he was selling at his table that you can also order. He has done most every comic written by Neil Gaiman, Fables, Castle Waiting, and lots of other stuff, and has been a consistent winner of the Eisner Award for Lettering.




Down at the Donato Arts booth, they did several art demos in association with Spectrum and Tor, I caught a bit of the Greg Manchess demo, where he painted an image of Hellboy. Tor.com has an article on the demo as well as a sped up video of him painting the picture.

At the DC booth, I made it to the X-Files signing with Co-Producer Frank Spotnitz and artist Brian Denham. The suprise was that Chris Carter was also there, signing the comic and some promotional photos for the X-Files movie (for the few of you who did see the movie, did you stay all the way through the end credits? Is that the Lost island they are heading for?), Unfortunately Chris decided to lean back as I took my picture, so all you can see is the top of his head behind Frank. It was nice to chat with both Frank and Chris for a bit. Also at the DC booth, I caught up with Keith Giffen and Robert Loren Fleming, who were responsible for the original Ambush Bug comics and are working on the new Ambush Bug series, Year None. Get it, you'll be glad you did.



Finally, to close out this entry, one of the not-usually-at-comic-con celebrities was singer/songwriter Tori Amos, promoting the release of Comic Book Tattoo. Once I have the time, I'll devote an entire blog post to the Odyssey of Comic Book Tattoo at this year's Comic Con...