February, 2009 | Dog Eaters

Feb 8, 2009 Day 3 New York Comicon

Posted on 02.09.09 under New York Comic Con, Uncategorized

I was told that Day 3 was Nerd Day. What that means, I’m not quite sure. But Sunday was sold out and children under 12 admitted for free. It was packed. And it seemed like there were more cosplayers than Saturday.

On a more self-centered note, the public awareness of DOG EATERS has definitely gone up — which gives me a feeling of mild relief. I think this project might see its way to completion.

I spent a few furtive minutes in the morning trying to photograph the camera-shy Derek Ruiz. He handles a lot of Dabel day-to-day business and is usually credited as a project director or editor. Derek reviewed portfolios on later in the afternoon.

Amanda came in (Marie worked Fri and Sat). With experience selling electric guitars on her resumé, she was a natural!

This Swat Team member really made me feel safe. Until she sniffed out my peanut butter and honey sandwich…

As seamless as the Swat Bear’s costume was, the Beat Box Boys… were not…

Ernst Dabel: reader, writer, and president of the Dabel Brothers.

A mysterious character from the Far East…

A delightful couple. I bet they can waltz.

This character was part of their entourage.

Jasmine Mai, part Chinese-part Filipina — vying for hottest girl at the NYCC.

There were a number of Slave Leias. I wish I could have lined them all up.

Riddick and a couple of his pals.

It was peaceful until these two squared off. I bet you think the guy with over-sized cleaver won, right?

The man in yellow and black lived to fight again.

My youngest sister, Jan, felt well enough to attend. So nice to see her again!

This is her handsome husband. I think Jan made a good choice, don’t you? At least he’s a member of the Black Dog Clan!

Do you think fangs are enough protection against a burly man in a mask with a cricket raquet?

Here is the crew working. It really helped.

With one of Patricia Briggs’ agents (Mercy Thompson series) and Koko.

An independent filmmaker who just happens to like Super Dolphie. Unfortunately, he’s not a Blythe fan… However, he is a member of the Black Dog Clan.

Fights kept breaking out. I was surprised at the lack of security. I guess they were all busy filling out applications to join Homeland Security.

Later in the afternoon, I was interviewed by Dog & Pony. I’ll let you know where you can view it.

On our way out the door, Reni obliged us with a pose.

After bartering with the gypsy taxi drivers outside of Javits (ended up paying $25 to get 4 of us and our luggage back to the CWC-i office), the full moon came out. Watch out for werewolves!

Feb 7, 2009 Day 2 New York Comicon

Posted on 02.08.09 under New York Comic Con, Uncategorized

Day 2 was packed — reminiscent of the frenzy of San Diego. Still, cosplay is less prominent. I think there are a couple of reasons: People dress for the weather — and it’s pretty cold in NY in Feb. I heard that when NYCC was in April, people were more into dressing (or undressing) more for the occaision. Another factor is the car culture. Hard to drive and park at Javits, so you have to hand-carry your costume. Kinda tough if you’re heavily armed. Also, there are probably more film industry costume and make-up people in So Cal. I’m glad I figured this out.

However, here are a few samplings of the cosplayers that did catch my attention.

When Crayon Shinchan looks at you, you gotta smile!

These guys had just just finished their make-up. Nice work!

This kung-fu princess made a cameo appearance.

I wasn’t expecting this pose, the character seemed so shy…

I heard that this Wookie gave an interview. In English.

We met at the Wacom booth. They had a $2000 tablet/screen that looked pretty awesome. You actually draw right on the image you see with the stylus, like you’re doing an analog drawing with pen/brush/pencil on paper.

Not quite sure who she was…

Nice and pink.

Nice armor.

In Japan, this is everyday wear for some girls…

These girls accosted me and at first I was puzzled. They weren’t wearing costumes and they waved a business card at me. “Choose your Surrogate.” What’s that? Turns out it’s a movie coming out in Sept 2009 based on a graphic novel. Humans that machines make more beautiful.

You be the judge…

A Mario character whose name escapes me.

Back at the booth, Les and Ernst Dabel.

And Issues 1 & 2, which I saw for the first time, yesterday… One issue at a time. You cannot rush the harvest by pulling on the shoots.

7 PM and we’re finished with Day 2. I walked to the 34th St. station where Marie and Gabriel took the subway home. I continued on foot to Times Square on foot to meet Rob and three little Skillings who had driven down from New Hampshire that day. Jan wasn’t feeling well, so she stayed in the hotel.

“Meet us at the red stairs,” said Rob.

The population of Manhattan is 60% tourists. The population of Times Square must by 95%. I wonder where these people came from.

There they are!

Eating a nutritious dinner of chicken nuggets and fries!

And then we walked to Rockefeller Center.

And then to the Omni Hotel. Rob is parking on the street — saves him a lot of money — unless he gets ticketed. Five of them in one room with some on the floor in sleeping bags. And they’re getting into the con for free. Rob gets the best deals!

Feb 6, 2009 Day 1, New York Comicon

Posted on 02.07.09 under New York Comic Con, Uncategorized

Well, I made it. A 12 hour flight from Narita to Newark. A surprisingly smooth trip. I watched two movies: Eagle Eye — which was so unbelievable I couldn’t believe it. It was Enemy of the State (Will Smith), taken to the nth degree. Big Brother knows everything… But if he does, why haven’t we found Bin Laden?

Spielberg was the exec-prod. Shia and Michelle Monaghan, directed by DJ Caruso. Grossed 173 mill but cost 80 mill. Rule of thumb is that a movie has to gross 4 times the production cost.

The second movie was Bourne Identity, which I’ve seen multiple times and enjoyed once again. During this movie I ate the dinner. Then I downed two sleeping pills. I ate just one first, but it seemed to perk me up. The second pill made me drowsy and I went with it, letting it take me down. The seat next to me was empty so I could sprawl a bit and I slept pretty deeply. The flight arrived at 4pm and I was feeling pretty good.

The next day, Gabriel met me and helped carry stickers, Issue #0, tattoos, buttons, a few t-shirts, to Javits. We were just talking about the Target promotion using Blythe as we approached Javits when Gabriel suddenly blurted: “There it is!”

Qualifier: We were not able to get a photo, this is Amanda Burden’s!

The irony of Blythe becoming popular in the USA is that Blythe is not available for normal retail in the States and will not be in the foreseeable future because Hasbro requires too many dolls to test. We just don’t make enough to justify giving up 200 dolls to destroy through testing.

This is my first NYCC, but I’ve been to Javit for the Licensing Show.
$We\'re here!$

Who’s faking and who’s real?

Gabe and Marie point the way to the Dabel Brothers booth where we will be based.

The difference between the NYCC and king of cons at San Diego is the absence of the huge Hasbro and Mattel and movie booths in NY. San Diego also has the whole upper level completely devoted to movies. This time, the big movie buzz is Yatterman.
$Couldn\'t get close enough to figure out if they were just looking at the screen or if Sho Sakurai or Takashi Miike were there. I don\'t think they were...$
Couldn’t get close enough to the screen to see what everyone was crowding around for. Was Sho Sakurai or Takashi Miike there? Hmmm, if not, quite a buzz building around this cult movie.
We are making a Doronjo Blythe, which is also looking like it will be very popular. This doll is going to be very hard to get — it will not be distributed outside of Japan because of Nikkatsu (production company) restrictions. I predict that this doll will go on sale on the internet for about $300 a doll or a little over twice the suggested retail price.

I also think that there may be less cosplay here than in San Diego. These were the most “interesting” cosplayers I saw on Day 1.
$Marie and Gabriel called them: Pirate Whores, playing with men\'s feeling just so they would look at their comic books. I thought that was a great idea!$
Gabe and Marie called these sweet little things, Pirate Whores, claiming that they played with men’s feelings just so they would look at their comic books. Not a bad idea!

I caught up with some Black Dog Clan members. Will Conrad who has been pencilling Conan, Kull, and a few other titles was signing.

He’s represented by GlassHouseGraphics and Dave Campiti. For Dog Eaters issues 1 & 2, we used two GlassHouseGraphic colorists based in Manila.

Conan by Will Conrad. These original pencils go for about $250, I believe.

The Dabel Brothers booth is twice the size as it was in San Diego. It was backed by a large banner.

And here’s a detail:

This is a crop of crop. The image is a detail from the Dog Eaters Issue #2 cover.

Before it got too crazy, I spent some time at Artists Alley. Met a husband (penciller) and wife (colorist) team: Elizabeth and Mitchell Breitweiser.

Family business is the way to go — keeps all the money in the family.

We also saw the artist, Todd Nauck, who did the Spiderman – Obama comic. There were 5 different covers — I got two for him to sign. Todd is also a new member of the Black Dog Clan!

You might think it’s surprising, but Day 1 was the first day I had seen Issues 1 and 2 in print. I’m bringing some back!

Two artists working on Dabel Brothers books were in the booth. Eric Battle, who did George RR Martin’s, Wild Cards.

And Chase Conley who is going to be doing Robert Jordan’s, Wheel of Time, which is going to be huge.

Amid the tumult, Chase warmed up for a commissioned piece by drawing a Wolverine.

Chase had a few of his sketchbooks, so I took the liberty of checking them out.

Some random images.
DC heroes.

They look pretty normal here.

Whoa… Are they all zombies?

Just a few of the people at the Dabel booth.

Relieving some stress
$Spidey\'s not that tough...$
Spidey’s not that tough!
$My mother\'s side of the family came from Hong Kong to Victoria, but I think this is a bit different$
My mother’s side of the family settled in Victoria, but I think they’re talking about something else.

Just before Gabe and Marie left to assist with an opening party at CWC-i at the Cable Building on Broadway and Houston, another Gabriel (Sauro) dropped by the booth. He is our printer (Quebecor). He needed company for a photo, so Marie was happy to oblige.

NYCC was finished at 7PM and I had just enough time to rush down to CWC-International for the last part of the opening reception for “Forget-Me-Not,” at Gallery Hanahou. I got there about 15 minutes before it was scheduled to close but it was still packed. I didn’t shoot the crowd scene, I had seen enough crowds today, but I did get these shots when it cleared.

This was an interesting artist. She did Female Merit Badges which included accomplishments like: stained panties, pubic hair, mastectomy, pantyhose and other feminine issues.

Here are the CWC-i girls:

Anna
$Tomie (pronounced \"Tommy\")$
Tomie (pronounced “Tommy”)

Amanda

Peek-a-boo!

And Gabe and Marie.

Kristen Rask, the curator of this show, and Koko

Interestingly enough, the strangest person I met this day was at the “Forget Me Not” opening party at CWC-i, not at NYComicon. This eccentric lady glided in, babbled about Cirque du Soleil and some southern islands, demanded attention (so I shot some photos of her) and then just as mysteriously disappeared. I later heard that she was spotted on the platform of the Bleeker St. subway station, standing there, acting normal…

And that was Day 1.

Next Entries »

Feb 8, 2009 Day 3 New York Comicon

Feb 7, 2009 Day 2 New York Comicon

Feb 6, 2009 Day 1, New York Comicon

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