You can't always get what you want

                       But if you try sometimes you might find

                       You get what you need...

You may have seen the coverage on CNN, USA Today, or in the pages of Entertainment Weekly. But it’s impossible to really capture the madness of Comic-Con unless you’re there in person. I’ll do my best here to recap my weekend. I apologize in advance for any gaps in my memory. I’m pretty sure I was mind-wiped at some point (perhaps when I veered a little to closely to the DHARMA booth.)

Thursday

After taking care of the last of Wednesday’s New Comics Day business over at Isotope, James, Kirsten and I boarded an early flight Thursday morning and made our way to San Diego. Upon arrival, I suggested that I should go and grab the rental car while they waited for their baggage. When it was revealed that I only had my carry-ons, James (dressed, as usual, to the nines in a olive green zoot suit) asks with bewilderment, “but where do you keep all of your shoes?”

    I answered, “I have one pair on my feet and one in the bag.”

    To which James responded, “But where do you keep all of your shoes?”

It wasn’t long before we found ourselves at James and Kirsten’s home-base for the weekend. The first order of business was to find a name fitting the total sweetness of the condo!

Long story short, welcome to the SkyPad. Oasis. Epicenter of contemporary living. And for the duration of the Comic-Con, a second home.

After a quick bite- hold on, I should give this meal a little extra shout out. Brunch consisted of a pumpkin-belgian waffle that was crispy on the outside and tasted like pie on the inside. Thank you, Cafe 222. Just awesome. Okay, back to the story...

Check-in at the convention took about thirty seconds. And it was smooth sailing from there. I decided to take off on my own for a bit and walk the floor. I quickly ran into old friends Chris Wisnia, JK Parkin, Christopher Mitten, Jose Cabrera, Jacq Cohen, and Molly Hahn. These are all people that I tend to only get a chance to see at conventions and I never seem to get to spend enough time with them at the shows either.

Before long, I was settling in at the AiT/Planet Lar booth for a signing with Kirsten and Daniel Merlin-Goodbrey. The entire convention floor was packed and we had our fair share of visitors. Saw pages from Daniel’s upcoming Marvel project and Kirsten’s Smoke and Guns still sells like hot cakes. I hope her book gets another big round of attention thanks to the fact that her artist, Fabio Moon, and his brother, Gabriel Ba, stole the show at the Eisners!

Here’s a picture my friend Sonia snapped of the signing!

Next stop: the “So You Want to Do a Graphic Novel” panel. It was really a privilege to get to speak to the packed crowd upstairs at the convention center- wait, the packed crowd? That’s right. When we first arrived at Room 3 and saw the line leading away from the entrance and around the corner and down the hall and then looping back around on itself we were a little skeptical. Surely, there was a mistake. I walked up to one group camped out in line and asked who they were there to see. The girl with the pink dreadlocks replied, “Not sure, but we want to make comics.”

Now, that, I thought, was cool.

So, we were super-hyped for the panel. We had a packed house and it was our job to rally the troops. I was really happy with the results. Lots of opinions and ideas and stories about getting off your butt and making comics from industry veterans (Steven Grant), superhero superstars (Adam Beechen), and newcomers like me and Kirsten. Larry Young tied the whole event together with his casual, yet effective, moderating.

Ended the evening with drinks back at the SkyPad with James, Kirsten, fellow SkyPad residents, Whitney Matheson and her friend Amanda, and a gaggle of other friends: Jim, Adrienne, and Angela. I excused myself from the Hyatt after-hours festivities to head over to Serena’s cousin’s place where I was staying for the weekend.

Solid first day. That’s for sure.

Friday

Met up with James and Kirsten on the floor for a bit. Talked with the iFanboy gang. They had their hands full this year covering the Con and acting as hosts at Darwyn Cooke’s booth. Here’s a shot of James doing his hosting thing and Ron doing his interviewing thing during the Grant Morrison signing at the table!

Man, I’ve got cool friends. Next up, I gave the Hollywood section of the convention a once over. I’ve got to admit, as skeptical as I am about the movie adaptation of The Watchmen, Nite Owl’s ship was a pretty cool:

Soon it was time to gear up for another signing at AiT booth. We were treated like kings by Ash and Pat who ran the booth like clockwork. AiT also shared some space with Starkings’ Active Images this year. Gave me lots of time to chat with letterer and design superstar John Roshell. He’s the guy who makes all the comic books you love look so damn good.

Then the weirdness started. First, one of my college buddies from my undergrad years in the education department at the University of Illinois randomly stopped by the table. That was a really fun reunion. Then the Hollywood people began flowing past the booth. I’ve never seen so many producers and P.A.’s in my life.

“Which one of these would make a good movie?” they’d ask.

“All of ‘em,” I’d respond. Apparently, that’s what they wanted to hear. So, then they’d start buying copies of them all. Oh well. Whatever. We’ll have a party when we have tickets in our hand for The Homeless Channel premiere. Until then, it’s a lot of hot air.

Friday also brought panel No. 2: Teaching Comics. I had a super fun time talking shop with Douglas Wolk, Steve Lieber, James Sturm, and Phil Jimenez in front of a room full of educators and students. Very cool. Big thanks to James, Kirsten, and Serena for cheering me on.

My other Friday mission was a complete failure: Operation Find Mike Romo. Mike’s one of my favorite guys in the world AND he happens to be the star of my next comic book (much more on that in the weeks and months to come.) Mike and I kept missing each other as we made our way in and out of panels and signings on the convention floor. Here’s what Mike was up to while I was trying to track him down!

And then there were the Eisners.

No, I didn’t win. But that’s just fine by me. As far as I’m concerned, Chuck BB’s Black Metal was one of the coolest books that hit the shelves last year and deserves all the attention it gets. For a pretty comprehensive recap of the ceremony, check out The Beat.

As for me, everyone was so sweet and supportive during the entire event.

First, James and Kirsten took me out to an incredible dinner at Oceanaire (known by Top Chef fans as the joint where Brian Malarkey serves as Executive Chef). Some of my friends were bringing picnic type eats to the Eisner ceremony itself. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to eat during the show in the minutes leading up to my category being announced. But once they handed out the award, Darwyn Cooke’s lovely partner-in-crime, Marsha, arrived with an astonishing array of treats for me and my table. She was soon followed by good friends, Storm and Kirsten, who came bearing more food and drink by the armload. The mood stayed festive as former AiT artists racked up the awards and visited the table to say thanks to Larry for giving them their first big breaks in the industry.

We ended the evening with some drinks after a chance encounter with some of our favorite Bay area peeps.

I’m pretty sure someone snapped a picture or two of Serena and I before the evening was over. I’ll post them up as soon as I get my hands on them. In the meantime, here’s one of Eisner presenter, Samuel L. Jackson, because, well, he’s cool.

Saturday

My last full day at the Con was all about meeting up and visiting with old friends, introducing myself to artists who I admire, buying comics... lots of comics. Purchases I’m most excited about: Slow Storm by former Isotope Mini-Comics Award winner, Danica Novgorodoff, Jamilti by Rutu Modan, and this full-color Scott Pilgrim comic. Oh, and I love Val Hochberg’s Kick Girl. Got a copy of issue two from her in the small press section of the Con. Saturday also offered us a chance to visit our friend, Josh Richardson, at the LucasArts booth where he was showing off the game he’s spent the last year of his life working on: The Force Unleashed. Amazing graphics, amazing gameplay, and it looks like an amazing story. Bravo, Josh!

Spent a really fun hour at the “Comics: Across Every Medium” panel. The talk featured USA Today’s Whitney Matheson along with Paul Feig (creator of Freaks & Geeks), David Goyer (Batman Begins), Chip Kidd (The Learners), and Brad Meltzer (The Book of Lies). I’m a huge Chip Kidd fan and it was a real honor to meet him after the panel was over. Here’s a picture I snapped of Whitney and Chip before I took off for my final signing of the weekend:

Speaking of Whitney, we all headed over to her Pop Candy Meet-Up at Altitude on the top floor of the Marriott at the end of the day. Whitney’s become such a cool friend over the last couple years. I wish I had more chances to hang out with her. Fortunately, she’s a huge comic book fan and we get to see each other at conventions. This year’s meet-up was an extra-special event for me because it featured one of the coolest door prizes I’ve seen in a long time: an exclusive comic based on some of her twitters from the last year. I was asked to do some of the art and it’s available for viewing at USA Today’s website right now! Click on the screen shot for an explanation of the comic over at Whitney’s blog:

To get a real feel for the party, I’d either head over here or check out what the San Diego Union Tribune had to say about the event! Lots of pictures at the first link and I’m even quoted in the second one.

After partying at the top of the hotel, it was back down to the bottom of San Diego where we picked the bar with the slowest service since humankind first conceived of the restaurant as a potentially effective food delivery system. Fortunately, I was among some of my very best friends and we had a great time none-the-less. And after a weekend of wall-to-wall comics, it was nice to talk literature for a bit with Whitney’s friend Amanda. I’m going to have to dust off that novel manuscript again one of these days.  : )

Here’s a couple pictures from the night:

Sunday

Saturday night didn’t end with dinner. Serena and I headed back to visit some more with family and then hit the bed with a thump knowing we’d be up for an early flight the next morning. We got home safe and sound and then we promptly fell right back asleep again. It was an exhausting, bizarre, inspiring, incredible weekend. I might just go back and do it again next year.

One final thanks to everyone who was so kind to me both before and after the big Eisner nomination. And since I didn’t get a chance to say it on-stage, thank you to everyone who has supported my crazy dream to make comics. It means the world to me.

Matt