In Brightest Day - Friday July 24 2009

I accomplished quite a bit today. But before I bore you with things like Ron Jeremy texting on the pee soaked streets of San Diego or using my will power to alter reality so as to make absolutely sure I got to see Warren Ellis, I think we should take a moment for what I'd like to call the Shark Consumer Corner.

First of all, Hotels.com is the worst. With the exception of one person who was actually willing and able to get off their ass (and probably not even literally as she just had to make some calls) the whole of Hotels.com customer service department is a bunch of goat lickers. Specifically, goat testicle lickers. When I originally arrived in SD, I made my way to the hotel by cab after waiting twice for a shuttle which never came after calling for it and was able to check in thanks to Richard calling in and letting them know I was coming. This was fine and helpful even though at first I wasn't really sure what to think when I was pointed to our room and it had a handicapped logo on the sign. Okay says I. So its the handicapped room, whatever. There was nothing I could do, I didn't think about it any more. I had a comicon to get to and get registered for! So anyways, fast forward and I'm back in the room and Richard and Stephen show up. Richard is a little upset and understandably so. He explains how he went about registering specifically for a room with 2 beds that would be able to contain 3 adults. He explained this to the hotel and they told him that Hotels.com told them to just give us whatever is available. The rest of the night is spent with Richard on the phone trying to explain to hotels.com why it doesn't make any sense whatsoever for him to specifically request and make a reservation for a room with 2 beds for 3 adults if they are just going to tell the hotel to give us the handicapped room. We finally got someone there who was reasonable and so after a night of sleeping on the floor, we are in a room with 2 beds and at a lower rate. None of this was the hotel's fault and the only thing hotels.com ever tried to do with the exception of the one lady who fixed our problem was tell us that they can't be responsible for anything and place Richard on interminable hold.

Also, there is no fan in the bathroom so we have set a rule of asking the other two people sharing the room if they would like to "go down to the bar, per chance". This is to avoid any discomfort that should arise due to the smell of shit that is forced to permeate the apartment because they don't have a stupid fan of any kind.

So whatever, that's fine. Last night, I went with Richard to a pub called Henessy's where some people were holding a Drink and Draw event. It was a great opportunity to meet other artists and comic fans while killing brain cells and I enjoyed the inspiration that comes from talking to these people. A lot of really good artists were there and a lot of amateur artists but you could see the passion in each one of them for what they were doing. I even got a Richard Georges 2009 comicon exclusive sketch out of it! I need to write more...

Today, I woke up still a bit tipsy from last night and wasn't sure if I had it in me to go through with anything at all. I allowed myself to take requests from friends back home see and since none of them were necessarily unreasonable, I felt it would only solidify my slacker image if I was incapable of returning with anything at all. I think I did pretty well though. Today was filled with meeting and listening to creators who have made it big in their respective fields. People I have a tremendous amount of respect for and if I could only emulate their hardworking nature even in a small way, I would feel validated as a creator. I have seen so much and got some cool things as well.

The first thing I did was to get down to the convention center so that I could have a chance to meet Terry Brooks. While I myself may not have read many of his books, I'm a fan of his Magic Kingdom of Landover novels and my friend Justin is an even bigger fan of his Shannara series of books so it was nice to get to meet him and see that he is just a nice guy who clearly just loves to write. I also got to have him sign some stuff. Someday I'll get around to reading more of his work but i know Justin will be a very happy person when I get back.

For comics, there really isn't that much going on. I got a sketchbook from Steve Epting cause that guy is just the bee's knees when it comes to drawing. I got to hang and talk with Carlos D'Anda with Richard while flipping through his art and see all of the radical stuff he has been doing for DC of late. I found out he's been doing a lot of concept work for DC Video games like Arkham Asylum and got to see them. He's really good and I'd keep an eye on him as he has done some interiors as well. He has a good eye for composition of his images and the technical proficiency to pull off what he visualizes. He's also really cool and everyone should check out his stuff.

After this, I walked around a bit more with Richard and I visited the Behemoth booth to check out their new game. It looks kind of neat and should be another fun multiplayer game to play but I'm such a fan of the brawler genre that I don't think I'll be interested in any game from them now that isn't castle crashers 2.

The only panel I went to today was one called After the first 1000 pages. It was interesting because it was basically a panel of some great artists like Becky Cloonan and Gene Colan talking about their approach to developing their art. The fact that they all repeated the same message that in order to improve, you simply have to continue to draw every day even when you don't want to. One of the panelists likened the discouragement that comes with closely watching your own art improve to the same feeling you get watching the minute hand on a clock move and I thought that was appropriate. It was informative and inspiring. I also got to meet and get a picture with Becky Cloonan and tell her how much I loved her work on Demo, forgetting to mention anything else she's drawn like a moron but whatever. She was really nice.

Afterward, it was back to the convention floor. I spent most of the afternoon trying to find out exactly where Warren Ellis was going to be and the people at the Marvel Booth pointed out where but neglected to mention there was already a line forming for him. Thankfully I was able to spot the various copies of Transmetropolitan and Planetary people were holding for him to sign and made my way to the back of the line only to find that there was a guy there with a sign pinned to his shirt that said "LAST IN LINE. 'NUFF SAID." Fuck that I said! There were a couple people standing around him in a sort of line like fashion lamenting that there were only going to be so few people allowed in line and it really was short, maybe 20-30 people long. I stayed there anyways and my persistence paid off when one of the booth people finally came along after Warren and Masao Maruyama showed up and took the sign to move it back about 10 more places. There was already a huge line behind me even at this point so I don't know if any of those people got to actually get in but whatever, I was official now! I got to meet and shake Masao Maruyama's hand and tell him that Madhouse was one of my very favorite animation studios and they should be yours too because the work that they put out for all of their various projects is nothing short of extraordinary. Seeing this guy from Japan who is pushing 70 sitting there with all of his accomplishments under his belt was something I never thought I'd get to experience in person. I got to tell Warren Ellis that he was the main reason I got into reading comics in the first place and he apologized to me in his deadpan fashion. Richard had given me his sketchbook where the first page was a sketch of a woman to sign but Warren didn't want to sign someone else's art even though there was plenty of space on the boob for it. He was nice though and still signed the inside cover of it for him.

By this time, I am feeling pretty overwhelmed from carrying all the weight of my day around with me and so Richard and I returned to the hotel laden with accomplishment and inspiration. I hope that someday someone can tell me that I inspired them to greatness the same way these people have done for me. I am tired now though so I am going to bed. The rest of the evening wasn't much to note with the exception of one thing. On our way out to find somewhere to eat, we were walking along one of the seedier streets of SD which I have noticed is very much a fucked up city like anywhere else. It seems all you have to do is go one or two streets away from Fifth in either direction and you will find urine, homeless people and Ron Jeremy hanging out texting on his phone. What a great city.