– Shortly after arriving at the convention, Dan and I attended a panel on creator-owned comics, moderated by our pal Andrew Foley and featuring Jill Thompson (Beasts of Burden, Sandman), Matt Wagner (Grendel), Eric Powell (The Goon) and Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo). We were just barely allowed into the panel (which was almost full), and even then could barely hear anything that anybody was saying because there were no microphones or any kind of sound amplification equipment, and even if there was, there was quite a bit of background noise coming from the herds of people roaming about outside the seminar rooms. A few minutes into the panel I snuck (incredibly unstealthily) up the side wall and spent the rest of the panel watching from about the fifth row, where I could actually hear what people were saying.
– After the panel we split up and wandered around the convention floor to see what there was to see. There was a lot to see. I got cursory glances at maybe a quarter of the vendors before it was time to hustle back to the panel area for the BOOM! Studios panel. My favourite part of it was the rambling old couple, who would “ask questions” that were prefaced with a several minute long story that nobody else in the room could follow and which didn’t actually involve a question. Okay, they were actually really irritating, but were instrumental to my favourite part of the panel. Part way through one of their long non-sensical stories I rolled my eyes derisively, which the BOOM! publisher (who was the speaker at the panel) saw, and was very clearly amused by. I think he could also read the boredom in the room, because after that he cut them off if they weren’t actually asking a question.
– After wandering around the con for a few more hours I started showing my art to some of the pros to get critiques. I showed them the first issue of Hell, Inc. and select HEAT pages. I got some useful tips to improve, which I would recount if I was less distracted by the Stanley Cup playoffs. They’re also not very interesting to non-artists, I would imagine. When the con closed, it was time to head to our lodgings, then the drink and draw. But those will have to wait until next time, because the playoffs are on and I’m hungry.
