Free Comic Book Day was today, and was awesome. It seemed like the amount of drawing I did and the amount of people present didn’t really sync up, since there didn’t seem to be a ton of people (or maybe I just wasn’t paying attention because I was busy), but I drew A LOT.
My drawings: portrait of some girl’s sister as an elf wizard, Batman, a little girl riding a dragon (which looked more like a tyrannosaurus with tiny useless wings to complement his tiny useless arms), Nightwing, the Flash, a blobby alien guy (who I had originally created as a used car salesman for a long-abandoned comic project), my friend Roger getting hit in the face with a dodgeball, punk rock Jesus, an exploding octopus, and Blue Beetle fleeing from a giant cake.
One of Happy Harbor’s promotional ideas was a scavenger hunt, which encouraged customers to visit all three stores. Customers could get an art board with a signature sheet taped to the back, then get artists from each of the three stores to add panels to the pages. All of the completed pages will be put online for people to vote on their favourites, and the winner will get a $250 Happy Harbor gift certificate, and each artist involved will get a $25 gift certificate. The first one I got to be part of only had the first panel, which was an octopus cozying up to a depth charge. The guy who had brought me the page mentioned that he interpreted it as a love story. I chose to draw the last panel instead of the next one, and drew the octopus, scorched in classic cartoon “I’ve just been blown up” style, being flung into the air by the charge’s detonation, which displaced the water into the shape of a heart. Ah, love. The next one I got had the Blue Beetle eating cake. I again drew the last panel, with a gigantic version of the cake that was being eaten smashing through the wall and yelling “OH YEAH” in his best Kool-Aid Man impersonation while the Beetle fled in terror.
Fun stories from FCBD
– A girl was waiting to get her sketch scavenger hunt page finished. While waiting, she was talking about various intersting costumes she’d like to attempt, one of which was Squirrel Girl. “I’d make an awesome Squirrel Girl!” (puffs out cheeks) “I can totally fit nuts in here!” We all burst into hysterical laughter, which confused her for about a minute when she finally realized what she had said. It would remain quote of the day, although it was challenged a few times (I don’t recall most of the challengers, unfortunately, but a different girl provided most of them).
– Dan is a really good artist. Julie was pretty sleepy and I’m just kind of lazy when it comes to sketching. This resulted in us trying to pass work off to Dan while we conversed with passers-by. At one point, quote-of-the-day challenger girl presented us with a sketch scavenger hunt art board. She wasn’t planning on heading to the other stores, but wanted the board to have all of our art on it. Julie quickly concocted the scheme of getting Dan to draw the entire thing, then her and me just signing our names on the aritst sheet taped to the back. I liked that plan, but it was eventually shot down by Dan, who was already like two drawings behind (he’s a popular guy at these things). That eventually turned into the Blue Beetle page I mentioned earlier.
– Dan tends to get the requests for sexy women. I’m happy to let him have them, because I’m not very good at drawing them. He was drawing a request for Wonder Woman, and the kid of the guy who requested it comes up and expresses his disappointment that she’s wearing a skirt. At first Dan thought it was because he was drawing his redesign of Wonder Woman, which features a militaristic-looking skirt instead of her usual gigantic belt and granny panties. “Oh do you want the shorts?” The kid answers “No.” Dan “Oh, well I’ll keep doing the skirt then.” “No, no skirt.” “So the shorts?” “No, no shorts.” At this point both Dan and I realized that the kid wanted her to be naked. Later, his dad (or at least an adult accompanying him) asked for a sketch of Sin City’s Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba’s character from the movie). Dan started plugging away, drawing the musculature and, of course, boobs. Dan’s drawing style involves outlining all of the musculature and limbs (which, with female characters includes the breasts) before he adds clothing and details. The guy, seeing the naked boobs, leans in and mentions that “you can draw her naked, y’know, if you want.” Dan sort of just kept on drawing, then turned to me after the guy had wandered off and said “Wait, that pretty much means he wants me to draw her naked, doesn’t it? ” Least subtle attempt at subtlety of the day.
