[Groop]Con!

[Nate Piekos]

Just wanted to drop everyone a line and say thanks for stopping by the 
Blambot booth at SD con.  It was very cool to finally meet everyone and 
have a face to put with the names.  Larry, my wife loves you.  And I think 
you're one hell of a guy too.  Gary was much more normal than I thought he 
would be.  A deep down nice person.  Scott carried around a box of comics 
on his shoulder seemingly throughout the con... that just didn't look 
comfortable at all.  (Scoot, I haven't forgot about your Lint comic)  -- We 
had a blast at Dick's Last Resort.  There is now a standing document that 
the Groop was in Dick's -- the waiter asked me to draw something on a 
placemat when he found out I was an artist.  He asked for a hot babe, and 
he got one... except I added GROO behind her, ogling her, and above them, 
"DICK'S LAST RESORT - THE GROOP WAS HERE 2002".  When it was done he hung 
it on the wall.  I'm just sorry I didn't have more time to spend with you 
guys at the con.

If anyone is interested, here's a edited summary of the con that I posted 
on the Blambot Nexus:

First let me say, without Shane, I would have been lost in San Diego. The 
fact that I could mail all my stuff to him beforehand, and had he (and his 
girlfriend's) helping hands to truck stuff to and from the con was an 
immense help.

It's huge. I mean massive. Really, really large. If you can't find some 
comic related item in this place, it's not in existence. Check out Shane's 
pics: http://www.foolarchy.com/Media/sdcon/  It was also insanely crowded. 
Saturday being the most crowded. It was nice to be an exhibitor and be able 
to skip to the head of the mile long lines outside and just walk in to the 
empty hall every morning. I couldn't imagine standing in line for hours to 
get inside. While Chicago Con is more... intimate, SD is overwhelming just 
in the amount of sheer input and stimulus going on. When it's full it's 
like a whirlwind.

The exhibitors:

DC had their usual booth. The Marvel booth was a little small this time 
around, but quite busy. Wildstorm, Top Cow, and every other publisher had 
pretty cool booths. Signings were going on all day long everywhere.

I finally got to meet a bunch of mainstream folks who I dig, here's a recap:

Axel Alonso (editor) invited me into the marvel booth to chat for a few 
minutes between signings. I also met Writer, Pete Milligan, who is not only 
a great writer, but a real gentleman as well.

Mike and Laura Allred, who'm I know well via phone and e-mail. I caught up 
with them at the Oni booth, and Mike gave me a ton of Atomics stuff. Great 
folks, but I already knew that. At the Oni booth I met Jamie Rich -- 
probably one of the nicest editors I met. Great guy. He came back to the 
Blambot booth to show me the proofs from SPACEMAN which is at print right 
now. Looks fabulous!!!!! Don't miss this book!

At the Dark Horse booth I met editor Scott Allie in person for the first 
time. Dark Horse was one booth that was hopping all the time. Between The 
HELLBOY movie promotions and the meet and greet with Gene Simmons (who my 
wife FINALLY met -- her single biggest thrill of the con). Randy Stradley, 
co-owner of DH stopped by the Blambot booth later in the con and talked to Pat.

Mark Evanier  stopped by the Blambot booth. Great guy. Bought some fonts. 
Thanks Mark!!!

Sergio Aragones was a really great guy as well. As well as shaking his hand 
and saying "thank you" for the first time, I bought some original GROO art 
which I'll be framing in the Blambot studio soon.

Stan Sakai (USAGI YOJIMBO) not only remembered who I was, but remembered me 
interviewing him, and all about Blambot too. One of the nicest people in 
comics you'll ever meet. We talked sporadically throughout the con, I 
stopped in at his booth and he came by mine.   I bought some original USAGI 
art which will join my new GROO piece shortly.

Todd Klein - one of the most accomplished letterers on the planet, and a 
big hero of mine stopped by the Blambot booth a couple of times to talk to 
Pat Brosseau and myself. Also a very nice, softspoken guy, and a wealth of 
input. Bill Oakley, a long time letterer stopped by to see Pat, as well as 
the guys from Dreamer Design who were really nice.

Jim Lee appeared at the Blambot booth during a lull on Friday (?) -- quite 
unexpectedly. Asked a bunch of questions about Blambot and the fonts. 
Didn't really talk off-topic much. Seemed nice.

Pinup artist, RC Harvey bought some fonts... Wizard Magazine and a rep from 
Maxim came by... Scott McCloud came by briefly... I'm sure I'm forgetting 
lots of folks. Marv Wolfman, Gordon Kent and the guy who wrote the 
Photoshop WOW book also stopped by.

The indie folks at the the con really uplifted my spirits though. Dozens if 
not hundreds of indie guys and gals stopped by to just say thanks or give 
me copies of their book. I went home with more free comics than I bought. 
Artist Alley was filled with creators who stopped and just wanted to say 
thanks, and it really made everything worth while. It's good to see just 
how many folks Blambot is helping out.

One of the bigger indie publishers, COM.X came by and not only were they a 
bunch of super nice guys, their comics are incredible. I mean it. These 
aren't your ordinary books. The art, design, writing, everything is fresh, 
new and different. Everything from super heros to gritty crime stuff. Check 
them out. I'll be linking them soon.

LORD OF THE RINGS. If you check out Shane's pics you'll see some amazing 
stuff to do with LOTR. Life size ring wraiths on horseback, prop swords, 
and more. There was an entire pavilion dedicated to LOTR including all day 
showings of the 2 Towers trailer, card game competitions, trivia, and more. 
Very cool.

BOOTH GIRLS! -- there were plenty. Some booths that had nothing to do with 
half naked gals had half naked gals. Some girls just showed up at the con 
with next to nothing on, or dressed as their favorite spandex clad vixens. 
One table in artist alley was charging ten bucks just for a pic with two 
ladies in lingerie.   My wife knows me well enough to know that I'm going 
to look.  I'm used to the swift smacks to the back of my head now.

FANS! Fans is a poor excuse of a word to describe some of the people in 
there. Man. I didn't know people could be SO enthusiastic about comics. 
Watching the doors fly open at 10 each morning was bizarre. People were 
actually running, cheering and screaming in delight. Kinda scary. But hey, 
to each his own. Screw Christmas, these guys were at the con!!! It was nice 
to see people who are genuinely thrilled to see comics work though.

As far as Blambot goes, we sold A LOT more fonts that I thought we would, 
we gave away more samplers that I thought and we made a lot of great 
contacts. On the whole it was a great success and a lot of fun even though 
it was hard work.

~Nate