No sleep till Pittsburgh!

Pittsburgh Comic Con 2012 was a blast this year. It was filled with high energy and friendly people while still keeping that small show feel. For the Cranboyz we kicked off our con season with our Dark Cranboyz Villians United theme sporting new swag and collecting a bunch of great villain convention sketches (and maybe a hero or two).  Popa starting with a great George Perez sketch of Ms. Marvel, which from I understand may get a coloring job from our own Andy Varcho (your welcome Andy). Shane started the con by camping out and stalking Barry Kitson’s line, followed shortly after by Popa and well worth the restraining orders I may add, the sketches are stellar. Shane has an awesome album showing the process of Barry Kitson drawing Union Jack, you can check it out on his Facebook page and or Twitter. Popa is now the proud owner of the amazing sketch of Sif.

While Mr. Kitson’s line was occupied by multiple Cranboyz Andy was off doing his own thing getting art from Andy Bennett,  Josh Medors and Dave Watchter.

Shortly after the show opened I was tracked down by Iconograph studios staff. Earlier in the week I won a free convention sketch on facebook and they needed my book and wanted to introduce the artist which was great. Ben Taylor, Stephen Burks, David Hindelang and Mark Peasley are great people and were all willing to take a crack at my sketch, in the end I went with David Hindelang who drew Megatron (Generation 1 of course).  It turned out awesome and I’ll be returning to their table in the future if I see them at more cons. I’ve included their link – http://www.Iconographstudios.com

I was also able to hook James “Q” Nguyen up with a brand new freakin’ Dark Cranboyz Villians United shirt! He was pretty stoked about it.

Meanwhile books are all accounted for in artists possessions and for a Friday it’s pretty darn busy so myself and Kaity check out the Quick Sketch for charity event in the ballroom. Basically, a ton of artist do quick sketches and you buy raffle tickets to win the art. So people were winning huge art for a buck (if they were lucky) Kaity and I weren’t lucky but the art and artists’ generosity was amazing!

Saturday was a mad house thus being the perfect day for all of us to wear our new Cranboyz T-shirts that Andy and Shane designed and tweaked to perfection. 

Shane and Popa after being stalkers in Barry Kitson’s line thought it worked so well they duplicated the activity in Scott McDainel’s table. 

Of course, it paid off, come on people its Shane and Popa here. Popa scored a threating Mr. Freeze while Shane walked away with Ravager I.

Andy was nowhere to be found during most of Saturday after staking a piece of the Kitson line real estate. I think we can all agree his time was wisely spent after seeing his Chameleon sketch. After that he rallied his legs to work again and made it to Ron Frenz’s table to get a sketch of X-Men’s The Beast.

Popa locked an Andy Bennett sketch of The Black Flash, followed up by a Darryl Banks Spider Woman. We love us some Darryl Banks art, he’s an all-around great person and artist.

Shane signed up for a pretty kick ass Juggernaut by Ron Frenz and secured his spot in Dave Wachter’s sketch list for a sketch of G.I. Joe Recondo. Now I don’t know who actually started the trend but most of us walked away with a Dave Wachter piece during this show. It was well worth the wait for an authentic art piece, rather than being one of “those guys” who sport around the knock off versions. You can tell the difference because Dave Wachter authenticates his art with a special stamp, the knock offs won’t have them. (Or the artist forgot. And then your “friend” and fellow Cranboyz forgot to get it stamped for you …sorry Shane). It’s still a great sketch.  Beside that, Shane also scored some great James “Q” Nguyen art of Grifter, which James later colored in the mask and sealed the deal of it being a kick ass sketch. To wrap up Saturday before half the Cranboyz called it a weekend, Shane left his book for Josh Medors to sketch in but, Josh left after not feeling well so Josh Warner stepped in and did a really good job. We of course wish Josh Medors get well wishes and hope he’s on the road back to recovery.

Sunday was just the lone three of myself (Shawn), Kaity and Larry. It was also kids’ day which is probably explains the strategic exit of the first wave of Cranboyz.

 It was a great day filled with costume contests, kids meeting Darth Vader and good times. I picked up my book from Dave Wachter who did a great Two Face and was able to secure Shane’s G. I. Joe book with The Oktober Guard sketch. Finally, I picked up a last minutes sketch of Sonic the Hedgehog for my daughter Aubrey who is a huge fan, Stephen Wittmaak was the artist.

At this point all the books are back, the feet are sore and we are ready to hit the road back to Ohio. It was a really fun Pittsburgh Comic Con. Getting together with friends and catching up with our favorite artists and hearing what they’ve been doing. Great costumes, brief Stan Lee drive bys’ producing cheers and clapping makes it all feel like a great start to a fabulous con season.

With that said I would like to take a few minutes to thank some very special people who stepped up and encouraged my 17 year old daughter this weekend. This past weekend was her first show ever as an artist, seated in section AA across the room from Stan Lee. It was an amazing experience and eye opening for both her and me. She was pretty nervous but was quickly put at ease by the professionalism and courtesy of the other vendors and artists. There was a constant flow of positive comments fired in her direction. 

Other artists there to promote their work stopped and got a convention sketch or just stopped by to say hello and welcome. It really did feel like a family.We met such great people this weekend, Joe Fogle who has a book called “Creatures of War” www.creaturesofwar.net and Joe Kleinman who was promoting his web comic http://wootlabs.thewebcomic.com shared some expertise and are sincerely smart and supportive young people in the industry. Of course, all the Cranboyz.  Jay Fife https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jay-E-Fife-Illustration/215290038586 who I’ve always thought was a great artist and all around cool person. 

Kate Gill  http://www.skullduggerystudios.blogspot.com/ 

who was super supportive being a fellow female in the industry had a lot of valuable information to share with her, thanks again Kate! James “Q” Nguyen stopped by the table a couple of times and picked up a sketch for his daughter, we hope she likes it!

Finally, David DeVera, who was our table neighbor; he is the creator/writer/colorist of his comic NINJABITCH http://www.diamondgoatmedia.com/ he is a cool guy who was willing to send people over from his table to check out Kaity’s art as well as get a con sketch of his character NINJABITCH. 

There were so many people that made a huge impact and we both are extremely thankful. BTW, yes I'm an extremely proud father. We hope to see everyone at the next con!!