One of the most fun things to do at the Comicon is to go around to all your favorite artists and get sketches of your favorite characters. There's just nothing quite as cool as seeing an artist create something right in front of you, personalized for you, and hand it to you for you to keep, right there. Pretty freaking sweet.
I've got myself a nice sketchbook (from last year's con, actually), and I'll be going around all weekend getting sketches from various webcomickers and posting them up here for you all to see.
So let's get this party started!
One thing I think it would be remiss not to mention is the fact that there seems to be someone going around collecting sketches from every possible webcomic artist of a "ham-fisted" Tim Buckley. I'll hopefully post a link as soon as they start surfacing in the ether, but suffice to say that poor Tim seems to be taking quite a beating here this year. I guess that's what happens when you're not around to defend yourself.
But enough about that. Let's see some sketches! I'm going to try to post these in approximately the order I received them, with five or six sketches per post, maybe more if I start getting a glut of sketches at some point. You can click on any picture to see a larger version. Now, off we go.
The first booth I stopped by when I got to the con was the Blank Label Comics booth. And the first sketch I got from them was a nice piece of work by Dave Kellett when I bought a copy of the first Sheldon book: Pure Ducky Goodness.
I've never actually followed Sheldon because of Comics.com's stupid "Only the last thirty days archive" thing, but Kellett hinted this may be coming to an end soon, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I love the text in the sketch he did, where's it's almost like he's using a Blambot font in his handwriting. Spooky.
Next up was Starslip Crisis. Kris Straub did this nice sketch of Mr. Jinx for me on the inside cover of his new book, Sparkling Diplomacy. If you've read my first post you already know I'm a huge fan of Starslip, so any opinions I have on this book and this sketch are highly biased.
Still? Awesome. Straub does not fail to deliver in the extra content department.
Of course, David Willis, Howard Tayler, and Steve Troop were around the Blank Label booth as well, but I didn't want to monopolize the booth and seem like a sketch whore, so I moved on. Hopefully I cna catch them later on in the con.
After Blank Label Comics I stopped by Scott Kurtz's section at the Image Comics booth. I wanted to be sure to get a special "San Diego Comicon Edition" copy of the Captain Amazing trade paperback (which I read, and while it's certainly not his best work, it does give an interesting perspective on his roots).
I like to get sketches of a more obscure character from a comic whenever possible because it shows I have a healthy interest, since I remember a character many other people may not. So I opted to get a sketch of Kurtz's dad, who's always been a big favorite of mine. The dad strips always make me laugh.
My roommate has been with me the whole con, and most times he gets sketches as well (he's as big a fan of webcomics as I am, if not more, he's just not a writer). So here's his sketch from Scott Kurtz, the classic Scratch Fury.
It's interesting to note that while most artists when asked for a sketch simply whipped out a pen and drew something up, Kurtz actually made a rough pencil drawing and then went back over and inked it, frequently using some drafting tools. The result is a very polished looking sketch, which if you erased the pencil lines from you could probably convince your friends was actually an original strip art or something. Very sweet.
Another booth I made sure to stop by early on was Megatokyo. I severely wanted a Boo plushie, and I was very afraid they were going to sell out. I don't think I had anything to worry about, but he is still severely cute so I don't regret making sure I didn't get stuck without him.
So naturally, I had to get a sketch of Boo himself to complement the plushie. And there he is, diligent as ever and still in way over his head.
More sketches coming soon! (Or you could just dig around in my Flickr folder and find them on your own) For now, I need to get some sleep before tackling the next day.
Yes, it's after 6 AM and I haven't been to sleep yet. It's the San Diego Comicon.
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