Well...it was basically a waste of a drive.
The only cool thing was John Totleben was there, and we talked for awhile! John's one of the coolest guys (not to mention one of THE best artists!), and it's always wild when I'm flagged down by someone of his standing in the industry!
Phil Hester was a no-show...the comics dealers were over-pricing to high heaven...and 3 for $1.00 boxes were non-existent, .50 cent boxes were coverless drek, and the rest was $1.00 boxes and cover price, with nothing really worthwhile to grab.
So I basically spent my money on indy books!!!
Paige and Bethany both bought some books called Freakers by Bill Jankowski of Buffalo Nickel Press. The books are about some teens who fight monsters and stuff...and the girls love Scooby Doo, so...! Beth bought a book called Hope 7 (the guy selling them said it was an all-ages title) by Timothy Shea and Darryl Sheakley of Shadow Song. Paige also bought a bunch of misc. Spider-Man titles, as the guy thought it was cool a little girl was interested, and gave her a deal!
Now my purchases...
I got John Totleben's limited edition sketchbook (#68 of 100) and sat and talked to him for a good while. Then I purchased the complete set of Deep Fried by Jason Yungbluth and let me tell you...it's a funny as hell comicbook!!!! And I also got the special CD of animated Deep Fried stuff!!! Watched a few of it and was in tears laughing!!! If you see this book (or the CD) GET IT!!! You won't be sorry! Then I talked to Mike Bocianowski and bought his Chuck: The Ugly American #0 book. I've been a fan of Mike's Chuck for a bit now, and always pick up something of his when I can. He gave the girls a print of Chuck and a dinosaur, and signed it to them! And then after trying to make some deals for a bulk purchase of books (which all the retailers were WAAAAY over what I wanted to pay for cheapee books!) I did get Star Wars: Tag & Bink Are Dead #1 and 2, and the Dark Horse KISS #1 for $1 each. Everything else I wanted was either not there/sold out or waaaay overpriced for what I would have paid.
And again...Phil Hester was a no-show!
Anyway, Totleben was telling me some funny stuff about Alan Moore, and these guys who just interviewed him, as well as some small things about different stuff. He also said he thought this week was jury selection for the Neil Gaiman vs. Todd McFarlane court case.
Oh...and Phil Hester wasn't there! (You can see I was disappointed!)
Then I talked to Rick "orcafresh" Olney and ORCA's Dennis Kinninger. Roamed a bit. Then took off.
Kinda sucked to drive 2 1/2 hours and really not get anything I was hoping to...but the girls had a great time, and they were genuinely interested in wanting some comics...so I guess that made up for it all!
