Series: Surviving San Diego Comic Con
- San Diego Comic Con -Surviving Day Two
- San Diego Comic Con – Surviving Day One.
Day one of the comic con for me was spent ogling the toys. Twenty four hours, after my drool had been wiped clean from the many glass enclosures, I could actually take a moment to talk to some of the geniuses behind all this great work and be envious of the peeps in line for some of the hot releases (I don’t have the patience to do things like queue up massive lines) but I so wanted to be one of lucky people who got their hands on an exclusive Unicornosaurus colorway or score a sketch at the Luke Chueh signing.
My day one had started with a jolt of Ugly Dolls so I opted to ride the plushy wave and get a little love there first. Checked out their multicolored SDCC exclusive The Sleepy Chilly Ice Bat (500 made). The booth had the highest number per capita of the under ten set and were doing a very swift business.
At some point, in the day, I managed to get myself, while withdrawing from my morning coffee mind you, over to the Kid Robot booth to snap some pics of the Joe Ledbetter signing. The exclusive colorway of the Unicornosaurus was one of the ultra hot items at the show. Looking at the pile of boxes just makes me wanna jump into them and give each and every one of them a great big hug.
One of the booths I didn’t get a chance to gawk at yesterday, due to the simple fact that they were against the wall and fifty very crowded paces away from all the other “designer” toy purveyors , was the Toy Tokyo booth. I stopped by to check out their filled to the brim piece of real estate. I said a hello to the ultra talented Eric Scarecrow (who wins for best smile award) and checked in with the ToyTokyo crew who gave me the low down like that the Tokidoki geisha is one of their hottest selling items, a peek at the proto for Dillon Sisson’s Idle Hands (I think that’s what it was called?…regardless, they’ll be 500 in three colorways), the awesome Thriller era Michael Jackson figures and the Giesha Blind Box Keychain series sculpts on display. As I was perusing their cabinets, being elbowed by oodles of other camera toting folks, I found myself right next to the one and only Ron English. Next thing you know we’re chewing the fat while sharing an epically long trek across the entire convention center in search for the paper and pulp ghetto, home of the book beacon Last Gasp (where Ron would be doing a signing later that day). The journey was spent in conversation about travel, getting lost in foreign lands and Ron’s upcoming projects (of course I also secured a proper interview for later in the day, cos that’s how I roll…).
While over by Last Gasp, I stopped by the Babytattoo Land booth and got an update on their Babytattooville 2008 weekend. There are still some spaces available (at the time of this post there were 21) for the artist retreat (check out my write up about it here) and they had on display the two pieces that will be included in the package for the event, Joe Ledbetter, Glenn Barr and Amy Sol are a few of the artists involved.
Walking thru the hall I bumped into some of my favorite artists, something that rarely happens in “real life” at my local Safeway or coffee shop. Above are photos I was able to snap of Gary Baseman and the ultra photogenic Brandt Peters and Kathie Olivias. (keep your eyes peeled for my upcoming interviews with all these amazing art stars). I then took some time off from the increasingly crowded convention floor to interview Keith Poon of ToyQube (which will be posted soon) and scored one of his Artist Proof SDCC exclusive tees and a mini Sharkey keychain. (thanks Keith!) And got to witness MAD doing a signing on his blue GIDs.
Next stop was the Grass Hunt booth. Popped by to bask in the glory of hot beard action and to check in with Mister Bwana Spoons. Back in one of my past life (yeah, I got around), I worked on a film where Bwana was, yes this is true, one of the actors. It’s been a while since I’d seen him and it was a hoot to get back in touch. I also got the chance to meet the aptly named and talented Le Merde!
Oh and I forgot, here’s a pic I snapped over the in paper part of the show at the toy and magazine headquarters for Giant Robot. Here’s a pic of the always charming editor Martin Wong, who I hadn’t seen since I was part of a booth that was right next to theirs when they were first starting out. That was a long long time ago. I felt old.
Okay, now back to the OTHER side of the hall. I rushed back to the Toy Tokyo booth to get a pic of Kathie Olivias putting pen to Scavenger and to get a pic of the fez wearin’ white exclusive. With a little free time on my hands, and warning, this one isn’t cool at all, but I schmoozed a VIP Hasbro pass for their incredibly popular toy store. Grabbed a couple show exclusive My Little Ponys (insert your snicker here) but I have a little girl who loves all things girly so I had too, and while I was at it, I picked one up for Ron English’s twelve year old daughter as well.
Never one to sit still, I ran back over to the Toy Tokyo booth to check in with Ron English about our interview and to snap a couple pics of his customs that he did for the show and to get a pic of him in the midst of his signing. (I should mention here that in writing this post I thought I’d lay down for just a second, next thing you know I totally passed out, so this post actually should have been posted last night….) I snagged one of his Obama/Lincoln posters while I was there. (thanks Ron!) I sequestered the man of the moment and headed outside for some sunlight, fresh air and enough quiet to do the interview (which will be coming soon, as soon as I recover and get in the mood to do some transcription. )
On route back to the Toy Tokyo stall, I got mooned by Jack Black. Well, by his vinyl likeness that is. Yesterday I posted a pic of the upcoming Tenacious D figures and failed to notice their bare backsides. Across the aisle at the Kid Robot booth I saw a masked man signing toys. Who was this mysterious being? None other than the oh so busy Touma. I had no idea he ever left his studio, he’s so damn prolific, but he did take some time out to sign some of his figures for fans.
I had a My Little Pony to get to a toddler, was having some low blood sugar and honestly had enough of the masses so I said goodbye to the Con and said hello to some much needed peace and quiet. Bye Bye San Diego!
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