This year I wore my lovely lizard costume that Trista made me for Halloween ‘07 to help shamelessly self-promote my blog and my art. The Con was super crowded and even more commercialized then ever before, which is understandable considering the amount of easy advertising the event offers… thousands of people just walking around in a big room with nothing else to look at but what your company wants them to. Its a consumer meat market! BUT pretty fun at the same time if you know what to look for.
The Ugly Doll stand really expanded this year to a giant display, and with so many people just working in the booth, its easy to see that they really took off this past year even more than before. It was amazing to me just how many people are diving into the plush doll toys ‘market’, and making cute little things out of simple designs and selling them for good money.I think that soon the Ugly Dolls themselves are soon going to be overdone and too mainstream considering that smaller artists are making way more original and cooler stuff. Either way, for the past few years I usually find these giant dolls walking around so I can get a picture with them.
My loot at the end of the day was mostly composed of comics from some of my very favorite guys, Jeffrey Brown, Sam Brown , Andy Runton, and the annual Flight 2008 edition.

I finally buckled down and purchased a fine print from Sam Brown, which I am pretty happy about. As always, these guys were super nice and friendly, and as always, I wish that the “small press” section of comic con was just a tad bit bigger, but I guess then it wouldn’t be small press anymore right?

A few improvements could definitely be made too, like perhaps selling a little bit tastier food that wasn’t so damn unhealthy? It really isn’t that hard (and would probably be profitable) to have some more filling options to munch on besides greasy pretzels and pizza. And I’m not talking about a whole organic/vegan/veggie option (as if that would ever be catered to at the most American-ized Cheeseburger-eating crowds that go to the Con), I’m just talking about some basic 7-11 stuff. Yeah it would be low quality, but maybe just something that doesn’t make my stomach churn later? Well, I just brought my own PB & J anyway and ate its smashed remains while my friend Mike and his little sister ate half-eaten pizza from the trashcan. Comic Con is always an experience to say the least..

I completed the first half of this piece over the span of three weeks. But I took a long break, then procrastinated until I only had three days left to finish and frame it. So here is a take by take of the last few days and minutes of finishing the top half to make it in time for hanging it at the Ink Pencil Paint art show at the L Street Fine Art gallery downtown. These last photos were taken about six hours apart, between friday to sunday. It was a delirious and strange time for me, sitting in my room staring at this large piece of paper, trying so hard to think of anything, drawing it, and then coloring (using watercolors and markers) it on the spot. I am very happy with the finished piece. 

Monday July 14th 1:00am
(only one week left to finish it)

Friday July 18th 10:30pm
(not even close to being done..)

Sunday July 20th 3:00pm

Sunday July 20th 10:00pm

Monday July 21st 1:00AM!

Monday July 21st 5:00pm – FINISHED!

Besides the art, the musical performances of Christmas Island and Wild Weekend were, as always, super rad and added so much to the event. I must say that Mr. Lee Lavy did a fine job curating this show, from organizing the artists, music acts, finding a great DJ for outside (DJ Mane One!), and passing out hundreds of flyers…all for a really great friday night post-Comic-Con art show! After hibernating in my house for days and days trying to finish the piece, I found it a great release to be around people that enjoyed staring at it for minutes at a time. Almost overwhelming, I think my piece provides some entertainment, and I think that is my favorite part of it – making people feel that same thing I feel when I see an inanimate object ‘doing’ something funny. Maybe my head works a little different then others, or perhaps, I’m on imagination overdrive all the time, but I like to think that just for a few seconds other people were able to understand why a fire hydrant, or a paint roller are pretty cute little things if you think about them being ‘alive’ and doing what they do. The finished piece is titled “831 Characters”, because it does actually contain 831 characters all drawn and imagined by my strange brain. Yes, I sat down and counted every single one.