Wizard World Philadelphia: The Escape From Artist Alley

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Just back from Wizard World Philly, my first comic convention experience. I went in armed with a digital camera, video camera, and sketch book. I intended on taking in several panels and racing home to write up a report for you guys. Then I went to Artist Alley.

Plans are made to be broken. I attended no panels and only recorded about 2 minutes of video. I have very few photos, but i do have all of my sketches scanned. I'm going to start posting them momentarily, but first, here's some of what I learned.

• Go for the three day pass. Wizard World Philly isn't a very large place, but there's too much to do in that small space for a single day.
• Don't spread yourself too thin. I shouldn't have tried to be a one man chronicle of the convention, attempting to document it on video and with a digital SLR camera. If you have one device that handles both, go with that. You're not gonna feel like switching up your hardware. In fact, why even shoot video unless you have your own video show hosted on Rev3?
• Go after big artists early. Rags Morales was turning away new sketch requests by noon.
• Be very careful when indy artists start hawking their wares. It could be very cool or it could be a photocopied doodle. Either way, it takes a thick skin to turn them down when they ask for 2 bucks.
• Do not go for the David Mack $20 "quick sketch." It doesn't matter if he's doing it with a brush. Buy a print or keep walking. (though he's an extremely nice guy. I bought a trade and he gave me 6 single issues free. He autographed every thing)
• Brian Michael Bendis whistles while he walks. His height would almost demand that you rest a drink on him.
• Do you have feet? You better be gellin' like a felon. Like Magellan. Like Abbot and Costellan.
• Rodney Ramos is NOT Humberto Ramos. Read the sign!

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First off, the regular con photos.

The black spider suit is slimming while you're web-slinging.




Lou Ferrigno meditates.




This one's for you, Fred.

Humberto Ramos woke up this morning only to discover he was still Humberto Ramos.




Oh, I'm just kidding. He had a huuuuuuuuuuuge line.

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Here's Tommy Castillo, one of my new favorite artists.



He had some amazing prints on display, and my buddy Brian spent 20 minutes trying to decide which one to buy from him before dashing off to the ATM. I picked up this one from Batman: Black & White featuring Scarecrow: (This is a really dark photograph of a 20" x 30" print)



Here's a detail shot of Batman:




That image of Castillo was taken while he worked on my first ever sketch. I asked for a simple headshot of Scarecrow, but when he heard it was going to be the first sketch in the book he insisted on going all out. He wanted to make sure I started off my book with something ambitious so that the next artists would really have to step up their game. The following is a two page spread (11.5" x 16").



Obviously it's inked, but he also whipped out the white out pen and went to town with it. He only asked for the headshot rate, but I decided to give him a bit more just because he put so much work into it. A great start.

[DarrOn]

That's a really fantastic sketch. Knocked it outta the park first try. Good going, sir paper.

[kwok_talk]

That is a really really awesome first sketch. Love the coverage so far!

[paper]

My next move was to try for big artists like Alex Maleev, but he was really out my price range. He only offered a single $100 price point, and though I'm sure those sketches were well worth the rate, I wanted to make sure that I had enough money leftover to afford work from other artists.

Right across the aisle was David Peterson of Mouse Guard fame. I went over to shake his hand, and told him how much I liked his book. But by this point he had filled his daily quota of sketches, and was currently trying to chip away at the big pile. He suggested I come back tomorrow (Sunday), but unfortunately that wasn't in the cards for this weekend. I guess my request for a David Peterson crab sketch will have to wait until the next convention.

I was also turned down by Rags Morales (Identity Crisis), but he was an extremely pleasant guy, and it was cool just to meet him. He's positioned himself at the top of my wishlist for sketches. I got to look at the pencils he was working on, and they were flat-out incredible. Go after this guy for a drawing if you ever get the chance.

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My second sketch comes from an aspiring artist named Joe Lanch. He had no backdrop to entice wayward sketch-searchers, but I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of his sensational work on the table in front of him. One particular drawing of Hawkman really stood out, and I was surprised to realize he wasn't one of the heaviest hitters from DC, but actually an independent artist looking for his big break. He was glad to do a sketch, so I left my book with him, and when I returned he handed me my second double page sketch, a completely different image of Hawkman than the one from his binder, though just as impressive. I'm in love with this:



Unfortunately my scanner wasn't big enough to capture the whole image. The left side actually continues to include about half of the mace.

[acomicbookgirl]

Nice Paper! Good job!

[fred]

poor humberto ramos

[paper]

Originally Posted by DarrOn

That's a really fantastic sketch. Knocked it outta the park first try. Good going, sir paper.

Originally Posted by kwok_talk

That is a really really awesome first sketch. Love the coverage so far!

Thanks, guys. I found out I'm a real sketch-hound, and that first sketch really got things started on the right foot.

I can't say enough about Tommy Castillo. The guy is crazy talented and fun to talk to. He dresses like Captain Jack Sparrow (there was a whole weird pirate theme going on with him and the guys next to him), has a kilt with a shrunken head dangling from the waistline. While I waited for my sketch a friend of his came up and gave me advice on getting sketches. He pulled out three big books and showed me all his favorites. Such a fun hobby.