Wednesday, April 30, 2008

back from Pittsburgh Comic Con 2008






so i find that it's about 4:30am and i'm only just now getting to update this. what a goober. i try my best to do things during the daytime, but i guess i'm just a night person. blah.
AT ANY RATE, Identity Comics just came back from a surprisingly successful Pittsburgh Comic Con in Monroeville, PA from April 25th- 27th. a lot of us speculate that due to the drama surrounding the con (if u don't know, check this out - article. now u know.), not a lot of people showed up - both vendors and con-goers alike. there were empty tables at small press right behind us. but with the lack of bodies at the con, we still managed to come out with a very positive experience. there was a bit of hatin goin on with some fellow artists, but i guess being hated on ain't always bad. ;P no real famous folks i saw except for some wrestler dude named Virgil who said he was going to cut my hair with some kiddy scissors as he walked by (the weird things people say when they have nothing better to say). and some old guy named David Prowse who played Darth Vader at some point.
this convention, though it's not very big, is so worth going to because the folks that run the show are just so hospitable to the artists (and i assume vendors too). no other convention we've ever gone to on the east coast has ever walked around and handed each person at a table drinks twice each day and mcburgers or chicken mcsandwiches for lunch. now that's real generosity. and as if that's not amazing enough, they even have penthouse parties with an open bar for any vendor/artist that care to come up. FUN TIMES!
after SOME of us made spectacles of ourselves at the bar doing karaoke saturday night (ahem - flash and the franchize - ahem), we went up to the penthouse party thingy. packed shoulder to shoulder, we squeezed in but it was so worth it for the free drinks. we get to a table of very snooty artist guys drawing for what i can only assume is supremacy against other non-famous artists. mind u, there's a suite full of drunken folks having a party all around them. so what is a bunch of fairly-normal folks like us to do when coming upon such a sight? why, show them how it's done, of course! these dudes had to be shown how to remove the sticks from their posteriors by having the three guys of ID draw caricatures of each one of them. hating ensues. but again, sometimes being hated on isn't the worst thing.
anyway, fun times. saw a lot of familiar faces. it's always a treat to see Pat Carlucci. nicest guy around! if there's one guy u should get in good with, it's that guy. he's not fake like most folks. he doesn't forget u when u try to say hi to him on deviant. then there's the Scott Derby guys which consists of Scott Derby, Tom Whalen, Dave Perillo, and new guy Pat (didn't catch his last name). those are some down-to-earth cool folks whose love for comics and star wars is just enough that they're not too geeky. much like the ID guys! luv those guys! i hope we get to hang out more. also met up with Jaime again. nice guy, as usual.
we noticed that we were approached by a lot of people, con-goers as well as fellow artists, talking about how they've heard of us from someone else or that "Identity Comics" seems to be on everyone's lips. some said that after the karaoke and caricature draw-off, but most said they saw us on deviant or knows someone that has seen us there. feels good to be recognized. means the global takeover is working. KAKAKA. (just kidding, really. we're not doing that, i swear.) but a guy from one of the more prominent comic media online outlet called Comic Geek Speak came to our table and basically said "so i've been hearing about all this 'Identity Comics' talk and wanted to know if we could interview u." flippin sweet! so we did. well, flash and jerry did for us. Listen to our interview on their Episode 427!!!

PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CON - first of all, there was a dude that came up and said they saw someone's blog. apparently, nobody else in ID has one of these fancy blogs besides me but i was in such shock that someone actually reads this besides me and my husband (only cuz i force him to) that i didn't really respond. then he said "peng" and i nearly peed in excitement. nearly. every so often at these conventions, i get to taste a tiny bit of celebrity status. people having heard of me or looking for me specifically at the table. the feeling is really quite nifty.
then some guy that was mostly focused on joe throughout the whole con (of course, which dude wasn't) brought over his granddaughter (or neice or something) to me directly. she apparently is taking art classes at the community college and he thought i'd be able to share some words of wisdom to her. that always tugs at my heartstrings. it's such a cool feeling to be able to inspire those younger than u and add to it that she admires u because ur a girl and so is she. girls can draw cool stuff too. it doesn't always have to look like disney or be paintings of still life. it can be kick-ass comics or pretty ladies too. it such a special feeling to be looked up to.
lastly, this couple (they may have been cousins) bought lots of prints from us and one of them was my chun-li drawing. they had me draw a couple of Ryu's for them and their friend but what was really cool was that the guy said that he actually saw my Powergirl print hanging up on his friend's wall. then as he walked around the con this weekend, he peeped it on our display and was like "OH! so this was where got it from." and knew he had to come and look at our stuff. wow. i'll tell u what, wow. how cool is it to have ur stuff hangin on someone's wall!?! it's like i'm semi-well-known or something! i mean, it's one thing to have ur stuff hangin on their wall if they commissioned u for a piece. i mean, duh. but to have a print they bought at another convention and then have a friend come by to tell me, it's really nifty. i'm sure there are others saying "wow, peng, ur a dork. lots of people have lots of things on their walls." but i say, SO! i'm allowed to be excited about it. i don't deny it, i'm a nerd. =P

so phew! to recap, ID did good at Pittsburgh. had lots of fun. hopefully, next year the people will be back but who knows. we basically saw the same 35 people walking around all weekend. =P and even tho i got the lowest amount of commissions at the convention, my art did get recognized and that's quite phenomenal for me. so yay!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

eek, that backstory is scary

you better have wowed everyone with your mad karaoke skillz!