WonderCon 2009 Review

Sorry about the late review I came down horribly sick when I got back from the con.

Our Table
The Matted Mini Prints and Mini Color books were a smash hit! In general, the response to my studio’s offerings were good. And due to overwhelming demand KatGirl Studio will be publishing the full length illustrated book Stalking the Elusive Quetzal later this year! We will also hopefully have studio shirts and Kiki plushies by famine since people kept trying to buy the ones we was wearing. If you really wanted one of our items and it A: Sold out or B: you ran out of cash, worry not because most of the items will also be featured in our Etsy shop. I’d like to say thank you to my best pal Sally Rose for being my table rep when I wasn’t there so I could get a chance to walk around.

Mike Mignola
Most of my friends know that as fair a “Super Heroes” go Hell Boy is my fav so I was really exited to be able to meet Hell Boys creater Mike Mignola. There a pretty funny story about how I ended up waiting in line twice to get my book signed and if you want the whole story let me know. But the short story ends with me getting a few things signed and us (me and Mike) doing impressions of our pet cats.

Stan Saki
My roommate owns most of the Usagi Yojimbo graphic novels and the “art of book” and so of course I’ve read all of the ones he has because well there awesome and two train rides become very boring. It’s a not so little know fact that Stan is one of the most hardworking comic artists/cartoonists in the US if not the world. besided getting a few books, posters and the art of book signed I also picked up one of the newer books we didn’t have from dark horse because he (Stan) had sold out already and it was only part of the way through sat.

Tracy Butler
I’ve been following her work since I was in high school and she’s one of the first people I started watching on DA. I really love her comic Lackadaisy and it was a big shock to round a corner and sew one of her characters in sculpture form at a book and then realize she was there and then realize whereas I had admired her for years I had no idea what she looked like. Luckily she was there and I got to tell her how much I loved her work. I also preordered her book because customs has seized their shipment of books for random drug search and they had sold out of the ones they had by 11am on Saturday.

Camilla D’Errico
Camilla among other things is the artist of Nightmares and Fairy Tales. I picked up her book some months back at my friend Anna’s comic store and really liked it. We saw her at APE and I kicked myself for forgetting to bring the book for her to sign. Luckily she was at the con and signed my book. As well her and the writer Serena will be doing a signing later this year at Anna’s store.

David Petersen
David is the artist and writer of Mouse Guard and I picked up a signed copy of his book as well at the con. I’ve only flipped through them a few times at Anna’s store but what I saw made my want to buy it. Who can say no to a book of such cute mice? I’d greatly looking forward to reading his comic.

Other Cool people I met were: Laurie B., Bobby Crosby (writer of Marry Me), Travis Hanson (he drew me a cool cat sketch), Gabrielle Pennacchioli (a Dreamworks animator and he sat next to us in AA), Steph Laberis (cool illustrator who gave me the last of her sold out buttons she found under her table) and many many more.

I’d also like to give lots of hugs to your friend Brian Kolm of Atomic Bear Press who’s father passed away this weekend. Hang in there Brian we’re all here for you.

APE and Halloween

Halloween was fun. I went to the Illusive Comics Halloween party again and for once there were a ton of people I didn’t know.


APE
Ape was wicked awesome except for the rain. It was raining buckets in the city when we got there and we had to walk a couple blocks to the event. Umbrellas did very little because it was also blustery and the rain was practically raining sideways. So when we got there the whole front of my clothes from head to toe was soaked. First thing we did was eat lunch and then we saw Jennie’s table so we rushed over there. I brought her a goody bag of candy and stuff I had made and we chatted with her for awhile and I got some awesome pins and a sketch form her. You should check out her web comic www.thedevilspanties.com it’s really good. After that we started in one corner and walked down every table which took us till the event closed.

Other cool people I met were:
Shelly Wan whom I got a large beautiful print from because she’s one of my fav artists.
Camilla d’Errico who is the artist of Nightmares & Fairy Tales. I almost cried when I saw her there because I hadn’t brought my book for her to sign.
Amanda Turnage whom I got a cute kitty shirt from.
Sheatiel Sarao of Binary Winter whom I also got an awesome shirt from
Brittney Lee who gave me some cool book marks.

Me ans Jennie Breeden
Camilla Taylor and her cool plushies

Party at Illusive

On Saturday I biked with my family to the Santa Clara Art and Wine to check out display ideas and run into people I’ve known my whole life. The festival is different from others because it takes place in the city and not a down town (because we don’t have one). As well all the food booths benefit different charities and groups along with most of the drinks. While sitting in the grass eating lunch we ran into my friend Jet who mentioned it was my friend Tim’s B-day party at Illusive later that day. Illusive is my friend Anna’s comic book store also in Santa Clara, she’s awesome and throws cool holiday parties full of geekiness. People show up, catch up with each other’s lives, munch on food and rock out to the music being piped out of Rock band. We laugh, show each other cool things we found on the web and generally just hang out in a safe geek-friendly environment. Illusive’s not your typical comic store and offer’s a nice mix of comic’s for both children and adults, art book, manga, funny shirt’s, geeky buttons, games and more.

If you’re new to the area or just in need of a good comic shop (this one’s owned by a girl) check out Illusive Comics on El Camino in Santa Clara.