This is the third consecutive year that R2AK dynamic duo Ian & Venus have crossed country line to invade the Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle. Here is Part 3 of their excellent adventure rife with hugs, hairdo’s & hustlers (the good kind). (Catch up on what you missed in Part 1 here & Part 2 here.)
Sunday: Day Three
The third and final day of con. The day to sleep in, leisurely collect your loot, rejoice in your spoils, and make a clean getaway. Sunday is the day of ease. The day of rewards. Treasures to behold! Remember to bring a portfolio when you pick up your commissions to safely stow your newly acquired gems. Sunday truly is the most relaxed day of the three. You can show up later, stay for as long as you want and leave when you like, secure in the knowledge that you squeezed everything you wanted out of this weekend. We actually ended up staying for almost the entire day because of several opportunities (including one of the Best Of’s below) which were NOT to be missed!
Best Con Oops!: Phil Noto – The Zinda Blake Colouring Incident
VENUS: The first day of ECCC I always head to Tim Sale’s table. But Ian’s priorities change each year, depending on who’s in attendance. This year after learning that his #1 priority (Greg Capullo) was running behind, Ian rushed over to Phil Noto’s table to secure a Lady Blackhawk commission for me. (Best husband ever.) We initially agreed on a Saturday morning pick up, which ended up being postponed a day.
On Sunday morning we headed back to Phil’s table. He started off by saying he had woken up crazy early to finish my piece, but that he’d made a mistake. My heart sank as I fake-smile/winced in anticipation of the bad news to come. Turns out he accidentally coloured my commission (worth $200) when we had originally agreed on a greyscale (for $100). As a result I got an amazing, coloured Lady Blackhawk for half the price. Bad news for Phil, great news for me!
Best Looking Table: Jaime S. Rich & Joëlle Jones
VENUS: This is consistent year after year. Joëlle Jones is THE cutest lady! And Jaime is always well dressed and smiling. Both are gracious and lovely people, not to mention they had a table full of comic goodies and prints. A great table I visited several times, and definitely the easiest on the eyes.
IAN: I agree. Rich and Jones (a redhead this year!) always have their shit TO-GE-THER. They’d better keep bringing their A-game though, because power-couple Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick are rocking an adorable retro-hipster chic that is just SO in this season!
Best Last-Minute Commission: Matt Wagner – Lady Blackhawk
VENUS: My loose ends at ECCC always involve stray comics sans signatures and on Sunday, Matt Wagner was the last signature I needed to get on some Madame Xanadu comics he’d written. When we visited his table, I learned that he’s a kick-ass artist as well! Ian warned that I would have a void in my Lady Blackhawk commission collection if I missed the opportunity to get one done my Mr. Wagner. Boy, was he right about that! We pooled our few remaining Andrew Jacksons for this one last commission and it was the complete opposite of regrettable. Yes!
IAN: Yeah, heading home from a comic-con with more than $20 in your wallet is nothing short of complete failure. Matt Wagner, a genius with red and black, absolutely killed it for Venus at the end of the show.
Best Hustler: Greg Horn
IAN: I’ve never seen someone work a convention like Greg Horn. He’s like Vince the Slap-Chop guy and Billy Mays combined, only not a convicted felon (that I know of) and not dead. I wouldn’t be surprised if Horn made more money than any other creator at that con.
VENUS: There was a crowd around Greg Horn’s table the entire weekend. Smack in the middle of it, Greg was there answering questions and signing comics all while selling and promoting his prints. He seemed happy, tireless and successful, earning him the title of Best Hustler.
Most Elusive: Kelly Sue DeConnick
IAN: I think we rolled by the Fraction / DeConnick table around ten times looking for Kelly Sue before we finally tracked her down. It was worth it though. She’s a funny lady with great stories to tell (ask her about Walt Simonson sometime) and more than happy to sign books and talk about her upcoming projects Captain Marvel and Ghost.
VENUS: She slipped through our grasp on every attempt until the very end. But our efforts were totally worth it. What a doll!
Best Hair: Francis Manapul
IAN: We’d been hearing about Manapul’s coif all con. Declarations of “Did you see Manapul’s hair?! It’s a REVELATION!” abounded. Well, we had to see it for ourselves. Lo and behold, it was everything we’d been hearing and so much more.
VENUS: Dude can draw, AND rock that ‘do.
Best Hug: Tim Sale
IAN: It was awesome. Right in the middle of Sale’s panel he pauses, looks over at Venus and goes “Hi Venus!” Totally rad. Well, I could lose my wife to worse people, you know? LOL!
VENUS: Best hug ever! Thanks to Tim Sale for my awesome Cassandra Cain Batgirl fast-pass. Squee!
And that’s it folks! Emerald City Comic-Con 2012 all wrapped up! We came, we saw, we’ll be eating Kraft Dinner for a month to pay for it all!
Stay tuned for our photo gallery of con-goodness, coming up in the next article!
– The Explosivos
