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 MegaCon
2005.
Here's my belated con report [And NO that's NOT me and
Michael Chiklis!]:
The con opened at noon on Friday.
We arrived a little after 8AM, to find a line already
forming. Luckily for us, John
Higashi
has saved us spots at the front of the line. Now for the
nearly four hour wait to get in...
John Higashi showed us his latest pick-ups
and the line "oohed and ahhed" as each piece came
out. John surprised me with a gift. It's a Rocky
sketch from Ryan Sook! How cool is that? Very
cool, I say! We then killed some time playing "War."
Higashi wiped us all out... even the biker
who joined in the game [and repeatedly got caught cheating]!
LOL! Finally the doors open and the crowd makes a mad dash
in.
Our first stop... Adam Hughes' table. John Higashi
is first in line and puts in his traditional Star Wars
request. Alison asks me if I want to get on the list
and I decline -- [what was I thinking? I could have been
number two! If only I hadn't heard a couple of people
in line saying that they hoped they could get their FIRST
piece from Adam... still, it's been almost two years
since I got mine, so maybe next time...]
 My
main goal for MegaCon was to get a sketch from Tone
Rodriguez, and lucklily, he was sitting at the table
next to Adam and Alison.
Higashi had told Tone about my Stallone
sketch collection at an earlier show, and Tone said
that he'd be up for it. Higashi intoroduced us [and
then disappeared into the crowd in an effort to get more
Star Wars commisions]. Tone agreed to a Cobra
sketch and possibly a home commission later. As Tone
sketched he entertained the crowd with his quick wit and
great stories [especially about working with John Carpenter
and Kurt Russell]. It was cool to hang with Tone
while he was sketching.
My next stop is with Brett
Blevins who is sharing a table with Mike
Manley. As we're talking,
Alberto Ruiz stops by. I pull out my Ruiz
Rocky caricature and thank Alberto for the beautiful
piece. [He' d done it through the mail.] Brett says
that he'll do a Stallone piece and takes a reference
book.
That's me in the picure above hanging with
Bill Black [4th from left] and his AC
Comics crew. Bill's on a roll. Action
figures have just been released featuring heroes
from his comics, and limited edition statues will
also be out later this year. But the REALLY BIG NEWS is
that Bill's movie will premiere in the next couple
of months. Bill wrote, directed and edited it. Big
John Beatty even has a role! LOL! It'll be available
on dvd after the premiere. And I'll, of course,
post more news here as we get closer to the premiere. Now
back to the con report....
Friday night I join a gang having dinner
at UNO's. It's me and my family, along with James
Howell and two of his friends, John Higashi,
Matt Hollub, artists Jason
Walker, Garry
McKee, Mike
Torrence, Dave
DeVries, and Tom
Fleming. The food was great and the company even
better.
It was nice seeing Bob McLeod [who
has a new kids book coming out in August called Super
Hero ABC]. It's hard to believe that it's been over
25 years since I first met Bob. Man, those were the
days... all night pool and poker games... with Mike
Zeck and John
Beatty! Speaking of Mike Zeck, he wasn't
set up at the show, but I did see him briefly when he came
to visit Bob.
 Alex
Saviuk was able to make the show for one day.
That's Alex [on the left] and Shawn
Nagle. Alex is holding the prototype for
a Phantom statute that'll be released later this
year. Shawn sculpted it based on Alex's drawings.
Not only that, but Alex currently has
a gig storyboarding a movie which stars John Travolta
and James Gandolfini! Tell me Alex isn't one
happy guy!
 The
rest of the con is a blur of meeting up with artists
and friends that I hadn't seen in a while, and hanging
out behind the table with artists Jason Walker, Garry
McKee, Jeff Moy, Mike Torrence and their
good buddy [and mine], James Howell.
Garry introduced me to Johnny Atomic
[who wasn't set up at the show]. I haven't seen a lot of
Johnny's work, but EVERYTHING that I have seen, I've
really enjoyed. The piece to the left is an example of Johnny's
work. Keep your eye out for this guy!
Phil
Noto stopped by the show. I was disappointed that
he wasn't set up, but he's finishing up work on The New
West [can't wait for that one!].
I visited briefly with Michael
Avon Oeming, Andy
Smith, Aaron
Lopresti, Dan
Brereton, Stuart
Saygar [James Howell fell in love with Stuart's
work], Ethan Van Scriver and Jason Sobel.
Cadre was there in force with his Cadre's
Corner Crew. My old buddy, Mike Kott popped in.
Kwan was there. I also picked up a sketch from James
Mason and had to leave before Steve McNiven
could finish my sketch [but Matt Hallub picked it
up -- thanks again Matt!]
Whew!!! Next stop... TampaCon
on April 17th!
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If
you asked me to name movie producers, one of the
first that I'd mention is Debra Hill. 
