Back From San Diego 1

Came in from San Diego this morning. Had a blast at the convention…perhaps the best time I’ve ever had there.

I shared a room with Jonah Weiland and Augie DeBlieck from CBR, two entertaining guys who have their comedy routine pretty tight after 7-8 years of rooming at cons together. That alone was worth the trip.

Spent a lot of time helping out at the Actionopolis booth. It was exciting to see the hardcover representation of the all of the books, including “Heir to Fire” on the table…all lined up neat as can be with their matching book spines.

We had neither books for sale nor the actual production copies as I thought we would. Instead the hardcovers were dummies sent over from the publisher, with the representative number of blank pages between the covers.

Everyone who saw our hardcovers seemed very impressed. There were lots of recollections of Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Western Publishing and Big Little Books, which I think are all good associations.

Too late in the weekend I got the idea to use my “Heir” dummy as a sketchbook for the Actionopolis artists to fill. Dan Hipp (“Amazing Joy Buzzards”) did an awesome sketch of his character from “What I did on my Hypergalactic Interstellar Summer Vacation”.

Publisher Patrick Coyle busted out the ink pens and graced the edition with his character, “Bixby Grant”.

A lot of the Actionistas were in and out of the booth all weekend.

I met / spoke with ?Heir to Fire? artist Mike Dubisch for the first time. We had a great time spitballing ideas for the next book in the line. Mike?s got a new art book out called ?Morbid Curiosity?, which could drive one insane if you look at the monstrous imagery too long.

John Helfers, who edited all of the books in the line, in addition to writing two of the upcoming books, also hung out with us. He was a very cool dude who helped me out quite a bit at the show.

I met Rick Hoberg (?Spirit of the Samurai?) who?s a very nice guy and (obviously) very knowledgeable about his craft. Dan Mishkin was in and out throughout the weekend and charmed the fans as he did at Motor City Con.

Once and future Actionistas making cameos at the booth included Tom Mandrake (who was nice enough to give my buddy Carl a great portfolio review), Christopher E. Long, Michael Geiger, Dan Hipp, Will Meugniot, Barbara Kesel and Hans Rodionoff.

Even JJ Hart showed up which was a little scary. If you want my opinion: the guy is mad as a hatter…seemed to be saying that the “Zombie Monkey Monster Jamboree” book is fact-based.

Actionopolis also hosted its inaugural panel discussion with myself, Shannon Denton, Patrick, Mike, Dan, Rick and John, which gave us about two more people on the riser than there were in the audience. We were competing with Guillermo del Toro and the “Happy Tree Friends“…so watchagunnadoo?

Oh…and I previewed the artwork for “Tigerfist” there, to a select few eyeballs. Lots of “oohs” and “aahs” were elicited.

Lots of interesting connections and cool people.