Pros and (comic)cons 2010 #2

Well, it’s been a month since San Diego Comicon, and I have to say that a day hasn’t gone by without the events that took place being on my mind. So many good things came out of the show, I just wanted to finish talking about my experience down there before moving onto other topics!

Comicon highlight #4: Seeing Drew Struzan finally get recognized as a pivotal icon in the entertainment art community! I know I have mentioned this in numerous blogs, but Drew has been my life-long all time favorite artist. He announced his retirement last year, after a once too often struggle with the studios wielding Photoshop as a weapon against traditional art, and people seem to have finally stopped taking for granted the amazing images he has given us for decades.

Comicon International presented Drew with the 2010 Inkpot award for outstanding achievement in illustration. If you aren’t familiar with Drew, and wonder why he received such a prestigious award, close your eyes and imagine your favorite movie poster. Chances are, Drew painted it! Whether it’s The Goonies, E.T. , Indiana Jones, Star Wars, The Muppet Movies, or Police Academy , from the 70s through present day, Drew has been the brush that brought the movies to life. There are several books on his work you can check out, including my favorite, Oeuvre.

Drew has been a dear friend and the single strongest inspiration in my life, and it was an honor to be at the panel to see both the award, and the sneak peek of the amazing documentary on his career.

For those of you who got to share that experience, you may have noticed my appearance in the documentary! Again, an amazing honor to be able to talk about the life and work of my favorite artist. I have had the great fortune of Drew’s talent gracing many of my projects, and it was so much fun to share the stories about how each piece cam to be. Everyone has a favorite Drew poster, and it is always so difficult to choose. I’m constantly torn between the classics, like Back to the Future, or one of my own, such as Labou! But if I had to pick a piece to share right now, I would go with a rare life perk: Drew’s drawing of ME sculpting with E.T.!!! This was a comp for the Legends in 3 Dimensions box art for the E.T. bust I did. The product never got released, so this painting was never finished. But the 8 year old me will always be overjoyed every time I look at this drawing. Drew’s art has an amazing way of merging reality and fantasy. This black and white pencil sketch makes me believe I actually spent time in the woods with a being from another world…

Comicon fail #4: So this isn’t the fail of any of the people involved, and I don’t have enough of the facts to accuse Comicon of wrong doing, but I do know that for most of the year, The Guild was planning an elaborate con presence due to the fact that they had secured more booth space than in previous years. We were all very excited, and I was involved in numerous conversations about possible prop and product displays, and creating a more fan interactive show experience. All of that was tossed out a few short weeks before the con when SDCC told The Guildthat they needed to reduce their space due to over extended demand on the priority listings or some such thing.

Luckily, Kim and Felicia are friends with the awesome Jamie Chambers (@jamie1km) who secured a corner booth at the front of Hall F and was gracious enough to allow us to raid it.

On load in day, somehow they worked out how to display everyone’s merchandise in the cramped quarters, and Jamie & crew were very patient during the 4 hours+ of signings each day where as many as 9 of us crammed into the 10x10 booth to sign on an 8 foot table.

Comicon highlight #5: Of course, all of that was forgotten because the fans made everything so worthwhile! None of them seemed to mind waiting in line for hours to met Felicia and the cast. People were excited to be able to get CheeseyBeard’s t-shirts, The Guild DVDS, and @JeffCarlisle prints! Over the course of the weekend, Felicia must have signed more than a thousand autographs! The turnout for The Guild was unbelievable, and I was, and am, so very proud to have been a part of that this year. People asked me questions all week about the season and the music video, Game On, which I will blog about next, and everyone was so excited about what was coming up. At the end of the day, no form of entertainment can survive without the fans, and it was awesome to meet so many of them.

The booth was a great place to interact with everyone involved in the Guild and Legend of Neil, cast, crew, and fan alike. Here’s me mid conversation with Jeff Lewis and Sean Becker, two of the most brilliant minds you could ever come across. I also had the pleasure of talking shop with costumer @LisaPieces, Babylon 5 with Fandomania.com co-host Celeste Monsour (@celestemm), plotting and scheming with cosplay queen @GinnyMcQueen, and geeking out over Tron toys with the infamous Kenny Mittleider (@geekyfanboy).

Comicon fail #5: There were sooooooo many people I wanted to spend some time with during the con. At the top of that list is my good friend Matt Hawkins, president of Top Cow. Back in the day, Matt and I had our own company studio together, Action Toys, which published comics such as Lady Pendragon , Blue, and AlleyCat. We used to spend the entire convention season side by side, hitting every con, big or small, across the country and a few times, around the world! Now we are both so busy we don’t even get to hang out in San Diego unless we are both guests to the same event! And, unfortunately, that didn’t happen this year. Our schedules conflicted at every opportunity. I passed by the Top Cow booth a few times on my way across the hall, in hopes that there might be an open moment to catch up. But Matt was permanently stuck in his meeting box! We did finally get to share a quick lunch (in the meeting box) which almost made me late to the Guild panel! But it was nice to catch up, and I promised I would get down to the TC office for more in-depth conversation. Hopefully we will do more projects together in the future, as we always had a good time in the past. But next year, I’m booking time in advance!

Comicon highlight #6: Anything I got to do with Director Sean Becker! I definitely got to spend some quality time with my buddy Sean, who truly is a huge comic book fan! Even if there weren’t thousands of fans that wanted to meet him and talk about the Guild, Sean would be at Comicon just to keep up to date with all the new art and stories. And collect a few new Boba Fett pieces along the way! I thought this Star Wars display was the perfect place to catch a photo of him in a 1977 action stance!

One of the top highlights of the con this year was being able to sit in on the Guild signings, autographing the Team Cawkes posters I painted. Sean and I started off the line, and got to answer for each other the 100 times people asked, “Who are you on the show?”

Hopefully Felicia will write some crazy props or art into Season 5 of the Guild so I can be as much a part of the team again next year, but if not, I will always remember the front row seat I got to watch fans’ reactions to the phenomenon that is The Guild...

And hopefully you got your signed TEAM FAWKES poster! If not, they will be available online soon.

Comicon fail #6: Not enough swag L. A few days before leaving for San Diego, Felicia text me this photo of the 2,000 buttons that were just delivered to her for give-aways at the Guild Panel. I realized a few days ago that besides the one I got at the panel, I didn’t any others! Then I realized, I hardly had any stuff from the con! I was so busy with business, I hardly got time to check out all the cool stuff at the show. I definitely got to walk the hall, but I was always on a mission to get somewhere, and although I did purchase stuff that jumped out at me, I didn’t really get to comb through all the hidden treasures. I’d love to hear what people think about the size of the show. I mean, is it possible for anyone to see everything? I guess that’s what makes it so exciting. It truly is a treasure hunt!

I didn’t leave the con empty handed, though. One of my favorite scores is the very rare squid hat, and Kim and Felicia custom ordered one for me in my favorite color, purple.

Clara’s thinking cap has become quite the hit, and I’m proud to have one. You know you want one! All the cool kids are wearing them…

Comicon highlight #7: The Guild and Legend of Neil weren’t the only things I participated in at this years con. I also got to build the Gears of War booth for Microsoft. It was a sort of “photo booth” where viewers got a sneak peek at new in-game footage while their reactions where being filmed for a promotional trailer.

The project was very last minute, so I had to work double time to get it to San Diego on time. For durability and efficiency, I made the entire frame out of 2” aluminum speedrail. The booth section was sheeted in luan, then laminated with several inches of Styrofoam that I carved into and hard coated with resin.

The entire thing was painted to look metallic and rusty. The camera section was curtained in, and we made a secondary curtain that was sceniced to look as war torn as the metal. Kirsten Larson, Bryan Fulk, and Nick Carmichael help me jam the whole booth out in less than a week, then we packed it up wet and headed south!

Comicon fail #7: The paint was totally dry by the time I arrived at the convention center, but that could be because it took about 5 hours to get there! Even though it was Wednesday, all routes from LA to SD where jammed packed. I was able to get the booth set up really quick, thanks to the speedrail frame, but I still ended up working until 11pm, and missed my dinner with Rod Roddenberry. He totally understood, but it was still awkward being as I was crashing at his house that night! The Roddenberry Dive Team was having their annual Comicon dive at 5am the following morning, so I arrived to a sleeping house and had to tip toe to the guest room. I was totally bummed I didn’t get to hang out with Rod and the gang. And on top of that, I was wearing a Star Wars t-shirt! The morning was much more pleasant, as I awoke to the smell of breakfast and found Kelly Hu ( X-Men , The Scorpion King) in the kitchen! She was staying with the Roddenberry’s for the weekend to host a charity event for the dive team. We hadn’t seen each other for a while, so it was great to catch up. Kind of the perfect comicon morning, if you think about it!

But the G.O.W. booth would come back to haunt me! Xbox neglected to tell me that they had a Saturday night load out! I assumed it was Sunday, like everybody else, when the day would be all about loading out. I never imaged that it would be during the biggest night of parties and events during the con!!! So if you were wondering where I was that night, I was waiting for access to a freight elevator until 2am! Checks and balances, I guess…

Comicon highlight #8: Getting to see so many cosplayers recreating things I designed! It’s always fun to see cosplayers in general, but when someone takes the time to emulate something that came from your imagination, it is really special. I see a lot of that with the Guild fans. I can’t imagine how Felicia feels, with so many amazing Codexs walking around. Codex is like the new Slave Leia! What never ceases to impress me is the level of detail the Guild fans go to. Having built the original Avatar weapons, I know every line and form intimately. So it blows my mind when I see a fan made weapon that is exactly like, or better than, mine! Which is every time I see one. You guys are amazing. But my favorite Guild cosplay this year at Comicon has to be @marissacuevas as B!TCH KAT! Here she is with Codex and Tink!

Wondering how B!TCH KAT! fits into the Guild Universe? Well, she is a character I created so there could be a “franchise” type icon in Tink’s room, something Tink is a fan of that can appear in different scenes and be easily identified. Felicia’s original request was “something like Hello Kitty”, but I figured it had to have a little more edge. I tried to take some of the broader strokes of Tink’s personality in the show and build a cartoon character around them, and hence came up with B!TCH KAT!

She pops up a few times during season 4. Next time you watch the episodes, keep an eye out for her in Tink’s room!

It was great to see Marissa portray the character. She even went to the Guild panel like that. It’s a pretty underground thing, so you could really tell the hard-core Guild fans when they recognized her. And everyone wanted a picture. Even celebrities! Here she is with Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan, the creators/stars of B!TCH KAT’s favorite web series, CHAD VADER!

Comicon fail 8: Well, I’m really stretching for these fails! I guess that just shows how great the con was this year. But as my last regret during such a fun filled weekend, I wish I had been able to spend more time with my partner Sheri Bryant. We actually met at comicon 10 years ago, and our common interests lead us to form Dog & Rooster Productions. We usually try to spend at least a day together at the con, scouting the floor for new projects, ideas, and of course, toys! But this year we both got overbooked on separate agendas, and barely got to see each other. Sheri’s main focus this year was to promote our latest feature, "How to Make Love to a Woman" , which just became available on DVD, bluray, and Netflix! Please check it out!

So that wraps up my comicon blog. I hope you enjoyed the show if you attended, and if you couldn’t make it, I hope this blog gave you some insight to what was going on there. I’m sad that another year is passed, it was just so much fun.

I look forward to next year, and I hope to see you there!

Greg

Pros and (comic)cons 2010

Some people spend the whole year looking forward to Christmas. Others get excited when its their birthday. Many eagerly await spring break. I have to admit that one of my favorite times of the year would be San Diego Comic-Con. If you are a comic book fan, and haven’t been, you MUST make it a mission to get there one year. Well, actually, COMIC BOOK fan is kind of a limiting, old school classification of attendees. These days, I would safely bet that at least 40% of the people on the floor have never even held a comic book! The modern comicon is much more entertainment oriented, movie studios and networks having huge installations that overshadow the indie comic publisher booths. One out of every ten shoulders you bump into will be a celebrity, and every artist who has ever put a pencil to paper can be found displaying mind-blowing works. It’s worth the trip!

The show started on Wednesday, the 21^st, and ended Sunday, the 25^th. I had the good fortune of having to be there for the whole thing. I mean, I HAD to, it was work! J As fun as the work was, it was exhausting, though. The hardest part was having meetings scheduled back to back, and realizing that I would need to navigate my way through a crowd of 120,000 people to get from one meeting to the next with no travel time scheduled! I’ll plan that differently next year. I thought I would be con’d out this morning, but I found myself very inspired by the weekend’s events, and revved up for next year already! I started tweeting my highlights and fails, and realized I have so many I should blog about them. I titled this entry “Pros and (Comic)cons", but I think I will stick with the highlight/fail assignment, as there were no real cons to the con!

SDCC highlight #1: C’mon, you would pick this one, too! I saw a lot of cool things and met tons of cool people, but I am quite certain that the memory I will cherish the most from this con was being back stage with Felicia, Sandeep, Amy, Jeff, Robin, Vince, and Wil Wheaton as Kim Evey and Sean Becker premiered ep 3 of The Guild Season 4. We were all wearing our squid hats, waiting to be introduced to 1,600 applauding fans. Kim didn’t want anyone to see us, so we had to hide behind the door, and lean over to see giant screens broadcasting the show. I stood back and smiled at the sight of the cast huddled together, nervous to go on stage, but excited to hear the laughter booming from the audience. The Codex/Fawkes painting appeared on screen, the crowd cheered, and Felicia turned to me, flashing a huge grin. She said, “YOU did that!” I’m still blushing…

SDCC fail #1: Of course, being on the panel was pretty cool, too! It was an interesting experience. There was so much energy in the room. I was there to answer questions about the design and execution of the season and music video. Needless to say, I didn’t talk much, cause who wants to talk to the production designer when you can talk to Felicia Day! I was just glad to be a part of it, to be included in the Guild family. My saddest moment of the con? Not grabbing my name card to have as a keepsake of the day. I mean, I was there and I don’t even believe I was there!!! I’m gonna need proof to convince others!

I didn’t walk away with a name card, but I was able to take these awesome pictures, so I have something fun to share!

(SPOILER ALERT)

And the painting I mentioned was a piece of art I did for this current season of the Guild. The episode it is featured in airs next Tuesday, but it screened at the panel Saturday. Zaboo commissions it to show Codex that he approves of her relationship with Fawkes. I’ll get into details about how and why it came to be what it is later, but I thought I would show it to everyone who hasn’t seen it yet!

It’s acrylic on canvas, and it started out looking like this:

Why is my easel sitting in the middle of Neil’s (as in “Legend of”) grandma’s dinning room? Well, because Neil’s Grandma’s dinning room is sitting in the middle of my studio!

If you haven’t seen the premiere of LEGEND OF NEIL SEASON 3, go check it out now! The dining room scene was shot in my studio, just days before I did the Guild painting. How's that for web video trivia!

SDCC highlight #2: Well, that was an unplanned but very appropriate segue! I was also lucky enough to production design THE LEGEND OF NEIL season 3, which went live today! Sandeep Parikh, creator, writer, and director of N3IL, asked me to come on board after we worked together on the Guild, in which he stars as Zaboo. He wanted to go big with the season, and man, did we go big! I’ve been waiting for months to talk with you about all of the crazy things we made for LON, and now I can. Well, at least a little at a time. I don’t want to give anything away since we are only on the first episode!

And that was probably the hardest part for Sandeep and the cast during the panel, too, as so many of the fan questions were centered around what might happen throughout the season. But everyone did a great job of being informative while still avoiding spoilers. Sandeep was very expressive about his feeling for the cast and crew, and how hard everyone worked on the show. He also gave me a shout out for designing this year’s LON shirt, featuring the FOG art I did for episode 2. Be sure to watch for it! And order a shirt!

SDCC fail #2: That kinda fuzzy, crappy quality you are seeing in these panel photos? Can you believe that these are the best of what I have!?! I just got a new camera, the day before comicon, and apparently, I have no clue how to use it yet! I could be lame and say there is something wrong with it, but I think that “something” would be me! Anyway, if anyone has any better pix from either panel, I would love to have them!

And just for prosperity, here’s a behind the scenes photo (in focus) of the Lyke-Lyke in progress. Notice once again that Marissa is color coordinated with her project! This strange creature made a surprise cameo at the panel, puppeteered by fellow Neil alum Bryan Fulk.

SDCC highlight #3: It’s always inspiring to see a new project get tons of attention, especially when the people involved are dear to you. I got to witness that this weekend as America Young had her first comicon signing ever, for her starring role in the new web series "1^st edition". The teaser trailer screened at CELEBRATE THE WEB, and people were clamoring to meet her. Watch it here, and I guarantee you will want to meet her too!

SDCC fail #3: The only thing more tiring that comicon is the prep for comicon. Building and printing and packing and shipping…it feels like you will never be ready. And the whole time you delude yourself with the idea that the actual con will be fun and relaxing and give you the opportunity to catch up will all the people you know and admire in the industry.

If I had made a physical list of everyone I wanted/needed to meet with, I probably would have only been able to check off about 25% of it. But I would have amended it tenfold. Every corner I turned or room I entered had a dozen people I wanted to meet, and more shockingly, people I didn’t know who wanted to meet me! And even the briefest encounters change the clock, and before you know it, the con is over.

Bonnie Burton (@bonniegrrl)was the top of my list! She works for Lucasfilm, and has the most fascinating job I have ever heard of. I follow her on twitter and enjoy all the art she creates for Lucas. She is a huge Star Wars/Godzilla/sci-fi everything fan, and has crazy crafting skills. She wrote "The Star Wars Craft Book"and "You Can Draw Star Wars", among others. I wanted to talk to her about some of my secret Star Wars craft projects, but alas, we never crossed paths!

I guess the moral of the story is there is A LOT to do at San Diego Comicon! At first the concept of 5 days seems daunting, but it races by so quickly. I don’t know if I could have physically done a longer run, but I can say that I was not ready for it to end when it did!

I hope everyone that attended had as much fun as I did, and I hope to see everyone that couldn’t next year!

More highlights and fails before the week is out…

Legend of N3il!

I'm so sorry to be a stranger to my blog! I promised you (and myself!) that I would post a minimum of 2 entries a month this year, and I just realized that tomorrow is the last day of June and I haven't even posted one!

It's been a really busy few months, with no real end in sight, but at least a bunch of the projects I have been working on are getting ready to go public. Which means I will be able to do a lot of blogging about them really soon. One of the main projects I've been focused on for the better part of this year is "Legend of Neil". I was lucky enough to be asked by Sandeep Parikh to production design the 3rd and final season of his show.

The cast and crew were amazing, and the script is one of the funniest I have ever read. And helming the art department brought on an onslaught of creative challenges that really made it a memorable adventure! I guess I can't even start naming them, as I can't reveal any spoilers yet. But I can say that everything was so fun to make, and I can hardly wait to share the stories and pix.

In the mean time, check out the link below. Ha, that's kind of a Neil pun! Tell all your friends to watch it, too! Its going to be an amazing season, so don't miss a single episode!

Legend of Neil season 3 teaser