Speaking for Stacy Korn and the rest of the volunteer organizers for WONDER WOMAN DAY, I’m happy to say that we are on our way to amassing a great collection of original art for auction this year. Our NJ event benefits S.A.F.E. in Hunterdon as we have done for the past four years. When Stacy informed me that she got Love & Capes creator Thom Zahler to commit to giving a piece, I just about fainted and told her that I will fight whoever I have to in order to get highest bid on that one. Stacy has her eyes on the donation by Sergio Aragones but I think
she’ll have to clean out her bank account or win the Lottery. No matter what, we always hope that the fans out there with the means to place bids check out the pieces and actually BID! Our shelter and the organizations supported by the Portland event are always in need of our contributions. So, please, outbid us!
I need to give a HUGE amount of thanks to Jay Fife (and his awesome entourage including neighboring artist Josh Lyman) for having me at the booth. Jay even let me sit down once in a while! 🙂 My feet and back were a raging wreck by today from the hours in painful high heels. *Plea to all comic book artists: Stop creating costumes with high heels.*
I only got about two minutes of time with my “bosses” at Dynamic Forces and Dynamite Entertainment, Brian Hofacker and the deliciously handsome VP Joe Rybant. (Sorry, is that way too much information? Too bad. My blog. Deal with it.)
Saturday night eventually turned around. It started out horribly but I did end up at the Hyatt bar drinking ginger ale and having a lovely time catching up with Jamal Igle and Brian Maze and meeting new folks like Sterling Gates. I only had about five seconds with Jimmy Palmiotti, one of my favorite people in comics.
By Sunday, I had finally ventured across the massive convention floor to meet Alex Saviuk and Herb Trimpe, along with Herb’s sweet wife and mother-in-love. Alex is a very busy man which is a good thing in this industry. You can’t complain about too much work or you might not get more. Just down from them was Neil Vokes next to my con friends Tommy Castillo and Dirk Strangely; I really wish I could see them more than at conventions. Oh well. That’s what phones are for, I guess. I only quickly breezed by Pittsburgh friend Mav at his booth, as well as Antonio Clark, Andy Harmon, Joe Sergi, Rob Anderson, and gal pal Erica Hesse (if you need to define sexy, talented, and nerdy, check out Erica and memorize her url). I ran into other NJ folks: Ken Haeser and everyone at Koni Waves. I can see you guys anytime, no need to gush about you now.
As for the cosplay.. I had a ridiculously fun time being flirty and fabulous with Han Pan (Harley) and Brandy Gibson (Emma Frost). When Ms. Marvel showed up, I thought I might swear off men for good. I’m so glad I was dressed as Rogue that day. We brawled in the aisle beginning with hair pulling leading to power stealing. It might have lead to groping. It definitely did with Harley and Emma. Jay and Josh had a great view but sadly they were doing serious stuff like drawing commissions! After some loud commands for photos, Jay happily snapped a few shots of spandex clad girls grabbing each other.
Ok, so I won’t leave the men out. Fred Holt pulled off another great weekend as Nick Fury and Blade; seriously, this man’s Blade makes me weak in the knees and not many men in costume do that for me and a few that do are gay. There was a magnificent Cyclops whose name I failed to get. Unfortunately I only got a pic of him when I was Catwoman so we didn’t “match.” There were a great many I didn’t see because I stayed in artists’ alley during the contest. The War Machine won Grand Prize and I hear it was very impressive.
I ended up making some interesting plans to add to my NYCC agenda. Firestar will definitely be in action for the Women of Marvel photoshoot (I sure hope I’m the only one!) With any luck, I may get the chance to unpack my sewing machine and maybe make something new. I will be spending some of my NYCC time at the Toonseum booth.
