SaturdayWe got into the con about 15 minutes after the doors opened and proceeded directly to the Castle Rain booth, spotted Joe first and exchanged greetings with him and Tim. Tony came out of the booth and gave me a big bear hug to which one of the bro's made some comment about being freaked out by this broke back moment.
separated at birth
Meeting Tony for the first time was a true pleasure. Said howdy to Michael and his father in law frank and then dove head first into Joe's portfolio. Didn't take long to find a piece I couldn't pass up.
Went thru Tim's a couple of times and decided to give some thought to what I might want. Shortly thereafter a couple walked up to Joe and asked if he was Joe Vigil because a friend of theirs had asked them for a strange request, did he know who Creepy Pippy was and did he know something about squirrel hunting. To which Joe using some mimicry said that he shot them fuckers right out of the tree's.
Pippy's pals
Cruised around the con and bought a nice Sci Fi/fantasy piece from Brian Snoody whom I had bought a couple of small pieces from last year.
Joe and I headed over to the free table because Cindy came back with some nice calenders. We ran into Ira Hunter and Robin Thompson of Champions of Hell.
Hunter, Thompson, and Joe
Put my name on Tims sketch list and had him do this great Death Dealer piece.
Commissioned Tony to ink the female Death Dealer piece I have of Tims, he had a copy he had already started and this is the finished item.
Went over and chatted with Brom, he was very approachable and had some original paintings for 2-3k which I thought were reasonable but more than I was looking to spend. He lived just outside Seattle so I asked him if he could bring some pencils in on Sunday. On Sunday I went to see him and was pleasantly surprised that he had indeed gone to the effort to round some pencil pieces up and brought them in. There were several character designs he had done for "Ghost's of Mars" and I bought this piece.
Lined up for a free mini sketch and some signed books by Roman Dirge, met him at the Vegas con before. Interesting cat.
Bought a few other odds and ends and bought the color mermaid piece from Joe, I wanted this since the first time he sent me a scan, and called it a day.
Went out to dinner with the gang to California Pizza an upscale pasta house courtesy of UK, thanks again. Best pizza I ever ate.
SundayArriving early I helped UK get ready by buffing his dome while singing some opera from the Barber of Seville
Sunday was pretty slow unfortunately for the guys but provided a lot of time to chat. There was a definite shortage of hot girls at this con, in fact after looking over at the "Meatball" girls across the isle in another booth I heard a couple of vows of celibacy uttered by the gang. Went cruising to see Steve Niles asked him to deliver a love letter to Templesmith from Northman. Got his new book signed and chatted with him about the progress on his movie, script was done, Peter Jacksons studio was committed, was still looking for a director and should begin filming in about six months. No one was there the whole time I stood there.
Steve Niles
Got my Seven Soldiers Frankenstein's signed by Doug Mahnke and had a lengthy conversation. He said this was the first comic he had fun drawing in a long time, if you haven't checked this book out I highly recommend it. He did really nice big sketches for free. Caught him at an awkward moment in the photo.
Doug Mahnke
Here for your viewing displeasure is the one and only, feel free to photoshop this and send me the results.
Rob Liefield
Cindy picked up an Evil Dead DVD in a rubbery "Necronomicon" book its full of printed drawings and runes. There were some blank pages so Joe did a cool zombie on one page and Tim said let me see that, holding it up next to his head he commented it looked like him. He proceeded to do a zombie sketch of Joe, looking at it Cindy said "look Joe's still going for the boobies". Steve Niles did a little drawing and a couple of other people including UK.
Zombie Tim and Joe
I had Tim do me an awesome Jaguar God
Here's a nice shot of the guys.
Had Joe do me this killer Death Dealer
Cindy had Tim do this Conan piece as a gift for me
Picked up some books here and there and some of the new "Wild Angels" prints from Joe. The black light Jack book is great looking and a good read, Michael also produce a 300 print mini plate for the con so get your orders in while they last.
The party's over.
The Wild Bunch
The con ended not with a bang but with a splooge
The bro's flew out that night and Michael and Frank headed back to the great white north. Tony offered to let us crash in his room since it had two beds so we accepted his offer. We went to dinner and shot the shit till we ran out of bullets.
For someone I was a little intimidated by when I first came on BH because I was afraid he would nail gun my balls to a park bench for being an ignorant newb. Tony is one of the most sincere and honest people its been my pleasure to meet in person. I'm proud to call him Bro.
Keerist. I either gotta correct my posture or take that job at the cathedral ringin the fuckin bell..