HeroesCon 2009 - Day The Third

The third day of the convention began late for us. Hil and I packed and checked out before heading over to the convention center, stashing most of our belongings in the car. We got to the convention center by noon, and faced a dilemma. There were four different panels starting, and I wanted to sit in on three of them. One panel boasted Brubaker and Epting. Another panel promised a panel-by-panel examination of Brave And The Bold #4 with Mark Waid and George Perez. The third panel was the premier of the Longbox Project, a digital comics initiative.

We opted for the Brave and the Bold panel. We settled into the room and waited for the discussion to begin. While the premise sounded very interesting, we were disappointed when the moderator dominated the discussion. In an hour, we scarcely covered four pages of the comic, with a total of four questions for two awesome creators that didn't come directly from the guy who was supposed to be moderating the panel.

On the show floor, I spent most of my remaining cash to get another sketch from Comfort Love and Adam Withers - this time for Hilary. We were both so impressed with my Hercules sketch, that I wanted to get one of Hilary. It came out beautifully, and I'll post it later - provided Hilary's okay with it.

We bounced around a bit, meeting Mark Waid and George Perez for signatures. Ironically, I got Perez to sign my copy of the Brave and the Bold #1 one year after Mark Waid signed it to the day. I finally managed to track down Zack Kruse, writer of The Contingent, and bought the third issue of his book from him. Returning to the PKD Media booth, I picked up a copy of PKD Media Presents, taking one last chance to meet Shawn Pryor.

We walked the con floor a last bit, collecting a few more signatures. Creators were already leaving, and I found I'd missed Ethan Van Sciver. I did wait in line, though, for Bill Sienkiewicz and got him to sign my copies of the issues for the Demon Bear saga. He seemed particularly happy that my issues were pretty clearly read. I did make a point, though, of stopping by Chris Giarusso's booth. He was giving away free head-sketches, so he drew me as a mini-Marvel Captain America.

But by about 4pm, it was time to leave. I'd made a donation to the HERO Initiative while George Perez was signing, and was down to my last dollar. Rather than try to dive into the markdowns to pick up a few last issues, I gave my last dollar to the CBLDF.

Returning to the car, we began the short trip back to Columbai. This was easily the best weekend I've spent at HeroesCon yet. I was thrilled to meet some folks from the forums, and to get to meet Bryan Deemer, Pants and Murd from CGS, and to get some sketches that were a little more personal. We kept in-budget, and I was within $10 on my rough estimation of the hotel bill.

We're planning to save money again for the show next year. Ideally, we'll be able to save up enough to make a trip North to SuperShow. My one regret is that I turned into a pumpkin after-hours. The shifts in my sleeping habits had a stronger effect on my than I thought. But I want to give thanks to everybody I did meet! I had an excellent time.