The 2008 NYCC Commission Low-Down
Commissions, Commissions, Commissions…and Stan Lee?!
Kamen Rider Amazon - by Alex Horley
April 23rd, 2008 - Tired feet. Tired legs. Tired head, not to mention a severely tired wallet. And that’s just after the first day!
After wondering (briefly) if I was even going to make it out to this year’s New York Comic Con (what?!?? you say), I ventured out for the third straight year and it was a blast.
Going along as part of The Comic Collective was much more fun than I could have anticipated, as I got to watch interviews with some top creators from the sidelines. And when I say top creators, I mean TOP. We’re talking Grant Morrison, Eric Powell, Neal Adams . . . STAN LEE. Certainly the highlight of the weekend for me was getting to shake “the man’s” hand and let him know what an inspiration he’s been to me (how many times has he heard that line??). To be able to watch from seven feet away as he worked his “Stan-speak,” without hordes of people standing on other peoples’ shoulders just to get a glimpse of him, as happened only minutes before during a panel discussion, was a fan’s fantasy come true. The smile I wore while he spoke hasn’t worn off yet.
Still, as always, my main objective at a con is to get . . . stuff! I forsook most toys and vintage comics and concentrated this time on getting some art commissions. For future reference, I strongly suggest that anyone thinking of getting con sketches at the next NYCC attend the Friday session, as a lot of artists have already filled up their sketch lists by Saturday. Being able to go with press credentials this time around helped further, as I was able to move around freely during the opening hours without the wall to wall people and aisles of human traffic that made it a Herculean task to get from one side of the convention floor to the other later, when the floor was open to the public..
My first order of business Friday morning was to make my way over to Alex Horley’s booth. Alex is best known for his Lobo:Death and Taxes mini-series from a few years back and more recently his Marvel and DC, World of Warcraft and Magic: The Gathering card paintings. He works in a Frazetta/Bisley fantasy style, yet has a look undeniably his own. He’s definitely one of my favorite artists to emerge on the scene in the last ten years. Alex did an absolutely incredible beast creature for me at the Nov. 2006 Big Apple Con and it’s still one of my most prized convention sketches. It’s really more than a sketch--Alex doesn’t skimp on his con drawings, putting a lot of work into them. I had perused the Artist’s Alley list for the con on the Web site numerous times, but only days before did I think to look through the list of exhibitors, which is where I found Alex listed. Someone on the ComicArtFans list mentioned they had already set up a commission in advance with Alex, to be picked up at the show, so I was a bit concerned that he might already be booked by the time I got there; luckily, I was just the second person on his sketch list. As I approached the table, I saw he was already working on a very cool-looking Venom piece.
Small world, as it turned out our eminent Website owner and video editor had previously worked with Alex’s agent, girlfriend and frequent model, Stacy E. Walker, on a VH-1 pilot called “Get Your Geek On.” She greeted him with a kind hug and accolades. That certainly didn’t hurt my chances of getting a great drawing (or two) this time around! This year I requested two separate drawings, figuring I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to get some art from him, as he doesn’t make that many area appearances, let alone in the US. To be honest, if I was given the chance, I might have asked for more, but I didn’t want to get greedy and deprive others of the opportunity to acquire some cool art as well.
This time around I asked for a drawing of the Japanese live action superhero Kamen Rider Amazon (originally aired in 1974) battling a monster. I came supplied with reference for the artists I’d be talking to (always a smart idea if asking for any character other than the regular Batman, Hellboy, or Hulk). At first, when I mentioned I was interested in getting a drawing of a Japanese superhero, Alex thought I meant some kind of big-eyed manga character, which, in a way, isn’t that far from the truth! Kamen Rider certainly has big eyes and he did begin in manga, but he’s as far from the traditional manga character one could think of. His design is a true original. As soon as I showed him the reference, he seemed to reveal some recognition of the character. We spoke a bit about Kamen Rider and then I took out a book I brought along of previous commissions, showing him the amazing version of the character that Dave DeVries did for me last summer at the Super Comicfest in Seacacus, NJ. Turns out that he and Alex are friends, and later in the day I ran into Dave by the Image booth. A great guy and an equally great artist. But I digress.
With the Kamen Rider Amazon piece set up, I proceeded to my next commission request: Baron Karza of Marvel’s Micronauts. In my commissions book, I also had some photos of my comic and toy collections, including some of my Mego Micronaut stuff. Alex stopped on that and started pointing out the figures that he had as well. Growing up in Italy, he was exposed to a lot of Micronauts product, as Takara’s Japanese line of Microman figures was released there by GIG toys, including characters never released in either the Japan or the US. Further, in Italy, he had grown up watching the animated show GEEG, or JEEG, a colorful, yellow and green magno-powered (magnetically jointed limbs) figure that was the predecessor of MEGO’s Baron Karza and Force Commander figures. Those had basically the same body as Jeeg, re-colored in basic black and white, with new head sculpts. Jeeg, as he was originally devised, was never released in the US. Alex seemed excited by the prospect of drawing Karza and then showed me a rejected cover sketch he had done for the now cancelled 2nd series of Micronauts comics by Devils Due Publishing. This sketch featured Acroyear in the foreground and looked like it would have been a very cool painting. Too bad that never came to fruition. But I now know what I’m going to ask for the next time I get to commission Alex Horley!
I had a list of artists I was looking to get art from and I went around trying to find their tables; while I found most, some were either late to the show or I somehow missed them. It took a little bit of time trying to figure out the navigation around Artist’s Alley, though it was much better set up than in years past. The first year, 2006, was a nightmare, with a walkway about the width of three people, which quickly became jam-packed and impossible to make your way through. This year Artist’s Alley was more open and easy to move around in. Early on, I was looking for both Eric Talbot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Melting Pot fame, as well as Darwyn Cooke, best known for his work on Catwoman, the Spirit, and DC’s New Frontier. He may have been at his booth early on, but he was one of the guys I completely missed and didn’t find until Saturday afternoon, by which time he was already booked for the weekend. I was bit bummed, but my wallet certainly thanked me. There’s always next time.
Eric I couldn’t find at all, so I just made my way around and was continually blown away by all the awesome art happening before my eyes as guys painted, drew, and inked away on commissions. It amazes me to see the concentration that some artists can have, working on paintings in such a crowded, raucous atmosphere.
In between calls from Bradley, The Comics Collective Web master, and the interview segments (I still haven’t completely gotten the ring tone of my phone out of my head) I made my way to a few more tables. Andrew Robinson of Dusty Star fame was sketching and I approached him with my Kamen Rider Amazon reference. He was a very laid back kind of guy, almost shy, but he was OK about taking on my request. I’m always a bit hesitant to ask some artists to do a character they might not be familiar with; you never know exactly what you might get and sometimes it might be better to go with a more well-known character or one that they themselves have created (I’ll get to that next). Still, I asked Andrew to do the Amazon and left him with the reference. He told me to come by after a couple of hours and it would be done. I then made my way over to the table of Craig Rousseau of The Perhapanauts. He had a bunch of original pages and sketches for sale, all reasonably priced; looking back on it, I probably should have just bought one of those rather than requesting another Amazon from him. He’s known for drawing all kinds of characters and his three sketchbooks, all colored penciled drawings on colored canson paper, are made up of various Marvel, DC, and independent characters, so I thought he’d be a natural at doing a Kamen Rider Amazon. He had a couple of price points for sketches--$40 for pen and ink and $50 for a toned drawing. I went for the toned drawing. From the examples I’ve seen online, though, I like his pen and ink pieces much more; there seems to be more detail in the line work and they’re cleaner as well. I think if I’d just asked for a Hellboy or even a “Big,” his bigfoot character from the Perhapanauts, I’d have been much happier with the final piece. So, while he made a valiant attempt at Amazon, I wasn’t that crazy about it. A friend of mine at the show asked for a Big, and sure enough it was excellent. Next time I’ll stick with his better-known characters should I decide to commission him again.
Moving around I found someone else on my list I wanted to see if I could get some art from--Sean “Cheeks” Galloway. Sean is a young guy, but immensely talented, and is best known for his work designing the animated Hellboy series characters as well as this season’s new WB 11 Spider-Man series. He had on hand with him both volumes of his popular Brandstudio Press book, Grab Yo’self A Handful of Cheeks, along with some prints of his art. Unfortunately, he wasn’t doing any commissions, but he was doing free head sketches, so it was terrific to get a nice Hellboy drawing in my sketchbook. We chatted for a bit and I asked him if he’d like to be interviewed later on for the Website; he graciously accepted. A couple of tables down from Sean was another animation master artist, Sanford Greene, and from him I picked up his very nice full color art book, Deadlines. Later, I found another favorite artist who does most of his work in the animation field, the incredible Jose Lopez, whose book Mariachi Samurai is also published by Brandstudio Press (after its initial print run under his own publishing banner sold out). I asked if he was doing drawings and he said yes, free sketches, if you bought a copy of the book, but I told him I already owned that, so he was nice enough to do a fine sketch of the Mariachi Samurai himself in my own sketchbook.
There was more original art to be had from the usual cache of dealers, like Splash Page Comic and Art, Albert Moy, and Anthony Snyder. Alex Ross had a table set up, though he wasn’t there. To meet him, you had to get on a long line (after first getting a ticket) at a pre-determined time. His art, though, was on full display in big portfolios, with equally big price tags. Anywhere from five to twenty-five thousand dollars a pop. A mafioso-like, private security guard watched from behind the table, eyes peeled to anyone even thinking of sneaking away with a painting or pencil sketch. His Star Trek-styled cell/earphone was just a call away from bringing in the SWAT team should anyone try something stupid.
The rest of Friday was taken up with lots of picture taking, more interviews (including the immaculately suited Grant Morrison; the very talkative, but in a good way, Shekhar Kapur, director of last year’s Cate Blanchett starrer, Elizabeth, now working with Virgin Comics; and Virgin Comics CEO Sharad Devarajan), babysitting a charging light battery, and chatting with old friends and acquaintances. Closing time was 8 pm at which time a very tired Comic Collective crew sauntered out of the Javits Center and into the warm April night, ready to do it all over again first thing the next morning.
Saturday was just as exciting as Friday, if not more so, as it featured the interviews with personal heroes Stan Lee and Eric Powell. I just made it to Eric’s interview, as I was in Artist’s Alley at the time and got the call from Brad to “Get to the Dark Horse booth NOW: . . . I didn’t know it was for Eric, but I knew it was for something good and I wasn’t disappointed. Well, maybe a bit, as he said he wasn’t doing commissions or sketching. He did, however, do a very nice Goon sketch for The Comic Collective’s site, which you should be able to see here shortly. Later, on Saturday, I found him at his table with a book of his original art for sale, though most of it was out of my price range. I also found Eric Talbot on Saturday; I don’t know how I missed him on Friday, but whenever I went by where he was supposed to be sitting, there were some guys there selling some kind of Archie Comics knockoffs. Well, he was here now and I was very happy to have found him. He had brought along a book of previously completed small paintings and inked drawings for sale, all very reasonably priced. He also had some art that had just been penciled, which he would ink and color upon request. A few of the cooler pieces in his book, though, had the dreaded NFS sticker on them. The super-cool Hellboy and Batman ones! Still, I was more than thrilled to be able to pick up a very nice full-color TMNT watercolor painting, a small black and grey-toned monster painting, and his zombified take on Iggy Pop. This one was just inked, and he added the watercolor tones at the show.
Most of Saturday I spent just browsing the floor (and readjusting the increasingly heavy messenger bag on my increasingly sore left shoulder. Note to self: bring a regular old style shoulder backpack next year) and meeting up with friends. I took more photos, ate a $4.25 frankfurter in about 4.25 seconds, and moved around the floor area (watching intently as Steve Rude worked on a beautiful Nexus character commission; a very nice in progress Superman drawing was sitting on the table next to him), checking back on artists to see if commissions were done or being worked on. (Craig Rousseau at that point hadn’t yet gotten to my previous day’s Amazon request, and needed to redraw someone else’s Big commission as he had drawn him the first time with two left feet). Later in the day, while browsing through some art at Splash Page, I discovered that another personal favorite, the UK’s own Duncan Fegredo (Shade: The Changing Man covers, Hellboy: Darkness Calls miniseries, and tons more) was sitting and sketching there. I had no idea he was even at the show, as I never saw his name listed on the NYCC site. I stopped by and watched him work on a super Hellboy ink and wash piece before summoning up the courage to ask him if he had any time to add another commission before the day ended. At first, he seemed a bit reluctant, as it was around 4:30/5:00 and the show ended at 7:00, but he asked his rep, and it was confirmed he had no other outstanding commissions to do (hard to believe), so I was lucky enough to have him say yes to doing a Hellboy drawing. And I was very, very happy to pick up later the 11X14 ink and wash piece he did for me for $50! The Comic Collective was also able to film a short but informative interview with Duncan. As with some artists, at first he was a bit apprehensive about appearing on camera, but once he got going he loosened up and came forth with some interesting insights into the characters and stories he was working on.
As Saturday wound down, I made a few more rounds, picking up just a few books (the new TwoMorrows Mike Allred Modern Masters amongst them) and the 2007 San Diego ComicCon exclusive Mezco Abe Sapien Hellboy figure.
My last stop of the day was back at the Dark Horse booth, where The Comic Collective was finishing up some of their last interviews. I waited, sitting down and taking a load off my feet for a bit, and watching as a couple of fans came by to visit Mike Mignola, seated a few feet away and chatting with fellow Dark Horse friends. He could see that one guy was a bit nervous about imposing on him, so he nicely called him over and signed his Hellboy Library Edition hardcover. The guy and his friends giggled excitedly as they walked away with their prize. One more fellow in a Batman shirt, not your usual geek type, though, buff and athletic-looking, masquerading as a comics fan, came by and had his Batman Black and White Statue signed. All the while, I just sat there, my Abe Sapien at my feet, in its bag. I could easily have gotten up and asked Mike to sign that as well. But then, how would I ever be able to open it and take it out of the package? I wouldn’t so I played it too nonchalant for my own good. Next time you’re in a situation that might not come around again, definitely act upon it, or you’ll regret it long afterward.
All in all, it was one heck of a whirlwind weekend. All my art in hand (except for a Stephane Roux request, which he wasn’t able to get to), my head throbbing from the day’s activities, and a threatening sky outside, The Comic Collective called it a day. I wouldn’t be back for a third day, though next year I think I will. Then home on the bus, dinner, and the blessing of sleep as visions of Stan Lee, Hellboy drawings, comic books, toys, and costumed fans danced through my dreams.
You can view more of Justin Leiter's comic art on his ComicArtFans Gallery Page.
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