Well, between almost getting into a fight and kicked-out the first five minutes of the show, finding out I had a son I wasn’t aware of and getting the best commission I have ever gotten, this was the best Heroescon I have ever been to.
Started off months ago when they announced Art Adams was going to be at the con. Art Adams, who doesn’t want to get an Art Adams. So my only real two chases were Art and the elusive Mark Brooks. Well Mark unfortunately canceled a week before the show. Dang, I was only down to Art so I had to make sure I got a piece from him.
Left Raleigh at 2 am Friday morning and drove to Charlotte and got the convention 5 am. Needless to say, first person at the con. Convention center wasn’t even open. Nick Conner from Dallas came about 10 minutes later. Nick lurks here sometimes but hasn’t registered, Ken knows him from some trips to Dallas. Been a collector for a while and was after an Art Adams also. We got into the convention center about 30 minutes later ( I am going to leave out the newscaster who was dressed in a green body suit and a cape that was filming out front). We lined up by the entrance to the con and more people trickled in after about another 30 minutes or so. Gincy, Sam, Shannon CK (who was working for the con) and some other regulars I always see there and half the fun of getting there early is talking to the people you see once a year and catching up or meeting great new people like Nick and finally meeting Underdog and his uber-wealthy son in person (welcome to the NC Posse Underdog!).
We all know some people get in early by having friends who have tables and I really don’t have issues with that cause I would do it too if I have the chance. One of those people, a fellow art collector and friend, came up at 10:00 at told us there was already a line at Art’s table 20 people long and that most of them were stand in for a guy called Comic Monster. Not sure if he goes to other shows but he is at HeroesCon each year and buys a table for the sole purpose of getting in early and getting on artist lists and getting hundreds of comics sign just to flip them the next day on eBay. He had stacked a bunch of people in the Art Adams line with blank covers and a note as to who they were supposed to ask for. Needless to say I was pissed off. If it was just fans, I would have been okay but with 20 people, there was no way I would have gotten on Art’s list, I just knew it. Nick and I were both pretty pissed given that we had been there since way too early in the morning.
We flagged down a big guy who works for HeroesCon that we see ever year (no, not CK, although we did talk to him) and told him the situation and how pissed off we were. He came back a few minutes later and said that he had put convention security down by the table and moved the group of people over to some tables nearby. The security was told not to let any of them move until they saw the first person at the table with a 3 day pass badge. The con opened at 10:30 and Nick and I rushed down as we were the only ones in the beginning who wanted an Art Adams. As soon as we hit the table, the group rushed over and one guy said we had to get to the back of the line. Nick and I both said nope. He said they were there first and we reminded him that we had been there since 5 am. Nick and I were getting heated with a couple of the guys (who were artists who had tables and never spent time at them for the most part of the entire show) and it got real close to getting physical. A guy who worked for the convention center came over and said Nick and I had to get to the back of the line. We said no way. He said he would have the guards throw us out if we didn’t move. Nick said to go get Shelton (who runs the con) if that was the case. The guys who were arguing said that one of us could stay and the other would have to go back to the end of the line. We refused, we were not getting screwed out of an Art Adams piece. We finally agreed that Nick and I could stay at the front of the line and everything would be okay. Nick even offered to let one of the guys we were arguing with to go ahead of him. We waited for about 1.5 hours for Art to show up which we kind of figured since he is on west coast time. During that time, Nick’s wife and adorable young son came over for a few minutes while we were standing in line. Nick told me that he saw one of the guys we were arguing with at a table and he asked him if I was his dad. OUCH!! Nick is 31 and I’m 45. That one hurt.
Needless to say, I requested Art to do a Planet Hulk bust (he was doing $200 busts only at the show) in my Planet Hulk book. Since Brooks was out, I wasn’t sure who I wanted to get. In the week before the con, Heroescon was retweeting a lot of tweets from artists who were working on pre-commission pieces. I saw this amazing piece of art from an artist named Daniel Govar which blew me away so I decided to get a piece from him. I found out standing in line that the piece in question was actually Shannon’s piece he set up. I will not say anything more about it to let Shannon show it but it should be used on the cover of a Marvel comic. You should all go to www.danielgovar.com and get on his at home commission list, he does awesome awesome work. Tell him Steve sent you.
Third person I got to do a commission was Dave Wachter. He does a western style book and has a classic art style. I have meant to get something from him in the last few years and could fit it in this year.
Saturday morning, I checked with Art and he was only able to do a blue line pencil and asked if I wanted the book back for any other artist during that day and then get it back that evening to finish. I will say that there was a line of people most of the time for Art to get signatures and he talked to each of them and signed who knows how many books. Art was a super nice guy and is a class act in my book. He made time for every fan that came up to him.
Daniel wasn’t able to get started on my book due to an auction piece that needed to be done so he wrote his room number and cell phone in my book and asked if I could ask Art to let him know when he was done that night so he could get it and work on it also. I asked Art and wouldn’t you know, Art took it down to Daniel himself at the hotel. Wow.
Came in Sunday morning and saw the Art Adams piece. Wow, it is by far the best commission I have ever gotten. My jaw hit the floor. Daniel worked on my book in the morning to finish his piece and I got a text from CK to go down to Daniel’s table. (Daniel also did the artwork for CK’s Hellboy tattoo on his leg I should mention). Apparently Stephane Roux was walking by and saw the piece Daniel was working on and said he had to do something in the book. Wow, what do you say to that? I went over to talk to Stephane and he just likes the Hulk character and wanted to do a piece in the book. After Daniel was done with his amazing piece, I rushed over to Dave so he could work on it. He did an awesome job too and at 4:00, went over to Stephane and he just sat there talking to Nick and myself while he put a quick Hulk sketch in the book for the next 20 minutes or so.
Last year I also started a jam page with a creative team called CreatureBox. They are local to Raleigh and always at HeroesCon right next to Skottie Young. They work on video games and do the best monster designs you will ever see. They have put out a couple books based on their monster stuff. I have them do a Hulk last year and gave them the pick of a Hulk villain this year and they went with Rhino. Going to try and get a couple more villains next year. They did a dark Phoenix for a friend of myself and Shannon that was amazing. This is another art team that I would suggest you reach out to if you want something a bit different but way cool like when we first caught onto Uminga. Go to creaturebox.com and take a look, you will not be disappointed.
So that’s the adventure of HeroesCon 2014, it was the best con I have had so far just with everything that happened. But now onto the artwork!
Art Adams
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1138757
Daniel Govar
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1138760
Dave Wachter
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1138763
Stephane Roux
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1138765
Creaturebox Hulk jam
http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...?piece=1138772
Attached Images
planethulkartadams.JPG (44.6 KB)
wachterhulk.JPG (63.2 KB)
rouxhulk.JPG (38.2 KB)
creatureboxjam.JPG (31.0 KB)
govarplanethulk.JPG (51.7 KB)