GraniteState ComicCon And The Time Capsule Warehouse Sale

It is hard to believe that convention season is basically in my rear view mirror. Obviously Terrificon is my main convention I aim to hit but there are others that dot the New England landscape in the summer and early fall. 

I usually consider Granite State Comic Con  to be the end of the con season as it usually happens in late September and there aren't many others I always try to hit in the months after. (I know Wicked Comic Con just happened and Rhode Island Comic Con is coming up but I wasn't/won't be attending because of other obligations.)

And Granite State is a favorite of mine because they often have solid comic creator guests. Off the top of my head I can remember seeing Aaron Kuder, Jeff Parker, and Michael Cho there. It has been growing in some ways, now occupying two different areas in the hotel it is in as well as the floor of an arena across the street. The media guests have been growing as well. Interestingly, the con used to be almost exclusively comic vendors, but much like Plastic City, there were only a handful of comic dealers there with toys, shirts, and other memorabilia filling up the bulk of the floor.

But I am burying the lede as they say. I was telling friends of mine that I was going to this con and many recommended that I try and get a commission from Dave Wachter, an artist best known for TMNT. Since I don't read TMNT, I had never seen his work but did a quick perusal on line. Suffice it to say my friends have great taste. 

Wachter did the commission above and it is stunning. I love the pose, the shading, the background. I love Supergirl's happy expression and flexing. I am just floored by how great this commission is, a perfect ending to con season.

But wait, while not a con, there was one more Summer-ish 'event' worth talking about.

Review: Superman Red And Blue #6

Superman Red and Blue #6 came out this week and was a great send off for this mini-series. I have to say, each issue of this thing seemed to get better and better. I am glad DC gave Superman this chance to shine.

This issue finally gave us some Supergirl, albeit in a Streaky story. But the fact that we got a Streaky story made this worth the money. 

Outside that we get a story about the difficulties of being Clark Kent, unable to cover his own exploits as Superman. We get a story about the mainstay of Smallville and how she has witnessed Clark's life  through the years, impacting him more than our hero knew. We get some farm life wisdom seeping into big city life. And we get to see how Superman's revealing of his identity inspires a young man. 

There wasn't much action in this issue. But I don't mind. Many of my favorite stories are about Superman being an inspiration. Or how his Smallville life formed his morality. Or about Supergirl and her super cat. For me, this was the perfect last issue. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this Doc Shaner cover. This should be a t-shirt, a poster, and a mug. This should be everywhere. I love how we get Supergirl, Power Girl, and Krypto right there. Heck, Comet and Streaky are there too. Doc Shaner can do no wrong. 

Boston Comic Con Commission #3: Matt Wagner

The 2011 Boston Comic Con was earlier this month and I was lucky enough to get several commissions for my collection. This Matt Wagner commission might be the steal of the weekend for me.

With the recent kerfluffle over commissions, I have to say that my sketch books are really a treasured part of my comic collection. Once I ran out of space on my basement wall, I switched to gathering commissions in a sketch books. I have 2 books running, just a way to let me get multiple commissions at the same time. Approaching the artists, chatting with them about their work, and getting a commission is so cool for an aging fanboy like me. Now I sometimes happily thumb through my books looking at all the sketches I've obtained. It is pretty clear when I go to an artist for a sketch that I am not going to turn around a sell the commission. They have my collection literally in their hands.

As I have said before, I have three categories of artists that I try to get commissions from for my collection. The first is anyone who has some meaningful history with Supergirl (such as Jim Mooney, Jamal Igle, Eric Jones, or Rich Buckler). The second is anyone who I think has a unique style of art that might not usually be associated with Supergirl (like Sean Phillips or Alex Maleev). Lastly, of course, I am to get commissions from artists whose work I really love (just about everybody in my collection). You can imagine that many artists fall into more than one category. I love Jamal Igle's work and he has a Supergirl connection.

Matt Wagner falls into the third category. I am not only a fan of his art but also his writing. Sandman Mystery Theater and  Madame Xanadu were all great series Wagner has written. And sometimes Wagner does both the writing and the art on a series such as Mage, Grendel, Faces from Legends of the Dark Knight, and Trinity. I have always thought his style is just a solid, telling the story efficiently with a retro-sort of feel.

So on the first day I approached Wagner and he put me on his list for Sunday. I was dumb-founded when he handed me this sketch back. It is just awesome. Action poses are pretty rare in my collection (I leave the pose up to the artist) and this is just classic Wagner so it is just special. Add the layers of gray tones and the red and you have a perfect commission. It is pieces like this that make me continue to get commissions. Hopefully I thanked him enough in person. But if not ... thank you Matt Wagner.

I have to say that it was Wagner's treatment on Wonder Woman in the excellent Trinity mini-series ( and elsewhere that made me confident that he would do a great Supergirl. I loved his Wonder Woman throughout this book.

I always find it hard to 'rank' my commissions but this one is definitely in the upper echelon. Just spectacular.