Hello All,
As per Scott Lamky’s request, here’s a little con report.

Since Deb’s pretty much done with doing cons until next Pittsburgh (that and Motor City are her favorite shows), I was supposed to go with her sister Lauren. Well, La La got a job and my mom offered, so it was me and her taking the plane out of Islip, NY to San Diego. My mother got a knee replacement so we requested a wheel chair for her. Because of that we got first class service to and from San Diego and the bulkhead. On the plane out I drew a commission (a Jade for Karin Weber) that hopefully post up and a bunch of Rock cover designs.

Wednesday was crazy. It was like a Saturday and by the end of the evening, I was bushed. Went out with Solof to get four “victory cigars” for us after our softball win against Marvel (still have them now) and bought some beer and chips. I then went down to the pool at the Marriott hotel and had a lovely evening with Tom and Audrey Fisher-Price (yes, it’s their real last names).

Thursday morning, I picked up some posters and prints from DH and was also supposed to get a couple hundred Fallen Angel #17 variant pencil covers. They forgot to bring them and never brought them the whole show. I’ll have them ship 50 to Chicago. Heather showed up and we put out all the new lithos (seven I believe). She looked amazing in her new Black Cat costume and we sold a bunch of lithos of her (about 20 all show). She showed up at the booth for a while on Saturday.

Thursday afternoon was the soft ball game. I believe the final score was 18-9. I pitched three innings and while going 1,2,3 in the second and giving up only two runs in the fourth, got beat up in the 6th for another five runs. I was pissed and it was more due to the fact of defensive blunders (aside from Umberto Ramos and John Romita’s hits — I totally blew that) than their hitting. There was a terrible call in the bottom of the 5th where the umpire blew a call that would have ended the inning. He admitted it in the new Hellion For Hire which should be up today. Had the call not gone Marvel’s way, they wouldn’t have scored an additional 4 runs or so and we’d still have the lead and everything would have been different. I did get to bat once and did really well by hitting a bases loaded triple. It would have been a grandslam but I held up do to a slower player in front of me.

Thursday night I met with the Virgin Comics people about them partnering up with Mimi for the film rights. We spoke of doing a 64 page one shot based on the film as well. It was really encouraging but we’ll see what kind of offer is made on it. After drinks Mimi, Kevin Bernhardt and I went out for dinner and discussed story points. Kevin’s working on a treatment and we’ll go on from there for the second draft.

After dinner I was still tired and brought some more beers down to the pool and hung with Tom and Audrey again. Everyone else went to the Hyatt, but I wa beat from working and playing. I did do more writing afterwards in the lobby though.

Friday morning I had a GREAT meeting with Mike Richardson at DH. We’re planning a new series but he too doesn’t want anyone else but me to draw and write the book, so I’m shooting for it to come out next summer with a bunch of other merchandise including a new statue based on either Scott’s Anna Sui piece (but in Shi costume) or the Requiem image.

Friday was extremely busy and I ended up going out with Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Grey, Phil Noto and Dawin Cooke (among others) for a really great steak dinner at Flemmings. Afterwards we all went to the Hyatt and Dan Didio, Mike Marts and I all lamented on how we beat ourselves. Everyone from the game was there and I had a great time with Tony Bedard, Jeff Zapatat, JG Jones and good pal Sparky!

Saturday was madness. In the morning I had a breakfast meeting with a producer from one of Mimi’s financial associates. He works for a Japanese based producer, and it was great talking film and story with him. I’ll have more on that in an upcoming blog. I then left my wallet at the eatery and had to run back the 8 blocks or so to retrieve it. We were sitting outside with all these homeless people around and luckily for me (we were sitting on the outer ring of the eatery) none of them saw the wallet. I was freaking out. As for the con itself, and aside from Heather coming I don’t remember much of it. Afterwards, I went out to dinner with my Jr. High school pal Steve Peros (now a screenwriter soon to be directing his own feature film in September) and my hometown crew. There were some more L.A. based guys there as well (all good chaps), and we were joined by my friends from Greece, Andreas and Nick. We actually went to a Greek resturant (cannot spell that word!) and then if was off for ice cream followed by pipes, cigars and Belgium beer at Dick’s Last Resort. We closed it down and I was exhausted. But it was a great night.

Sunday was great as well and I got to hang out with Kiki (his friend Roy) and Chet (Darkwinter) the whole day. They also all helped me breakdown and at the booth. Chet had to catch a plane, but Kiki, Roy my mom and I all went out for Chinese. I invited them to come with us to take them out for dinner and 5 others invited themselves. Somehow I ended up paying for the self-inviter and wasn’t too happy about that. I was also pissed the we took two friggin bicycle cabs 5 blocks up to the mall and it was $40.00 bucks! I’m not cheap I swear, but damn, the cab ride back was only $3.40!

I got back to the hotel and planned to go to sleep but was restless and went out to the Grafitti designs party. I had a great time with Jimmy, Amanda, Jeff and Vijaya Smith, Terry and Robin Moore, John Cassidy and Paul Jenkins. It was a great night indeed. While I was walking up to the party and still steaming from the bicycle theft and mooching eaters (not Kiki and Roy — the others) I got stopped by some swindler. He told me he was from Canada (I believe him) and said that his wife was waiting up at the hotel (which of course he couldn’t tell them the name) and that they had $3000.00 in travellers checks but for some reason need $7 and change to release them of which I interupted with “ o I have fucking idiot written across my forehead?!” He just turned and walked away.

Monday our flight was great going back home but I was (and stil am) beat! I’m off to Montauk with Debi for her birthday but have to go to the stores to get a bunch of stuff. I’ll bring my ibook with me as well as art boards to do one or two commissions in the morning. Deb likes to sleep late (I don’t) so hopefully I’ll get a lot doen - -No kids!

I just want to thank my mom, Brad (Kiki), Chet (Darkwinter), Roy, Ed Martinez and Karin Weber for all their help — it was a terrific week!

B