I haven't been to a comic convention for almost 20 years. They've definitely changed. I used to live in Portland, Oregon, which never had big conventions. The cons they did hold were almost entirely male and about 90% of the floor was sellers, with just a few tables set up for artists. The artists were almost never headliner artists, either.
So this convention definitely opened my eyes. A lot more females, people wearing costumes, and half the floor was artist tables.
I took my Neal Adams and George Perez Batman Black & White statues with me to get signed. Both guys are awesome. Mr. Adams asked if I wanted just his signature or his signature with the sculptor's signature as well. I had completely forgotten that Jason Adams was the sculptor and he was there in the booth with his father. So I got both talented artists to sign the base.
I got in line for Mr. Perez's signature on the base of the other statue and got stuck behind a guy who was having stacks and stacks of comics signed. He'd plop a stack of 50 or so comics down, wait for George Perez to get about halfway through, then plop another 50 down. And this went on for several minutes until the people with Mr. Perez suggested that the rest of us could start jumping in line. I felt sorry for Mr. Perez. He was signing stuff for free, but a donation was requested as he was doing this for the Hero Initiative (
http://www.heroinitiative.org/). I really felt this guy was taking advantage of that fact by bringing every comic George Perez has ever drawn and having him sign them. And the guy felt he was being magnanimous donating just $20 at first, until he was guilted into another $20. When it was my turn to jump in line, I had my one little statue base signed and put $40 in the donation jar myself for Mr. Perez's time! I felt bad that this guy was taking advantage of Mr. Perez's generosity.
The rest of the convention was good. Saw some great talent there. It's a little tough to do any shopping with the crowds there. The rows were a bit narrow sometimes, so if just one person stopped, it would stop traffic entirely! The statue selection was a joke. Mostly Bowen stuff. Mostly overpriced. My girlfriend and I asked one artist to create a sketch of Darth Vader and Boba Fett for the nephews, which turned out really good. We got a couple custom buttons made for the kids as well, with Batman and Spider-man sketches on them.
By the end we were both exhausted. She bought some stuff for me for Christmas, but I'm obviously not allowed to see what she got...
