been a while since i last posted and figured i should post this eventually otherwise it'll seem too late and outdated. possibly.

i went to the Cactus Con in Phoenix in January, just a couple months ago. it's been at least four years since i've been to one and i'm not sure if it changed for better or worse but at least it had a slightly larger venue and more hype for the event. last time i went Jim Mahfood still lived in Phoenix so it's been a while.

this time, though, i went and saw some friends from school. talked to them about comics and how business was since they had some table space. there were only a few rows for the independent publishers section, which was slightly depressing but still good since that showed they were the determined ones. i purchased a pin from the Steam Crow booth which inspired me look into making pins again.
the dealer's section was made up of a four by two or three grid. just selling a lot of anime/manga plush and figures and whatever. i purchased a Street Figher energy drink from one of them that i think is being released to coincide with the eventual release of Street Fighter 4. it's called Dragon Punch and has Ken on it.
there are only two major comics vendors in Phoenix, Atomic Comics and Samurai Comics(which i don't like as much as Atomic), were at opposite ends of the convention floor. i would have liked to have purchased a few of the art books there but they were pretty damn expensive since they were imported, and i didn't really have that kind of money to spend at the time. was hoping to by the new Bleach art book and one of the Naruto and One Piece books.
there were also cosplayers which sucked. normally i like cosplay when done well, and quite a few people had awesome outfits but they were just so damn annoying and were a majority of the attendants. bleh.

anyway, here are some pictures from the convention.
Jeph Loeb was there for Saturday morning but Ed McGuinness managed to appear all weekend. i got one of the Superman/Batman trades signed by McGuinness, got a rediculously quick Batman sketch from him and talked a bit about his influences. he was a nice guy.
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also got to meet Arthur Suydam and talk to him for a bit and get a signature or two. i took this foto on the Sunday of the con. pretty awesome if you ask me.
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Walter Koening was also there but i didn't feel like shelling out 20$ for a signed glossy since i'm not really a Trekkie. was getting a lot of blurry shots that weekend, too. dunno if it was how i was handling the camera or if it was the camera itself. oh well...i'll figure it out sooner or later...
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got to meet Don Rosa! i don't think i've heard of him before this but i'm sure i'm familiar with his work since i read a lot of the old Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics growing up. it was good talking with him, too. seems he's had to throw down the line that while Ducktales was a good show, it was quite different from his comic work and that he'd never worked on the show. i purchased a sweet print from him and got him to sign it. he was also nice enough to do a quick Uncle Scrooge sketch for me! here's a pic of it.
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they had a few cars outside the convention center, one being a remake of the Bandit that Burt Renolyds made for some tv show and the other car was a customized AE86 patched up with stickers for local drift racing organizations and stuff about Initial D. i thought it was pretty sweet. never watched the anime or read the manga but i always thought it'd be cool to own a car like that.
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here's a foto of what's under the hood.
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and last, but not least, i finally got to meet ~Jebriodo!! it was nice talking to him about the content of his work and art and stuff. hopefully i get to meet him again later. here's a picture of him and me. don't know why i look so goofy. guess i was just happy to meet him.
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he was also supernice enough to sketch something up for me as well as give me a few prints of his work that he had to give out to potential employers.

well...that was the convention.
don't really know what other conventions i'm going to be going to this year, but i'm really hoping that i can at least make it to APE or SPX this fall with something ready to sell. we'll see....