Last year was a good Supanova and it was my first con with the launch of The Adventurers. I had learnt a few things from my first con and my main goal this year was to have fun! It was a great time at Sydney Supanova 2014 and I had some "Achievement unlocked" moments. Here they are:
At the last moment before the convention I got a small "portfolio" together in order to show the editor's from IDW publishing. It consisted of my cover art and some sequential art from The Adventurers comic. I was lucky to get a portfolio review on Friday from Chris Ryall who was very encouraging. Why is this an "unlock" you ask? It was an "unlock" because I actually went to the review and didn't chicken out!
I went to one of Stan Lee's Q and A's . Yes, yes I have jumped on the anti-Stan bandwagon over the years. He co-created those characters. but he DID co-create so many characters I've spent a lot of time with over my life, particularly Daredevil and I love the early Spider-man stories. I confess, I did get a little emotional listening to him talk about writing his characters and I think he gave good advice. He was so endearing and humorous. He is like the grandfather of every comic book fan. Listening to Stan "the man" Lee in person is definitely an "unlock".
A surreal moment occurred on the Saturday afternoon. To understand this "unlock" you have to bear with me. Picture it: Oz Convention 1996. I finally get the courage to go and say hi to Tim McEwen, who was drawing one of my favourite aussie comics at the time, Greener Pastures. We talked briefly ( I had no idea what to say) and he gave me a quick sketch which I still have.
Flash forward to 2014 where the friendly Tim pops by the Bolt Comics table to see how we are doing. He then asks for a sketch for his sketch book. From me. This is surreal. I tried to make sure I spent some time processing the moment. I got my sister Cara to add colour to it the next day since Tim commented on the cover to Adventurers 3 and I said its largely due to her great colouring. Tim will probably hate the fact I'm sharing all this but it was a great moment for me. Besides he still printed one of my letters in Greener Pastures that said "not for print". I think this makes us even ;)
If that wasn't all enough the VERY best "unlock" moment was when people came to our table to buy The Adventures issue 2 and 3. Not 1. These people had bought issue 1 last year and came back for the other issues! I geeked out a bit. It was by far the very best thing about Supanova for me this year. That people liked the book and came back to buy the other issues. I like to think they are fans!
There were many other highlights: hanging with our very cool table neighbours (more about them next blog) and my family. Seeing friends and colleagues was great. More product available including my brothers comic A Brigand's Tale. Live sketching was fun and it was the first time we did it. We weren't sure we could turn out ok sketches "while you wait" but we made it through! Honestly it was exhausting but so much fun.
