Upcoming Convention:
Ah yes, the big apple. <3
CONVENTION SCHEDULE
I've been so busy with work that Con season kind of crept up on me this year. SHIT IS STRESSFUL YO.
Drop by for a 8.5' x 11'' Sketch commission or to buy 12.5' x 19'' Prints of my illustrations and volumes of SIN! Here's a complete list of conventions the girlfriend and I'll be attending this year:
Emerald City Comic Con, Seattle, March 1st - 3rdToronto Comicon, Toronto, March 9th - 10thFan Expo Vancouver, Vancouver, April 20th - 21stCalgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, Calgary, April 26th - 28thOttawa Comiccon, Ottawa, May 10th - 12thOtafest, Calgary, May 17th - 19thAnime North, Toronto, May 24th - 26thAnimethon, Edmonton, August 9th-11thFan Expo Toronto, Toronto, August 22nd-25thMontreal Comiccon, Montreal, September 13th-15thEdmonton Comic & Entertaintment Expo, Edmonton, September 28th-29th- New York City Comic Con, New York, Ocotober 10th - 13th
- Central Canada Comic Con, Winnipeg, November 2nd - 4th
I'll be updating this journal entry with this years photos and recaps or you should just all follow my Tumblr for real-time photo updates 8]
EMERALD CITY COMIC CON
Had a really great time! I got a table across from
and , two of my biggest art-heroes!Then I went to
TORONTO COMICON
Got to hang out with my
and his ladeh in my favorite Canadian city! The convention itself was kinda small but that's okay since I had to man my table solo this time around and I still felt a lil' busy. Also my friend was there kicking ass and taking names!I'm still in Toronto at the moment, we're looking at property! Planning to move here sometime in the future :d
FAN EXPO VANCOUVER
The folks over at the West coast keep me super busy, haha. Even though the convention floor is small and it only lasts 2 days Fan Expo Vanc is a tremendously generous experience! I even had someone from Bandai Namco Studios drop by interested in throwing me on a project and also got to meet some of my co-workers from DeNA Studios Canada! Also ran into SIN fans which STILL bewilders me to this day. I'm really surprised at how large the fanbase has grown!
and I mostly hung out with all weekend. Walked around the rainy downtown area looking for hot restaurants to eat at. :dCALGARY COMIC & ENTERTAINMENT EXPO
Despite it being my hometown I don't like Calgary, it's a pretty sorry excuse for a city. However, when it's time to throw down a comic convention CCEE's Artist Alley is THE TITS. I don't know why but it's still our best show (it holds records yo) even after New York & Emerald City (Seattle) so thanks to any of you that stopped by and grabbed my stuff, much appreciated! Also, much love to everyone who kept hassling me about getting SIN Volume 3 out, haha.
Usually I don't do jack at conventions except chatting it up with other artists but my top two favorite Game of Thrones characters decided to visit this year and I had my little sister helping out so we could step away from the table.
and I had the most enthralling experience ever meeting Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey 
These two amazingly down-to-earth individuals were nothing short of awesome. Headey's so hilariously upbeat and inappropriate while Dinklage had this whole charming, kind gentlmen vibe about him. In fact, he took home a print of my Tyrion Lannister piece!
We ended up hanging out with
and his buddy all weekend again except this time we took them to our favorite restaurants in Calgary. WE HAD LOTS OF MEAT. (Korean BBQ & Chinese Hot Pot)OTTAWA COMICON
So Andrea and I caught the worst case of food poisoning on Friday night at this con hahaha. We both woke up vomiting Saturday morning (waking up
and his girlfriend whom we were sharing a room with, OOOOOPS <3) and feeling like complete shit. Of course, I didn't want the trip to be completely unsalvageable so I built up the strength to come on to the convention floor anyway. What resulted was an interesting game of hide-behind-the-table-and-vomit-into-a-garbage-can-while-no-one-was-looking. I think I ended up saving the day because I managed to make sales while busting out a smile and everything but boy was that tough
My good friend
and his girlfriend helped out a lot while we were sick though, I think I owe him dinner or a kidney. Haha <3OTAFEST
Everyone has their humble beginnings, I guess Otafest was mine. It was the first convention I ever went to as an attendee and as an artist! Despite my lack of enthusiasm towards Anime/Manga over the years I still come back to it~ (Well the fact that it's local also makes it quite convenient but let's not cheapen the sentiment, hahaha)
I was stupidly busy this year which might've been a direct result from our location or the fact that
and weren't there kicking my ass (hahaha), either way it was a real pleasant surprise to see that my work still finds a lot of love with a slightly different demographic.Here are plugs to some artist pals and new ones that I had the pleasure of meeting/talking to there!
ANIME NORTH
I won the table lottery for this convention that I've never been to, so I went in somewhat blind. It was also a little daunting not being allowed to display some of my work (They had a Marvel & Reboot ban, heh) so you can imagine my glee when it turned out to be my busiest convention so far this year and easily among my top 3 of all time!
I guess I'm used to Alberta's tiny Anime Conventions (being primarily a Comic Convention attendee) because I was really impressed with the scale of AN! From the Vendor's room, to Artist Alley and just the amount of panels activities, it was a change for sure.
So aside from people mistaking me for a Sheridan graduate (I guess that's a "thing" there, hahaha) the crowd was pretty much the norm! Ended up meeting / hanging out / print trading with some pretty cool people over the weekend including:
and of course my bro
By the way a bunch of us discovered the greatest all-you-can-eat sushi place ever, 168Sushi! The restaurant looked great and the food was damn good quality, also you got to order food off of these cool tablet things! It felt very uh... sci fi? Hahaha.
ANIMETHON
Ugh I have work up the wazoo so let's get this out of the way~ This is another small local con I attend out of convenience and it's Anime SOOO I don't care much for the vendors n' such hahaha.
This was SIN Volume 3's premier convention though and I completely sold out of the thing! Which was pretty stellar because local cons are really the only ones that allow me to bring such a large stock without being constricted by the weight limits of flying. (And I'm too cheap to ship them, derp~)
We got a pretty sick spot this year by the entrance too! So our cumulative sales went up even though I've been so swamped with work that I couldn't muster any of the new prints I had planned.
My little sister came along to help, so I got to sick back and take on my sketch commissions. The lot of us hung out with the usual Anime convention crowd and some new faces from Otafest. It was coo.
FAN EXPO
This is probably one of my favorite cons, mostly because of the industrial (Marvel/DC, Ubisoft, Hasbro, etc.) and celebrity (Firefly, Game of Thrones, Defiance etc.) presence, it's the biggest convention in Canada and the many vendors actually cater to my interests (Although that's a bit of a double edged sword, because I end up spending a lot!)
It also doesn't hurt that it always gets nice n' busy for me every year (if you dropped by and you're reading this, thanks!) and the job offers I get are actually worth considering~ ;D
On top of that it's where all the talent goes, got to hang out n' chat with my usual buddies who I've mostly dubbed as "Sheridan" at this point
Some new faces were:
who's actually a real fuckin' cool gal and draw's the prettiest people ever Apparently a fan? Haha. Seriously though, fun to do shit with. ;]Alright back to work for me, till next time~
MONTREAL COMICCON
Whoa! I totally forgot to write this. Uh, great city! We finally realized that Chinatown was a block away from the convention center so we basically hung out there every night trying the different restaurants and all that. We had All-you-can-eat Sushi twice and Andrea ended up going to a Chinese pastry place like every day to pick up a "treat", haha
Got to get together with some old friends like:
and a new face as well, Mike Maydak! Whoooo does not seem to have a deviantart? xPEdmonton Comic & Entertainment Expo
Zoooooom, local convention! About a 4 hour drive, and it only lasts 2 days so it felt like a warm up for New York. I really enjoy the fact that it's so short though, since it condenses the amount of busy-ness! I was also rather impressed with the vendors, ended up buying a couple of things for myself :]
