I guess I was at Wizard World Philly today...

...although I really spent almost as much time in Market Station as I did the convention center. I am in something of a shift in my comic art focus, and the convention sketch is becoming less important and I plan on spending more money on larger items such as commissions and published pages/covers instead. However, I have been targeting this convention for about a year since Wizard posted that Stephen Segovia was going to be a guest. I had noticed Stephen's work through Comic Art Fans (CAF) and his representative, Kirk Dilbeck, and was very impressed. In fact, I was impressed enough to get on Stephen's commission list a while ago, even though it takes a few years I guess. So while I wait I figured I could get a nice convention sketch. I emailed Kirk through CAF and he told me the price and that I could get on an advance list. I gave 4 characters for Stephen to choose from and there it was; I guess I was going to Philly.

Thanks to Kirk for facilitating and Stephen Segovia for the heavy lifting. Here is what Stephen ended up drawing for me: Asgardian Storm.

And since I was going, why not go all in? I looked over the guest list and was surprised to find only a dozen or so sketch targets, and no real MUST HAVES besides Stephen. There were a few close calls, mostly with the other guys Kirk reps, especially Carlo Pagulayan, so I decided not to go all in at all. In fact, I decided to make it a quick hit instead. I arranged two other commissions for Sunday afternoon pickup and figured that would be it. Unfortunately one of the artists, Tom Raney, messaged me to let me know he wasn't going to be able to make it last minute but that he would still do the piece. Works for me! Thanks to Tom for being a great guy and honoring the commission even though he is not at the show!!! A real nice thing to do and something I did not ask for or expect.

That left me with the reason for this post, to show off my other acquisition: Stargirl by Chrissie Zullo.

Chrissie drew one of the earliest pieces I featured on this blog, a 17X5 Star Wars piece  I have a few other pieces by her as well and when I saw she was going to Philly for the first time I knew I had to ask her for something. I saw a torso she did of Stargirl on her site and knew I would love one for myself and thankfully she agreed to have one ready for me on Sunday. Thanks Chrissie! I love it!

I had hoped to ask for Stephen and Chrissie to draw a quick head sketch on my colored paper and brought blue for Batman, red for Hellboy, and green for The Hulk. Unfortunately for me, but nice for them, they were too busy and I could see not to ask. Maybe next time!

It will be next time as well for Nostalgic Investments and Bechara Maloof. It was nice briefly chatting with Bechara and nicer for misanthropist me to look over his great selection of original comic art. I saw a great page from Dr. Strange but low four figures is more than I had today. I will be back Bechara! It was fun talking to him, and Mark Texeira was there as well looking at Kirby pages. I saw a page from Texeira's Wolverine run, a nice page (for $550) and showed Mark. He was intrigued to see his work in Bechara's portfolios; I sense a deal in their futures. I also impressed myself, if not Tex, by picking out an uncredited page in Bechara's portfolio (for $195, a deal I think!) from Punisher War Journal inked by Tex.

So it was a fun hour or so in the convention center and then it was out, out into the street, across the street, and into Market Station in search of my favorite turkey sandwich anywhere. Warm moist turkey, lettuce, and bread. Yes simple. Not dry though, believe me. It was satisfying, almost as satisfying as getting my art. Not quite though, because as I sit here and look at the pieces above and remember the smiles on Chrissie's and Stephen's faces as we talked and they took my money I realize how much I enjoy the this hobby.

Okay, ramble off. See you in NYC in October comic world!