Possum Press

Well, Comicon is over, and it’s back to the grind…….. Man it was a busy and exhausting 5 days, but well worth it.  I always come back from these conventions pumped up and ready to make more comics!  Mike and I met a lot of really great new friends, and got a chance to hang out with some old friends too.  (pictured above is Mike and I with Jesse Labbe and Anthony Coffey,  of Berona’s War fame).

A special shout out goes to Troy Little, who was nominated for an Eisner award this year in the ‘best graphic novel for teens’ catagory, for his comic Angora Napkin!  Although he didn’t win, he had my vote.

Like all conventions, we did a bunch of free sketches for the fine folks who purchased Spy Guy and Possum comics.  Here’s a few of them:

As always, Spy Guy was drawn by Mike Kitchen, and The Possum by yours truly.

We took a lot of video during the convention as well, so keep an eye out for a Comicon 2010 Video Blog coming soon, much like our Wondercon Video Blog.  (There’s also a S.P.A.C.E. Video Blog that is 99% finished too, which should be online shortly as well!)

PART 1

In this episode, Blair meets the Legendary Sergio Aragones and Mike fends off tumbleweed from behind the Possum Press/Ultraist Studios table in Artist Alley, at Wondercon.

Part 2

The exciting conclusion, where business picks up, and stormtroopers read The Possum.

Last March, Mike and I purchased a handy Flip HD Video camera with the intent of filming our exploits at conventions. The first convention we attended since then was Wondercon in San Francisco, which you can view above. Since then, Mike’s been to Mocca in New York, and we were both at SPACE in Ohio. The footage from MOCCA has been edited (which is up on the Ultraist Studios blog and will be up here shortly), and SPACE is being edited as we speak. In July, we’re looking forward to the San Diego Comicon, which should be a lot of fun, and that will be followed by the Toronto Fan Expo in August, and Toronto’s Word on the Street shortly after. Keep an eye out on this blog for videos from those shows too!

I know, I know….. Wondercon was weeks ago.  Well….. better late than never I guess.  Here’s some stormtroopers reading a Possum comic to make it up to you:

This was a really fun show to be a part of, and as always, I ended up meeting a lot of really nice people (comic artists and comic fans).  On Friday, we met up with Javier Hernandez, creator of El Muerto (the comic and the movie).  After the show, the 3 of us went out for a bite to eat, and had a great discussion about comics, politics, and everything in between…… good times!

Here’s me, Javier and Mike, looking cool.  Ha!  I just noticed that the drawing of Spy Guy behind Mike looks like Mike has a super muscular comic book arm going behind Javier.  (Mike’s pretty tough, but not that tough).

Saturday was by far the busiest day of the convention, and was really good for sales.  We did a lot of sketches that day.  Here’s a few of the sketches from the weekend:

Click to enlarge.

I also got to meet Sergio Aragones, who I’m a huge fan of.  I got him to do a sketch of Groo for me, and to my delight, he even incorporated The Possum into his drawing!  (I was a very happy guy).

It’s always a real treat when you finally meet someone you look up to, and they turn out to be a really, really nice guy.  I gave Sergio my first 4 comics on the Friday, and when I talked to him on Sunday, he had read all 4 comics (and talking to a Possum reader whose Possum drawing I had printed in the letters page, Sergio recognized his drawing in the letters page and actually pointed it out to him, meaning he even read the letters pages), Sergio had all sorts of really great advice for me, and spent a good 20 minutes with me pointing out where I could improve, and even going through some of his comics, talking about comic pacing.  When you give your comics to people, it’s just nice that they read them, let alone take the time to comment on them and follow up their comments with practical advice.

Here’s a drawing that I did for Sergio:

Mike and I brought our Flip video cameras and shot a bunch of video footage that we are planning on editing into a short video convention blog of our trip.  If all goes well, hopefully we will continue to shoot each convention we attend and have a video blog for each one………… stay tuned.

Sergio Aragones at Wondercon 2010

Here’s some photos from The Word on the Street Festival, that took place a couple weekends ago.  This is always a fun festival to exhibit at, because there are so many young kids that wouldn’t attend a comic convention, because their parents aren’t necessarily the type of people who would bring their kids to a comic convention (ie. nerds).  It’s always an entirely different crowd which is good, and it shows by the number of issue #1′s that were sold, compared to the most recent issue #4′s. (which means there are a lot more new Possum readers out there now)…….. which may or may not be a good thing for society as a whole:)

There’s Mike hard at work in the background

Mike Kitchen’s Spy Guy stand up! (above)  The stand ups were a big hit again, as we saw lots of kids getting their pictures taken with them, and even pretending to beat them up.  Most kids couldn’t walk by without stopping to take a look:) 

And now some sketches:

I must say, the view at this festival is much more relaxing than your average comic convention.

Another Fan Expo has come and gone, marking the third complete year that Mike and myself have been attending conventions with our comics (our 4th Fan Expo).  Our table is looking a lot fuller, than 2006, when we had 3 issues printed between the two of us, and we are starting to see some momentum building over the last 3 years.  Here’s a few photos of us hard at work. 

Me sketching

Me not sketching

Mike hard at work

And now some of the sketches:

What happens in the first minute, when The Possum fills in for a vacationing Spider-man?

And now an endorsement from the Joker and Scarecrow:

See you at Word on the Street!

Back in November 2007, My brother Mike and I were flown down to LA, to be part of ‘Hero Con” – a fake comic convention for the “Superhero Movie”, which was released in 2008.  The Possum Press archives finally obtained a copy of the movie, after unsuccessfully waiting more than half a year to find it in a bargain bin for under 5 dollars.  Instead I broke down and ordered it used off of Amazon for 8 bucks (which included shipping).  Saddly, we missed out on an Oscar last year for ”Best Extra”, but at least Spy Guy and The Possum had a couple close ups in the film.  Get your magnifying glasses out, and see how many times you can spot the shmuck in the purple Possum T shirt (A.K.A. me), and the bald guy in the black Ultraist T shirt (A.K.A. Mike)! 

You can read earlier posts about our trip to LA here, and here.

Once again, Possum Press and Ultraist Studios spent Sunday, September 28th, at the Word on the Street Festival, in Toronto. This is an annual event, and our second time attending. We were blessed with two consecutive years of nice sunny weather, and lots of people visiting our table. I always love this event, because it brings out a lot of young kids, which is always fun.

This is the first show that we brought out our life size cardboard cutouts of Spy Guy and The Possum, which were used for the “Superhero Movie”, which came out last spring I believe. (I’ll have to do another post about that soon, as the stand-ups and my ugly mug made it into the movie)…….

A big thanks to everyone who came out, and spent a little bit of their hard earned money supporting our comics! (or their parent’s hard earned money). Maybe we can do it again next year!

Here’s some more free sketches done at the Fan Expo. 

This just seemed like the natural thing that Jughead and The Possum would be doing if they ever hung out.

Mike may have been AWOL this convention, but at least Spy Guy showed up!

We’ve done a few Secret Invasion covers now.  It’s always a pleasure defacing Marvel merchandise.

Batman is always fun to draw, and since Dark Knight came out this year, I got to draw him quite a bit.

Well, another Fan Expo has come and gone.  This show is usually one of the better shows for sales, and that means that I’m kept busy doing lots of free sketches for all of those wonderful Possum readers!  Here’s a few of the ones that I did on Friday and Saturday.  Unfortunately, my camera’s batteries died on me (I think I left it on overnight), so I couldn’t take pictures of any of the sketches I did in the morning and early afternoon on Saturday, until a trusty fan was able to pick me up some batteries while he went out to lunch! 

I did this She-Hulk sketch for someone, and he never came back to pick it up.  If this is yours, give me an email, and we can work something out to get it to you:)

Next up: Sunday’s sketches; coming soon to a blog post near you!

Here’s a couple of free sketches, done at the Paradise Comicon, here in Toronto.  It was a fun time, and a nice venue (the Holiday inn, on King St.)  There were actual windows in the room, which is a nice change to being in a large, square, windowless room.

I like doing the Spy Guy/Possum ones.

Our next Con is the Fan Expo, on August 22-24th.  Hope to see you there!

Here’s some more photos from SPX. (click on them to see a better photo of the sketch)
We did a lot of SPY GUY/POSSUM team-up sketches, which are always fun. I drew the Possum, and Mike drew Spy Guy.

I found that a lot of people asked for a sketch with the midget wrestlers in it at this show. Those are always fun ones to do.

..and last but not least, we had great neighbours at this year’s show. On the left is John Bintz who draws “A Moment of Clarity” and to the right is Kevin McShane, with his comic “Toupydoops”. (and in the middle…… that’s Mike, with our stuff).

It’s been a busy year for conventions. (8 of them in total for Mike and I). As of now, we don’t have anymore booked, so we have to start making our list for the upcoming year. I’ll keep you posted. Which ones are your favourites? Let us know, so we can hopefully make it out to them.

For more on our SPX trip, check out Mike’s Ultraist Studio Blog post here. (He’s got lots of photos, and a good portion of the weekend documented).

Mike and I hopped into the Possum Press Van at 4:30AM on Friday, to make the 8.5 hour drive to Maryland from Toronto, for the Small Press Expo (SPX). The Expo started at 2PM, and we arrived at the convention center at 1PM, joking how we can’t show up to the local cons on time, yet we somehow managed to arrive in Maryland at the perfect time. 1 hour to eat some lunch, sign in and set up our table. By 2PM, we were ready to go.

To keep costs down on this trip, we decided to do away with the hotel room, and sleep in the Possum Press van. Surprisingly, we saved a couple of hundred dollars (which we wouldn’t have made up with sales), and had 2 really good night sleeps.
Now for some pics of happy customers! (click on the image for a better view of the sketches)

I’ll have more pictures tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us at the Word on the Street Festival! Here’s some photos from the day. (click on photos to see a bigger picture of the sketches).

Next up on the convention circuit is the Small Press Expo in Maryland, on October 12th!

Here’s the last batch of photos from the Fan Expo. These are all from Sunday, August 26th.

Click on the photos to see a larger version of the sketches!

Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us. It was a busy, yet fun weekend!