Mark Thomson

So went down to Supanova on Saturday. The line was out the front door, up the street, around the corner, down the road behind the full length of the showground, around two more corners, and up the next road. I keep saying every year I'll buy tickets from Ticketek but I'm ABSOLUTELY doing that next year. To Daniel's credit though, he came out and walked the line speaking to people, and then opened another entrance for people to come in through, so the line got moving pretty quickly. We got there at 11 and it opened at 10, so the line was pretty massive. Place was packed as usual, and despite the recession, seemed to be doing a good trade. Shame we weren't able to get a booth for New Ground this year, but I caught up with Daniel briefly and said "hi". Hopefully next time things will be better and Jeremy can get a booth, otherwise I might ask some of the local dudes if they want to go in on a booth and do something myself. Had a few more ideas for art, and feeling motivated again after seeing stuff on Artists Alley.

Micky wanted to go see Hayden Panatierre. She'd been waiting since last year when there were hints she was coming. She saved up her money from cleaning the neighbours car, and queued up, paying extra for the photo with her (unsigned too! - $50 for a photo, with another $40 for signature. Micky reckoned the usual signed photos were pre-signed too; Also Security were stopping people from taking pictures of her). She was gutted when she came back. Hayden wouldn't speak to her. She got shoved in and told to "Stand here". Took her picture, and pushed out the door. She said next time, she will just spend her money at the shops on geeky things. I felt bad that she was so disappointed. Then I was surprised to see the article in the Courier Mail on Sunday (http://tinyurl.com/da7gdm), complaining about Hayden's prima donna behaviour. Celebs need to remember that this is a PR exercise for them, and be friendly and gracious. These people have spent time and money to come here and see them because they admire their work - if you can't be gracious and pleasant then don't bother coming. Obviously it's just about the money or opportunity to travel. I said to her, at least she had an experience with this person, even if it's not what she was hoping for - I'm not sure it made a difference though.

The video games were a hit with Beeb though (the new Ghostbusters game looks amazing!), the wrestling, and free Laserstrike game was also good stuff. A little annoyed with Atari demonstrating the Afro Samurai game. Apparently it's okay for an eight-year-old to stand there and watch the game for 30 minutes, but when it's time to have a turn he can't play it because it's rated 15 years and over. Hmmm but it's okay to watch the violence? Just can't cause the violence?? WTF?!

Saw a few artists on Artists Alley pushing their own anthology books. Jon Sommariva's stuff looked great. Had a good look at the Cintiq and tablets on the Wacom booth - nice conversation with the Wacom lady about the tablets. Didn't find Todd McFarlane - where the hell was he? Went to see Jhonen Vasquez - crushing disappointment! The queue to meet him and have something signed went across the con, out the door, and around the corner of the building!! WTF?! Went to join the queue, but they closed the line when I got there and so I was rejected! Really annoyed because he was the only celeb I specifically wanted to see. Don't worry Jhonen! I don't blame you though. Obviously the organisers underestimated his popularity as he wasn't placed somewhere that catered very well with the queue. Perhaps they can get him back again. I had to placate myself with his Fillerbunny 3 book instead (and I have enjoyed the sick and disturbing artwork again and again).

Not really many deals going on merchandise - pretty much all the same kind of prices you get if you walk into the comic shop right now. So didn't really pickup anything much - got a cool mini movie poster of AVP2 from Japan which was quite striking - it's gone up on my studio wall.

Left about 5 o'clock because the parking says closed at 5:15 sharply! Bit stupid, considering the con doesn't close till 6?!

So in summary, had a great day, couple of niggles, but still enjoyed the mass gathering of geekiness. Saw some fabulous costumes, and everyone was very friendly and polite.

Day 2 of Supanova was more of the same really, but quieter. I wasn't entirely surprised, Armageddon's usually the same too. Sunday is always quieter. Although it's good to see some of the same people from Saturday back again. Sold a few books today, but not very many sketches. I think either the Sunday crowd are more frugal, or most people have already blown their wad'o'cash on the Saturday. Still it was good to meet a lot of local artists, and I'm feeling more motivated than ever to produce my own material. Can't wait to see how the pages I did for the next Rally Mark look. Shame we couldn't get issue 9 in time for the con.

Despite our frugal situation, my fantastic wife allowed me to go and get some autographs. I felt I'd better go see Lou Ferrigno again since he was so fantastic and friendly the previous day. I sidled up with Olive in tow, and he showed me some more of his pug photos. I asked him if he'd hold Olive for a photo, and he endured intense licking from Olive while I took his photo. It's really great when guests turn out to be awesome friendly people. It was an unexpected plus to meet him, and I'll definitely treasure the memory. Then I went to see the astounding Michael Winslow. We'd been listening to his crazy sound effects over the PA during the day, and he turned out to be very friendly and gracious also. I got an autographed picture of him as the Radar Man from Spaceballs. I got the feeling he might have been slightly embarrassed by it, but I think he's awesome in Spaceballs. I also got him to sign my DVD, and I was so lucky that he did it for me. So two great guests! Couldn't be happier. They're going in my Hall of Fame along with the charming John Rhys-Davies, Anthony Montgomery, and George Takei. Didn't end up getting any comic art this time round. Arthur Suydam was just too expensive! But I guess when your a big name artist, you can command the big fees. Never mind, got to meet Stewart McKenny - his art was very impressive.

Oh thanks also to Daniel who runs the Supanova con. Not only was it a great con, but he stopped the security guards from throwing us out because of Olive. They weren't happy we had a dog in there, but most of the time she was in her box, or being carried with us. She wasn't running around on the floor ever AT ALL, and Daniel knew that. So thanks, mucho appreciation. Hope to be there again next year.

Well here I am all on my lonesome working the booth at Supanova (although I do have my very supportive wife alongside). We've bought Olive with us, and she's been a tremendous drawcard. People flock to the booth to see her, and then get New Ground comics thrust at them. I was surprised when we were waved over by Lou Ferrigno this afternoon. He'd seen Olive in her piggy costume, and wanted to see her. Turns out he has two puggies of his own at home, and we got to see photos of his little pugs. Pretty soon, we had Teryl Rothery and Jewel Staite over for cuddles with Olive. It was nice to meet them all, and I think I'll have to go back tomorrow and see if I can get photos with them and Olive. I sold a few sketches today which was always thrilling, but got the most unusual commission I've had yet: draw Master Chief from Halo on the side of an Xbox 360. Took me a few hours, but I was quite pleased with the results, and the Xbox's owner also seemed pretty happy with it. I'll be back there tomorrow all day, so if your in Brisbane, come down and say hi.

Okay so I got a windup about not putting sketch photos up. So here they are. Thanks to Rob for giving me a kick in the pencil-case when I need it... They're all fan art or requests. Hopefully I'll feel motivated to produce some original characters now.

Well after a week of insane running around we've finally made it the main event - Armageddon 2007. Just quietly I was crapping my pants because I've never gone to an event as an artist before and had to produce art with people hovering over me. I suffer from performance anxiety when people are watching, mostly because I don't feel my stuff is ever good enough for human consumption (I had a teacher in high school that told me my art was so bad, I should never bother doing anything artistic), and a lot of people tend to look down on comic art. So we anxiously set up the booth, and about 15 minutes later I sold a sketch. You could have knocked me over - I couldn't frickin believe it. By the time I sold the second, I was off and running. I drew my ass off for the next two days and sold a few sketches - by Sunday I was taking requests. I'm so glad I did it now, because it was a huge confidence booster. I'm feeling much better within myself now about my art - of course, that's not to say I couldn't improve still, and there's still lots of things to learn - but at least I don't feel crippled by anxiety anymore. I've come back awhirl with ideas for stories and original material. Heh don't panic Rob - I will finish my Rally Mark installment before I start drawing anything else.

The con was really good though, and the guests were really nice and interesting people. I had Nicola Scott draw me a fantastic Catwoman sketch, that's definitely going in a frame and on my office wall once we have a house to live in again. Also, Amanda Conner's most excellent Power Girl is going up there too. I got Billy West (Futurama) and Richard Horvitz (Invader Zim) to sign sketches I'd drawn of their characters for my kids. I was gutted that Adam West couldn't make it in the end (as were a lot of people I spoke too) - hopefully next time we'll get some 100% pure West.

Color me excited though - we got offered a free booth at Supernova to sell drawings and New Ground. I'm working on getting Robin over for it, and hopefully we'll be able to loosen Jeremy's grip on his wallet so he can come over and help publicize New Ground here. The latest book looks really awesome (although Dylan Horrock's cover could be a little more action packed), the contents are consistent and of a higher quality. The book just keeps improving. I really hope it'll get to the point that the creators will be able to start to see some reward for all their hard work. Check out Dealer Man Comics if you want to support some great New Zealand artists. Thanks to Robin, Neala, Tuku, Michel, Jeremy (and his army of munchkins) for making it an awesome time.

It was a bit of a sideshow getting to our first Supanova convention. I was starting to wonder if we were going to get there, because we spent hours trying to paint Micky's face up to look like Queen Amidala. She'd gotten this ridiculous burgundy medieval costume, but after spending two hours trying to paint her face white, but not have it so white that she looked like a clown, or streaky, blotchy, or patchy we eventually packed it in and swapped the costume for a white Princess Leia getup. Beeb on the other hand was much simpler, and his Batman costume went down a treat.

It was a little embarassing initially getting on the train, because people were staring, and we'd just realised we could see Micky's green knickers through her costume. Bay insisted on pointing it out to people on the street, much to her embarassment. We then had some problems finding the event, but it wasn't too far to walk, and the train turned out to be quite convenient vs. trying to find some parking.

The event was smaller than Armageddon in NZ, and the guests were a bit disappointing. But maybe this was just a one-off and the next one will be better. Lando didn't look like he was getting a lot of patronage, and I always feel sorry for them when they come all this way and wind up just sitting there. There were certainly plenty of Star Wars clubs there in costume, so maybe he had a big burst of visitors at some point during the day. There were a lot more merchandise sellers there than NZ, and the range was a lot better too. A lot more variety of collectibles, and things that we never even get at home. Rob finally bought a LOTR sword - she's been wanting one for ages, and it's magnificent! I collected a lot of business cards, so I'll probably follow up some of these places/groups on the net. I might join a club and see if I can meet some people. It was really interesting to see what some of the artists were offering there too, and I feel sure that if Hottie and I can get our act together, we'd be able to produce something we could sell there.

One big difference, a lot more people turning up in costumes. That was really neat to see, and I commented to Rob when we left that it's a bit like the commercial where they advise at what point swimming togs turn into underwear - at the convention everyone's normal, comfortable, safe; it's only when you get out on the street a distance from the convention, no other costumed people around, that you become weird, and people start staring at you and pointing. Having said that, it looked like fun, and I might like to try going as something next year. Perhaps something with a mask or helmet that I can hide behind? The kids want us to make the costumes next time, which was something we didn't have time to do this year, because we weren't originally planning on taking them.

Anyway, it was all good fun. The people were really nice and friendly, the event was pretty busy and chaotic. I really enjoyed it, and we'll be looking forward to the next event.