My Heroes Con 2013!

My first Heroes Con has come and gone, and it was fantastic. It’s only been 3 days since I got home and I am already feeling like I’m forgetting the things I want to remember. So much happened in such a small amount of time. I, unfortunately, didn’t take many pictures. Mostly only pics of drawings I did and I even forgot to take pics of some of those. I did take one bad photo of Dave Wachter and Robert Wilson while we were hanging out at the party on Sunday, but that’s it. Hardly seems right.

The experience was great and I met a lot of great people and made a few fantastic friends. I ran into a couple ego’s but, mostly everyone was pleasant and I can’t complain at all.
It was awesome to finally meet and hang out in person with my Cabinet collaborator Christian Sager! We hit it off well and I think we will continue to work together for a long time beyond the Cabinet. There were a ton of people I finally got to meet that I’ve been friendly with on the social networking circles for a while now. Some creators, some fans, and all friendly and awesome. Three of which, Dave Wachter, Robert Wilson and Rafer Roberts were awesome in their advice to me on my first con and just being all round swell guys that I’m happy to call friends. Christian, Dave and Brian Winkeler were all great roommates for the weekend and a huge thanks to them for that as well! Oh, it was awesome to get to meet Fabian Rangel Jr. in person Finally as well! (I know I’m going to forget tons of people..)

I lost my wallet pretty much as soon as I got to the hotel. So I got to start Friday off with a little stress, but my lovely wife wired me some money and all was okay (and wet… as Sager and I walked to get the money in pretty heavy rain). Huge thanks to the hotel bar waitress who found my wallet and turned it into the front desk!

Saturday was great and I met online friends and fellow Alpha-crew mates like Ben Towle, Rich Barret, Henry Eudy, Jason Folkes, and Herc. We had dinner at a pretty fantastic vegan place called Bean. If you are ever in Charlotte, GO THERE.
I even got a surprise visit from Hobo Kings collaborator, Chris Reilly.

I was pretty timid and nervous for the most part. It is still amazing to me that this was my first Con at a table and I was on the same Indy Island block as Evan Dorkin, Peter Bagge and Dustin Harbin! Me being the amazing social animal that I am didn’t talk to any of them because I was too nervous (Though I had to say excuse me to them a lot to get out and use the bathroom). I got to meet some great people who have been very supportive over the last couple years online. Supportive of the Cabinet and supportive of me in general. (I’m looking at you Robert Deans and Xylon Otterburn)

As if the craziness going on around us wasn’t enough, there was some crazy Republican convention going on at the same time. This led to some annoying/hilarious times in elevators.

The reaction to my work and to the first chapter of the Cabinet was great. It is the first time I’ve had the experience of fellow creators telling me how much they are liking it in person. It was both overwhelming and sobering. I came home with a fresh outlook on the book and a renewed ambition to get it finished. Hell, meeting Christian in person and spending the time we did together was enough to get me all re-excited about the book!

I know I’m forgetting a ton of stuff and I’m kinda rushing through so I can get back to work. I waited a few days so I didn’t just gush and sound like an even bigger dork.

Thank you to the people in charge of putting the Heroes Convention together, I am totally looking forward to attending again next year. Huge thank you’s to everyone who came by our table and talked to us, or bought books or art work! Thanks to all the creators who were cool and friendly!

I know some people have already done Heroes reports, So I’m going to link to some of those here…

A special one with Mike Freiheit, who was across the aisle from Cristian and I. (next to Benjamin Marra who I am sad I never made it to his table, but was super awesome to talk to at the party sunday night). I discovered this morning that he did a sketch of me during the con. It’s pretty dope.

Another reason I waited until today to post about Heroes was I wanted to wait until Dave’s Kickstarter for THE GUNS OF SHADOW VALLEY was live. It is an amazing webcomic and they are putting together a beautiful oversized hardcover to finish it up. You definitely want to get in on supporting this book and ant take advantage of the rewards!

Finally, here are a few pics of drawings I did at the con (I missed a couple of the drawings I did in peoples sketchbooks, but I hope they enjoyed them at least!)