There were several firsts at this particular Dallas Comic Con.

 

It was the first gathering in the spanking new Irving Convention Center. The new building is an impressive sight from the outside and even more so on the inside. The fans were out in force, even with the threat of the impending Rapture hanging over their heads. Fortunately, the Rapture was pushed back to October 21st so we can all stop worrying about that for now.

The other first was the Reckon Crew finally getting to meet Carrie Fisher. Call us fan boys if you must but we’ve been looking forward to this day for a very long time. I was there for Crutchboy when he nearly fainted when Carrie told him he was too short to be a Stormtrooper. I would have even forgiven him if he would have squealed and done that thing with his hands like an excited school girl. But he maintained his cool.

I met another one of my heroes, Leonard Nimoy, at the convention. I’d been unfortunate enough to miss him at some previous events so I made it my mission to meet him this time and get his autograph. My plans to tell him his face was “illogical” fell through, however, so there will be another meeting… Next time, Nimoy, next time.

We stopped by the booth of our two favorite Dallas artists, Terry Parr and Halo Seraphim. Terry and Halo have stepped up their game with their new project ShoNuff Studios. Their art gets better every time I see them and the “cleavage buttons” they’re offering are sure to be a hit with the gents.

Taffeta Darling was in fine form, braving the crowd to hang out with the Reckon Crew. She was a hit with the fans and dressed as Zantanna, I was able to forgive the crowds as they tried to get their picture taken with her. I was even able to forgive them for not knowing who I was.

Stan Lee was in attendance and in high demand. It was good to see him at another convention and I applaud the Dallas Comic Con team for landing him for this gig.

All in all, I continue to be amazed with how quickly this event has grown. The prior events were by no means deficient but my hat is definitely off to the gents at C2 Ventures. If they continue in their current direction, the next event should be spectacular.

As for the stun gun incident, well, here’s a little sneak peek…

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We had a blast working with all of you this year!

This Saturday, the Busy Gamer Reckon Crew will be appearing as exhibitors at the Staple! Independent Media Expo at the Monarch Event Center in Austin, TX. The event, now in its sixth year, is shaping up to be an excellent time for everyone involved. And our tables should be a party with the usual suspects from the Reckon Crew (Timothy Danger, Crutchboy, and myself) and one of our favorite artists Terry Parr and his guest Halo. Swing by for some BG swag.

Aside from the presence of our awesome selves, which should be enough for anyone to want to attend, there’s an impressive list of other exhibitors that will be there as well as some special guests. Among the special guests will be “Owly” creator Andy Runton who received an Eisner award for his comic in 2006. Artist Guy Davis who has worked on projects for DC, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, and many other companies will be in attendance as well as Chris Schweizer and Jason Neulander.

Among the exhibitors will be some of our personal favs here at BusyGamer.com like Danielle Corsetto of “Girls With Slingshots“, Monica Gallagher of the website eatyourlipstick.com, and Vinh Luu of Space-Gun. You can get a complete list of the exhibitors here. There will be a lot of artwork to catch your eye, portraits and commissions to be drawn on site, and a whole lot of interesting people to meet.  So if you haven’t made plans for Saturday, head up to the Monarch Event Center for Staple! and we promise not to make fun of you, mostly. You’ll have a great time… If you don’t, you’re probably some kind of alien.

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STAPLE 2010 will be held at the Monarch Event Center (6406 North IH-35 Suite 3100 Austin, TX 78752) in the Lincoln Village Shopping Center at the corner of 2222 and I-35, right across from Highland Mall.

This past weekend, the Reckon Crew packed up and headed for Dallas to visit the Dallas Comic Con and get some fan boy energy out of our system. We were excited to see the guest line up this year and managed to do some schmoozing with some friends of the site and meet some new ones.

The first person we had to visit, of course, was the talented artist Terry Parr. While we’ll be seeing Terry next month when he comes to Austin for Staple!, we’re always excited to see what he’s been up to and his new work is extraordinary. Once we’d taken up too much of his time and probably scared away more than a couple of his fans, we took in the rest of the sights the Comic Con had to offer.

In attendance this year were several big names. Among them were some names you’d know if you’re a Sci-Fi fan; Peter Mayhew, Herb Jefferson Jr., and Anne Lockhart. The list for the artists was no less impressive with names like Adam Hughes, Cat Skaggs, and Tim Sale. We were more than happy to peruse more than a few of their sketches. We even ended up with a couple of them in tow as we visited some of the other artists there.

We paid our homage to Adam West, the OB (Original Batman) and the Mayor of a little town called Quahog. That’s a “Family Guy” reference if you missed it. Pictures were taken, autographs were procured, and more than a little of that fan boy energy I mentioned was in effect at his table.

We were fortunate enough to attend the Q&A for Sean Patrick Flanery while we were there. I’ve been to more than a few Q&A’s and I have to say that Mr. Flanery’s was one of the best that I have ever had the pleasure to attend. Funny and self deprecating, Sean talked about his experiences on the set of Boondock Saints and the sequel, meeting George Lucas during his audition for the TV series Young Indiana Jones, and his favorite moments from the filming of Powder. The guy does a mean Christopher Walken impression as well.

We also met up with Jim Brown, a very talented photographer who has agreed to do some of the shoots for our lovely Gamettes this year. We were happy to finally have the time to get to know Jim and talk to him about matters ranging from photography to drinking misadventures. We’re happy to welcome Jim aboard and look forward to seeing more of his work.

All in all, it was a great weekend. We managed to defy death, meet some famous people, make some impressions both good and bad, and have a few drinks along the way… That’s just what we do.

Gritskrieg – End of Line

Last year, one of the most memorable stops on our world-tour-that-didn’t-quite-make-it-outside-the-U.S. was actually pretty close to home. While we enjoy travelling, when an event is in Austin, Texas, it’s hard to pass up the opportunity not to visit. And while Staple! may be a bit less commercial (yeah!) than the other cons out there, we jumped at the opportunity to pay our respects at this event. Far more than what we expected, we found one of the largest gatherings of “indie” artists ever assembled in one location.  Needless to say, the Reckon Crew was in geek heaven.

It all started as a group of local artists in a coffee house and has grown to a full blown collection of some of the biggest names in webcomics and self-published comics. Last year’s gathering included Scott Kurtz of PVP Online, Danielle Corsetto of Girls with Slingshots, and Eric Powell of The Goon. We were able to land an interview with each one of them (Danielle’s was devoured by my recorder) and attended a couple of the panels and still managed to be “fanbois” for a large part of the day.

Staple! 2009, now in year five, will be held on Saturday, March 7th at the Monarch Convention Center. There will be several big names attending as guests, including Stan Sakai of Usagi Yojimbo, Jeffrey Brown, and Chris Onstad. Featured as well will be panels on Self Publishing and a Q&A with Stan Sakai. A complete listing of guests, exhibitors, and sessions can be found at www.staple-austin.org. And, no, your eyes do not deceive you when you glance over the exhibitor list, that is indeed the Reckon Crew listed.  Joining us will be the talented Terry Parr as well as Gamettes Amber Alert and Miss Genocide. We just thought it would be nice to have a place to set down the booze for a while. And sell some t-shirts. Terry will have his artwork up for sale and the Reckon Crew will be… wandering aimlessly.

Seriously though, if you haven’t had the opportunity to check out Staple!, you should take the opportunity this Saturday (March 7th) to come out and see what we’re so excited about. Drop by the table and we’ll make fun of your t-shirt, offer you one of ours, and send you on your way with a pat on the head and a koozie for the beverage of your choice.

Take note that there will be a pre-party for Staple! at Austin Books beginning at 7PM Friday, March 6th as well as an after party (March 7) at Red 7 (on East 7th street) in downtown Austin beginning at 9PM. We’ll spend both nights in the drink, I imagine.

If you don’t show up, you’ll be a bigger nerd than we are… and that’s hard to do.

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Find the Busy Gamer Reckon Crew at Booth #004 exhibiting at the Monarch Event Center, come grab some swag!

At the Dallas Comic Con back in January, we had the opportunity to sit down with Terry Parr and get an interview out of him. We held off on posting it until we were closer to attending Staple! in Austin, Texas where Terry will be kind enough to share a table with us. Terry’s a talented individual with a sharp wit, a formidable artistic skill, and a Gamette for a girlfriend.

BGG: What was the first comic that you ever read?
Terry Parr: First real comic that I really read and enjoyed or first comic…?

BGG: Was that comic the reason you decided to start drawing or what was the reason you started drawing?
Terry Parr: Well, I’ve always drawn, probably since the second grade. I used to draw stuff like Snoopy and all that. But when Dragon’s Lair came around and I saw that, that was what I constantly drew all the time. And then around that time was when I started getting into Swamp Thing, like middle school, and then I kind of dropped out. I still drew but I didn’t really have a focus. I mostly drew Iron Maiden stuff. I drew Eddie all the time. I probably drew him for like two years straight. I was always the Iron Maiden guy. Even in my high school photos, I was wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt. But I started getting back into comics, right when conventions started up, and I was a huge Jim Lee fan. If you look at my old stuff, way back when, I drew just like Jim Lee. It was kind of sad. Right now, I’ve moved on.

BGG:It seems like you have a pretty free flowing style. You can go from some of your dark, gothic work right into the pin up styles. Is that something you’ve always been able to do or is that something that’s recent?
Terry Parr: I would like to say that I’ve done that all the time but I think it’s been the last couple of years. I try not to be classified by one style. I feel an artist has to grow. But I’m still improving on that and it’s pretty tiring.

BGG: When you sit down to draw do you know what style you’re going to use or does it just flow as you go?
Terry Parr: It can happen both ways. Sometimes I’ll have an idea in my head on how I want to approach it but then again, once I approach it, I’ll just bug and won’t do that, I’ll do something else. It just depends on the need. Most of it comes out the way I want, others I end up altering and changing. 

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On January 24th and 25th, 2009, the Busy Gamer Reckon Crew made a visit to the Richardson Civic Center to pay homage to the Dallas Comic Con. In typical Reckon Crew fashion, we arrived late, left early, and drank in between. But not before meeting and interviewing Thomas Jane of Punisher and The Mist fame and the very talented Terry Parr, artist and creator of Gemini Force. And somewhere during the chaos, we managed to admire the artwork of some of the very fine artists who attended the event.

No stranger to famous folk, the Dallas Comic Con has been gathering some of the most geek and fanboi worthy names in the business for the last eight years and 2009 was no exception to the rule. On hand for the event were James O’Barr, Tim Bradstreet, Cat Staggs, and Scott Harben, just to name a few. We wandered amongst the various artist tables, saying hello to some old favorites and learning the names of a few new ones.

Several vendors were on hand with merchandise to tempt our pocket books and none of the Reckon Crew escaped without at least a couple of purchases. And then there was the sweet, sweet swag to be had for those numbers who had made their way to the event. T-shirts and movie posters from The Punisher movies, My Sweet Valentine 3D, and the upcoming Coraline. There were even free comics if one was so inclined to grab a couple when making their way past the Lone Star Comics table.

It should, of course, be noted that the very lovely Amber Alert, one of our first Gamettes, was there to offset the Reckon Crew ugly with her good looks and gracious nature. She even suggested a locale for Saturday night’s festivities and managed to get Timothy Danger to dance, no small feat. Or perhaps, no small two left feat.

After everything was said and done, the beers were drank,  and some monstrous burritos had been consumed, the Reckon Crew left Dallas knowing that there was a new stop on our list of worthy events to visit when the next opportunity (August 29-30, in case you were curious) rolls around, the Dallas Comic Con.

 

Gritskrieg – End of Line

We love conventions. They give us a reason to check out what’s going on, meet new people, talk to artists and industry people, meet actors… and of course, drink copious amounts of alcohol.

That’s just what we intend to do this weekend at the Dallas Comic Con. Besides special guests like Tom Jane (The Punisher) horror movie writer Todd Farmer and our own friend Terry Parr, also attending will be artist Tim Bradstreet.

Tim Bradstreet is an incredible artist and illustrator who is best known for his work with comic book covers. He has also done visual work for movies and movie posters.

Bradstreet uses a pretty interesting style that is sort of photo realistic. He uses photos mixed with pencils and inks to create a unique style that brings out the grit of his characters he is famous for portraying (most notably his work on HELLBLAZER and THE PUNISHER)

You can catch him this weekend at the Dallas Comic Con / Sci-Fi Expo January 24 and 25 at the Richardson Convention Center.

His website is www.timbradstreet.com

-Timothy Danger