Stumptown Comics Fest 2010: Day Two
– Hang over this morning caused us to get a slower start to the day. We arrived around 11:30am, and immediately hit up Matthew Southworth‘s booth to get two copies of Stumptown #1 signed. He DID remember us from last night (he asked what time we finally left). Uh-oh. I need to seriously curtail the drinking next year. We hung out for about an hour or so while he inked and colored a couple prints. Here’s a short video of the one he made of Dex.
– Next up was a Q&A Panel with Craig Thompson. It was very informal – he had a friend hosting and asking him questions. The audience members could also chime in at any point with questions of their own. I was consistently surprised and pleased with the depth, intelligence and respect that went into each question (as with the Saturday panel). Not that I don’t think Comic Book fans can be intellectuals, it’s just that I’ve never experienced such a large group of folks taking the art of comic books so seriously.
A short video in which he talks about his current project Habibi, and what led to the creation and publication of his travel journal Carnet De Voyage.
– After that – Craig Thompson was signing books. We picked up a ticket earlier, and were among the first five or so people in line to chat with him and HE DID A SKETCH. Ah! Wonderful, lovely sketch. Having the signing immediately following the Q&A was awesome, because it didn’t feel awkward at all to engage in conversation with him. Something that frustrates me about cons or interacting with celebrities/famous folks is how artificial the space can feel. This wasn’t my experience at this fest – ever. Everyone was very approachable, friendly and willing to talk about their work, themselves, and other randomness.
Craig Thompson was incredibly gracious about the picture. 🙂
The sketch - so beautiful!
– Lunch in the park, and then we strolled back in to visit a bit more with Natalie and Matt. We hit up a couple booths for folks who had won awards or were nominated. And then – a moment of squee! A deck of X-Men Tarot Cards! Storm is not only the artist of the Princess Witch Boy comic book, but he also reads Tarot on the side, with a deck of X-Men cards I had as a child. Why did I throw these away!? I’ve been searching for them on E-Bay for the last year or so (to no avail). *sigh* Storm was cool and took a picture of my tattoo. Should have gotten a picture of him – he had the coolest feathered hat!
– Storm’s table just happened to be located next to that of Jason McNamara – the scribe of the Continuity graphic novel I reviewed a month ago. Turns out he recognized me by the tattoo – it was getting a lot of love this weekend. I can only imagine what it will be like in San Diego, which will be positively teeming with fanboys and girls. I was stoked to see he still had a few copies of Martian Confederacy kicking around (love the artwork by Paige Braddock) and reminded him that he’d promised to tell me the back-story on Alicia.
– Before we could get too heavily into conversation – a deaf man came up to his table to chat with the super cool Stephenny Godfrey (winner of Stumptown Award for Outstanding Publication Design for Panorama). She tapped Jason McNamara’s shoulder and much to my surprise, he started communicating with the man using sign language. It was incredibly compelling and impressive to watch. I waited patiently off to the side, skimming through the books and trying not to stare too much. When they had wrapped up conversation, I learned that McNamara has a degree in sign language. He told me the Alicia story (not gonna divulge it here, but you should ask him!) and we spent the next 20 minutes or so shooting the shit with him about the fest and comics. The sequel to The Martian Confederacy is coming out in October 2010, so look for that on the shelves everyone. Can’t wait to read and review Part One.
Jason McNamara and Martian Confederacy
– This was the last thing to check off my list of activities, so there was nowhere else to go but home. Aaaand, for the collectors among us, here’s a couple pics of the all the cool swag/books/merchandise/comics we picked up over the weekend.
Syllabi for local Comics college courses
Swag from Day One
Swag from Day Two - minus signed Chunky Rice, plus Spell Checkers
– Final Thoughts: This event has truly inspired and awed me. It was great to see so many people supporting comic books, it was wonderful to talk to the artists and writers who were floored by Portland’s love of comic books, and it was absolutely awesome to see folks so passionate about their art. It will be an interesting juxtaposition between this fest and the San Diego Con in July. Also nice to hear that artists and writers appreciated the interaction with fans and readers that you simply can’t get at a larger convention (even something like Emerald Con). I definitely enjoyed loitering and shooting the breeze with artists and fangirls/boys alike. Warm fuzzies for this event – will definitely attend and volunteer again next year. 🙂
For more pictures of the event, check out the Flickr stream here.
And for a compilation of all the media on Stumptown Comics Fest 2010, check out The Comics Reporter
18 responses to “Stumptown Comics Fest 2010: Day Two”
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- - March 10, 2011
- - April 19, 2011
Dan
tinyheroes
Tiny Heroes 
Very nice. You’ve already been linked to by The Comics Reporter as part of the record for Stumptown 2010.
Woohoo! I’ve put up a link to their site on both entries as well – so people can access information, pics, whatever else I wasn’t able to offer up in my limited perspective of the fest.
Also – just added my final thoughts on the event. 🙂
Hey Mindy,
Was awesome to meet you and Dan in person. Portland is always our favorite Con to do. The Organizers and volunteers are always wonderful, the crowds supportive and the city itself an inviting host. Storm, Stepheny, Greg and I will definitely be returning next year. Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.
And sorry for being the drunk guy screaming in your ear at Cosmic Monkey, Award Shows get me all riled up.
Best-
Jason McNamara
Hahah – you must never apologize for drunkenly shouting at the Awards show – later in the evening I was shouting enthusiastically about “pega-corns” and “anal.” If anything, I was only squinting through the crowd trying to determine who would be my carousing male counter-part for the evening. 🙂
Portland welcomes you with open arms. I’m stoked for next year’s Stumptown Fest already. Will you be around at the San Diego Comic Con?
I’m on the fence regarding Comicon this year. It will depend on what I think my workload might be this summer. All work stops for the days leading up to it, the days your there and a few more to recover and get back into your groove. Might pop down for the weekend. Not sure but if I do we’ll have to get loaded and scream at the Eisner’s.
Yes – drunken Eisner Awards! I can absolutely understand bowing out of San Diego if you’d done it before. I’m trying to decide how to properly drug/medicate myself for dealing with the massive crowds there. Yikes.
Hi Mindy!
What a great post! Thanks for the Heroic Tarot and Princess Witch Boy love! It is much appreciated! Maybe one day the X-Men deck will reappear in your life!
The reason why Jason and I were exhibiting beside each other is because we’re members of a group of San Francisco comic book creators called Writers Old Fashioned. This year was our third year attending (Last year was my first).
Stumptown has become my favorite comics convention by a large margin! So glad I got to meet you and maybe we’ll see you here at the Alternative Press Expo?
Cheers!
STORM
A tip
It was a great experience, and we (Dan and I, not the royal we) loved having the opportunity to meet you and read some of the Writers Old Fashioned comics! I hope to have a chance to get an X-Men Tarot reading in the future, that is such an awesome idea. 🙂
How did the Mayor trophy hand-off go?
Not sure if I’ll make the Alternative Press Expo in San Fran or not. I will be down in San Diego for the Con in July, and I’ll be at EmeraldCon and Stumptown next year as well. Fairly certain our paths will cross again soon!
Much Love, Mindy
Ha! No need to curtail the drinking, you were fine. . .we just left earlier than you ’cause we’re old. Or something.
It was great meeting you both, and I was delighted you guys wanted a page from me.
Hope you’re doing well, and I’ll see you in San Diego, won’t I?
Absolutely – we’ll stop by and force you to draw 70s porn Banshee. J/K But we will definitely have to get a print at Comic Con!
Just picked up Stumptown #3 today. Very cool.
Damn – are there any left at Guapo? I was gonna pick it up on Saturday at Free Comic Book Day…but I’m worried that it will sell out. 😦
There were a few issues left last night, but I don’t know how long that will last. I heard the rain kept some customers away.
There were none at Cosmic Monkey or Things From Another World today. 😦 *tears* We opened up a box so this will never happen again!
Mindy, Hi it’s been awhile. Hope this message finds you well. I coudn’t find a contact buton on your site. If you could hit me up at my gmail (ramonesome@), I’ve got something to send you.
Best-
Jason
Hi Jason – thanks for checking in! 🙂 It’s been awhile since we last chatted. I dropped you an email this morning!