The Image Expo wrap up and the return to Stringers!

I attended the first ever Image Comic Expo over the weekend and I gotta tell you, it was a pretty interesting show. They held the con at the convention center in Oakland, where Wonder Con used to be held when I was a kid and it felt kinda nostalgic being in there again, only this time exhibiting.

Everybody knew this show would be small, certainly much smaller than WonderCon normally is, and there wasn't the big volume of crowds that WonderCon brings on. However, I was really surprised by the interactions at the show- it felt like a much more interested group of fans. I guess because everyone knew going in that the show was "creator-owned centric", there was not the typical crowd who's just looking for the next Big Two comic property, and people really took the time to stop and check out art and talk comics. We had a great time, and I got a chance to meet and talk shop with tons of great creators, many of whom I was already big fans of their work. I didn't realize there were so many Bay Area based comic artists and writers out there.

Check out some of the favorite con sketches I drew from the show below:

It's Memphis Slim! This was from a sketchbook of a guy who had a really fantastic group of artists drawing famous Blues artists in his collection. His book was led off by a kickass drawing by Dave Johnson, so everybody in there was bringing their A-game. I pretty much just drew with a pen all weekend, which was a nice change from the brush.

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I drew this one in a sketchbook that was also themed, this one being a book of drawings of dysfunctional fathers. My favorite one of the group was a drawing of Heisenburg, Walt's alter ego from Breaking Bad. I initially planned on drawing God, but being unsure of the owner's sense of humor, I played it safe and drew Odin instead :) The picture is a little blurry, sorry for that.

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The last one for now is one I did for myself of the two main characters in my next project, the OGN Stringers with Marc Guggenhiem and my friends at Oni Press! Preliminary work begins today and I've been looking foward to digging into this book for months. If you are not familiar with the book, you can check out our initial announcement some time back here on CBR. I'll be posting lots of sneak peaks at art and things in the coming months so stay tuned for more news...

Thanks to everybody who stopped by the table and said hello at the show! I had a great show and it was a lot of fun to come out of my cave and talk comics with everyone.