Red Fraggle, Karen Prell At San Diego Comic-Con 2008 (Clip 1)

Anita grabbed a little footage of Red's visit with her still camera. These are just tiny Fraggle-ments of Red and Karen's appearance, but I thought you might enjoy them anyhow. Savor the Red-ness!

Red Fraggle, Karen Prell At San Diego Comic-Con 2008 (Clip 2)

Here's another clip, shot very soon after the first. Red get increasingly baffled by how much we know about Fraggle Rock! Well, nothing a sing-along can't fix. So cute!

Comic-Con Diary 6: Friday

Things started off on a hectic note this morning. I overslept, so Michelle and I rushed to get to the convention center in time to set up the table for the opening crowds. I forgot my badge, so I had to cab it back to the hotel, then back to the center again! Rrrrghh.

The crowds outside were crazy - I wove my way through them as best I could until I got bogged down in a mass of people outside door D. If you've seen the sequence in Empire of the Sun where Shanghai is being evacuated... well, a little like that. I don't do all that well in crowds, so the oppressive mass began to get to me. Fortunately, I realized that the crowd was primarily guest-tag wearers, so I slipped out and ducked into a far less congested door just a little further down.

Mattel has a couple of convention exclusive toys that I wanted, so after checking in with Michelle, I headed over to their booth to see if I could snag a Giganta figure set, or maybe the Lightning Storm McQueen. It took me a little while to realize that there was a single line for two purchasing stations, but I found the end of it and settled in. To their credit, the Mattel folks repeatedly announced that you would need tickets to purchase any of the exclusives - and that required waiting in yet another line in the autograph area. It was certainly better to learn that at the end of the line than at the register, but I decided it was too late in the morning to wait in two lines for toys that might still sell out (for the day) before I got there. I bailed and went back to the Red Window table. Maybe tomorrow!

Anita definitely needed more dealers'-room-wandering time today, so I manned my end of the booth and Michelle helped Scott and Bill out until Anita arrived. Sales were still good, though the older, cheaper T-shirts continued to outsell the new version (I think the bright orange was a great design idea - it allows the beaver to be printed on the shirt with only two colors - but bright orange clothing may have too much of a prison-jumpsuit vibe for most shoppers). The watches continued to sell well - we may have misplaced a couple, but all of the rest sold today - the first item I've sold out at a convention!

Once Anita arrived, I got to hit the dealers' room for about ninety minutes. My camera crapped out early in the day, so I was a little more vulnerable to the spending bug. Over the whole day, I picked up one of Sideshow's companion sets to their vinyl Jabba The Hutt figure - it contained secondary creatures (like Salacious Crumb) that'll accent Jabba's throne nicely. I picked up two more vinyl toys from Super 7, a small Sculpey® monster from a table-ful of similar characters, a Frankenstein Jr. bank (Funko just got it in today), Toynami's con-exclusive Santa Robot figure, and a blocky resin figure of a design-y scientist whose name escapes me at the moment.

Sadly, I didn't get back to the booth in time to see my friend/famous animation blogger Jenny Lerew, whom I'd been looking forward to seeing again - I think it's been quite a while. I tagged Anita, and she got to run off and play. I minded the store and took pictures from the table.

A lot of old animation friends dropped by to say hello and buy swag - I drew a few quick sketches, too. When things were quiet, I focused on a larger sketch that a friend of Steven Ng requested. He wanted Toy Story characters combined with Kiki's Delivery Service characters, which was more than a little intimidating. Miyazaki's drawing style is beautiful, but it's not a particularly forgiving one. If you're not a strong draftsman... it's gonna show. Big time. Fortunately it went rather well, and my 'patron' was very pleased! Instead of payment, I asked that he make a donation to the Sierra Club. Aren't I wonderful?

Michelle went to a painting/drawing lecture by Steve (Nexus) Rude - happily for her, she got in the front row, and had none of the problems that I'd experienced the previous day. She really liked it. I do think she wound up going up to the room a little over an hour early, so I guess that's the moral of that story!

Anita came back as I was finishing the sketch, so we tagged out again - once she was finished helping Bill with his cash box's handsome tally, I was able to go shopping and chatting again. As with yesterday, floor traffic was noticeably better in the late afternoon, so I was able to relax and complete a sweep of the whole dealers' room (if you don't do anything else, I think you could do it in two full days). I picked up some of the swag I mentioned earlier, and drooled over some original art - an old Peanuts Sunday strip I read as a kid (if you've got a good memory, it deals with Snoopy and a crossing signal). Only $55,000! Sigh.

So that was the day! I wandered and shopped until the dealers' room closed, then the three of us went back to the hotel room. Michelle whipped up a tasty spaghetti dinner from the groceries we'd bought earlier, and I watched a little television before uploading (and tweaking) the day's pictures from both of our cameras.

I only missed one picture because of my battery problem. Or maybe I should say... costume. I call him "Warhol Spider-Man".

I'm sitting there, reading a free book I got from the Minx table, when this guy walks in. It's an African-American guy in a Spider-Man suit. So what, right? It's Comic-Con.

But instead of the old-school red costume with blue accents, this guy has a turquoise costume with hot pink accents. He's not wearing a mask, or carrying one. He comes off looking like a Spider-Man for another planet, maybe in a parallel universe. It's like one of those Warhol prints with four Marilyn Monroes on it - the shapes and forms are correct, but the color is straight out of a broken television set, or when you throw the Photoshop 'Hue' slider all the way to the other side.

The suit is professional-looking, but it's tight. Like I-don't-think-he-was-wearing-underwear-tight. You could pretty much see... everything.

It would've made a hell of a photograph!

Comic-Con Diary 4: Preview Night

Wednesday started out calmly - Anita and Michelle brought some the hotel's free breakfast food back to the room as I got cleaned up and ready to go. Once we were finished eating, I stopped back at the front desk to check on the Happy Beaver t-shirt order. Happily, they'd arrived - I brought the box back to the room to check 'em out. They looked great! We all donned the new shirts so we could wear them at the booth.

I started over to the convention center first, so the ladies could get cleaned up. The pin-boards were there, but we didn't have any push pins yet, so I focused on re-folding and sorting the new shirts. I had most of them done when Bill, his fianceé, and his mountain of new books arrived! They started unpacking and setting up their section in short order. It wasn't long after that when Anita and Michelle arrived. I checked on some missing chairs at Freeman's exhibitor service area, but we were due to get them later in the afternoon. I took a lot more photos on the way over and back, while the others continued setting things up.

Once the booth was ready to go, my next errand was to get the empty luggage back to the hotel. Michelle and I took one of shuttle bus lines from the convention center to the Holiday Inn By The Bay (the pink line's last stop). There was a mix-up with our hotel's bus, so it took us a while to get back to the hotel. I took a short nap while Michelle returned with snacks for Anita.

I roused myself just in time for a barbecue at the hotel. I don't know what the free meals and elevated courtesy are about. It's a Marriott at Comic-Con. All they really have to do is exist, so I'm not sure why they're trying so hard. I mean, they sold out. As a manager, I'd say their job is done, but I'm glad they're so nice (I digress)!

I snagged a few extra burgers and dogs in classic college-student fashion, bundled them up (with some condiments) in plastic wrap, and cabbed it back to the Con. I ran into David and Jennifer Skelly in the pro registration line, which was cool. I thought I'd make it back to chat while they were waiting for badges, but they were already in by the time I'd dropped off the food and bought a few copies of Who Is Rocket Johnson?, the latest comic compilation by a gaggle of Disney story artists. As long as Dave and Jen had already succumbed to the dealers' room, I figured I'd check it out, too.

So I staggered about in an overstimulated haze until the room closed at nine o'clock. Along the way, I ran into my buddy Brant Bridges of Sideshow Collectibles, and checked out Go Hero's awesome Buck Rogers prototypes. I bought three copies of Who Is Rocket Johnson?, the exclusive Peter Parker / Spider-Man Mighty Mugg, a couple of wooden Pedro the Mail Plane toys from Japan, some Flintstones and Land of the Lost figures from Funko, and yet another vinyl Anpanman toy. I'll try to take pictures of them at some point this week.

We discounted some of last year's shirt designs, so we sold out of the Dirty Beaver t-shirts completely. Some of the other shirts sold fine (including the new design), but the biggest surprise was the Happy Beaver watch - six of the twenty are already gone! It'll be exciting if we sell out of them - I'll be sure to make more for APE if we do.

I'm pretty thrashed, so I'll wrap it up here. More tomorrow!

Comic-Con Diary 1: Waiting For The Plane

Here we are at Oakland airport, waiting for our flight into San Diego. The Super Shuttle didn't have a lot of schedule options, so we had to leave horribly early for our already horribly early flight. Anita didn't bother to go to sleep, as she's not a morning person, and wouldn't have been able to rouse herself at 3:30 AM! I only slept a couple of hours myself, as the list of errands to do before bed seemed to keep getting longer and longer! We're all set now, though - even though our flight was cancelled (!), we got an earlier one. At least we won't have to wait at the airport for so long!

Where I'll Be At Comic-Con

Michelle, Anita and I will be with Scott Morse and Bill Presing at the Red Window, Inc. booth - #4800. Print out the handy map (above) so you can find us when you get overstimulated!

A Quick Trip To Wizard World

Since I missed WonderCon, I was still hankering (even after the toy show onslaught) for a good, old-fashioned convention. So I flew down to Los Angeles to hit Wizard World, which makes its way through a variety of cities over the year. It's not as good as WonderCon at its best (which I heard was quite good this year, if you dodged the nasty bug that went around), but it'll do in a pinch. I didn't have a table set up to sell toys - I was just going to feed the nerd-monkey on my back.

I emailed some of my southern California friends to see if anyone wanted to join me. I figured that most of them aren't all that into conventions (so odds were low that any of them had been to one recently), but maybe the combination of Old Home Week and nerd swag would be a good lure. I got a few "yes"-es: Juliana Korsborn, her boyfriend Noah Miller (from my CalArts and Simpsons days, respectively), and my pal Brian Stokes. That was great - I'd have some company for my hunt-and-gathering. I got up horribly early, took a free flight down to Burbank (thanks to some frequent flier miles), and cabbed it over to the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Wizard World has a different guest process than WonderCon or San Diego Comic-Con. It's not hard to register as a professional, but you have to pay ten dollars to get a badge, and your guests cost twenty-five bucks each. I'm spoiled by the other conventions (I don't remember paying anything for badges at WC or SDCC), so it was a little disappointing. Still, the badges are good for all three days.

I'm snootier about convention-going these days (though I'm not sure why - it's a comic book convention, for goodness' sake), so I was also disappointed that I was sent to wait in the regular guest line. Unless you pay for VIP passes, that's where you wind up! Fortunately, the aforementioned nerd monkey insisted that I get there at nine-thirty, so the line wasn't very bad yet. All the guests were nice, and the local Star Wars fan clubs had some really good costumers wandering about to keep everyone happy and patient. There were even a few radio-controlled Artoo-Detoos scooting about that were very nicely made!

The convention opened pretty close to ten o'clock, and it only took a short time to get into the dealers' room. It seemed smaller than I remembered. I worked my way through most of the tables - and the miniature version of Artists' Alley - before my friends arrived. We puttered about for a little while, then went out to lunch.

Initially, we were going to go to a local Italian restaurant, but we discovered that it was closed, so we went to a place called The Liberty Grill instead. The food was somewhat pricey (I think my pulled pork sandwich was over ten dollars), but good. Now that our potential blood sugar issues had been dealt with, we returned to shop in earnest.

I bought a fair amount of swag, but not as much as in the past. Here's a tip if you're concerned about over-spending: carry your loot bag around with you all day. Once the handle starts to cut into your fingers a little, you'll get less enthusiastic, I guarantee it!

So what did I get? The new Jack Kirby book, an Iron Man movie figure that debuted a little early, two DVDs (one for me, one for a friend), two T-shirts that look like the Star Trek uniforms (Spock's tunic for a friend, and I got the "expendable ensign" design) courtesy of roddenberry.com, and a Venture Brothers T-shirt. Good stuff!

I also got a chance to chat with Dave Kellett, the creator of Sheldon and one of the co-authors of How To Make Webcomics. He was quite nice, and very supportive of my desire to learn more about web-comicking. I'm about two-thirds of the way through the book now - some of it is common sense, but there's plenty of great things to keep in mind as you begin to build an online comic strip. I'm the most interested in the technical and business sections - the areas where I have the least amount of experience!

None of us were really interested in the events or panels, so we stuck to the dealers' room for most of the afternoon. There were some costumed folk competing for prizes, and this pair dressed as Mario and Luigi won top honors.

There were also some people playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero with/against each other, which was fun but puzzling. I know what it's like to have your hobby called a waste of time (that's too harsh, anyway), but I can't help but feel that video games don't give you much in the end (maybe gamers look at it like watching television, but with more interactivity). At least with cartooning, I have a drawing when I'm done, but gaming doesn't give you much but sore thumbs and an empty wallet. But hey, I'm a toy collector, and that doesn't give you much, either. Maybe I'm just bitter because I've always been awful at playing games! But I digress.

The four of us burned out on shopping, so we caught each other up on our lives (I don't think we'd seen each other since last summer), and all of a sudden it was time to get back to the airport. Juliana and Noah generously drove me back to Burbank, and... like that. It was fun!

JeffPidgeon.com, Happy Beaver At The Vinyl Toy Network Show!

Yup, I'm going to the Vinyl Toy Network show again this December - but this time as a vendor! I'll have a booth to peddle Happy Beaver toys to Southern Californians in person. I figure the attendants for this show are my core audience, so it seems like a good one to set up shop (plus, the vendor space is very affordable, and it's super-close to Christmas)!). Here's the info:

Where? - Pasadena Convention Center 300
East Green Street
Pasadena, CA 91101

When? - Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
For How Long? - 10 AM - 5:30 PM
How Much? - Free admission!
Why? - The core audience thing

Hope to see you there!

Photos From Vinyl Toy Network

I've been meaning to post these pictures for a while. Sorry for the delay...

(above) The door of mystery! I was a little disappointed in the size of the show, but to be fair, this is only its second year. There was enough that I wanted to buy as it was, though there wasn't any debuts or show exclusives that I recall.


The line wasn't too bad, though the show did open late. I did manage to get the goodie bag that I got up at 5:30 in the morning / flew into Burbank as early as I could stand to get. Ironically, I didn't want to keep most of the freebies, and wound up giving most of it away. Having to take everything you get at the show back on the plane (in your two permissible carry-ons) kept me from getting too crazy!


Lots of technology in line - not very surprising, really. If they've got money for designer toys, they're probably going to have gadgetry as well!


I think this is Michelle Valigura, who, along with Amanda Visell, comprise Switcheroo, an art/product company. Amanda made the hand-made Dragon Scout figure that I bought. Pricey, but it's closer to buying a drawing or a painting than a toy. Plus it's a great piece, of course!


The Strangeco table. I picked up the Ningyo Project Gosho figure (the traditional version) there. It looks awesome!


The Cardboard Spaceship table had a great selection of toys. I picked up the Mr. Capman Kanser figure there, which I'd been meaning to get for a while.


These are great mini-figures that had come out just recently, so I bought a few. In classic blind-box fashion, I didn't get any of my favorites. Oh, well!


Not surprisingly, Tim Biskup's Flopdoodle online store had a table there. His stuff is terrific, but I didn't buy any of it this time.


More friendly toy salsemen, more than happy to take my money. Not this time!


Cameron Tiede made an appearance, which was a nice surprise! His wife and I chatted while he drew my friend Brian a picture. I can't wait for Cameron's toys!


I bought a nice monochrome Booska & Chamegon vinyl figure set from the table right next to this one. The picture of that booth didn't come out, so this one'll have to do.


There were artier toy makers there, too, some working in other media.


Some people sold clothing and art prints as well.


All in all, it was a good show, and I had fun! Still, I don't know if I'll drop the cash for a round trip plane ticket again just for the event. If I can work it into a weekend trip, though, that'd be worth doing. Yay, toys!

APE: Comic-Con's Alternative Sister

Last weekend was 2007's Alternative Press Expo, or APE for short. Held in San Francisco, APE is a comic convention, but on a smaller, far more personal scale. I started going about two years ago, and I've tried to go ever since.

I had preconceived notions about APE that made me hesitant to check it out for quite a while. I always figured it would consist a few card tables stocked with badly-drawn, arty-farty 'zines. While this is partially true, there's a lot more to APE than that.

The overall scale is much less intimidating than Comic-Con, and the vibe is good-natured and friendly. It's clear, too, that everyone loves what they're doing, and wants to share that. Sure, money's changing hands, but APE comes across more like a gallery show, craft fair or flea market than a trade show.

By contrast, there's an air of desperation that's permeating Comic-Con these days - I don't feel as much love for the craft there. Everyone's smelling that Batman/Spider-Man/Superman/X-Men/300 money, and a lot of folks want to be the next big thing. Blaring sound systems and huge video displays compete for attention. Please, the air seems to throb, Please make my comic into a movie. Please make our movie into a hit.

Don't get me wrong - I still love both conventions, like the way I like to go to see both Spider-Man 3 and The Queen. They're both satisfying in very different ways.

While APE doesn't feature the high-profile guests that Comic-Con does, indie luminaries can certainly be found there. Two of my favorites: Keith Knight of The K Chronicles is a fixture, as well as Troubletown's Lloyd Dangle. Now that Comic-Con is an APE sponsor, I'm assuming that they used their clout and contacts to feature Art Spiegelman on both days this year. Nice!

This year, I also went to support my comic-making friends. My pals Scott Morse, Ricky Nierva, Don Shank, Nate Wragg, and Lou Romano (above) just finished their first book together, The Ancient Book Of Myth And War. I'd already bought a copy at work, but I dropped by to say hello. They were all busy doing illustrated autographs in purchased copies, but took a little time out for a picture. Pick up a copy at Amazon! You won't regret it - these guys are awesome!

Ben Catmull was also there selling copies of his eerily funny Monster Parade. He'd already generously given me a copy, but I stopped by to say hi. Andrice Arp was selling MOME anthologies featuring her latest short story, based on a dream that she'd had. She had paintings for sale, too!

Derek Kirk Kim caught my eye this year with a funny poster (you can see a little of it in the picture). It's decorated with thirty or so chibi-styled pop-culture characters. If you could guess all of them, you got it for free! I got all of them but four, and he supressed his disgust at my wasted life and complimented me. I bought it for Anita and I, as there's Red Dwarf characters on it - a rarity, even at conventions. Derek's a great comic artist and storyteller - pick up a copy of his graphic novella and see what I mean!

My buddy Jamie Baker also has a new book - an illustrated collection of news articles and limericks, all about elephants, that he co-wrote with his father. Appropriately, it's called Elephants In The News. It's not available at Amazon yet, but I'm sure you can get a copy from James himself if you ask him nicely. And pay him money.

Steve Purcell was also there, promoting the new Sam & Max video game, as well as some prints and T-shirts. Steve totally knows how to work it -there's always a line at his booth!

I also got to catch up with Marc Crisafulli, who came to APE for the first time with his girlfriend, Karen Davison. They both had great artwork to sell, and I picked up one of Marc's drawings. He generously added some pencils of a strip I was fond of for free. Karen had wonderful printed work, but I'm holding out for an original. Check out her spot illustration in last week's The New Yorker. Wow!

I went out to lunch with Marc at the Metreon, which of course meant a quick stop at Things From Another World. Series seven of Mezco's Family Guy line was out, so I picked up the only figures that I wanted, Performance Artist and Neil Goldman (dusts off hands). Marc and I caught up on what we'd both been up to - we've been keeping in touch off and on since the Mighty Mouse days!

I also ran into Elizabeth Ito! I've admired her design work from afar, and exchanged e-mails with her a few times, but it was a nice to finally have a live face to connect to the online avatar! Here she is with Kevin Dart, artist and printmaker extraordinaire. You can get a lot of his awesome work at Fleet Street Scandal, the website he shares with the also awesome Chris Turnham.

Matt Bernier was selling his nicely drawn comic Potato Autopsy. He's got it (and another book Out Of Water) for sale at his website as well. I couldn't tell if he was friends with the luchador mask guy, or if he had good coping skills (L.M. guy seemed fine to me).

My friends Rob Thompson and Jeanne Applegate celebrated their (I think) first 'zine, Plate Lunch. Rob contributed cute robot gags, while Jeanne featured her art pieces made with purchase receipts. Cool!

D.J. Bryant is an impressive draughtsmen, his darkly beautiful work featured in two books, Snar-Fled and the Clowese-esque Steelcharge Horsecap. I wish I could've picked up original art from him, but I was on a small budget. Gotta save up to finish paying for my vinyl toy!

Speaking of vinyl, I did get a toy at APE as well - the oil version of the Zliks vinyl toy. I'd seen this at conventions before, but the thing that pushed the 'spend' button this time was a new-to-me wrinkle - the eyes were separate pieces, and could be 'posed' into different facial expressions. Neat! I lucked out and got mine for $35 and no shipping.

Here's the other thing to keep in mind about APE - if you're single, and in your twenties, there's a lot of cute girls at APE - more than any other convention that I've been to. I lucked out and found a nerd-woman on my own, but if you're a nerd with, you know, dating trouble... you might want to check out APE. I'm just saying.

See you next year!