{"id":1393,"date":"2007-02-05T19:03:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-05T23:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1393"},"modified":"2021-03-08T15:27:02","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T19:27:02","slug":"fx-day-a-long-day-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1393","title":{"rendered":"FX Day [A Long Day] One"},"content":{"rendered":"
FX 2007<\/strong> billed itself as \u201cthe coolest show on Earth.\u201d<\/strong> After looking at their guest list which included comic superstars:<\/strong> Matt Wagner<\/strong>, Dave Johnson<\/strong>, Michael Golden<\/strong>; film and tv celebs<\/strong> such as Michael Biehn<\/strong>, Lance Henrikson<\/strong>, and many others, I decided to check out the show for myself.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Unfortunately the convention got off to a shaky start. None of the con workers<\/strong> seemed to know their roles. The lines for \u201cwill call\u201d tickets<\/strong> as well as the \u201cday of show\u201d tickets<\/strong> were backed up and it was long past the early opening time<\/strong> before things got rolling. I had purchased an advance three day ticket<\/strong> knowing that the odds of me attending on Sunday<\/strong> were slim, but because advance ticket holders were allowed into the show an hour early<\/strong>, I figured that the extra cost<\/strong> was worth it since I really wanted a sketch from Dave Johnson<\/strong>. Unfortunately advance ticket holders<\/strong> did not<\/strong> get in an hour early<\/strong>, nor did they get the promised \u201cgoodie bag\u201d<\/strong> [which didn\u2019t bother me]. To slow things even more, all advance ticket holders<\/strong> had to wait while a con employee stuck a temporary tattoo<\/strong> on them so that they could gain admission the following days. Sheesh!<\/span><\/div>\n
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When I got into the show I made a beeline for Dave Johnson\u2019s table<\/strong>. I already had one sketch by The Potentate<\/strong> in my collection, [a cool Rocky Balboa<\/strong>] and was hopeful that I\u2019d get another to compliment it. Reverend Dave<\/strong> arrived about 15 minutes later<\/strong> and seemed surprised that he had people waiting. I spoke to Dave<\/strong> about my admiration for his work and he was genuinely humble. As he looked at my Stallone sketches<\/strong>, he commented about ones that he particularly liked. I think it\u2019s always cool to hear artists talking about their craft and other artists that they admire. We agreed on the price and Dave<\/strong> said that he\u2019d do me a nice Jack Carter<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

My next stop was Matt Wagner\u2019s table<\/strong>. Matt<\/strong>, like Dave Johnson<\/strong>, is one of my favorite comic creators<\/strong>. I\u2019ve followed Matt\u2019s work<\/strong> since his Comico<\/strong> days. Mage<\/strong> remains one of my all-time favorite graphic stories<\/strong>. I knew that Matt\u2019s sketches<\/strong> were out of my price range, but I still wanted to meet the legend. Matt <\/strong>was as down-to-earth as Dave Johnson<\/strong>. We talked for a bit while I was looking at his pre-done con sketches<\/strong>. They were all sweet. Of course there weren\u2019t any of Stallone<\/strong>. ; )<\/strong> During the course of our conversation though, Matt <\/strong>agreed to do a smaller Jack Carter sketch<\/strong> that would work with my budget.
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\nGetting a sketch from both Dave Johnson<\/strong> and Matt Wagner<\/strong> made my show. I wouldn\u2019t be looking for more sketches despite the fact that it was a slow day for the artists. Still, I did make my way around the show to visit with Miguel <\/strong>at his Rocky Balboa booth<\/strong>, Andrew Robinson<\/strong>, Joe Pekar<\/strong>, Andy Smith<\/strong>, and the guys at Cadre\u2019s Corner<\/strong>. In fact while I was talking to Cadre<\/strong> another guy came up and had a couple of pictures taken with some of the crew. As the guy was telling them how much he enjoyed their work, I realized that it was William<\/strong> \u201cThe Greatest American Hero\u201d <\/em>Katt<\/strong>! He must have noticed me looking at him because he reached out to shake hands and say, \u201cHi.\u201d Surreal.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I decided to walk around the tv and movie celebrity section<\/strong>. It was cool seeing Michael<\/strong> \u201cTerminator\u201d \u201cAliens\u201d<\/em> Biehn<\/strong> and Lance<\/strong> \u201cAliens\u201d \u201cNear Dark\u201d<\/em> Henrikson<\/strong>. They had huge lines of fans waiting to get their autographs. I\u2019ve always liked Michael Biehn<\/strong> and look forward to his role in Tarantino and Rodriguez\u2019s<\/strong> \u201cGrindhouse\u201d<\/em> this summer. A couple of the stars of the hit series \u201cHeroes\u201d<\/em> were there, but since I don\u2019t follow the show, I can\u2019t tell you about them. I also Peter<\/strong> \u201cMission Impossible\u201d<\/em> Graves<\/strong>, King Kong Bundy<\/strong> [not as big as I thought he\u2019d be], Ron<\/strong> \u201cSerenity\u201d<\/em> Glass<\/strong> and a few others.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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John Higashi<\/strong> showed up and we hung out for a bit. It\u2019s really hard to keep pace with Higashi <\/strong>when he is in full-con mode<\/strong>. He was like a shark in fish-infested waters<\/strong> as he made his way from artist to artist<\/strong>, setting up commissions<\/strong>, buying sketchbooks<\/strong> and laying the groundwork for later art deals<\/strong>. <\/span><\/div>\n

Dave Johnson<\/strong> finished my<\/strong> Jack Carter piece<\/strong><\/span>. It was a knockout\u2026 absolutely perfect. Then to top it off, The Potentate<\/strong> presented me with an autographed copy<\/strong> of his latest sketchbook<\/strong> as a bonus! [Later that evening, as I was looking at my sketchbook, I was surprised to find that my Rocky sketch<\/strong> was in it! Too cool.] It was a great ending to a fun day.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FX 2007 billed itself as \u201cthe coolest show on Earth.\u201d After looking at their guest list which included comic superstars:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-comics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1393"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25511,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions\/25511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}