{"id":5537,"date":"2011-06-24T10:18:01","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T14:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=5537"},"modified":"2021-03-21T13:00:15","modified_gmt":"2021-03-21T17:00:15","slug":"heroes-con-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=5537","title":{"rendered":"Heroes Con Report – Thursday & Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Thursday<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Doralya<\/strong> [my wife] and I left Port Orange<\/strong> in the Jack Carter<\/strong><\/em> mobile headed for Charlotte<\/strong> at approximately 11:30am<\/strong> on the day before the show.\u00a0 I had a free night at the Westin<\/strong> and so we decided to make a long weekend of it.\u00a0 My IPOD<\/strong> was full of enough music to get us there and back and we even had a little cooler of Diet Cokes<\/strong>, water and snacks.\u00a0 Life was good.\u00a0 My Garmin<\/strong> didn’t let me down and the weather was perfect.\u00a0 Once we arrived in Charlotte<\/strong>, Doralya<\/strong> dropped me off at the convention center so I could pick up my con pass and then we got our room.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After a bit of unpacking and freshening up, we decided to walk down to Mert’s Heart and Soul<\/strong> for dinner.\u00a0 If you like\u00a0Soul food<\/strong>, then this is the place to go.\u00a0 Doralya<\/strong> had the fried catfish and I went with the traditional fried chicken.\u00a0 We both had cornbread [as good as cake], mac and cheese and I also had some greens.\u00a0 Doralya<\/strong> opted for lemonade and I had sweet tea.\u00a0 We were full of great food so I was thankful for a beautiful evening as we walked back to the Westin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Friday<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

That’s Dan Panosian<\/strong><\/span><\/a> and Jeff Johnson<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, two of the founding members of Drink and Draw<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 I had a Jack Carter<\/strong> sketch commission set up with Dan<\/strong>.\u00a0 So his table was my first stop.\u00a0 Dan<\/strong> said that he’d sketched out a piece on the plane, but wasn’t happy with it.\u00a0 The way he described it was pretty cool, Carter<\/strong> holding a hand gun up and facing the viewer at an angle.\u00a0 Dan<\/strong> said he might just go ahead and give me the rough if he went with another idea.\u00a0 I was definitely cool with that.\u00a0 ; )<\/p>\n

I asked Jeff<\/strong> to sketch in my Drink and Draw, Volume II<\/strong><\/span><\/a> sketchbook. Jeff <\/strong>put an awesome Viking<\/strong> warrior on the inside front cover to go with Dan’s<\/strong> equally cool Red Sonja<\/strong> and Dave Johnson’s<\/strong> creepy guy.\u00a0 I asked Jeff <\/strong>if he’d be interested in doing a Stallone<\/strong> sketch.\u00a0 Jeff<\/strong> agreed and did a very cool and on-point sketch of Sly<\/strong> as Cobra<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

After setting up the sketch with Jeff<\/strong>, I decided to walk the con floor and see where everybody was.\u00a0 I’d also set up some sketches before the show with artists so picking them up was also on the list of things to do.\u00a0 Mike Torrance<\/strong><\/span><\/a> was at the show, but not set up at a table.\u00a0 He had some sketch cards for me: Rocky Balboa, Jack Carter, Barney Ross<\/strong> from The Expendables<\/strong><\/em> and Sly <\/strong>as John Spartan<\/strong> aka Demolition Man<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 I also had Mike<\/strong> do a Rawhide Kid<\/strong> card for my buddy, LittleJohn312<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 I had set up a Rocky<\/strong> sketch with Chris Brunner<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, who went above and beyond by giving me a piece with Rocky and Adrian<\/strong>! Chris<\/strong> is one of the good guys and his comic series with Jason LaTour<\/span><\/a><\/strong> and Rico Renzi<\/strong>, Loose Ends<\/strong><\/span><\/a> is gonna kill.<\/p>\n

I also had set up two pieces with Robbi Rodriguez<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 The first piece I asked for was an iconic shot of Sly<\/strong> as Jack Carter<\/strong>.\u00a0 Robbi <\/strong>knew exactly what I was talking about and created a piece that just floored me.\u00a0 I liked it so much that I asked Robbi<\/strong> if he was up for another Stallone<\/strong>.\u00a0 He said he was and I told him to do what he wanted.\u00a0 Robbi<\/strong> decided to do Sly <\/strong>as Machine Gun Joe Viterbo<\/strong> from Death Race 2000<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Robbi<\/strong> drew Machine Gun Joe <\/strong>standing on his car with a smoking machine gun and threw in the female co-pilot to boot.\u00a0 Robbi<\/strong> is the man!\u00a0 LittleJohn<\/strong> saw the sketches that Robbi <\/strong>was doing and jumped on board for a Snake Plissken<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

LittleJohn312<\/strong>, his wife Patricia<\/strong> and my wife met for lunch in the convention center.\u00a0 The company was better than the food, and the food was a step up from most meals available at conventions.\u00a0 After lunch, LittleJohn312<\/strong>, Patricia<\/strong> and I made our way to the Comic Twart<\/span><\/a><\/strong> panel and Doralya<\/strong> decided to go out and enjoy Charlotte<\/strong>.\u00a0 Chris Sims<\/strong> moderated the Twart <\/strong>panel which consisted of Ron Salas<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, Dan Panosian<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, Dave Johnson<\/strong>, Declan Shalvey<\/strong><\/span><\/a> and Tom Fowler<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 The panel was a lot of fun as the artists all worked on Black Widow<\/strong> sketches as they took questions and shared anecdotes with the audience.\u00a0\u00a0 The sketches were all later put in the Heroes Con<\/strong> auction.\u00a0 It’s cool that the Twartists<\/strong> took their show on the road.\u00a0 If you ever get a chance to see one, don’t miss it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After the panel I made the rounds of the convention floor to see old pals, meet new artists and set up some sketches.\u00a0 Although Dave Wachter’s<\/strong><\/span><\/a> sketch list [photo above taken after he’d done my sketch] filled up quickly on Friday<\/strong> [and again on Saturday<\/strong>], he felt he could get me in on Saturday<\/strong>.\u00a0 He did and I got one of his best Stallone<\/strong> sketches yet.\u00a0 I spent the next couple of hours walking and chatting with Michael Golden<\/span><\/a>, Andy Smith<\/span><\/a>, Gene Gonzales<\/span><\/a><\/strong> [hiding behind his lil’ Punisher<\/strong> sketch below], Joe Pekar<\/span><\/a>, Pat Broderick<\/span><\/a>, Chris DiBari<\/span><\/a>, Dustin Harbin<\/span><\/a>, Casey Jones<\/span><\/a>, Bob McLeod<\/span><\/a>, Chris Moreno<\/span>, Eric Skillman<\/span><\/a> <\/strong>and others.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At 4pm<\/strong>, LittleJohn312<\/strong>, Patricia<\/strong> and I headed over to the Kickstarter<\/strong><\/span> panel.\u00a0 Dustin Harbin<\/strong>, Jay Potts<\/strong> and Jeremy Bastian<\/strong> answered audience questions and explained why their Kickstarter<\/strong> projects were successful.\u00a0 At 6pm I made sure I was at the Drink & Draw Social Club Panel<\/strong>.\u00a0 Dan Panosian<\/strong>, Dave Johnson<\/strong> and Jeff Johnson<\/strong> entertained the crowd and gave us a preview of what to expect at the Drink & Draw<\/strong> scheduled for that evening at Fuel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That evening Doralya<\/strong> and I met up with LittleJohn312<\/strong> and Patricia <\/strong>who’d saved us a table outside at Fuel<\/strong>.\u00a0 The place filled up inside and out with folks there to eat and participate in the Drink & Draw Social<\/strong>.\u00a0 Specially created Drink & Draw<\/strong> coaster and paper had been created for the event.\u00a0 Artists would draw whatever struck their fancy and then place it on a centrally located table where folks could buy the art for a donation.\u00a0 Chris Flick of Capes and Babes<\/strong><\/span><\/a> and Thomas Zahler of Love and Capes<\/strong><\/span><\/a> joined us at our table.\u00a0 I’d never met these guys before [they’re friends of LittleJohn<\/strong>] but they were a blast.\u00a0 Chris<\/strong> had my wife cracking up with his humor and enthusiasm for art.\u00a0 Thomas<\/strong> entertained us with a professional level William Shatner <\/strong>imitation.\u00a0 Not only could Thomas<\/strong> improv as Captain Kirk<\/strong>, he had enough material that he could literally take his act on the road.\u00a0 Before the evening was over, Chris<\/strong> and Thomas<\/strong> drew Stallone<\/strong> sketches after LittleJohn<\/strong> tipped them to my collection.\u00a0 Naturally I purchased both with donations to the cause.\u00a0 LittleJohn <\/strong>ended up with several pieces from the session.\u00a0 It was growing late, so we called it a night, with the knowledge that Saturday would be a busy day at the show…<\/p>\n

Tune in tomorrow for more from Heroes Con 2011<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

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Thursday Doralya [my wife] and I left Port Orange in the Jack Carter mobile headed for Charlotte at approximately 11:30am<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[58,17,56,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-celebs","category-comics","category-crime"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5537","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=5537"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26584,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5537\/revisions\/26584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}