THE CRAZY COMIC CON COUNTDOWN 2025 IS HERE!!!

JUNE!!!  Sweet, glorious and insanely busy JUNE!!!  We have made it to summer CRAZIES!!!  And you know what that means: BBQ's!  The beach!  Theme parks!  The San Diego County Fair!  And, of course, COMIC CON!!!  It's been a long time coming, but we are finally a mere weeks away from the biggest pop culture event of the summer!  But first, there's another con-related tradition that must be tended to...

For close to (WOW!!!) a decade now, I have contributed art to the Team Cul De Sac Art Auction held every year at HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC.  All proceeds go towards research in finding a cure for Parkinson's Disease, a terrible illness that has claimed many lives, including that of cartoonist Richard Thompson, the creator of Cul De Sac.  Below are the pieces I have sent in for the auction...

HERMIT CRAB HUNT: Alice and Mr. Danders have gone out hunting for usurping hermit crabs on the remains of the Bliss Haven Preschool.  Pen and ink mixed media piece illustrated on 9 x 12in. vellum paper and colored in Olo Markers and PrismaColor Colored Pencils. 

MIKE & MINDY: FRIENDSHIP IS CHAOS!!!: Mike and Mindy are back and taking their cartoony mayhem to unheard of levels!  Second grade just can't contain these loony tykes!  Pen and ink mixed media piece illustrated on 9 x 12in. vellum paper and colored in Olo Markers and PrismaColor Colored Pencils.

If you're going to be in the Charlotte area on the night of June 20, please consider attending the auction.  In addition to being a rare chance to own some CRAZY original art, it's also for a very noble cause.  Parkinson's isn't picky.  Anybody can get it and now, more than ever, researchers need funding to find a cure to this horrible disease.  So please make the rounds and drop some bids.  Trust me, there's gonna be some incredible artwork up for grabs.  Think of it as a duel prize: You get some cool art on your wall while Parkinson's Disease gets a swift kick in the ass!  It's a win/win scenario!

Okay, now is the moment you've all been waiting for!  It's been a long ten months, but we are FINALLY back!  I know you're all eager to get to it, and believe me, so am I!  We're setting the Wayback Machine all the way back to July of 2014!  Cap up those Code Red Mountain Dews and hang on to your Batman Underoos!  The CRAZY COMIC CON COUNTDOWN 2025 IS ON!!! 

A very rare behind the scenes shot of Hall G looking towards Hall F and the wall that separates it from Hall E.  Takes a LOT of effort from many teams to pull this show off in a matter of days!

A truly awesome moment for me as I got into Hall H and saw the Warner Bros Panel.  Definitely one of my favorite SDCC moments!

The Riddler and Hair Guy pose for an action shot in the aisles!

The old Fox booth!  It's become my new summer home really come load-in week, but man am I glad they don't do the TV tower anymore.  That thing was such a pain in the ass to build!

Much has been said about the DCEU, and continues to be said actually.  Frankly, it was always gonna be an uphill battle for that franchise, but I gotta say, seeing all the neckbeards lose their minds when they showed the first footage from Dawn Of Justice at the WB panel is a memory I'll always cherish!  These same guys mockingly calling out "Batfleck" online suddenly couldn't be any nicer.  It clearly didn't last, but it was a nice moment at least!

Game... Blouses...

Wonder Woman and Elvira...  The team-up we didn't know we needed!

The 2014 Godzilla movie should've been titled Godzilla: Blue Balls.  It was nothing more than a tease!

Aw, the Xbox Lounge.  If any one offsite ever deserved to come back...

Adult Swim used to have a large presence in the exhibit hall, but 2014 would be the last hurrah before setting up a much grander stage in the lawn behind the Convention Center.

The hidden Pixels Arcade!  The movie totally blew, but at least the offsite was cool!

Did this even get released?

From 2012-2014, WB hosted the offsite on the Hilton Lawn.  These days, FX holds the lease, but Warner's did some cool things too in their time.

The Nintendo Lounge!  Back when it was still fun!

He's not finished...

The legendary Meatwad Dome!  Back before Adult Swim got their own carnival, they'd just shack up over at the Petco Park Interactive Zone!  The less refined era of the Zone was a pretty fun one!

Nickelodeon Legend!

Don't even remember what this was from, but NBC hyped it up big!

And finally, what better way to bring an end to my SDCC 2014 posts than with some Blankman cosplay?

And that was SDCC 2014!  It doesn't feel like it was 11 years ago, but it really was!  So much of it is a blur now, but I do remember it being a fun week and collecting TONS of swag!  Actually, that every year!  It was my SDCC in my 30's though, so that counts for something!

And that's all she wrote for opening week, but fear not!  We got LOTS to go with the CRAZY COMIC CON COUNTDOWN in the coming months, so be sure to come back next week and check it out!  In the meantime, take care, stay safe and I'll catch y'all later!

COMIC CON 2014!!! 30 AND CRAZY!!!

 

We are back CRAZIES!!!  With any luck, I'll hopefully be enjoying the opening day of the San Diego County Fair today, but if not, I won't complain about making some money at work.  Comic Con ain't cheap after all!

Speaking of money, you may have heard last week that I got a couple of pieces up in the Team Cul De Sac Art Auction.  Well, it's true and it's this weekend over at HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina!  The pieces below will be up for bidding and it's your chance to add a little CRAZY to your wall decor!  And best of all, it's for a good cause!  The pieces are:

Fidgety Digits: Cul De Sac meets Peanuts as Alice, Petey and Pals pay musical tribute to Snoopy and friends all set to the fun of an oboe recital!  Pen and ink on Bristol Smooth, colored with Copic and PrismaColor Markers.

Bubble Fox Level Up!: Bubble Fox has hit his maximum power and is ready for any and all challengers as he pays tribute to Akira Toriyama and the world of Dragonball!  Pen and ink on Bristol Vellum, colored in colored pencils, oil pastels and PrismaColor Markers.

Parkinson's disease is a horrible thing folks.  It's robbed us of many, including Cul De Sac creator Richard Thompson.  If you're heading to HeroesCon next weekend, please consider stopping in at the Art Auction and dropping some bids.  In addition to my art, MANY others will have pieces up for bidding, including legendary MAD Artist, Sergio Aragones!  It's a good cause folks, so lets try and help put a boot to the ass of Parkinson's once and for all!  For more info, click here and here.

And now, it's time for something old and new.  Old in that it happened a decade ago, but new in that these are completely unseen pics from the CRAZY archives!  That's right kids!  We're dialing the Wayback Machine back to 2014 and set the location at the San Diego Convention Center!  It's a hot weekend in July and the place is jumping!  Hold on to your Code Red Mountain Dews, because the CRAZY COMIC CON COUNTDOWN continues!  Enjoy...

Fry, Amy and Leela take in the sights of Has-Been Alley, er, the Sails Pavilion!  I miss the days when the Freebies Table gave away actual cool swag! 

Where are the Wild Things at?  Dollar Bin diving of course!

Always something cool going on at the Petco Park Interactive Zone!  If memory serves, Marriott Hotels was sponsoring cosplay/monster makeup demos all weekend! 

The couple that cosplays together STAYS together!

The infamous Homer Dome.  We spent hours waiting to do this immersive experience of being stuck inside the head of Homer Simpson.  And what was it exactly?  A whirlwind montage of Seasons 3-8 clips, aka GOOD Simpsons.  Not all offsite activations are worth it folks.  Always weight the risks and rewards. 

The Disney Infinity lounge exclusively for D23 members!  Being a D23 Member, I took my nephew, who was a huge fan of the game and he got some cool swag from it.  Then Disney shut Infinity down a few months later!  Never understood why as the game was quite popular.  Perhaps competition from the more popular Skylanders series, not to mention Nintendo and Lego getting in on the act too, made it a necessary sacrifice?  At least we have the memories.  And completely useless interactive figurines that no longer function!

Speaking of my nephew, here he is at the Xbox Lounge having fun at the Dragon Age photo op!

Bet you never realized how badly you needed Lego Smaug in your life?!?

The Sin City activation at the Petco Park Interactive Zone!  I'm gonna be honest folks.  I totally forgot there was a Sin City sequel!  The offsite was pretty cool though, especially old cars are your thing!

They're on a mission from God...

Definitely feel safer walking around Downtown San Diego with the Ghostbusters on patrol!

He's looking for Troy McClure!

Always a busy time in the exhibit hall!

We'll end things today with the Sleepy Hollow activation at the Petco Park Interactive Zone!  I only vaguely remember the show coming on and the offsite was kind of a letdown too.  And the Zone was stacked that year too!

And that was Comic Con 2014!  A wild week as I recall!  Me and my brother's kids did just about EVERYTHING that year!  It was also the year that offsite activations really started stepping things up in terms of stealing thunder from SDCC itself.  The organizers have always had a tense relationship with the offsites for that reason.  It's why they don't do concerts at the pops site behind the Convention Center anymore unless it's SDCC approved.  I don't like how many are run, but overall, I love the offsite activations.  They are a lot of fun and give folks who normally wouldn't get to enjoy Comic Con a chance to enjoy some of that fun too.  Looking forward to what this year has to offer!

Another week down in our march to the big weekend, but fear not!  We are still very early on here in the CRAZY COMIC CON COUNTDOWN, so be sure to come back and see what past treasures are unearthed next!  Until then, take care, stay safe and I'll catch y'all later!

COMIC CON 2014!!! A JOURNEY TO THE PAST THROUGH THE PRESENT!!!

 

We are back CRAZIES!!!  One week in and plenty of past Comic Con fun is still to be had!  But we'll get to that in just a moment.  Just had to drop this quick reminder about another cool con I got some stuff going on at...

HeroesCon in Charlotte is THIS weekend folks!  And with it comes the Team Cul De Sac Art Auction and Drink 'N' Draw put on by Chris Sparks!  I got TWO pieces in this year's auction which I hope will raise some serious coin to help fight Parkinson's Disease.  Below are the CRAZY art options available should you be attending and interested:

Behold!  Mighty Alice!  Ink, marker and oil pastels on vellum paper, 9x12in.

BUBBLE FOX!!!  FOOOOOSH!!! Ink, marker, colored pencils and oil pastels on vellum paper,  9x12in.

Parkinson's is no joke folks.  It just plain happens and can literally hit anyone.  We lost a great cartoonist because of it.  Great strides have been made and with more research, they can continue to happen until a cure is finally found!  So don't wait! Send in your art today, as TODAY is literally deadline for it, and be sure to head over to the Westin on Friday and bid on these pieces, among many others!  Seriously, these took a week to do!  With a little hard work, we can help give Parkinson's a final boot to the ass for good!  For more info, click the link near the top or the one here! 

And now, on with the show!  Week 2 of the CRAZY COMIC CON COUNTDOWN commences with a trip back to 2014, July to be precise.  Y'all know the drill by this point.  Crack open some Code Red Mountain Dews and Flaming Hot Cheetos, because here come the pics!  Enjoy...

RU-FI-OOOOOOOOOO!!!  How come nobody ever cosplays the other Lost Boys from Hook?  It's not like Rufio was the only one visually distinct from the others?

Last week we saw my nephew hamming it up for the camera, so it only seems fair that I post a pic of his sister, Kristen, hamming it up as well!  At least I think she is.  Hard to tell with the giant helmet!  This was at the Xbox Lounge by the way.

The problem with Bedrock traffic?  LOTS of car accidents!  Yabba dabba D'OGH!!!

Lotta cool cars in Downtown during SDCC! Some of the old buildings are really haunted too, so the timing here is perfect! 

The Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge.  A true godsend during SDCC and a great spot for photo ops!

The fabled Xbox Lounge!  The cartoony looking thing in the back was for some thing that aired on Hulu WAY back when!  People lined up to record stuff inside of it, me included, but I have no idea what happened to it.  They never emailed me the files!

The Weta Booth!  The Hobbit movies could've been better, I'll admit, but they definitely didn't drop the ball with Smaug!

Who'd have thought that just four years later, Hasbro would own the Power Rangers?  There's nothing legally stopping them from doing a Power Rangers/Pony crossover ya know?

Pacman is in the house!  Keep those cherries away from him though!

2014 was a record year for Quailman sightings.  Curious that Nickelodeon's never tried to capitalize on this.  They run all their other old properties into the ground.  Why not this one? 

Can't talk about Comic Con without a stop at the Petco Park Interactive Zone!  This year, the Sin City sequel had its own impressive activation!  Too bad the movie wasn't quite as up to par.  There are some things that just only work once.

Remember when you couldn't go to any con anywhere without being swarmed by zombie cosplayers that took the zombie bit a little TOO seriously?  Yeah, those were the days... 

The Joker's looking for the joker that splashed his makeup job!

And finally for this week, we wrap up with the Pixels arcade, a really crappy movie that had a really cool activation at least.  Although it was an offsite, it wasn't open to all, only badge holders.  Still, considering that it was built in a very tiny hallway between the lobby and Starbucks in the Hard Rock Hotel, they pulled off a pretty cool setup!

And that was COMIC CON 2014!  An interesting year in terms of stuff going on in my professional life, it was still a pretty fun show that also saw FX take over the offsite on the Hilton Lawn across the street from Hall H.  So much was going on at the time it really is just a huge blur at this point, though it was the last time I got into Hall H for a panel!  Saw the Warner Bros pale and man was it fun!  But that's a tale for another day...

Another week down in the CRAZY COMIC CON COUNTDOWN, but don't fret!  Even more fun is coming next week!  And if you're in Charlotte this weekend, don't forget to head to HeroesCon and bid on some original art for a good cause!  Until next time, take care, stay safe and I'll catch y'all later!