COMIC CON AND FLAT STANLEY: "PUMPED" FULL OF AWESOME... AND AIR!!

NEXT WEEK!!! COMIC CON 2016 IS NEXT WEEK!!!  SO LITTLE TO DO AND SO MUCH TIME…  Wait a minute, thats not right.  There's TONS to do!  Alright, lets just get through today, shall we?  Here's some art...

Today's art came from the Daily Doodle theme of Flat Stanley, the tale of a boy who goes flat and is literally blown around from one situation into another.  In the end, Stanley's brother pumps him back to normal, which made for the perfect excuse to do a twisted variation of the finale!  I can't tell you how many cartoonist and illustrator pals tweeted me over how much they loved the rough art for this.  One pal even said he would've happily pumped up his sister if she had gone flat!  I can only imagine what family get togethers would've been like afterward!

Well, the art part's done, so now it's time for some blast-from-the-past fun courtesy of Comic Con!  This time, we jump back to 2013, the year everything came full circle… Or did it?  Hell, I don't remember!  That weekend is a whole blur now!  Thank God I got pictures to piece it all back together!  Enjoy...

The WB booth.  One of the biggest at the Con.  They used to have a huge water tower there, but those days are long gone.  Lord only knows what's gonna happen at the booth this year.  LOTS of fans are gonna be vocal over DC's movies! 

ME WANNA GUNDAM!!!  ME WANT ONE NOW!!! 

The final year of the Shifty Look retro lounge.  They went under two months later.  I'll always have memories at least. 

The Xbox Lounge was moved to the Hyatt after spending its first year at the Hard Rock.  The Hyatt certainly offers more space, but thanks to some rowdy folks the previous year, it's no longer free for all and also no longer gives out snacks!  Still, this lounge was a lot of fun and gave out some great swag. 

The Regular Show Experience at the New Children's Museum was awesome!  It was a long wait, but totally worth it!  Got an exclusive poster, played some classic 80's games and won a pair of fuzzy dice! This really was the best thing at the Con that year!

Pretty sure this counts as a trained service animal. 

HELLOOOOOOOOOOO NURSE!!! 

Alex Ross-style Joker!  He looks so classy! 

The Ender's Game Experience in the Gaslamp.  In the past, it'd been the Frankenweenie Experience.  These days, it's the Assassin's Creed Obstacle Course.  And yes, I've wasted hours watching folks get their asses handed to them on it!  I never did see Ender's Game, but the experience was pretty cool.  Got a pretty funny ID Badge (Top of the post) out of it!

This was something at the Hasbro booth.  Can't recall what toy it was for, but it looked pretty cool!  Also looks like it wants to munch on some ponies! 

Always something awesome to see and do at the Petco Park Interactive Zone!  And best of all, its completely FREE!!!

 Boltman was on the hunt!

Pretty sure the Ocarina of Time isn't meant for panhandling, Link! 

COWABUNGA DUDES!!! 

Wild West Ghostbusters!  Love this variant!

And so wraps up our look back at Comic Con 2013!  A great year and the last Con to date where I actually got to walk around see what I wanted to.  These days I got my nephew and niece with me.  It's all good though.  They're starting to get into the stuff I'm into, so now we can enjoy it together, instead of being bored with each other's interests!

And so we finish another week!  We'll be back next time with some more fun art, a look back at Comic Con 2014 and some info on this year's Web Comic Meet-Up!  We'll also be posting on Monday next week so that everyone will have more time to soak it all in.  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

KID LIT AND COMIC CON… CLASSIC FUN ABOUNDS!!!

WOOOOOOOOO!!!  JULY IS HERE!!!  SO IS COMIC CON!!!  Okay, okay, I gotta calm down.  But how can I?  It's Comic Con month!  My favorite month of the year!  Every week this month, we'll be looking back at past Comic Cons as we count down to the grand daddy of them all!  But first, there is some art to show off before the awesome commences!  So let's get to it...

Sure to be lost in the con excitement of July is the art I'm doing this month, based off characters from classic kids books.  These are all from the Daily Doodle and first up is the often-mentioned-but-never-seen Snozzwanger from the classic Roald Dahl book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Longtime readers know I'm a big fan of all things Dahl, so I jumped at the chance to draw one of these beasts!  Quite proud of the colors on this one.  Hard to believe Oompah-Loompahs are easy pray to these guys.  They don't appear to be all that bright or fast!

You waited patiently, and now the payoff!  Last week, we ventured to Comic Con 2011, so this week, we hop into the time machine and fast forward to 2012!  Lotta great moments that year, so lets catch up!  Enjoy...

WONDER WOMAN!!!  Batman v Superman certainly split fans down the middle, but I think we can all agree that Gal Gadot was a pretty good Wonder Woman at least.

By Merlin's beard!  It's Merlin!  Disney Merlin no less!  Maybe this year we'll FINALLY get some Mad Madame Mim cosplay?

I don't think this Power Ranger needs a Zord.  He seems capable as is! 

Ninja Gecko!  Sorry bud, I already got insurance! 

Glamtrooper!  May the force be fabulous!

 The infamous "Dawn Of The Con" party held at Petco Park.  It's been mentioned several times over the years what a letdown this event was.  Security was overzealous, they were charging nearly $20 for bottles of water and host Rob Zombie showed up for roughly 20 minutes, said nothing and left.  If nothing else, I at least got a cool shirt and a sweet photo op with the Munsters' car (as seen in the pic at the top of the page) out of it.  They had a nifty retro arcade set up too.  See?  There's always a silver lining somewhere.

SEEEEEEGAAAA… Aw how I loved hearing that every time I fired up this game on my Genesis!  Sega had a free gaming lounge set up at the winery across the street from the Convention Center.  They had many arcade classics set up! 

Don't always have time to wait for a table at a restaurant during Con.  Luckily, these kind folks promoting a TV show gave me a nice snack to tie me over for a bit!  (On a side note, that foot actually got moldy over the course of several days!  I had to throw it out eventually!) 

Events at the Hilton Park outside the hotel are always fun!  This year saw every Batmobile up to that point on display and free movies and concerts by the show, Extra, took place too!  It should be noted the Batmobile from Batman and Robin was plastered in spit by the week's end!

Many celebrities were in attendance that year.  Even Toadie made it out of the Mushroom Kingdom for a day of fun!

 TICK PHOTO BOMB!!!

The Nintendo Lounge is always a blast.  Free and relaxed, I know people who had badges that spent the entire weekend there playing games! 

 Not to be outdone, Microsoft opened their pocket books and put up a free Xbox Lounge at the Hard Rock Hotel!  It was the first year they offered one and man was it great!  Unfortunately, some creeps showed up hoping to grab some free food and drink and wound up causing a lot of trouble.  Now, you need a badge to get in.  Only takes a few to ruin it for everybody.

Darkwing Duck at the Shifty Look Lounge!  Shifty Look was an awesome site that promoted comics based on classic Namco games and characters.  Sadly, they only lasted about a year and walked off into the sunset.  For one glorious year though, they rocked!  And the arcade they set up at SDCC 2012 was my favorite freebie that year!

My feelings exactly when it comes to the religious zealots who like to harass con goers every year.  Right on sister!  Right on!

And there you have it!  Comic Con 2012 was an awesome year and a big improvement over the previous year when personal problems were making it impossible for me to enjoy the show.  It was also awesome for me because I got to set up some pretty cool booths like Warner Bros., The Walking Dead, CBS and Ubi Soft among others!  All in all, a great show!

Well folks, that all for this week.  We'll be back next time with some "Well-Rounded" art that hopefully won't leave you feeling "Flat" and even more photographic fun from Comic Con 2013!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

DINOSAURS AND COMIC CON!!! AWESOME OVERLOAD!!!

June is done!  Well, Next week it is, but this is the last Wednesday of the month, which means one more Dinosaur and the kickoff of our Comic Con Countdown!  Since I'm too giddy to really type right now, lets dive on in, shall we?  Enjoy…

 And there's the payoff!  My signature finally ran away, although not very quickly apparently!  Pretty sure Pterodactyls were fast flyers!  Kinda sad this only lasted a week.  I had so much fun drawing all these dinosaurs!  Oh well, there's always next time!

And now, it's time for the annual CRAZY COMIC CON KICKOFF!!!  For the next few weeks, we'll be reliving some of the fun from past Comic Con's, featuring never before seen pics!  How do I know they've never been seen?  Because I spent HOURS combing through my archives making sure I hadn't posted these already!  So lets set the Wayback Machine to the year 2011, and jump into the action!  Enjoy...

The rarest of rare sights:  The San Diego Convention Center prior to loading in the booths.  This is Hall E looking towards Halls F and G.  The vaunted Hall H lies beyond that wall! 

 Downtown's always such a blast during con.  With so many freebies and cheap events happening, you really can make a week out of that without a SDCC badge.  You also get to see plenty of promos for doomed movies too!

My nephew, Dante, as Jack Skellington.  Hard to believe he's almost as big as me now!  He was only 8 when we went that summer.  And every girl there wanted a pic with him! 

This one's for Chandra!  Every year, the parking lot across from Petco Park has a free mini con set up that's just as good as the real deal across the bridge!  In 2011, Sharknado sponsored a mechanical bull/shark for people to ride on.  I took this pic just as this girl got thrown off! 

CAPTAIN MARVEL!!! I mean, SHAZAM!!! 

Apparently Dora was exploring a way to sneak into Hall H! 

You meet a lot of interesting people in Downtown San Diego during Comic Con! 

I don't think acupuncture really works for me. 

YO JOE!!! 

 Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?  Apparently she was in San Diego the whole time.  Nobody ever checks here first! 

I get the feeling we'll be seeing lots of Jareths at lots of comic cons this year. 

See you in your dreams! 

 Hipnotoad sees all!

Wolverfett!  Or is it Bobarine?

Quick Robin!  To the Bat-Mrs. Fields Stand!

And that wraps up our first week of the Comic Con Kickoff!  I remember 2011 well for sad reasons I'm afraid.  I'd hoped it would be a brief escape from a very turbulent time in my life, but sadly, medical conditions I'd had at the time just made everything miserable for me.  Thankfully, I was able to get proper treatment not long after.  All I'll say is, if you start having dizzy spells for no reason, see a doctor!

And that's all she wrote for June 2016!  We'll be back next time with more art and a look back at Comic Con 2012!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

GRABBING LIFE BY THE HORNS!!!

You may find this post to be… Horny!  Wait, that's terrible!  Scratch that!  Anyway, we got a real heavy hitter trying to hook in my signature today, so lets get to it!  Enjoy…

Well what d'ya know?  One of them dinos finally got me!  Well, sort of.  From look of it, I don't think this one was actually trying!  The Triceratops, one of quite a few horned dinosaurs with crested heads, was a pretty tough customer.  Like bulls, they grazed and charged.  And now this one's walking off with my good name!  GET BACK HERE!!!  I NEED THAT SIGNATURE!!!

And that does it for today.  HUGE update next week as we kick off our countdown to Comic Con!  And have one last round of fun with some dinosaurs, so be sure to come back!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

THOSE ROMPIN', STOMPIN' DINOSAURS!!!

If you grew up in the 80's, the title of today's post should bring back some fuzzy memories.  If not, Google it!  Back again for the middle chapter!  In movies, this is where the twist usually happens.  Here, it's just an excuse for more implied danger against my signature!  Enjoy…

The Brontosaurus.  Among the biggest dinosaurs ever, I'm sure these plant eating dinosaurs caused lots of damage simply because, well, they were gigantic!  How could they not accidentally knock things over with those giant tails?  My signature's certainly in danger!  I'd say it would get stomped flat, but it's already pretty two-dimensional!

And so ends another week!  We are halfway past June!  What dinosaur will be the next to take aim at my good name?  Find out next week!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

THE HUNGRY HUNGRY DINOSAUR!!!

And we're back!  Got some more dino fun in store today as yet another Jurassic behemoth aims to make a snack out of my signature!  Who will win?  Lets find out!  Enjoy…

Uh oh!  I told my signature the grass was a bad spot to hide in!  Stegosauruses were herbivores!  Get away signature!  While you still can!

Well, another week, another dinosaur.  We'll be back next time for even bigger laughs with an even bigger dinosaur!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

WHEN DINOSAURS ROAMED THE CRAZYVERSE!!!

Welcome to June my CRAZIES!!!  Summer is officially here!  The Del Mar Fair, Comic Con, The MLB All Star Game here in San Diego…  MY HEAD'S GONNA EXPLODE WITH EXCITEMENT!!!  Whoa Jon!  Just calm down and introduce the art.  Art is good and calming…  Ah, that's better.  Anyway, enjoy…

This is a very special month here at the CRAZYVERSE.  A while ago, the Daily Doodle did a dinosaur week, and being the dino nut that I am, I had to make time for it!  Little did I know what this one drawing would start.  Through sheer coincidence, I signed my name directly in the T-Rex's line of sight, a fact my good pal Tim Budgen was quick to point out, saying that my signature was gonna get eaten!  Well, the gears started turning and before I knew it, I had all sorts of gags planned out for the dinosaurs that came next!  Needless to say, I had a blast with these ones!

And that's all for today.  We'll be back next time with some more prehistoric fun!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!