Waiting for Capullo...

Waiting for Capullo…

This past weekend I attended Fan Expo Canada in Toronto. Fan Expo is a comic con, or more precisely it started out years ago as a comic convention. Now it is the third largest gathering of popular fan culture in North America: Comics, Horror, Manga, Movies, Television, and Video Games. I was there to be apart of the comic community that had gathered; to get books signed, look at some original art, and add to my daughters’ sketchbooks.

Getting books and posters signed is what usually encompasses most of my time at comic conventions, but what I really enjoy is the chance for discourse with the writer or artist of some of my favourite IPs. My targets for signatures at this particular show were: Tim Sale, Klaus Janson, Andy Kubert, Brian Azzarello, Kevin Smith, Joe Quesada, Frank Miller and Greg Capullo and this is were my difficulties started.

                  Over the years the plan I have developed for getting signatures at comic conventions is I load up as many hardcovers I can in my backpack and my rolling suitcase the first day in order to free myself up for the later days of the convention when my energy will be lower. The Thursday of Fan Expo was no different.

                  I quickly checked my Guidebook app for the show which would tell me who was there what day and if they had a table or not. The App told me that Kevin Smith was out because he was just doing photo ops and had no table to do signings and Capullo, Miller, Quesada, would not be there until Friday or Saturday. So I loaded my bag up with Solo and Captain America White for Tim Sale, Daredevil Omnibus, Absolute Dark Knight and Daredevil: End of days for Klaus Janson, Origin for Andy Kubert, and Before Watchman for Brian Azzarello. 

                  It was a fairly heavy haul and the bus and subway ride before going in just added to the weight of the books by the time the doors opened at 2pm on the Thursday. I calmly made my way to artist alley where the comic pros were located.   

                  I quickly became disappointed, as none of the pros I had brought books for were present. Ok this would take some investigation. Often times at conventions professionals are not at their tables, but the more respectful ones will find a way to communicate with the con goers somehow, so that people are not wasting their time waiting for them for hours.

To this end, Tim Sale had posted a sign saying he would be at his table Friday to Sunday and would be signing the first and last hour of the show each day. He also stated that the first three raw signatures were free, but anything after that would be $5. To me this was great, Sale communicated clearly when to get his signature and I prefer when the professionals put limits on the signatures as I usually never bring much more then a few things for each person and I’ve been stuck behind people at cons who think the artist is there to sign 100 issues of some comic just for them.                 

With Sale crossed off the list for today I moved my attention to the Dark Knight III team of Kubert, Azzarello and Janson. The only signs that I saw for them told me their rates. I was discouraged to read that they were all being handled by some sort of art management group and each of them were asking $15 a signature. I decided then that since I already had Kubert and Azzarello signatures on books that I felt were better works that I would keep my $30 and not try to get signatures from them, but I’d never got the opportunity to get Janson’s signature before and he’s been a large part of some of my favourite books. As much as I hate paying for signatures I decided I would in Janson’s case. I asked one of the art management guys standing behind Janson’s table if he knew whether he would be here or not today. He told me that Janson would be there in about an hour. An hour at a comic con, no problem.

In recent years I’ve bought my daughters each a sketchbook for them to take around at each convention they go. They have really taken to it more then I would have ever hoped and they each said it would be ok for me to get them each one at Fan Expo even though they weren’t there. To this end I had researched potential artists that might do a sketch that the girls would like and also that wouldn’t cost me an insane amount of money.

One such artist was Genevieve Ft and after talking to her for a bit I commissioned her for a sketch of Poison Ivy, which my daughter Mea had asked for. Ft did a great sketch and even added some colour to the sketch with no extra charge, she helped renew my faith in comic pros after being down because so many of them were charging for signatures.                 

After getting that beautiful sketch from Ft, I got the signatures that I wanted from Janson and decided to explore the rest of the convention before calling it a day.

My Fan Expo adventure Waiting for Capullo…will continue.