Back from Comicon

Back and decompressing from Comicon. Had a terrific time.

FINALLY, got my hands on a copy of the Lost Squad trade. That was definitely one highlight of the con. The downside is that the book won't even arrive on these shores in the U.S. until Aug. 30th. ugh.

The Devil's Due crew were, as always, a blast to hang around. Thanks to Susan, Josh, Cassie and Liz for the hospitality. Thanks to Sam Wells for shlepping copies of the trade to San Diego.

Got to hang with Andrew Dabb - writer on DRAGONLANCE, Mark Powers - writer/creator of DRAFTED and the talented Tim Seeley, who is always cool to hang with. Josh Blaylock had some nice things to say about the new project I'm working on and he dropped a few scoops on what DDP has up their sleeves in Hollywood as well.

Dropped by the AiT/PlanetLar booth and saw Larry Young and took a look at pictures of his newest creative triumph - his son Walker. Met former Champaign native and author of the amazing book THE HOMELESS CHANNEL Matt Silady. Terrific guy and very talented.

Dan Taylor from IDW is always up for a beer and talking comics. Danny is a good man. Good luck with everything, bro. You're doing what I can only dream about.

Had a good visit with Courtney Huddleston from Penny Farthing Press.

Talked a bit with Mel Smith and his crew from Wildcard comics about working on...something. Wilcard publish the new GUMBY comic which is a great read. I'd love to find something to work with them on.

Met up with the talented Chad Hardin about something we're working on that we might actually get paid to create. Got some mixed signals here and there, but I got my fingers crossed. Chad and I have something else up our sleeves if this gig falls through, something creator owned that we hope to shop around once we hear the verdict on this other deal.

Had a good time eating and drinking around SD and met a ton of cool people. Colorist Mark Sweeney, THE ENGINE governess Rachel Young, the talented Phil Hester, All The Rage's Stephen Saunders, artist Steven Perkins, and a bunch of Digital Webbing message boarder's: Ray and Ranae, Joanne, Rich Nelson, Jeff Stevenson and Michael Colbert.

Hung a while with Kody Chamberlain, Rob Guillory, and their significant others. Always a good time.

Artist Ryan Scott and I were able to peel ourselves from the convention floor and actually get some work done on our new project. I was able to slip it in the hands of a few people and I'm VERY pleased with the reaction. More on that when I have something concrete to talk about.

Bunked up with Sean Dulaney, Barry Buchanan, and the all-networking Tony Lee. Good mates one and all. Sean made the Top 50 in the Platinum Studios contest and got us into the rooftop party they tossed for the winners. The one bummer of the entire con was the Sean just missed the top 10.

Talked briefly with Daniel Alter producer on the Lost Squad and met his pal, producer Howard Sun. These are the guys that always seem to have some kind of ace up their sleeves.


Tried to talk with Ryan Ottley, but every time I dropped by the Image booth, the guys was swamped with fans looking for sketches. I got to talk with him a bit. He's right at the top of the list of guys I want to work with.

Felt bad about not being able to toss in with the Epic Proportions guys for a booth next year. I've got some things going on right now that won't allow me to commit to the con next year. Hope I didn't piss them off. It was going seeing Ken Knudtsen and Jerry Ma along with their pal Fisk. Ken, I promise I WILL finish part two of MINDGAMES!

Congrats to Shawn Granger another DW regular who did make the Final 10 in the Platinum Studios contest. Shoot on over to their website and vote for Shawn. We palled around a bit with him and one of his sometimes partners-in-crime, the too-damn-funny Jason May. Jason and I share the same kind of twisted sense of humor.

The highlight of the con for me came when I went back to the Devil's Due booth on Saturday to meet one of my screenwriting idols Stephen E. De Souza writer of such movies as DIE HARD 1 & 2 and 48 HOURS. IMHO, DIE HARD is a perfectly constructed script. Currently, he's writing the Sheena book for DDP and was signing copies on Saturday. I found him at the signing table reading the LOST SQUAD trade during a lull in the crowd. How cool is that? He was kind enough to spend the next 30 minutes or so letting me pick his brain on writing for the movies.

I'm probably forgetting a lot of people. Sorry, the booze took it's toll. I had a couple of really great meetings that I'm hoping will pan out into something larger and the reaction to the new project was above expectations.

Here's to hoping that I can make it out to San Diego next year.

Sandy Eggo plans - UPDATED!

Headed to the left coast for Comicon. I'll be there Wednesday through Saturday and jetting out on Sunday.

No table this year so I'll be roaming here and there doing the grip-and-grin networking thing. Hoping to have a few meetings as well.

This is the first year in a while that I won't be setting up somewhere to peddle comics, but I will be signing at the Devil's Due booth # 2415 located across from the Diamond Comics booth.

UPDATE: Susan at DDP is being cruel to me as she's stuck me on the morning shift! I'll be signing on Thursday and Friday from 10AM - Noon and on Saturday from 9:00AM until Noon. Please bring breakfast nosh and hangover remedies.

Got a coupla things in the hopper to show around. Hoping to find a home for one of the projects.

Looking forward to the good food and good folks. It's always great catching up with people every year.

Fan email! This is pretty cool.

I received a terrific email on the Fourth from reader Chris Jachimowicz. He gave the Lost Squad some nice props but also sent along photos of a project he's been working on inspired by the Lost Squad's Spider Tanks.

Here's part of the email:

"The photographic results of my first project are attached. I spent about three months scratch-building a Spider Tank or, "Spinnergewehr." The body is a combination of styrene plastic sheeting for the sides and basswood for the top and bottom (due to the difficult angles). The legs are all styrene plastic rods and tubes. The legs are joined to the body with half-spheres of wood. The neck is a piece of sump pump tubing and the head is a used "Bubble Tape" container. The gun itself is a 1/35 scale 88 gun - "36 FLAK" without the carriage. I then added bits from a tank model to add some realism. The driver/gunner is from a West Wind miniatures "Secrets of the Third Reich" walker model (I did it "buttoned up" so the figure wasn't needed).

I've been purchasing other 28mm figures and should soon begin work on Nazi zombies, rocket troops and the Squad itself.

Thank you again for your imagination and for the opportunity to share these with you."


Check out the photos.

How cool is that?

For the record, I nicked the idea of the Spider Tanks from Jonny Quest (and not the awful Wild Wild West movie), but the actual design of the tanks came from the mind of Alan Robinson. He's really the one who brought them to life.

Thanks for reading, Chris. Make sure to send photos of your next project.