The beginning of a cosplayer

Tiffany Perry is just starting to attend conventions. We have both started this year but she has attended more and is doing so as a cosplayer which put her higher on the food chain. Some of the conventions she has gone to this year are Philly Comic Con and Chicago Comic Con.

She blames her friends Freddie Nova (also an excellent cosplayer) and Allison Hourcade (Rocklove Jewelry) for getting her to become a cosplayer. Her first costume was X-23 (she borrowed most of the costume from Freddie). I met her at Baltimore Comic Con when she came as White Tiger and Scarlet Witch. She was genuinely pleased when people recognized her White Tiger costume.

Future costume plans include Dumb Bunny (which I really want to see), Lady Mechanika, Madame Mirage, Black Light and Sirkka from "Freak Angels". People and businesses have already started to notice her as Collectors Corner in Baltimore has her scheduled to wear her Scarlet Witch costume on  September 10. She will also be portraying Lady Mechanika at New York Comic Con. She does this since she finds it fun which is the best reason to be a cosplayer.

 She also has a wide variety of interests. Amber fascinates her

as her rings will testify.

She is also a belly dancer, writer, an avid reader, involved in roller derby, attends Renaissance faires and supports wounded warrior causes by competing in Tough Mudder (Toughmudder.com)has been to other countries such as Egypt learned about belly dancing and how it is perceived..

One of the most interesting topics to discuss with her is the coming zombie apocalypse. While she will concede it may not be zombies she does feel that something big is coming for this country and she wants to be prepared which is why she is starting to learn different types of combat. I am not sure about the zombie idea but I do believe she is right about this country.

Plus, she goes mad for Blade cosplay.

(Tiffany Perry approved)

More BCC Artists

Now to continue with more artists who worked at Baltimore Comic Con.

Rhiannon Owens stated she would be easy to recognize with her Mohawk and she was correct: this made her very visible.

This picture was taken on Saturday. The Mohawk was gone on Sunday because it hurt her neck. Her work is displayed at http://dangerous-beauty778.deviantart.com/ and at

http://www.modelmayhem.com/1143121. She has worked for DC and Marvel through Rittenhouse Archives. A quick search for her name shows two absolutely gorgeous Rogue drawings.

Megan Steckler created the series "Last Call".

The web comic started in 2007 and has changed over time. The character Lily is a succubus which is worth seeing. More comics need a hard drinking, hard partying demonic alter ego for their protagonist.

http://lastcallcomic.com/.

Be warned. This comic is for mature audiences.

I met Monica Gallagher on Sunday.

I think her idea of using Greek gods as art is brilliant. Each piece has an image of the god and contains personality details for each of the deities.. Not only does her work stand out but her website name is interesting.  http://www.eatyourlipstick.com/Bio.htm.

She does web comics that focus on roller derby and large parts of  her work are based on experiences from her life.

Lastly, for this blog, is Amanda Rachels. She is holding up her work "Clown Town", a comic book series whose 2nd issue ia being released in October. You can find out more about the series here http://www.inversepress.com/clown-town/. The series was a runner up in Small Press Idol 2010. Another title she works on is "The Blind Eye".  Her Deviant Art page, http://attaya.deviantart.com/ , illustrates how much trouble Plastic Man can get into.

Comments always welcome 

Moving time

I am moving again on Thursday, this time going back to VA Beach for a limited time (I am hoping). I seem to keep moving. It has happened so frequently that there is a pattern. Every few years I move but this time is an exception since I have only been here (Warrenton, VA) for one year. I normally have a three year rule.

The hard part of moving is having to move everything around. I miss the days when everything could fit in my car in one trip. It made moving simpler. My comic collection  has become quite the burden but I am eliminating that part of my life now. I have given it to an auction house to put it up for sale. Hopefully I will get enough money to support my extravagant moving lifestyle.

The comic books caused me problems since no one wanted to help move it. Some people helped once and after surviving the ordeal, vowed never to help me again. Now the comics are at an auction house and hopefully they will sell. Follow the link if you want to look at what is currently for sale. More will be added soon.
http://www.proxibid.com/asp/AuctionsByCompany.asp?ahid=2268

Buy often and bid high.



Being my friend is not cost effective (or so I have been told). Since I will only be in a place for a short time, people weigh the amount of energy it will take to be my friend against the benefits of actually being my friend  and guess where this leads.Okay, maybe some of this is my responsibility. My friendship is not cost effective.

As I stated in an earlier post. I do not even bother unpacking anymore. I don't see the point--unpack and then pack again. My logic is leave it packed. I will be ready to go at a minute's notice. Call me a Minuteman. A former girlfriend did but I do not think she meant it as a compliment.

Comments always welcome.

BCC Artists continued

Other artists I was privileged to meet over that weekend were Sara Richard, Chandra Free and Erica Hesse.
Sara Richard has been going to conventions for quite some time. She is a repeat offender

and has quite a following. She is on Deviant Art and has her own website http://www.sararichard.com/. Her work is mostly acrylic paint on paper. It certainly garnered her a great deal of attention at the convention.

It is hard to tell due to my photograph but this is a picture of Death and Dream. It is in my collection now.  One of the great things about her is that some of the proceeds from specific pieces go to charity  such as the Michael J. Fox foundation.

Above is Cloak and Dagger and below is a companion piece to Death and Dream, Delirium.

Chandra Free writes a book called "God Machine". She has been drawing her whole life and is constantly topping herself (she says she could draw before she could even walk). Her work is done on a Intuos Tablet so she works in the digital age.

Her webpage is http://spookychan.com/ and she can also be found on Deviant Art. You have to respect someone who calls herself spooky. She has also worked on "Sullengrey" and "Fraggle Rock".

This is Erica Hesse who can be found at http://www.hesse-art.com/. She is another artist whose style appealed to me.

I picked up several things she had and hope to interview her about her work soon.

 

 

Above are pieces that caught my eye.

Stay tuned. I have more about artists coming soon including

Monica Gallagher, Rhiannon Owens and Amanda Rachels.

Artists from BCC

There were a large number of artists at Baltimore Comic Con to admire and purchase work from. I did make some purchases and am very happy with what I obtained.

I met Chrissie Zullo two years ago and she has done well for herself since then.

 

She has done the covers to 2 "Fables" mini series and the internal art for an issue of "Madame Xanadu".Her future jobs involve the artwork for a story in Womanthology (coming soon from IDW). I now have three pieces of her art. I own Psylocke, Zatanna and Catwoman.

This is my newest piece from her, Psylocke. I plan to keep getting pieces from her but the problem is that I can never decide what I want to get from her. I want so many of her works. I think I might go with Legion of Superhero characters next time.

Her work can be viewed at http://chrissiez.blogspot.com/ She takes commissions so you can ask her to make you something you do not see on her site.

One artist I met at this convention is Echo Chernik. She works as a commercial artist most of the time and does conventions during the summer months. This is her third year of doing the comic book convention circuit.

 

Her pieces are colorful and vibrant much like the artist herself. While most of the artists spend the weekend sitting down, she is up and around and greeting anyone who approaches her booth. She has one piece called "Pie Cthulhu" that got my attention, She said this one is a favorite among people and the concept came to her in a dream. You can view and buy her work at http://www.echo-x.com/

Baltimore CC signings

A large part of attending the comic con is seeing the artists and writers who show up to sell and/or sign their merchandise. These people have a lot of patience and stamina. They sit at their booth for long periods of time and politely talk to all the people who pass by. They agree to sign materials placed before them and some even do sketches on demand.

Several famous writers and artists (who have been working in the comic industry for years) were there. They sit on the opposite side of a table for you and smile as people dump large numbers of books before them demanding "Sign these!". I have yet to hear any of these people say one harsh word and I would love to hear that.

"Hey, get away from my booth!"
"Why do you keep hanging around here?"
"Try taking a shower! We would appreciate it."
"No, I'm not going to sign your comics. In fact, I am not even going to talk to you. Next!"

None of the creators have said that. They have patience and poise which serves them well in this environ.

Above is Mike Grell. He is the force behind Warlord and a reboot of Green Arrow with "The Longbow Hunter" series. He, as well as Terry Moore, both commented on how they appreciate seeing well used copies of their books. "The Longbow Hunters" is one of the series that is surviving my comics purge. The artwork he is holding up is the character Warlord aka Travis Morgan. 

This is Tim Truman and his son, Ben. They are holding up pages from a new series called "Hawken". Their booth was active with people coming at them from all sides. Tim was trying to sign books, draw a sketch and talk to people who just walked up to his booth.

Next is Terry Moore who has created such popular books as "Strangers in Paradise" and "Echo" His newest title, "Rachel Rising", is coming out soon. Look for my upcoming interview with him. His booth was near the entrance so he was highly visible and easy to find. 

Charles Vess has done many things but my favorite is his work on "Stardust". Not only do I have the four issue mini series but I also bought the hard back edition. Yes, I know it is overkill but the script and his art make it all worthwhile.

Allison Sohn draws and keeps Adam Hughes in line. Their booth was popular and she kept things moving and organized. Her art is featured on many different trading cards and enjoys talking to people as they come around her booth.

Amanda Conner is the iron woman of conventions. I kept checking her booth to see when the line was short enough for me to get in and have her sign my two comics. Her line never got shorter. In fact it was always longer and she would not take a break. So I do not think she is bored here but tired. Sketching and signing for a long period of time is hard.

So these are the comic book professionals I met at this convention. It was very crowded so they did not have time to really talk to people. Check back for some of the interviews I am going to be doing with them. 

Comments always welcome.

BCC day 2

I am going to start this one off with the photos of John and Jill Melvin as Green Arrow and Black Canary. I do not normally take photos of people from the back but look at the back of Jill as BC and it should be clear why I got this picture.

 

 There is a arrow protruding from BC's posterior in the 1st picture (in case you could not see it).

Nicole Snyder as Codex

Stacey Allen as Dark Phoenix

Jessica Thomson with Stacey Allen

Gareth Hoskins as Batman

Brandie Bowman as the Black Cat

Eric Negron as the Hulk

Rebecca Ways as Wonder Woman

Barbara Wilcox as Harley Quinn 

Krista Lee as Domino and Chase Patterson as Iron Fist

Harley Quinn

Wondy as Black Canary

Luke as Green Arrow

MJ Koch as Black Widow

Mike Z. as Robin

Caitlin Sneff as Batgirl

Rachel Bond as Starfire

Katie Stevens as Robin

Rebecca Mszewczyk as Blackfire

Comic Mama Cosplay as Catwoman

Hope Buckland as the Silk Spectre

Amy Henricks as Catwoman

Erika Saxon as the Silk Spectre

Murder Nurse as Black Cat

Sam Seddon as Green Lantern

Des C as Scarlet

Henley Slater as Poison Ivy

Suny Stoudemire as Red Riding Hood

So this is the last of the pictures I have of cosplayers from Baltimore Comic Con 2011. Next up is the artists and professionals attending the show. I have many pictures of artists to share. If you like the pictures you see here, become a follower since I have much more to come.

Comments always welcome.