Day one at Comic-Con? Uneventful. Actually for once the crush of humanity was not that horrific and it was relatively easy to walk about the exhibitor floor. I did a little of that, but mainly stuck by both the DC booth for my signing and the National Cartoonists Society booth where I did caricatures and had some MAD originals for sale. The NCS booth is located at booth spaces 1307 and 1309:

The NCS booth is pretty well done, IMO. Nice location, too. I’ll be there from 2:00 to about 3:30 today doing caricatures, sketches and selling those MAD pages. I’ll also be at the DC Comics booth from 4:00-5:00 PM signing and drawing. Unfortunately the folks at DC have decided they are only giving away free stuff early in the day and at the end of the day… they said it was because the stampede to grab freebies in the heavy part of the day is overwhelming. So, I don’t know if I will have free copies of MAD or not.

EDIT- just confirmed that free copies of MAD are a go for the DC signings.

Last night I attended the Captain Rochester party at the Palm Restaurant on J Street. Captain Rochester is part of an awareness project from a company called Rochester Electronics, a maker of semi-conductors. Apparently there is a real problem in the world of high tech with counterfeit semiconductors and components for electronics.

From the Captian Rochester website:

The goal at Rochester Electronics has been to raise awareness of the devastating implications of counterfeit and substandard components that make their way every day into products that affect our lives. Captain Rochester and his team of valiant allies constantly fight to defeat their treacherous counterfeiting enemies. Through his adventures, we can share – in an entertaining way – important information about counterfeiting with the semiconductor industry’s customers and original manufacturers, as well as with the general public.

Captain Rochester’s adventures have expanded since we introduced him in 2006 because the threat of counterfeit and substandard devices has risen significantly. Arrests and convictions have increased dramatically in the past year, however, as awareness in the industry as well as in law enforcement agencies and government agencies have expanded. Working together (with the help of the message Captain Rochester gives), we can outsmart the counterfeiters by promoting best purchasing practices and understanding the dangers!

Captain Rochester’s adventures will increase knowledge and appreciation of the importance of the quest for quality in the semiconductor industry.

As part of this program Rochester Electronics is producing a series of comic books done by Scott Shaw! and a series of trading cards done by some pretty notable artists (present company excluded). They debuted series one and two here with cards by the likes of Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Jeff Keane, Sergio Aragonés, Steve Rude, Hy Eisman, Gene Colan, Al Jaffee, Peter Bagge and many more. Here’s my card (sorry for the bad scan):

You can get more information and order the comics, cards or collectible card sheets from the Captain Rochester website.

Welcome to July! As far as Comic Con goes later this month, the schedule for the MAD panel and signings on Saturday are all official. Here’s the skinny…

SATURDAY, JULY 24

10:00-11:00-  Mad about MAD!
MAD Magazine has established itself as the original and most imitated and influential satirical publication across generations.  This fall, MAD returns to TV screens with a new show for the next generation!  Come join MAD Magazine editor John Ficarra, MAD Art Director Sam Viviano, legendary MAD artist Sergio Aragones, contemporary MAD artist Tom Richmond, MAD Story Editor/Producer Kevin Shinick and your host, MAD Creative Exec Peter Girardi, for a light-hearted look at the future of an American institution. Room 7AB

11:15-12:00-  MAD Signing at the DC Comics Booth!
Meet MAD Magazine editor John Ficarra, MAD Art Director Sam Viviano, MAD artists Sergio Aragones and Tom Richmond, The WB and Cartoon Network’s MAD Animated show Story Editor/Producer Kevin Shinick and Creative Exec Peter Girardi. Booth #1915

4:15-5:00-  MAD Signing at the Warner Bros. Booth!
With MAD Magazine editor John Ficarra, MAD Art Director Sam Viviano, MAD artists Sergio Aragones and Tom Richmond, The WB and Cartoon Network’s MAD Animated show Story Editor/Producer Kevin Shinick and Creative Exec Peter Girardi.

Barring schedule conflicts, injury, sudden death or bad fish tacos for lunch we should all be there as detailed above. I’ll also be selling MAD originals, signing stuff and drawing caricatures here and again at the National Cartoonists Society booth, schedules to be posted on site. No word yet on if we’ll be doing anything with the Cartoon Network.

The Pen is Mightier Dept.

I promised to let everybody know where they can order one of the sculpted Sherlock Holmes pens that were created based on an illustration of Holmes that I did for voice artist extraordinaire David Ian Davies as “cover art” for his complete collection of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes “Canon” audiobooks. Well the pen is finally available and you can order it at David’s website directly from this page. Unfortunately for some odd reason the page does not open correctly when using a Mac, either with Safari or Firefox (at least not for me), so you’ll need to use a Windows PC browser if you want to get one of these pens. They sell for $12.95 plus shipping and come gift boxed.

While you are at it, if you have any interest in Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories, you cannot do better than David’s audiobooks. He does all the voices and it sounds like a full company of actors, each with a distinctive personality and voice. Amazing. His Dr. Watson is particularly fantastic. Check them out on Audible.com.

Usual Panel of Idiots Dept.

Thanks to the mysterious DD of MadMublings.com for these great links to videos of the San Diego Comic Con’s MAD pnael discussion, moderated by Mark Evanier and featuring Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragonés, Al Feldstein and Arnie Kogen.

Wish I could have been there.

I didn’t mention anything last week about the 2008 San Diego Comic Con that was going about it’s usual insanity because… well… I didn’t go so therefore didn’t have much to say about it. I’ve only been to it twice. The first time was when I was working for the now defunct NOW Comics and sat at the NOW booth with, among other people, Mr. T who was pimping his comic “Mr. T and the T-Force”. That was…. interesting. The second was a few years ago and I sat mainly at the National Cartoonists Society booth. I’d like to go again someday but the summer is a tough time for me to get away for any personal time.

This year there were two things I greatly missed from Comic Con. First was to attend the panel on MAD Magazine moderated, as seemingly all panels at Comic-Con are, by Mark Evanier. The panelists were writer Arnie Kogen, artists Sergio Aragonés and Al Jaffee and former editor Al Feldstein. I’ve never met Arnie or Al Feldstein, an would have loved to have done so.

The other thing I missed out on was the free issue of MAD that they gave away free in the goodie bag. There was brief talk in the offices about bumping my parody of “Iron Man” from the magazine proper into the giveaway instead, but that eventually was decided against. Here’s the contents that ended up in the issue:

• “Botchmen”- (5-page parody of Moore/Gibbons’ “Watchmen graphic novel, plus a related cover)– Desmond Devlin/Glenn Fabry
  
• “The 8 Greatest Comic Books of All Time” (2-page article making fun of “mega-event” series, movie tie-in comics, All-Star Batman, Harvey Pekar, and more)– Evan Dorkin/Ty Templeton
  
• “Sergio Aragones Presents a MAD Look at the San Diego Comic-Con” (4 pages, self-explanatory)– Sergio Aragones/Aragones, Sergio
  
• “Comic-Con Bingo!” (1 page article listing 25 different items or personality types you’ll spot at any convention)– Scott Maiko/Charles Akins

I have to thank the mysterious “DD” of madmumblings.com for the contents/descriptions of the comic, as I don’t have a copy and these might be so rare (i.e. not enough copies printed) that even the Usual Gang of Idiots won;t be getting copies in our usual monthly package of comps. That’s the scuttlebutt anyway. So it’s eBay or nothing. The “Botchmen” parody is awesome, btw… Fabray does a spot-on mimicry of Dave Gibbon‘s style.