Comic Con 2006 - part 2

In this post I am going to talk about some of the cool people that came by the booth and a few of the funny things that happened. My biggest surprise of the show was that Charles (my friend who does the Mr Toast animations) took the time to come down to the show from No Cal! He had not told me so it was very cool when he walked up and introduced himself. We had never met but it did not seem that way after about 5 minutes. He has some new ideas about some Mr Toast projects cooking in his brain but more about that in the future.

Another person I got to meet and never expected to was Amy Winfrey of Making Fiends. She was at the show talking about working on the New Making Fiends TV cartoon for Nickelodeon. She was super cool and this will be the greatest cartoon ever.

Also coming by the booth was Andrew and his wife Chi, who are long time fans and supporters. You can check out his blog Old Man Musings for more about his Comic Con adventures. Kirk D. of the Secret Fun Blog came by with a copy of his new book "Life of the Party". I will talk some more about his book in another post but it is must get item.

Other cool people that cam by were Patrick of Stuff from the Park, Todd Franklin of Neatocoolville, Devojane, Sharonzilla, Robb Berry of Retrocrush.com, Danny Catt of the Characters, Elizabeth Ito, Travis and even Harold Bucholdt who was the great guy who printed my first comic (he was set up right across from me in the Kids Love Comics booth). I am sure I am forgetting lots of people becasue it was a busy week!

At the show a lot of people walk around with sketch books to get artists to do little sketches. The first time I did one I felt like a rock star and it continues to be a fun thing to do. Two times during the con people came up for sketches and when I looked in their books I saw that the previous page had a Batman sketch by NEAL ADAMS! It is a pretty tenuous connection to one of comics greatest artists but it made me feel really good.

But I think the thing that was most gratifying about the whole show was the response Mr Toast got from the kids. Sunday was family day and it was by far the most busy day at my booth. There was a seemingly endless parade of kids at the table learning about Mr Toast and really getting him. It was a perfect way to finish a perfect show.

Show Report Part 1

Show Report Part 3

Comic Con 2006 - pt 1

Well here are the few photos I took at Comic Con. First up is my booth. You can see all the shirts and goodies I had for sale. This was the 3rd show I had the plush dolls and I sold over 300 of them. They were my hit of the show. Everyone loved the Jess Hutch Mr Toast posters, they brought many smiles to the show. The other cool thing was the interest in my artwork, I sold almost all the paintings I brought and many of the works on paper too.

This is Dakota, one of the many hundreds of kids that discovered Mr Toast for the first time at the Con. He ended up coming back for 3 days straight picking up more and more stuff. His mom even said that they went back to the hotel after the show and went online to check out my site. It was very gratifying.

This is Hillary and Jeannine. They were two of my biggest fans from last year and even came to the show wearing a Mr Toast shirt! They were even cooler because they brought me candy and a cool Kogepan doll. So now Mr Toast is hanging out with is Japanese cousin Kogepan.

I am not sure of this guys name but he was having artist draw on his shirt in sharpie. I got to do Mr Toast on his sleeve.

Throughout the con many people asked for drawings and autographs. This fan actually brought full size comic art boards for people to work on. I did a quick drawing of Mr Toast trying to rescue a cat from the roof. It was pretty rough but silly.

One of the coolest people I got to meet at the show was Juliana who is better known as the artist Colorblok. She does fantastic work and traveled all the way from Argentina to do the show. We did an art trade and she took home Mr Glue and I got 2 great little prints of hers.

Lastly is fan Dave/B2/Tokka. He is a huge fan of my Tick Tock Toys cereal pages and was furiously running around the show.

It was amazing how cool everyone was at the show and how receptive they were to Mr Toast.

Show Report Part 2

Show Report Part 3

I Live

Well I have survived another Comic Con (as I assume many others did also). There are many tales to be told but first I must rest.

Comic Con

Well Comic Con is nearly upon us. Wednesday night is the preview and then Thursday through Sunday for the public.

My booth number is #1634 and it is near the small press pavilion. I will have lots of Mr Toast dolls, T-shirts, comics, original artwork and much more. Please stop by and say hi.

The Art of Roger Bradfield

A couple months back I posted the art from a Tonka Trucks mini comic book done by the artist Jolly Roger Bradfield. After doing the post I thought I should try to see what else he did, so I did a search on the internet. Up poped his own site telling about his long career in children's books and comic strips. He created Dooley's World from 1972-1978 which I remember fondly from my childhood. He was also a prolific children's book writer and illustrator.

In his bio it mentioned that he had worked doing packaging design. So I sent him an email to see if he had worked on any kids food. Well he wrote back and told me that he had worked on the General Mills cereal boxes of the early 60's! He had worked on Kix, Trix, Wheaties, Jets and did the fronts for many of the signature boxes of the time. WOW.

He also did some work on Mr Bubble and some Pillsbury projects. One other great thing he did was all the spot illustraions for the Bisquick Cookbook in 1964. It is amazing to see all the creativity and skill he poured into this book so I scanned a few of my favorites.

Roger continues to paint and many of his great kids book from the 1960's & 1970's are now being republished. It is great to think that his incredible artwork will be enjoyed by many generations to come.

Mr. Toast at Platform 21

Photo by Meffi.

Now that is a great way to display Mr Toast. Thanks Meffi for taking the photo.

Platform 21 Gallery

Batman Candy Boxes

With Comic Con this week, I decided to look at the Batman candy box set. It is a set of 8 boxes put out by Phoenix Candy in 1966. They are not too common but it ended up taking me about 10 years to get them all. I think my favorite of the set is Deathman although I can't remember ever seeing him in a comic book

In 1967, Phoenix Candy followed up with a series of Joker and His Pals candy boxes. Each featured a different villian on each side. I only have one of these boxes in my collection and they are way tougher to find then the Batman boxes.

Even More Scrapbook Drawings

The Mechanical Smoker Robot

Read more about this amazing teaching tool on the Neato Coolville blog.

Platform 21 Show

If you are in Amsterdam in the next 6 weeks, swing by the Platform 21 gallery for their show Me and My Character.

"The heart of the exhibition consists of testimonials by character owners, collectors and designers about the creatures they love (or otherwise), accompanied by photos, descriptions, videos, and many characters 'in the flesh'."

And Mr Toast is in the show!

For more info visit the Platform 21 site.

It's Over Between Us

Recent Paintings

"Crossed Words"

"Psychedelic Bean"

"Stampede of the Eye Beasts"