The Stories Behind the Comic Con Costumes

Mario: Hi, I’d like these overalls and I’d like to pay by credit card.

Storekeeper: Whoah, hold on there, sonny Jim, you want these overalls?

M: Yeah. The blue ones.

S: Uh, son, I have to ask…are you farm folk?

M: What? What are -

S: ‘Cuz you don’t look like farm folk, and really, these coveralls are made for farm folk. About 6′1″, most of which is torso, with stubby legs and a belly made of biscuits and bacon. And you…well, son, I don’t think these are the coveralls for you.

M: No, no, I’m not a farmer -

S: Farm folk.

M: Right, sure, I’m not farm folk, but I still need these for a costume.

S: Halloween? Or that Marty Grah?

M: Um…comic con?

S: Say what now?

M: I’m going to be Mario…

S: Marry me? The hell?

M: Look, I’ll pay cash if it’s too much of a hassle. I just need them for a costume.

S: Son, I hate to break it to you, but you’re not farm folk. If you’ve seen the sign out front, we’re a seed and farm supply store, we’re not a costume store. I’m seen selling to you, we’re going to lose some clientele, and that’s a lot. Poundage-wise, that’s a whole lot.

M: I…ugh. This is such a hassle.

S: Here, I have an idea. Let me dress you in this flannel…good, good…then I’m going to need to feed you these biscuits and gravy.

M: Uh…

S: Yeah, eat more. Get that gravy drippin’ down your chin…right…just like that. Now let me sprinkle some of this hay on you…good…

Later, at the Comic Con

Friend: Aw man, Corey, that’s an awesome Mario costume! Where’d you get those awesome overalls?

Mario: Uh…mail order.

The best a man can get

Something from a previous DragonCon that a friend stumbled across:

What’s sad about this picture is that I don’t think mankind can create a better Juggernaut costume. We all saw what happened with the X3 Juggernaut, he was soccer star Vinnie Jones in an ill-fitting muscle suit. Not as bad as this:

but bad enough. This has all the proper elements of Juggernaut, color included, which one-ups Vinnie’s costume. I can’t imagine how they would have done a realistic maroon costume for X3, but I assume it would look something like this. Minus the sweatpants.

And trust me, you want to stay out of this guy’s way, once he charges, there’s no escaping his deadly onslaught! Especially if he’s charging towards a table full of cheap comics and Buffy outtake DVDs. I’m (mostly) the Juggernaut, bitch!

The Stories Behind the New York Comic Con Costumes

(5 months before the Con)
ARTHUR: This year…this year, I’m going to do it. I’m going to make a kick-ass costume that’s going to be the pride of the New York Comic Con. I’m going to do this awesome Mojo costume with my amazing art school skills. It’s going to have all kinds of wires and latex rubber attachments to it but it’ll be lightweight so I can walk with it. It’s going to be amazing!

(Mojo)

LUKE: That’s pretty ambitious, Arthur. You sure you can do this?

ARTHUR: Definitely. I’m majoring in sculpture, right? I can put this together in no time.

(4 months before the Con)
ARTHUR: Jeez, my workload is huge this semester.

LUKE: Told you, man. Sophomore year is where it starts to get real.

ARTHUR: I should totally get working on my Con costume. Mojo’s going to take a while. But I’m so busy doing my art that I have no time.

LUKE: To be fair, Art, your art doesn’t take that much time. It’s mostly just you peeing on religious iconography that you buy at the thrift store.

ARTHUR: I’ll have you know that my performance sculpture art takes hours and days of contemplation before I can unveil it.

LUKE: But buying statues of the Virgin Mary takes all of 15 minutes, including the train ride to the thrift store. Setting it up in the gallery is like another 20 and then peeing on it…well, how long does that take?

ARTHUR: My record is 42 seconds.

LUKE: So by my estimation, you spend more time not doing art than doing it. You could have made 3 Mojo costumes in the last month.

ARTHUR: But I simply agonize over every purchase, that’s what makes it art! Ugh, I’ll never get to make the costume at this rate.

(3 months before the Con)
LUKE: How’s that Mojo costume coming?

ARTHUR: Oh that? I’ll get to it later. I’m working on a new conceptual piece. I’ll stand outside of Central Park and just hit a wood block for an hour a day while reciting Hindu love poems.

LUKE: That’s art?

ARTHUR: I get a grade for it.

LUKE: What happened to peeing on statues?

ARTHUR: Turns out someone did it last year as his senior thesis. I’m going Hindu now.

LUKE: I think you need to work on your costume, wash off that mascara, and start getting a life.

ARTHUR: It’s art, Luke. It takes time to find all those Hindu love poems. Also, I’ve lost like three wood blocks because I’ve forgotten them on the subway.

(2 months before the Con)
LUKE: How was it in there?

ARTHUR: Terrible. I didn’t get my phone call until a day later, and some guy “claimed” the only toilet in the cell and we had to “pay” him for the privilege to use it. It was horrible.

LUKE: Shouldn’t have been throwing Ziplock bags of your blood at pedestrians, Art. That gets you sent to jail.

ARTHUR: That was a statement! About our dependence on foreign oil!

LUKE: I think you should take some time off. Just do some sketches or some wood carving for a while.

ARTHUR: I know, I’ll work on my Mojo costume! Right after I watch this conceptual art video from this Danish director.

(1 week before the Con)
ARTHUR: Whew, that was a long video. ACK! I don’t have time to make my Mojo costume! Crap! I’m screwed! What am I going to wear to the Con? I’m going to go as just…some dude! I can’t do that to my art!

LUKE: Hey Arthur, want to play Castle Crashers on XBox?

ARTHUR: THAT’S IT! WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA! I’ll make one of those my costume?

LUKE: You haven’t done any real art in a while, Luke, you sure you can do that?

ARTHUR: Sure! I’m an awesome artist, I can do anything!

Forgot one!

I forgot to put my Dick Ayers sketch up!

Golden Age artists are hard to find, but I’m happy I got Dick’s version of the Hatter.

Sketches that were got

As you know, if you read the blog, I’m a Mad Hatter fanatic. At every convention I go around getting as many sketches of my favorite Bat-villain as I can and, thanks to an unexpected influx of cash this year, I stocked up on these guys. Some of the quicker sketches were free, others cost a bit of money. Brian Bolland was out of my price range, but next year…

This is Ivan Reis’s (Green Lantern) version of the Hatter. I got it about 10 minutes before the con ended, so we were in a rush, but I’m making it a point to get a full one next time.

This is from Tim Seeley (Hack/Slash, Loaded Bible).

I got this from Anthony Williams (all kinds of everything DC and Marvel, especially 2000 AD) who talked about advertising a little bit with me. Nice!

Amanda Conner (Terra) was the one sketch that I really had to get this con. She was possibly the nicest person I met all weekend and she was also the busiest by far. Thanks Amanda! I wish this photo came out better!

Mike Norton (Green Arrow & Black Canary) was selling Recession-Proof Sketches, which means I’ll be able to retire off this. Love the caption!

Todd Nauck. Currently riding high off his Spider-man/Obama crossover, he pencilled a ton of Young Justice books that SHOULD BE IN TRADE PAPERBACK.

I got a quick sketch from Jim Calafiore (Gotham Underground), one of the artists I’ve been tracking down to get a sketch for 2 cons already. His sketch list fills up fast. But this piece is exactly what I wanted!

Eddy Barrows has been doing spectacular work on Teen Titans lately so I was happy to get a sketch. My request did have to be translated into Portuguese by Jim Prado.

Christopher Jones pencilled every issue of The Batman Strikes but never got a chance to draw the Hatter. He said it was because he didn’t appear in the show, and that only show villains could be made into the comics. Also, he mentioned that he was told specifically not to include Two-Face, Ra’s Al-Ghul, or the Scarecrow, probably because of the films. I asked him to imagine the Hatter if he did make it to the Batman Strikes comics.

Jack Purcell (Gotham Underground) came up with the version of the Hatter that most reminds me of a Pilgrim on meds.

Sometimes an artist has a special place for you even if he isn’t signing at Artist Alley. Jim Mahfood (aka Food One) is one of my favorite indie artists, putting out books like Stupid Comics, Bad Idea, Grrrl Scouts, and One-Page Filler Man. With Jim, if he’s got a new book out, I’m buying it on day one. He lives in LA and this is his only East Coast con, which made it an incredible coincidence that he was signing as I was on my way out. This is one of my favorite sketches, since it’s pure Food One.

Sam Henderson’s another indie artist who I adore. He’s done work for Nickelodeon Magazine but I love his work with his title Magic Whistle. To get his take on a supervillain character just made my day.

Leonard Kirk, currently on Captain Britain and MI13 but penciller for a whole host of other books, did one of the best-composed Hatter sketches of the weekend. All those hats!

Cliff Chiang’s hot talent, especially since his Dr. Thirteen mini was the sleeper hit of 2007. Usually his sketches are priced out of my con allowance, but he was doing quick sketches for free at the DC booth. Now I know what his Hatter would look like!

Rafael Albuquerque (Blue Beetle), hands down, did the creepiest Hatter of the weekend. I likes it.

Philip Tan’s (Final Crisis: Revelations) another hot talent and I’m going to try to get a full sit-down sketch the next con. This was another freebie at the DC booth.

Billy Tan (no relation to Philip) is currently wowing everyone with his Avengers series over at Marvel. He did this Hatter while I waited – the guy knows his way around a sketchbook.

Dustin Nguyen (Detective Comics) offered a free headshot with the purchase of one of his prints. I bought his Batman villains poster which, if I remember right, features the Bat family amongst 17 different villains. I’ll frame it and hang it in my office, I like it so much. I’m trying to get a few of his original pages from the Hatter issue of Detective he put out last year, through the inker Derek Fridolfs, but DC hasn’t released the pages yet. Soon!

Greg Titus (Annihilation) did a pretty lovable Hatter, almost like he was off to prom. Greg told me this was the best piece he’d done all day, and I’m way impressed.

I know, it’s a lot of pictures.

Nathan Fox (Pigeons From Hell, DMZ) exceeded my expectations with this ink piece. It’s impressed everyone who’s seen it, just because it’s something unexpected. So cool.

This is my girlfriend’s favorite. Christopher Uminga. I should have gotten this inked, his inked stuff is amazing.

And finally, Reilly Brown (Cable & Deadpool). He doesn’t disappoint, and this is on an oversize piece of board, so it’s going to look all the more impressive when it’s framed.

Weeeeeeird…

This guy was doing his best to hit on this girl in the wheelchair. The creepy part? HE WAS USING THE SCOOBY VOICE.

I think I’m going to go home and try and make sense of this. This disturbing, disturbing scene. Thanks for following along! I’ll put some Hatter sketches up soon!

Sitting with legends

At the moment I’m blogging from the Living Legends panel. In the presence of Golden and Silver Age legends!

Not good pics, I know.

(r to l) Lily Renee, Jerry Robinson, Joe Giella, Joe Sinnot, and Dick Ayers

To scale:

This sketch costs more than I take home in a paycheck.

Advice from Ethan

Dear creators of the Ninja Turtles toys:

There is an actual point where you will run out of good ideas. It’s inevitable, everyone comes to the end of the road, creatively. Sometimes this is permanent, other times this is a temporary thing that signifies you need to take a few years off to farm or consult or do whatever retired people do.

But how do you know when your time is up?

Well, for starters, when you put this out as a serious toy:

Now is the point when you stop.

Three things

What do these three things have in common?

All three of these characters have killed people. One even ate their brains.
But they’re sooooo cuuuuuuuuuute!!!!!!!!