Kyle Shold ©2013

1.) Kirby Krackle rock band. This is only a promo-card but I included it because I wish I had picked up a CD while I was there. This is a rock band that sings about comic books and video games. I don’t listen to much rock music unless it is from the ’80′s but they performed at the Con and actually sounded pretty darn good. Besides, their subject matter is very geeky and right up my alley. I recomend giving them a listen.

2.) How to Make Webcomics by Brad Guigar, Dave Kellet, Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub. Web comics seem to be taking on a whole virtual life of their own these days and yet I know virtually nothing about them. I snagged this book in order to learn more and maybe discover some new marketing techniques. Signed by Guigar and Kurtz.

3.) Betsy Mae Bite issues 1 & 2 by Edward Pun. Fun cartoon books written and illustrated by a fellow Humongous Entertainment alumni. The art style isn’t my usual taste but I wanted to support Ed and his new book. The series has a very clean animated look to it.

4.) Memo Diaz sketchbook. Memo also worked at H.E. for a short bit back in the Woodinville building. An amazingly talented artist.

5.) Theater Hopper by Tom Brazelton. This is a sampler booklet of Mr. Brazelton’s top 25 webcomic strips. I picked this up to see what all the hoopla is about since Mr. Brazelton seems to make a living doing  just ‘Hopper’ online which is amazing. Anybody who can do that begs to be studied so I grabbed this book and will be taking a look at his site. The four panel comic strip hasn’t been my cup of tea since Watterson left the business but I will be watching and learning from Mr. Brazelton for sure.  

6.) Mars Maidens by Frank Cho. I was surprised to find that this book has several pieces found in Cho’s other book ‘Illustrator’ but there is also a lot of work in here that I hadn’t seen before. Being a fan of his work I snagged it up anyway. An amazing artist that definitely enjoys rendering the, ahem, well endowed female figure. I’m not complaining.

7.) Jack the Lantern (Castle Rain Entertainment) by Michael Angelos, Tim Vigil with a special ECCC cover variant by Steven Sadowski. I chatted with Mr. Angelos for a bit and found him to be very genuine in his passion for the comics medium. So I felt obligated to support him by purchasing one of his books. I ended buying his show special book which had a variant cover and was limited to 100 copies. I ended up getting Angelos, Vigil and Sadowski to sign it just because I could. I figured why not. The artwork is actually pretty good but the crispness of the line work is lost due to, what I assume is, low-resolution digital files. If you can get by that it’s very good.

8.) The Raven’s Gambit (Hard Castle Press) by Rich Ellis and Susan Tardif. This is a small fanzine sized book that doesn’t look bad at all considering the budget these two must have. I ended up supporting their effort because I liked their spunk and spirit. The artwork is very crisp and bit cartoony but I like it very much. They were very nice folks and I wish them luck with their book. Plus they are right across the river from me in Portland.