my weekend really sort of began last wednesday, when my school threw a free pizza/portfolio swap night. thrown as a collaborative effort between illustration and advertising, it was a chance for people to network, and possibly find matches as far as projects go. admittedly i figured it was going to be a dud, having heard so many horror stories of previous pizzafolio nights. i remember showing up to one a while back and there were stacks and stacks of cold pizza, no advertising majors, and a very displeased Chuck (director of illustration). ive heard stories here and there of payment disputes, wherein some advertising kids will ask illustration kids to draw something for them on the house, only for the illustrator to find out that it was a paid job.

after making a few adjustments, i think they definitely got it right this time:
-leveling the playing field by insisting that all collaborations must be just that: no payment of any kind.
- to make things interesting, actual art directors who WERE looking for artists to pay were brought in, without anybody’s knowledge.
- advanced classmen in both majors were “required” to show up.

the last point made it a HUGE success, actually. more than 100 people filled our tiny little ballroom, eating pizza, having fun, and through it all, i actually kind of got a taste of what it’s like to shop my portfolio in an ACTUAL setting, sans pizza. i felt like a kid on training wheels, and it was a very important learning experience, considering what happened in the following weekend.

alright, so onto WonderCon. for those of you who do not know, this is my first comics convention of any kind. my inner geek basically was the kid in the candy store, the bull in the china shop. not ONLY did i get to meet Dave Crosland and Jim Mahfood, my most favorite artists of all time, but i also got to hang out with them for a little bit. i was already running around on really borrowed time as it was, so instead of making them both mixtapes as i had heard they’d enjoyed, i just grabbed a couple of vinyl records from my collection and gave one to each of them. i gave Dave a Star Trek storybook, and Jim a Frank Zappa. they both geeked out. it was awesome.

aside from the sheer entertainment value, i also had a semi-business approach to the whole thing. i had plenty of tearsheets leftover from my pizza/folio night from school earlier, so i just brought all of those and began handing them out to whichever booths would take them. by the end of the day, i had none left.

the lone official portfolio review came on the first day, when Lucasfilm was holding a session. THAT was an interesting experience. they had us all in one room, waiting in line, and the Lucasfilm people were sitting right there at a table, roasting everybody publicly. it was intense. the best thing about these “live” interviews was that i could observe how the Lucasfilm peeps acted, what they liked, what they didnt like, and i had plenty of time to make adjustments mentally and mechanically (tossed a few bad portfolio pics out). everybody was REALLY nervous, and spoke very timidly to mr. Lucasfilm man, so i made it a point to project my voice when i got up there. seeing everybody so stressed out made me very aware of my surroundings, and made me feel like i could do better, like i had an edge. in the end it was a good experience, the guy noticed that i was a bit more loose than the others, and thus gave me less of a hard time, and more insightful feedback.

“you’ve got plenty of talent,” he said, “but you clearly need more direction.” 

after three days of nonstop action, i decided to call it a complete experience early on Sunday, as i was completely exhausted from basically walking for 5-6 hours straight a day all weekend long. i am definitely considering going to more Cons in the future, PARTICULARLY COMIC-CON in san diego, as many of the publishers/vendors are hosting more portfolio sessions down there (why not up here?!? makes no sense). maybe not so much to geek out as much, but to really do some more portfolio shopping, and get that art down to a science. i have to say, that im glad im getting into this culture NOW, rather than a couple years ago when i had essentially nothing to show anybody folio-wise, and woulda just been a sucker spending 300 bucks on comics. not that i didnt do that THIS time.  UP NEXT: FU MANCHU @ SLIM’S, Birthday Parties this weekend, etc. later.

-jon

February 26th, 2008 | comics, friends, life, misc., school, star wars | No comments

today i was sitting in comics writing class, participating in a lively discussion about the first 4 chapters of Watchmen, the graphic novel we are assigned to read for the semester. i had been looking forward to this all week, as it is a VERY intriguing comic and i was eager to hear what everybody’s take on it was. so we’re plodding along in the conversation, when allst of a sudden, the peppy anime geek in the front row just simply blurts out PART OF THE ENDING, much to the horror of the teacher and about 30% of the class who hadn’t ever read it the whole way through…. myself included.

at first glance in the grand scheme of things, having the ending to a very good comic ruined seems pretty trivial. sure, its not lethal or lifethreatening if i dont find out how it pans out for myself and get to lick my lips in satisfaction knowing that i got to the end all by myself. life goes on, say law veeh, right?

fucking WRONG.

imagine if you were a child of the 70’s, and waited on hand and foot for Empire Strikes Back to come out. picture yourself camping out in front of the theater with a couple of buddies, enduring cold weather, canned lentil soup that makes your poopies smell like burnt plastic, bloody gums from eating beef jerky all night, and irritating superhero comparison arguments. you waited all night and stood all day in line to be the first ones to see it. finally, you manage to squeeze into a late showing, only to have the preceding crowd pour out, exclaiming that Vader is Luke’s father.

i would use a Harry Potter analogy for more modern effectiveness, but truth be told i really do not give 2 shits about Harry Potter, but i think you get the point.

in any case, i was so angry that i actually got up and left the room, after yelling “WAT THE FUCK” repeatedly for about 5 minutes straight. mr. teach could tell i was agitated, and tried everything in his best power to dissipate the situation, jokingly insisting that the spoiler buy everyone donuts next week. the blabbermouth just giggled embarrassingly and kept saying sorry.

well guess what? sorry isnt going to un-spoil the godamn ending, you dumb fuck.

i am a grown adult. i am smack dab in my twilight years at Academy, with a rude awakening into the real world surely breathing hot and persistently down the coattails of my puckered virgin asshole. i am getting older by the minute and there are less and less things on this charred, barren earth that excite me like they used to back before the weight of the universe was crushed upon my shoulders and my youthly sparkle was sucked from the apples of my eyes. leave it to stupid people to take away the last gleams that i could have hung onto, including a delicious, intact surprise element for the Watchmen ending.

once again, thanks for fucking nothing, stupid spoiler twat in the front row, whoever you are.

February 14th, 2008 | comics, life, misc., other, relationships, school, spoilers, star wars | 1 comment