If you're looking for a non-sucky con report covering the adventures of the Dumbrella crew, I suggest you try the following:
Anyway, for my bits and pieces, read on.Comic-Con is more of an excuse to hang out with other cartoonists than it is to do any real work. The days are packed with heavy lifting and shmoozing and passing out flyers and badgering people to purchase your wares, but the real fun starts after the day is done and you hole yourself up in a bar with 10 or 15 pitchers of beer and a bunch of friends and draw obscene pictures of masturbating unicorns. Luckily, most places in the Gaslamp Quarter are conducive to that sort of activity and served as excellent surrogates to the Pub while we were away.
Good times were had at Rockin' Baja Lobster (the food wasn't hot, but the company was excellent), the Rock Bottom Brewery (many excellent beers brewed on-site), Hennessey's (your typical irish pub) and Fred's (decent margaritas and cute waitstaff), all heartily recommended.
Do yourself a favor and stay away from the Yard House, though. While it may tantalize you with it's extremely excellent selection of beer, the staff and management are rude and vicious and will think nothing of charging you for a beer and then kicking you out under the duress of large bouncers before you've had a chance to drink it. Fun times for all.
The Con itself, while less important than the drinking, was fun as well. I got to see lots of folks including but not limited to Chris Baldwin, Scott Kurtz, Greg Dean, Tycho and Gabe, Scott McCloud (more on that in a later post), Joey Manley and a bunch of Modern Tales artists, the Pants Press folks, and lots of people I'm forgetting. If I forgot you, and I don't hate you, lemme know and I'll add you to the list.
The Dumbrella table rocked. Many of you know I don't use the word "rocked" lightly, but I think this qualifies. We had people standing the length of the table three rows deep at times. We met lots and lots of fans, made some new ones, and sold out just about all our shirts. We also made some interesting contacts, some of which will hopefully pan out, and none of which I can talk about. overall, a good time.
No con report is complete without a few photos, so here's a few I managed to salvage from the many, many sucky pics I took:
Phillip in one of his more serious moments.
Sam Brown hates condiments.
Jeff stands proudly.
More cons in your neck of the woods are coming up soon, so stay tuned for further announcements.
