From: [m--kb--y] at [oak.circa.ufl.edu] (Holy Moley!)
Subject: DragonCon Review [2 of 3]
Date: 19 Jul 1994 21:11:13 GMT
Reply-To: [m--kb--y] at [oak.circa.ufl.edu]


   It was Friday, the first day of DragonCon.  I picked up a pal of
mine and had lunch at Jina's Frying House at the corner of Lavista
and Briarcliff.  They have THE BEST hot wings in Atlanta!  That's no
joke.  It's only a little hole in the wall, but the beer is cheap
and the wings are incredibly great (I've never found better in Atlanta
and Atlanta is a pretty big place).  Anyhow, that's a place to check
out for the more adventurous of you next year at DragonCon.

   By the time I hit the dealer's room at 2:30 or so, it was absolutely
jam packed.  The aisles were much too narrow, which showed how little
forethought was put into planning the layout of the dealer's room.
Traditionally, the dealer's room was in the ballroom on the 2nd floor
which is pretty nice, but this year it was crammed downstairs in the
basement.  I would guess that Friday is usually the slowest day, but
there were so many people there it was hard to get around.  One side
of the room was filled with company booths and the other side was all
dealers.  There was a pretty good selection of comics, games, books,
knives, and videos available.  The video folks seemed out in force,
and the going rate appeared to be $15 a bootlegged tape or $25 for
two of them.  The FF movie was available everywhere for under $20,
so if you decide you want it, don't pay any more than that!  It's
funny, but I wouldn't buy it...

   Golden age books seemed a bit scarce, but there was a decent 
selection of Silver age there.  And the bargain books were out in
full force.  Nothing was spared when it came to the almighty bargain
bins!  Even comics just a couple months old could be found for very 
little, typically from 20 cents to a dollar.  I was thrilled to pick 
up the two issue run of Magnus and Nexus for only $1 a piece.  Tribe 
#1 and #2 were a steal at 20 cents each.  There was a nice selection
of prints available, and unless I'm mistaken, famous fantasy artist
Larry Elmore had a nice set up where he was selling prints.  I couldn't
tell if there was much high dollar action going on; it seemed more 
like a lot of nickel and dime-ing.  There was a box of Magic cards
called "Arabian Nights" that was being auctioned -- I heard a $600
bid on that and heard that it eventually went for $800.

   But what about the guests, you ask?  Although it seemed like there
was a great guest list, I wasn't all that impressed.  I went by 
artists' alley and it looked a bit deserted and dilapidated.  Fan
fave Brian Stelfreeze had a good enough line of fans to dissuade me
from asking whether he'd do a sketch for me (even though he's the
main reason I wanted to go to Heroes Con and DragonCon -- yet I
still didn't get a sketch from him!).  Mark Texiera seemed to draw
a crowd and only signed during certain times of the day.  The rest
of the time I guess he was painting.  Tex turned out an incredible
Captain America portrait while I was there!  The man should stick to
painting, IMHO.  Al Bigley of the Batman Adventures was there and
was a nice guy to chat with.  He's going to be doing some Mighty 
Morphin' Rangers work, which I guess will turn him into a millionaire
because of their popularity!  For some reason, I didn't see Adam
Hughes anywhere.  I showed some new inking samples to Karl Story and
got the biggest compliment I've ever received ("It looks like 
Craig Russell inked by Barry Windsor-Smith").  Needless to say, I 
was thrilled!  Tried to find Steve Lieber, and I actually bought
a Hawkman for him to sign, but I guess the deadline disease had
caught up with him.

   Allen Spigel had a nice set up with his "stable" of artists:
Jeff Jones, Jon Muth, Kent Williams, Dave McKean, and George Pratt.
Dave McKean appeared to draw the most fans -- his lines were probably
the longest in artists' alley.  It was no surprise (but definitely
a disappointment) to see that Jeff Jones garnered the least attention
of the painters at Spigel's tables.  I knew since last year that I
would go to DragonCon, the only reason being that I would get to 
meet Jeff Jones in person!  He was rather nice and actually drew
me a quickie sketch for free.  Unfortunately, I can't remember any
upcoming projects from any of these guys except for a book about
a blues guitarist by George Pratt.  He showed me some stuff out of
his sketchbook, and he'll be working in a two-color scheme (black
and blue-grey) like the work Kyle Baker did on Why I Hate Saturn.
Looks pretty good.

[... continued in next message ...]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
As long as it's hot and wet and goes down the right way it's fine with me.
     -- The Duchess of York, Fergie, on tea.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please direct hate mail, love letters, or e-mail to: [m--kb--y] at [ufcc.ufl.edu]