Phoenix Comicon!

Last week was bonkers. I spent the first half of the week traveling for business and was in Minnesota and didn't have a chance to get home before the Phoenix Comicon, which meant the burden of not forgetting anything and also getting to the show on time was laid heavy on the shoulders of Ryan and Adam. Ahem.

I flew to Phoenix and arrived with only my dirty laundry and worried that the guys wouldn't show up or get hopelessly lost in the desert. Eventually, the boys DID arrive with all of my stuff (and by "arrive" I mean they roared up in a Volvo c70 convertible, sunburned all to heck) and we set up quick. I snapped a couple of pictures and then totally forgot that I'd dragged a camera all over the place and only took 2 more pictures the whole weekend. C'est la vie!

I decided to only display one example of the peg people on the table -- all the duplicates were under the table. To me, it looks kind of sparse, but there's still quite a lot going on here.

New Star Wars inspired peg people


And Ghostbusters!



Plus, the staff of Sterling Cooper


Santa and his cohorts


Plus the usual arsenal of heroes and villians.


The second story of the house was for animated/cartoony folks...


Including the Futurama set, which was my first attempt at painting these characters and they proved quite popular. Everyone loves Dr. Zoidberg! Hooray!

Thanks to the good citizens of the Phoenix area, a LOT of these peg people went home with someone else. Which is always my goal, obviously, but it made me feel REALLY good to see how some of these goofy little goodies made someone smile.

I have a new theory that there is a single detail on each one that "sells" people on it. I could watch people look them over and smile and think "that's funny" or whatever and then their eyes would go big and they'd squee over a detail -- the Jawa's yellow eyes or the Ghostbusters' ghost traps or the vampire's little teeth -- and that would be when they'd get a giant smile on their face. I love that look! That look is enough to make me want to paint forever and ever...

Special thanks to the little boy with the missing front tooth who had that magical Disneyland look on his face. YOU MADE MY YEAR.

like a hole in the head

So the last thing that I could possibly EVER need is something else to do which is precisely why I have launched the Comic Book Ladies' Auxiliary & Social Society (LASS). Why? Read about it here. 'Tis a boring life, that of a comic book wife! I am dragged across the country to conventions and autograph signings and cocktail parties and woe is me and I never know anyone and it gets reeeeeeally boring. So, I basically started a club to make friends. YES I AM SURE THAT MAKES ME A DORK. But I don't care. I'm hoping that by the Big Comic Con in San Diego, I'll have enough people in my little network that we can start planning outings and go to the zoo or something instead of expiring on the convention steps. So, there.

Next weekend, Ryan and I will be heading out to the Phoenix Comic Con for the first time ever and we'll have a table in the Artist's Gallery section. Hopefully our table will be directly across from Zombie Pie, which is the combined efforts of Erin, the Sock Zombie Queen of the Undead Sweatsock and Stacey Rebecca of Puppet Pie who wants to make the whole world a puppet show. I hope our tables are nearby so that I can throw nerds at them. Won't that be fun?

I also get the added bonus of meeting Erin in real life for the first time. I think I have been following her blog for... um... 8 or 9 years? Maybe longer? I swear we've been emailing since the dotcom boom, but I could be wrong. In any case, I'm crazy excited to get to meet her and The Jake and barking at some horses in her neighbor's yard. It's gonna be some GOOD TIMES.