GraniteCon 2014 Report

GraniteCon 2014 saw a return to the Radisson Expo Center in Manchester, NH for Jesse and I, and after last year’s GraniteCon being our best show of the year, we had high hopes and expectations! Let’s see what was good and bad about this year’s show (what we playfully dubbed “The Con of Thrones”) and also look at the friends and new artists I met along the way!

Overview

The Theme this year was made known months in advance of the actual con. This year GraniteCon managed to land 5 guest actors from the very popular HBO series “Game of Thrones.” Now, while I’ve read all 5 “Song of Ice and Fire” books and DO enjoy the show, the focus on this element of the convention clearly had an impact on other aspects of the show. I could feel attendance was up this year, it was their second year being a 2-day show and people felt a bit more used to the format, but because of the sudden injection of popular, non-comics media to the show, many of those new attendees were there “just for the celebrities.” and way way less for the actual comics artists for which the show is named.

There was an air of indifference shown to the artists this year, more like we were just there to amuse folks until the next Game of Thrones panel was loudly announced over the convention PA. There were influxes of people in-between the events, and there were times of very heavy activity on the show floor proper, but the gaps of just dead sales with little to no people walking around the artists tables was maddening and long. Especially on Sunday afternoon when one usually expects a bump in sales as people look to unload and make their choices.

I heard from many, many artists that sales were way down this year and while it’s easy to blame the Game of Thrones theme or the length of the show, or even the layout (which was no different than the previous years layout really, actually I liked the space we had between lanes much more this year!) But it was just a plain down year at GraniteCon for us, the artists, the backbone of said cons.

I basically broke even, which is more than I could ask for usually. To conclude, I’m not saying GraniteCon is entirely at fault for the sluggish sales, there are plenty of X-factors here that are not easily quantifiable. I plan to take the pro-active route and shaking up my table presence for the next convention I do and make the changes I can to better represent myself and my art to the convention-going public. I hope GraniteCon works hard to do the same for us artists.

 

Beyond Mode 7

Beyond Mode 7 the SNES themed comics and art anthology Jesse and I have been working on for the better part of 2 years now. GraniteCon was our public premier for the book and we sold…1 copy! I suppose a convention like MAGFest is much more suited to a game-themed book such as ours, but the reception to game based art and comics was much stronger over all at the prior year’s GraniteCon.

Thanks to our one purchaser, a fine Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds cosplayer!

 

Artists

Now that all the negativity is out of the way, let’s talk about some of the awesome artists I meet every year at the show, and the new faces I got introduced to, and their amazing art of course!

Amanda Dufresne

I actually met Amanda very recently at the unfortunately totally-bust RockCon in Salem, NH. A New Hampshire Native, she combines wicked fast ballpoint pen on paper skills with vibrant splashes of color! Focusing on superheros and a HUGE Legend of Zelda fan, keep an eye on her and her art, definitely suitable for the frames she sells it in!

Brandon Barrows

Brandon was back again for yet another GCon, loaded up with his great self published comics and various published writing such as articles in Heavy Metal! Check out  Jack Hammer, for some superhero, detective noir mix action!

Blair Shedd

Blair is another long-time Granite Con tabler. You probably know him from his awesome Dr. Who art on the IDW line (before the licence moved elsewhere) as well as his amazing representational illustration work and his self published The RAPTOR superhero comic. Keep an eye on him in 2014, big things are happening for Blair very soon and it all promises to be very awesome!

Rare Earth Comics/Ian Ally-Seals/Carl Mefferd

Rare Earth Comics is the brain child of writer Ian Ally-Seals and features the art of fellow CCS graduate Carl Mefferd on their leading title Doctor Atlantis! They were seated directly across from us this year and sure had a great bunch of stuff to show off!

Chris Campana

Chris was a new face for me at GraniteCon. Friendly and quick with a joke, his comic First World is RIGHT down my alley, and definitely something to look towards as inspiration for my own Fantasy comic!

 

Cosplay

I don’t normally talk about cosplay much on my wrap up, but Granite Con’s cosplay seemed to even have a theme this year…BIG! Here’s a few shots I managed to take real quick!

Wreck It Ralph meets Enormous 10-foot creepy clown!

The Thing stopped by to say hi to Wolverine!

See that ENORMOUS white and green robot thing towering over everything else? Crazy!

The kids-con area even had the candy car!

It’s not GraniteCon without the Tardis randomly appearing!

 

Wrap-Up

Despite being a down year, and hearing a lot of complaints from other artists, I still have a lot of fun every year at Granite Con. Manchester is easy to drive to, the hotel is right off the highway, and parking is a sinch! I also love the folks that table and typically the crowd that attends. I don’t know if I’ll do GraniteCon again next year or not, it’s obviously quite a ways off, but we’ll see what happens!

Maybe next year I’ll do MAGFest 9.5 instead…if they do another fall show? (Tee-shirt representin’!)

My next convention is going to be Portland Comics Expo (run by the MeCAF guys!) on October 26th so come on out to the sea-coast and check out what’s new at RKDIA Comics!

-RD

 

Beyond Mode 7: Deadline Approaches!

This update has been a long time coming! It’s time to officially get excited about Beyond Mode 7 as the final art submission deadline is just a mere 2 weeks away! To whet all those video game art loving appetites out there, today I’m going to share a few nibbles of some of what has already come in from our STILL GROWING list of contributors!

First off, I’d like to announce that the book will officially launch at MeCAF 2014, in Portland Maine on May 18th! Jesse and I were accepted for the sixth year in a row to table at this amazing, growing and evolving indie comics show! It’s got a great history of solid attendance and being great for the whole family, exactly the intended audience for the anthology.

Second, if you missed any of my Post-MAGFest Reports (read them here and here) then I’ll once again announce the addition of the amazing Kevin Bolk, 8BitMaximo and Hex Martinez to the Anthology roster! Each brings something unique and powerful to the table and we’re overjoyed to have them on board! Hit those links up and check out their work!

Now, for the newcomers to Beyond Mode 7, let me introduce the anthology real quick: The brain child of my table mate and fellow ink-slinger Jesse Durona (artist behind the popular Despondent Mega Man comics) Beyond Mode 7 came to be after MAGFest 11 in January of 2013. The book will be a full-color, 6×9″, perfect-bound homage to all things Super Nintendo.

With more contributing artists than the system had Bits to work with, it will cover a broad spectrum of experiences, games and memories from arguably the 90’s greatest video game console and game library. It will feature comics, illustrations, essays, and other works of art all honoring a device that brought interactive art and creativity right into our living rooms every day of our childhood!

Some of the games covered by Beyond Mode 7 include: (Art represented are works-in-progress!)

Super Mario World


© Scott Baer

Kirby’s Dreamland 3


© Matt Aucoin

Super Metroid


© Amanda Ruddock

TMNT Turtles in Time


© Bill Volk

Mega Man X


© Michael Ruggia

The Legend of Zelda: LttP


© Matt Aucoin

Earthbound/Mother2


© Randall Drew

…and many many more!

As a note to creators still working: The deadline for final art submissions is the end of this month! As of March, Jesse and I will be compiling the artwork together and preparing a Kickstarter for April! Then it’ll be a Super Nintendo Blitz to get as many people contributing to the campaign as possible! We want to put your art in as many hands as possible, so keep and eye out for requests to help spread the word!

Thanks, and game on!
-RD

Above original artworks are © their respective creator, all rights reserved!

GraniteCon 2013

GraniteCon 2013 by far was my best convention ever. Table-mate Jesse DuRona would probably agree, this show was awesome to us! I’ll be honest, I heard mixed reviews from a lot of the other tabling artists and such, some were more successful than others, but for me, GraniteCon offered a steady mix of interested parties who often opened their wallets after seeing something they liked!

The Venue was the same, but the location within was very new and different. The con was really showing off just how much it had grown even since last year! The aisles were long, full of variety in terms of talents, styles and offerings, and there was plenty of space. Like any show there were peaks and valleys during the two day event, meal times and popular programming pulled the crowd away sometimes, but the floor was never completely empty, there was always some activity very near by! The hotel staff were cool, friendly and put up with a lot of antics, I’m sure!

Because my table was so busy, I didn’t get too much of an opportunity to check out other cartoonists work this year! I’m a bit bummed by this, but I did hang out with a few familiar faces and grabbed some comics I had been meaning to! I also had some really cool tabling neighbors…so, onto the artists section of the post!

Blair Shedd is a fellow Vermont based cartoonist and really needs no introduction to the folks that come here. He’s done amazing work for IDW’s Dr. Who and his self-published The RAPTOR is some quality, gritty super hero action! I didn’t get to talk with him terribly much at the show, but he looked busy every time I stopped by! Had a good time catching up at the hotel bar after Day 1, can’t wait to see what’s coming from him this fall/winter!

Brandon Barrows hails from Burlington (It was a regular ol’ VT cartoonist meetup at the show!) and is one of the best writers I’ve met since I started doing conventions! He’s published works all over the place from comics to poetry to prose and back again! Brandon also gets to work with some of the coolest artists working today and the matching is frequently perfect! His comics work includes the Detective comic for superhero fans, or maybe vica versa, Jack Hammer, and Voyaga; a homage to 1950’s pulp scifi!

Mathew Dow Smith is a busy guy and he was at GraniteCon in addition to tabling at FantaCon just a few weekends ago! Another Dr.Who artist, catch him while you can!

Sara Richard is at every GraniteCon, she’s awesome and I only got to say hi for 5 seconds before she flew off to fulfill someone’s dreams, but definitely check out her amazing, loopy and painterly work! She did the con badges this year!

I very briefly got to meet Ben Templesmith at the pub after the show! What a guy he is. Personality to spare and some incredible talent! If you’re into creepy gothic styling and award winning writing, dive in!

The wonderful Sue and Everett Soares were at GraniteCon again this year with the freshly printed second volume of Sky Pirates of Valendor! They are good people with big ol’ hearts and a lot of love for comics! Sky Pirates of course is great fun reading too! Hope to see them again very soon!

I first heard about writer Ron Marz’s comic RAVINE from a very excited Dawn Best and since he was at the show I couldn’t resist grabbing a copy! He was super friendly and Stjepan Sejic’s art looks amazing! As a wanna-be fantasy cartoonist, I figure studying the form from a working master is a good place to start!

JK Woodward is seriously one of the funniest guys I’ve met. As another Who artist, it’s almost no surprise. Those guys all have wit to spare! Some of his Star Trek pages were jaw dropping to see in person! He makes drawing complex ships in space seem easy.

Erik Burnham is every kid who grew up in the 80’s friend. He is a talented writer on both TMNT and Ghostbusters! A quiet guy like me, it was a pleasure to meet him and partake in some of his industry wisdom!

Here’s some other cool stuff that was at the show, in picture form!

The Actual Delorean used in Back to the Future III!

All sorts of Piratey goodness! (Or bad-ass-ness, I guess?)

A view of Manchester, NH from our hotel room Saturday night.

And that just about wraps up my experience at GraniteCon 2013! Again, I had a great time and had the most successful show I’ve ever had! Thanks to all the people that make it happen every year and all the great cartoonists who continue to come year after year! See you in 2014!

-RD

p.s. – Original artwork featured in this post is a custom commission I did of the three Bahamut forms from Final Fantasy VII! 11×14 on vellum drawing paper, Pentel Pocket Brush, Microns, Prismacolor and Copic markers! Thanks Hao for the awesome commish!

Original art is ©2013 Randall Drew
Final Fantasy Characters are © SquareEnix