This is the post I’ve been trying to put off as long as I could. For anyone that’s dropped by after San Diego Comic Con or Long Beach Comic Con you’ve noticed unfortunately a diminishing amount of publishing. It’s because I’ve learned that freelance is a good thing and so is web comics, but the two don’t mix well at all. Trying to both freelance as well as a be a web comics illustrator, writer AND editor for TomatoTV.net has not worked out as evidence of our terrible publishing “schedule”. I’ve been evaluating and some things gatta go. Now, you’ve read several posts that start with a similar prompt of “not enough time. Too much life” then they usually end with “it’s been great. Bye bye webcomic.” Well not here, for me it’s “Freelancing has been great, but bye bye Freelance. Hello TomatoTV.net” I’ll be returning to regular work for a company for a variety of reasons, but amongst those so I can donate the proper time to TomatoTV.net and really take it where I know it can go.

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As with San Diego I am going to break Long Beach Comic Con down to a few posts as there was too much fun for one post. This post will focus on the coolest part of the convention for me, which was meeting Berkeley Breathead creator of the comic strips Bloom County, Outland and Opus. I can count on one hand the amount of people that were the most influential creators that helped me either want to do what I do or whose work helped me get there once I wanted to do. Berkeley is one of them. I wrote recently of Jack Kirby who taught me personally that no one is small enough to be treated less than another and his art showed me how to move a character around a page in away that it’s hard to believe the illustration is really a static image. With Berkeley I read Opus when I was kid and enjoyed it more than the others for reason that I didn’t know at the time. Now I can look back and see that it was unique on the comic strips page in a way that also made Peanuts, For Better or For Worse in a category all their own. Bloom County though struck a cord in me where now I can see where what I love doing now started reading Bloom County as a kid. The absolute best thing about meeting Berkeley is that he turned out be rather a nice guy actually, something you always should be concerned about when meeting those whose only exposure you’ve had is their work. Thank you Berkeley for being so cool

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Long Beach Comic Con Day 1: Day one of Long Beach Comic Con (referred to henceforth in this post as LBCC) was hard to really figure from a vendor’s point of view. As the convention was only from 3-7 PM it was a half-day and thus can’t be figured on as a regular first day basis. I can say though it was fun. There is always a concern of whom you’ll be stationed next to for the duration of the convention. Sometimes you meet new friends and other time you can get the jerkiest of pricks. San Diego Comic Con last year (2008) we were next to a prick and a half. He was apparently an artist with a (I’ll not name which) studio and was quite proud of that fact. This I only know because he told every one that came buy but never actually talked to me the entire 5 days there, . This year looks to be quite fun though. To our left are Kendrix and Laurie of “Art of Laurie B”, old friends that we’ve known in the convention circuit for several years. To our left is Joel Adams, whom Jonelle and I just met today but seems like a very nice guy. So in short se seem to be doing well on the cool neighbor factor this con. Apologies for the brief blog post but more detail when time permits Monday or so. One cool thing I did want to leave you with was a cool moment today for Jonelle and I. We got to meet Jeph Loeb that didn’t require long lines! Check back tomorrow for another update and do remember to stop by the booth to buy our Geekdom Wear shirts!

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Long Beach Comic Con is a week away. Next Friday’s (October 2-4) Jonelle and I will be at the inaugural Long Beach Comic Con at Artists Alley table number 60 right next to our friends Art of Laurie B. We are very much looking forward to seeing how much fun the convention is and hoping to meet any one reading the website now and meeting new readers. We will also have our Geekdom Wear shirts for sale, and we do process credit cards so you can spend your “con cash” elsewhere and still walk away with a nifty cool shirt. I will also be available for sketches for those interested. Maps to find us below, and come back Monday for another post of what we’ll have for you at Long Beach Comic Con.

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In what was probably one of the most innovative and contextually grounded as well as utilitarian ideas I’ve seen period was what Syfy channel did with their experience-based marketing. Now first you’ll have to know that “Eureka” is a show on SyFy that takes place in the town of Eureka. In the show the restaurant, called “Café Diem”, is where much of any talking happens that isn’t location or plot specific. You also need to know that when you exit the convention center when the doors close you want to eat and the Gaslamp District is literally across the street. By no surprise it’s a street of restaurants.

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