San Diego Saturday Report
The attendance this year was over the top. I’ve been going out to this show since 1992, when I shared a table in Artist’s Alley with Charles Vess. The attendance that year was probably 25, maybe 30,000. This year people are saying 125,000! This is a picture of 125,000 people crossing the street. I spent most of Saturday with the Flight Crew, although I had a very good meeting with the DC team (many exciting things were proposed for SHAZAM! MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL now that it is getting closer to completion), and bumped into many old friends like Terry and Robin Moore, Lee Hester, Jenny Robb, David Silverman, Mike Carlin, Frank Miller, Jim Lee, Rachel Lovinger, Joe & Dottie Ferrera, Charles Vess, Rory Root, Sergio Aragones, Jimmy Palmioti & Amanda Conners, Batton Lash & Jackie Estrada and more besides!
The Flight Panel was standing room only. That’s Kazu Kibuishi, Flight’s editor at the podium. A very interesting discussion about the future of graphic novels and the sustainability of the long form comic. I think Kazu and the rest of the relatively young, but accomplished artists are coming to grips with the huge commitment in time, money and emotional energy that the field requires. Despite that, I only sensed optimism and fearlessness from every single member. Don’t worry, guys, it’s nothing Alan Moore, Art Spiegleman, Ernest Hemmingway or Mark Twain didn’t deal with.
Kazu, Jen Wang, and Scott McCloud laughing with Reagan Lodge.
Amy Kim Ganter and Bill Plympton.
Kean Soo, me, and Steve Hamaker.
Kean Soo and Derek Kirk Kim.
After lunch we returned to the Flight booth for a signing and found a mob that we could barely get through. It was a monster signing and I want to publicly thank the Flight Crew and especially Johanne Matte for inviting me to appear at their booth and making the whole experience fun for me and more importantly, the fans.
I did get the names of the Fone Bone and Thorn that visited me on Friday: Thorn was Tiana Krohn-Ching, and Fone’s puppeteer was Christopher Maslanka.My flight back to Columbus is at 8pm. For someone who normally spends a week at this show, two days seems short. Still it was one of the richest San Diegos I can remember. What did I learn? I learned that Terry Moore won’t tell me the secret ending of Strangers in Paradise, and that Scott McCloud - - about everything - - was right after all. And when I spotted Jonesy from Reno 911, I also learned that it’s still fun to see a celebrity.
Before heading out to the airport, I met John J. Muth and David Saylor, my editor at Scholastic, for a cool-down drink at the Omni bar. While we were chatting, a squadron of Storm Troopers came in from the heat, and lined up their helmets on the bar, resulting in my single favorite image of San Diego Comic-Con International 2006:
And with that, I think I’ll sleep for a day or so!
I think that might have been a Jim Mahfood impersonator because it really doesn’t look like him. I may be wrong…
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=175078&GSub=27783
…weird.
Comment by John — July 25, 2006 @ 3:14 pm
You are right, of course! It’s John J. Muth, not Muhfood. Sorry! I blogged while still groggy, I guess. Thanks, John, I’ll change the page immediately!
Comment by Jeff Smith — July 25, 2006 @ 3:49 pm
Hey Jeff! It was great to see you at SDCC! And and honor to share a table with you on Saturday =)
Comment by Joey — July 28, 2006 @ 10:06 pm
http://www.felipeattie.blogspot.com
http://www.felipeattie.blogspot.com
Please!!!!
Tank you!!!
Bye…
Comment by Felipe Attie — July 29, 2006 @ 5:26 pm
Jeff,
it was great seeing you again in San Diego. Thanks for your kindness and I hope you like De:TALES when you get a chance to read it.
Comment by Fábio Moon — July 29, 2006 @ 6:23 pm
Was Bill P wearing his sandles and indecently short shorts? That’s his get up when he visits the Annecy Animation Festival in France, and mighty eyecatching it is too
Glad your Con went well, mate.
Comment by Curtis Jobling — August 2, 2006 @ 4:07 am
I can’t say I remember what Bill Plympton was wearing! And he sat right next me to during our signing. He is a very pleasant guy.
Comment by Jeff — August 2, 2006 @ 11:02 am
Jeff, thanks so much for sketching in my book and signing a poster for me! it was such a treat to actually meet you. Bone was one of the first comics that I was introduced to, and still one of my favorites. It brought me into the wonderful world of GREAT comics. oh, and i was lucky enough to get a picture with thorn, bone, and ted, too! how exciting! this was my first Comic-Con and boy was i overwhelmed. i will be back again next year, and maybe i’ll be able to see everything next time. I hope to see you again soon! i’ll bring brownies or cookies next time.
thanks again, and keep up the great work!
Comment by jen — August 2, 2006 @ 12:24 pm
It was my pleasure, Jen! Sounds like you had a great time and good luck seeing everything - - The show has grown so fast and so huge, that it has been years since I was able to see it all!
Comment by Jeff — August 3, 2006 @ 6:25 am
Sounds like you had a great time, wish I could have gone though
Maybe someday. Is there any chance of you ever coming to a mid west convention like the Wizard Con in Chicago? My sister and I are going to it tomorrow, so I’m real excited the last and first time I went was two years ago and I was able to get all of the back issues of Bone that I was missing so I was way super happy :D. I hope to find more goodies this year. Keep up the good work and I’m looking forward to reading Shazam when it comes out. Thanks for all you’ve given us and I hope to see more Bone related stories in the future, 
:) 
please!
Comment by Jeanette — August 3, 2006 @ 9:44 am
Cool Jeanette! Tell me if you see any Phoney action figures!
Comment by Tanner Hayes — August 3, 2006 @ 4:40 pm
Ok, hopefully if I do they won’t be way over priced
!
Comment by Jeanette — August 4, 2006 @ 9:05 am
Have fun in Chicago! Catoon Books is planning out next year’s shcedule, and Wizard World is looking like it will be on the list, so maybe I will see you guys then!
Comment by Jeff Smith — August 4, 2006 @ 1:05 pm
Oh cool!Thanks Jeff for listening I guess I picked the right time to ask lol :)I’ll definetly see you next year!! I’ll post my fun day on the forum sometime this weekend. Oh and Tanner, sorry but I didn’t see any Phoney figures.
Comment by Jeanette — August 5, 2006 @ 8:26 am
?? that last face was suppose to be a frown. and the first the really big smiley face, oh well.
Comment by Jeanette — August 5, 2006 @ 8:28 am
:))
Comment by Tanner Hayes — August 13, 2006 @ 3:55 pm
XD!!!!
Comment by Tanner — August 13, 2006 @ 3:55 pm
Hello Jeff,
Sorry this is coming a bit late but thank you very much for putting Tiana and myself on your web page. I am thrilled you liked both the Fone puppet and Thorn costume and Tiana was excited that you remembered her prayer stone. It is quite a vindication of our hobbies, as costumer and as puppeteer to have the creator enjoy it. Thank you again and just call on us if you ever needed to create a full scale BONE puppet show!
Comment by Christopher — September 6, 2006 @ 2:46 pm