Baltimore: Sketches and Loot

Sure cons are fun because of the crazy costumes and the news that you hear, but another important component is getting to meet creators (and some retailers) as well as all the cool crap you get to buy. We talked a little about some of the people we met on the show and here's your chance to see some of the stuff that these creators were generous enough to make for us.

What are you lookin' at?

First up: Eric Powell's adorable little mugshot of the Goon in my "Chinatown" hardcover!


We spoke at length about the suave charm of Jeff Parker and the debonair style of Gabriel Hardman on the show, so now gander at them rendering the majority of the Agents of Atlas in some of my Hardcovers!

Ken Hale, the curmudgeonly Gorilla-Man!

Namor's cousin from the side that has good hair, Namora!

Jeff's Gorilla-Man because Ken can be charming when he wants to be!

M-11 the Human Robot! He's like R2-D2 with a death ray!

Venus, sultry siren singer of showtunes!

 Here's hoping the rest of the Atlas material (including the story in Spider-Man family and the Incredible Hercules backups) gets a hardcover so I can get Bob and Jimmy Woo next time!


You're probably thinking right now: "Gosh Richard, those sketches sure are swell but all those exclamation points have sure got me riled up to see some of the keen swag that you spent all that cheddar on!" Well you're in luck because that's what all the rest of this is going to be about!

That's my brand spankin' new 'Astro City: The Dark Age book 1' hardcover there next to 1602. This one slipped through my fingers a while back and I've been getting grey hairs ever since. The AC hardcovers tend to go out of print and all have differing levels of difficulty to find at this point. Yes, that is a copy of  'Confession' in hardcover one over from the Nausicaa boxset; if you're looking for one, good luck and I hope you don't lose your mind!

Check it out! It's the Ultimate Battleground Weapons Pak that me and Jas had to skip at Matty due to a ton of other stuff hitting that month. We were at last reunited at the low cost of $25, so this is no longer 'the one that got away'. Amazingly, this was the only toy related thing I bought at the whole con; that has to be some kind of personal record.

All the swank hardcovers I bought, minus the first 'Avengers Assemble' which I thought was the hard one to find. Turns out it's the second one that's out of print. I passed it up no less then twice at the con so the joke's on me! Finally finding a single of 'R.E.B.E.L.S.' #8 helped that sting a little less though. The two small red books are the Agents of Atlas volumes I bought to supplement the 2 I already brought.

Holy Crap, it's a pair of 'Toon Tumblers! I resisted getting any of these for a long time and for good reason: I'm thoroughly addicted just as I knew I would be. Now I've got to dig up the Nova and Nightcrawler ones somewhere. Fingers crossed for Hawkeye and Hercules next year!

So there you have it! Baltimore's a great place to shop because everything's got awesome prices and it's a rad place to meet creators because it's a pretty casual con. I'm foaming at the mouth for next year already if not just in hopes that the one girl's still working at the Cheesecake Factory.

Fun at Baltimore

So now that you've heard about our epic con adventures this year, I'm going to share some pictures from Baltimore. I wish I'd taken my camera with us outside of the con, as downtown was pretty amazing.

Gateway to paradise!

When I saw this I just had to laugh. I'm sure there were angry people, but why? The sign's so sincere I can't think of it as anything but endearing.

The con was sponsored by Ford this year and they were letting people test drive the Ford Fiesta. It's a pretty sweet ride and we even got a goody bag with Spider-Man #1 (1990) in it!

I love these flags. The convention hall is so snazzy; it's all glass, escalators, fountains and awesome sofas.

Check it out! Official Stitcher gear for Smart people who listen to their smart phones! Also our cute little sign and our black market sign-up list.

This was our little alleyway at the con. Not seen: the comic guy with a raffle box that had Brad Pitt from Se7en screaming on it.

Nothing special here; just an idea of the scale of the con.

It's Frank Cho's booth! He wasn't here at the time but I did get a shot of the cool painting he was working on during the con. Like an idiot, I didn't notice that the Bunny has the Right Hand of Doom until Rich Johnston pointed it out later.

It's the BOOM! booth! I love this picture because the Irredeemable poster makes it look like there's someone sitting at the table. Try getting a signature from that guy! As a bonus Mr. Incredible looks like he's about to knock that poor booth worker on the head, while Jack-jack laughs at Elasti-girl's feeble attempts to warn him in time.

I remember this guy! He sold me the 1st (only?) Casanova hardcover for $5 last year and I came back hoping to find the Kick-Ass HC for cheap since I totally know they overprinted it.

One half of the Image booth where luminaries like Erik Larsen,  Bryan Glass, Ryan Ottley, the Luna Bros. and the artist guy from that Godland comic I hear so much about were signing throughout the con.

It's Buzzboy! This guy's super nice every year but I'm not going to lie: this picture was me brazenly trying to get a shot of that cute asian girl on the far right.

Hey check it out! It's Master Chief fighting Boba Fett! This was the booth next to us and this particular piece of Vs. genius taunted us at every turn as it may be the single most powerful child lure since the invention of the Candy bar.

The $5 TPB's place had the "Stan Lee Meets..." hardback for $6; always wanted to read those one shots though I've never really heard anyone talk about them that much. Then again there's never a lot of talk about the mini-events Marvel does sometimes. They also had the standard 400 copies of 'The Eternals" HC for $5. Those T-shirt guys are great, we see them at every con; they had an awesome shirt with all the Robot Masters from Mega Man one time that, like an idiot, I never bought. Haven't seen it since.

I think these guys were my favorite costumed group at the Con. Poor Beachhead must have been sweating like MGM's investor's looking at their quarterly statement. *ZING*

This thing photographs amazingly well. Kudos to it's makers!

I love the guy in this picture; it's like he's dancing a merry jig on his way out after finding some awesome loot. We'll see you next year Baltimore, so stay classy!

Episode #29: mIRCiless Chat-ter

At long last it's our discussion about our respective Con experiences over the last 2 weeks!Was Mike overwhelmed by the sheer size of Dragoncon? Did I embarrass myself in front of any pros at Baltimore? How was running the booth? The answers to these questions (and many more) are contained within! After that, stay riveted to those seats because we have lots more spectacular entertainment for you! I totally lose it during Lantern Corps-ner and freak John out! Marshall proposes a new contest! And the first ever live performance of the ORCCAcast theme!

Episode #28: The Fuschia Ring of 'Meh'

Once again we welcome the debonair Poe Ghostal from Points of Articulation onto the show as he was just so much fun last time we couldn't resist having him back! We talk about the Mego revival! We talk about how Mezco makes odd choices in their licensed product! We talk about so much I felt like this number of exclamation points is totally justified!Also, our second listener suggested top 10 comes to an end as Marshall names his remaining Marvel characters and we read the list of Kinsel who suggested the topic in the first place. Plus a brand new original song and one of the most passionate Lantern Corps-ner's ever!

Jaysun's Tech Note: Sorry it took so long for this guys, we experience difficulty after difficulty, and it won't happen again. We have taken preventative measures against it, so we will be posting all weekend to catch up. And to say sorry, this episode is SUPERSIZED! So enjoy...

Episode #27: Paper Quality and Personal Questions

Fresh off of last episodes stop at the British Isles we return this week to our Countdown of everyone's favorite Marvel Characters! John gives Jas the 5th degree about just what exactly it is he's doing with his phone while Marshall sits this week out to go watch George Lopez! Me and Mike complain about how just killing a tree isn't good enough anymore, it has to be polished and given a gorgeous veneer! Plus Lantern Corner gets it's first repeat entry ever and you'll never guess who between! Want to find out how? Just tune into this spectacular episode of the ORCCAcast!

-Richard