immonen illustrations

While METALCON raged upstairs at the Baltimore Convention Center, the torrential rains kept a record crowd from venturing out to explore the Inner Harbor– instead, they milled about under the eaves, in the lobby, and– a good portion, it seemed– in front of yours truly. Saturday was especially busy for me, and I managed to fulfill my obligations to the Hero Initiative to the tune of four sketches, plus one for the sponsor.

Most people were good about not going home with a drawing, except for someone who pushed and pushed until I just had to stop looking at him altogether, and pretend he wasn’t there.

I tried walking around the town, but stepping out of the tourist zone quickly led to encounters with junkies sleeping in bus shelters, condemned neighbourhoods, unwanted solicitations, and a general feeling of unease. Lucky for me, the rain kept me from wandering into the the really bad parts.

But the con– the con– was a treat; friendly and attentive volunteers, enthusiastic and well-behaved crowds, organized hosts and the chance to get to see some old and new friends: Dean Haspiel, whose work made The Alcoholic a joy to devour; the talented Paul Conrad, who let me peek at his accomplished and varied portfolio, and with whom I shared Star Wars stories; Lauren S, who didn’t chastize me for not working; KC and Johanna, who made the relish win; the ebullient Chris Pitzer, who discovered cutlery in the piano; Jim Dougan, who knows good Irish Vegetarian Cuisine when he sees it; Bendis, who gave me the second-best hug of the weekend (junkies notwithstanding); Karl Story, who may yet introduce me to the Venture Bros.; Randy Martin, who I met almost twenty years ago when I was young and pushy and who still has evidence of the encounter; Marc, Brad and their troop of volunteers, and I’m sure others I’m forgetting.

I took a very few photos– see them here.

And now back to work.

Posted by Stuart on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 and is filed under comics, events, industry, www. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.