Cryptic Press Comic Con 2004 Photo Journal:


Dave Roman at the Cryptic Press/Take Out comics booth
getting ready to hand each passerby a freshly printed
Astronaut Elementary sticker.



Craig Thompson stopped by on Preview night to say hi before things got too crazy. He was already tired so I tried to convince him to try out the spa in the Hyatt. Several people came up jokingly and asked if Raina Telgemeier was THE RAINA from Craig's book "Blankets".



Once Preview night was over Raina and Dave when back to the Manchester Grand Hyatt where John Green and Steve Flack (Reflux Comics) were waiting--since their flight had been delayed by 6 hours! Luckily Raina and Dave flew in a day early.



After grabbing dinner at Buster's Hawaiian restaurant, the gang decided to explore the newly completed second tower of the Hyatt. Taking advantage of all the doors being unlocked, we snuck into the workout room and goofed off.



John gets his second wind after spending all day at the airport and then on a plane for 5 hours. .



Jen Wang and Vera Brosgol from Pants Press stopped by to discuss their sneaky plan to borrow Raina's ID so they could get into a concert. Luckily the plan worked and no one is in jail!

Scott Brown, the publisher of Cyberosia , talks with Dave about his Agnes Quill mystery horror comic project.



Raina shared half her table with Amy Kim Ganter, who is a fellow SVA grad and the awesome artist of Reman Mythology Here you can see Amy trying out her selling approach.



Dave reflects on what he will eat for dinner as he watches Raina's half of the table.



One of the many photo ops at the swanky party hosted to celebrate the new Scholastic Graphic Novel Line: GRAPHIX After months of us keeping quiet-- Publishers Weekly finally broke the news in an article released just one week before the con about the new line that will debut with the republishing of BONE in full color at a digest size. The same article spilled the beans about how Raina will be adapting the Babysitters Club into a new series of Graphic Novels. So it was a big night as Raina got to be in the spotlight alongside one of her comic-book idols. Featured here (left to right) Jean Fiewel, David Saylor (both from Scholastic), Raina, Jeff Smith (Creator of Bone), and Lark Pien (creator of Long Tail Kitty).



Here's the super friendly Calvin Reid from Publisher's Weekly who we got to chat with a bunch at the party. To the right of him is a writer from Entertainment Weekly who I met once before and yet still managed to forget her name!



At about 8:30 we had to leave the Scholastic shindig to head over to the Friends of Lulu Awards Bash. Luckily Lark decided to walk with us because we showed up just minutes before she ended up winning the prize for best new talent!



Amongst the other winners was GirlAMatic editor and Rummblegirls creator, Lea Hernandez who gave one of the most heartfelt acceptance speeches I have ever seen a cartoonist give. And that was pretty much the humbling tone of the evening since Maggie Thompson dedicated her award to one of the other nominees--her mentor Carol Kalish by talking about the effect she's had.



After the awards: Raina, Spike (Lucas and Odessa) and Lea. Also John Green in the background sporting a Teen Boat t-shirt!



We spent quite a few hours after the Lulu Awards hanging out at The Bitter End. Amongst the people we chatted it up with were some of our favorite peoples: The Otey Brothers from KO ComiX

I think we even continued conversations that where started last year at the same place...

Steve Flack describes the high points of "License to Drive", "Dream a Little Dream" and other films by the Coreys--who where at the con promoting the fact that they did DVD commentary for a film.



Dave and Raina pose with Tank Girl!



Tank Girl was played by Erika Moen, another of the insanely talented Pants Press crew.



Deciding he wanted to dress up too, Dave finds a discarded Yu Gi Oh mask--grabs some of Amy Kim Ganter's business cards--and prepares for battle!



Back at the hotel I ran into Amber Benson who played Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She was SOOOO sweet and friendly it ridiculous.I gave her one of my stickers and asked to take a photo.



Here's Russ and another friend from KO ComiX heading past Cinderella's carriage and towards the Sea Port Village for our annual Pizza Scrimmage.



Joining us for the Scrimmage this year were Cory Allemeie, Ed Siemienkowicz, Joel Carroll, plus Rad Sechrist & Phil Craven (both not pictured).



Friday night was also the big celebration for the arrival of the Ronald Regan aircraft carrier in the San Diego bay. Tons of people came into town for that as well as the comics convention which explained why I had to wait on line for an hour to get some deep dish pizza! According to the news it was the biggest firework display the city has ever seen--and we had a perfect view of the light show from our hotel room.



Friday night was also the big celebration for the arrival of the Ronald Regan aircraft carrier in the San Diego bay. Tons of people came into town for that as well as the comics convention which explained why I had to wait on line for an hour to get some deep dish pizza! According to the news it was the biggest firework display the city has ever seen--and we had a perfect view of the light show from our hotel room.



Here is a picture taken on Saturday afternoon of the upstairs hall where I think they held the autographs for celebrities and stuff.



It was a pretty busy show so there wasn't time to geek out at TOO many panels. But Dave, John and Raina left the booth long enough to check out the Farscape Panel together. Dave's cousin Dan, back in NY made him promise that he would go and take pictures no matter what. So mission accomplished.



The best part was getting see Brian Henson in person--not only is he the son of one of my heroes--but he voiced and performed the big dog on Fraggle Rock and tons of other Muppets over the years. And man am I a dork for puppets.



The actors from Farscape are even crazier than there fans--and love to jump on chairs and take photos.



Claudia Black (seen here in slow motion) gave a studded dog collar to one of the people in the audience and made all sorts of off-color jokes.



Raina Lee, who edits the awesome video game magazine called 1-UP ZINE. I gave her a copy of "Milkshakes & PowerUps", the videogame soundtrack mix I just completed for the "Balloon Farm CD swap club".



Micheal Vega and Diana X Sprinkle are the creators of Saiko and Lavender for Radio Comix, freelancer for Tokyo Pop. John and I encouraged them to get moving on the brilliant comic idea they told us about at APE a few years back: DINOSAURS Vs. UNICORNS!!!



Amy and Raina trade tips on convention tactics.



We were invited to the Flight dinner party which was a massive gathering of family style dining at Buca Di Beppo to celebrate the release of the FLIGHT comics anthology.

A popular chain found all over the U.S., Buca Di Bepp is worth checking out wherever you happen to be. Large portions designed to be shared and fought over. The lemon chicken rocks.



Besides editing the hit comic anthology of the show,Kazu Kibuishi (pictured left) deserves just as much credit for organizing a dinner with over 80 cartoonists and getting them all to pay upfront so he didn't get stuck with the bill!

...Continue on to PAGE 2 for more San Diego 2004 Photos