[dropcap]T[/dropcap]en years ago I drove over three hours with my 7-year-old son to Pittsburgh to go to a comic book convention. It was really fun and we met lot of cool comic legends like George Perez and Sergio Aragones. Since then we have attended several cons and shows across the country. This weekend, I got the chance to go to the Pittsburgh Comic Con again… but without my son… he got a job. I took my daughter instead.
The Pittsburgh Comic Con was held September 27 – 29 this year and was a much bigger event than I remembered from my first visit ten years ago. The first thing that caught my eye was the car that I parked next to in the parking lot…
There was a heavy Ghostbusters vibe at the con this year with the presence of Ecto-1, a giant inflated Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, and the Steel City Ghostbusters.
That was just the beginning of the comic and movie fun I spied at this con. There were some really awesome costumes like Venom, Carnage, Catwoman, and Black Cat, but the costume contest was taking place on Sunday, and I attended Saturday, so did not get any great pics of those, since it was a lot of work tracking them down in the crowd.
Jim Steranko was the guest of honor at the Pittsburgh Comic Con and the line was pretty long to get to see him. Jim Steranko is best known for his work with Marvel Comics’ Nick Fury, really turning him into the super spy that he is. This was my first con as more than just a comic fan, so I tried to take it all in without spending too much time in any one place. There were two section, one was Artist Alley and it was full of great talent like Joe Fogle, Paul McGinty, Tonya Fulmore, and Deanna Urban to name a few. This section also included all the panel halls for many presentations from an Archie comics panel to Q & 
A time with Jim Steranko.
In the main hall, all the dealers, small press booths, and publishers had their spaces. Jim Balent and Holly G! were at their booth for Broadsword Comics, George Perez was at the front of the hall signing autographs, and the Batmobile sat beautifully displayed in the corner. Much of the con was concerned with Doctor Who, since Daphne Ashbrook, a former companion, Grace Halloway with the eighth incarnation of the Doctor, was a special guest.
One of the areas that caught my attention was the Zenescope booth, as they were there to preview the pilot for their upcoming animated series based on the Grimm Fairy Tales comic series.
I will have more on that in an article for ScreenRebellion.com. I did pick up the special free comic book one shot kicking off the animated series. The stories are unique, graphic, and interesting and they have some great talent working with them on their books. https://www.zenescope.com/
On the small press side, I met a lot of great folks including Chris Ehnot, who started as an art assistant to Michael Turner at Top Cow and has done cover art for many books and continues to do great work for Aspen Comics and Zenescope. His covers are amazing to see, and I was excited to hear that he will be doing some upcoming covers for Zenescope. He is the co-creator of a new series called Fallen that looked really cool and you can check out his covers and other art at http://cbei.deviantart.com/.
I had a great discussion with Jeanie L.S. Galster about her recently completed project, a book trilogy with some great artwork, called the Reverence Trilogy. I asked for the short version of the story, but still bought a full set of the books, and Jeanie said it was about a girl whose tattoos come to life. That sounds really cool, but I know there is so much more to the story and you can find out on her website http://jeaniels.com. Check them out.
I also wanted to mention a few other folks that were nice enough to talk with me and let me take pictures of their art and booths.
Geoffrey Munn and Logan Uber, artist and publisher respectively and you can see more about them here or here. Also, Trenita Finney, making her debut at the Pittsburgh Comic Con, with amazing art, check her out at trenitafinney.net. Some other guys with great artwork for sale and they do commission work, G.W. Fisher, with some awesome superhero art, and Alan Shell, who uses color pencil drawings and creates negative prints.
This convention was a lot of fun, there was a ton to see, and I wish I could have gone on Sunday because they had the costume contest and a zombie walk, since Monroeville is the site of the Monroeville Mall where the 1977 film Dawn of the Dead was filmed. A good trip and I definitely want to go back again next year.
