Simon said he was getting an interview, and Matt said he was just shooting footage for the site, but I knew better.

No doubt, Lady Deadpool was foxy, but make sure you check out the other costumed crusaders from Long Beach.

When our impromptu shoot was over, we gathered our thoughts over pizza and planned our moves for the next day.  Deciding that no time should be wasted, I grabbed the awesome Michael Alan Nelson for my very first video interview evar! (09, a year of firsts for me I guess).

Michael was so interesting.  Here was a guy talking to me about some of the same struggles I go through as a writer, but speaking from high atop hundreds of pages.  Check out the video interview for his insight on the 28 Days Later comic Boom is putting out.  SPOILER: Michael is incredibly excited to tell the story of how Selena got her Machete.  Oh yea, and what happened to Jim and Hannah?

Listening to our podcast from Saturday, you know we were starting to see the crazy salvation that came with exhaustion.  The freedom to say “I’ve stayed up 2 days straight and had a monumental blast.”

That night I slept (if you could call it that) on the floor.

When we awoke on Sunday it was the hustle of packing the room and getting to con on time.  We arrived and all was well, but our last day at Con would be the most grueling.  The morning started off with 2 panels for me.

I sat in on a panel with Jeph Loeb, Joshua Hale Fialkov, and David Peterson (creator of Mouseguard).  They discussed what a writer goes through in order to make most efficient usage of that 22 page count problem.  David Peterson was very insightful, telling amateurs to break things down into thumbnails when they write.

There I discovered that when you write an outline, you give yourself a rough idea of how many pages each story point will take up.  This way, your artist understands what they are in for and can plan ahead.  As Jeph Loeb said, if the artist and writer are in sync the comic will be great.  So the lesson here is to plot things out and find out what your artist can handle.

And then I got to listen to David Wohl and Joe Benitez work through the first page of Executive Assistant Iris.  Benitez is the artist responsible for the cover of issue 0, but the real illustrations go to Eduardo Francisco.  This was a great chance to see how writers and artists think so differently.

As Joe said, a good editor moderates the writer/artist relationship effectively.  The two are thinking on totally different levels.

As 2 o’clock hit, I left the panel and went outside for some air.  My feet were beginning to ache from all the standing and I needed some time to collect thoughts, gather notes and think retrospectively.  I had already been through so much, it was only a matter of time before it would end.

The others joined me briefly, but went off chasing interviews before too long including: Amanda Connor, JT Kroll, Beth Sotel and others.

I would leave Long Beach with a few prints and memories of one hell of a con.  Here are some first time Con goer tips from me:

•    Wear comfy shoes
•    Bring lots of cash, and don’t be stupid like I did and spend it on lunch
•    If you’re not afraid of walking, park far away.  Just remember this warning when you walk back
•    Talk with people, everyone there is equally socially awkward, so you’re among your peers.
•    Don’t feed the artists

Until next time kids…

Rich Bashara
Rich@comicimpact.com