The
Art of the Con
Exploring the Motor City Comic Con Was An Unexpected
Adventure
by Dave Phillips
6/6/99
Usually when we go out and blow a few hundred dollars over the course of a weekend, it's because we've taken a road trip to Chicago, or gone to an outlet mall, or something that involves travelling. Not so in this case...we went all of about 20 minutes from our house to the recent Motor City Comic Convention in Novi, Michigan...and let me tell you, it was well worth the trip. As a note related to this article, I've included low-resolution scans within the body of the article so as to save load-time (aren't I a great guy?)...but if you want to see the higher-resolution, and sometimes dauntingly large, copies of the images in question, all you have to do is click on the pictures you see here in the pages. Don't say I didn't warn you though...some of the pictures are very large, and may take some time to load in the new browser window they will open.
Exhibitors ranging from high-end costumes and collectibles in the $1,000 range to action figure and artists featuring original work were on display in the 100,000-foot exhibition hall. Comic books from all eras were on multi-level displays and in boxes lining the floor for thousands of feet at a stretch. Video dealers carrying everything from the Star Wars Holiday Special to videotaped pirated copies of TROOPS and both Episode 1 trailers were prominently present at every turn. The eclectic booths featuring the likes of an air-brush temporary tattoo artist, a "gypsy" psychic/palm reader/tarot card reader, a children's book seller, the (apparently) requisite mid-70's Playboy bunnies and "models"...all were on display throughout the convention hall for you to check out when you'd completely overloaded on comics and Star Wars bric-a-brac. A professional wrestling event was held, featuring names I hadn't heard since my childhood like "The Iron Sheik" and "King Kong Bundy". The Michigan Renaissance Festival had a booth, disseminating information about this coming season's activities and planned adventures - if you're in the area, I strongly suggest making the trip.
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Overall, it was a really great time. We found some older Dave Dorman prints that we'd previously been hunting down for a while at more than reasonable prices. Perhaps the best find of all was when we ran into someone who has artwork in our Fan Art section of Echo Station! Having no idea he was here in the area, and certainly not knowing he was going to be at the convention, as we were walking down an aisle in "Artist's Alley", I noticed a piece of art that was an exact replica of a picture that I distinctly remembered being in our fan art section. I say distinctly remembered because it's a very striking piece full of vibrant color and extremely well done...so well done in fact that when it first arrived in our inbox, Loren dismissed it immediately as an "obvious fake"...a composite built from existing photographs rather than original artwork...and yet here was the original painting staring us in the face! Seeing the artist's name, Brian Rood, immediately made everything clear - this was our artist! If you haven't taken a look at Brian's stuff yet, I strongly suggest you head over to our web store and take a look in the artwork section for his items...he sells both previously done materials as well as custom work, and his skills are well worth the money.
The other great find of the show was Matt Busch - a friend of Brian's who just happens to be an official LFL artist! He did the cover art for "Tales From The Empire", and has a portfolio of work that is easily some of the best Star Wars related artwork that I've ever seen in my life...which I guess is sort of to be expected from an LFL employee, no? Matt's going to be doing an interview with us in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned!
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We met a lot of great people, exhibitors and attendees alike. Even a Star Wars fan like myself had to appreciate the incredible amount of time and effort that obviously went into this costume done by a Star Trek fan named Mark from Zeeland, Michigan. The convention guests were, for the most part, friendly folks who were a pleasure to speak to. A "cause" was brought to our attention and will be promoted shortly on Echo Station - a special comic book series being done by a team of contributors including names any Star Wars fan should know...the Hildebrandt brothers - from which all proceeds will be going to help children in the war-ravaged regions of Bosnia. The organizer of this effort spent a good half-hour talking with us about the entire chain of events...rather impressive seeing as how his time was rather pressed - he was leaving for Bosnia just one day later. This comic, titled "Awaken", is in final production stages and will shortly be available.
Another cool find was "Heroes For Sale", a way cool place based in the U.K. but with a store here in Michigan that sells full-scale, very well done costumes from Star Wars and other genres. For a mere $1,000 you too could have the head-to-toe stormtrooper armor seen here. Other costumes included the rather authentic looking Jedi robes seen below, as well as outfits from Star Trek and other miscellaneous genres. Definitely worth checking out, they're on the web at http://www.presc-eisley.com.
We also heard rumors of a planned Christmas re-release of The Phantom Menace, possibly even a re-release of all four Star Wars movies at that time. This would definitely squash any ideas of having the film available on video by year's end, but would lend itself nicely into yet another Christmas filled with a Star Wars marketing and advertising campaign blitzkrieg from Lucasfilm and the licensees. Just what good old George Lucas wanted for Christmas, I'm sure - more money. In addition, this would give The Phantom Menace a second run at Titanic should it fail to break the rather daunting $600 million benchmark for highest grossing picture during it's first engagement at the theaters. I'm not saying this is a sure thing by a long shot, but I'm definitely saying that it sounds like a reasonable course of action.
But enough with the schmaltzy overview stuff...let's get into a little controversy, shall we?