Jugger Grimrod

At least with CGC you can pick up the phone and get a live person in customer service, good luck with that with CBCS. I saw up on the grading fence for years, never had a bad thing to say about CGC or CBCS but went with CBCS for most of my grading needs. Sadly their service and quality has dropped considerably since Beckett bought them. It has been a nightmare dealing with them and I was hoping I would never had to say that but it's reality.

Also I am sure everyone is aware of this, but if not, the next ECCC will be held August 18-21, 2022. It will then transition back to it's usual March slot for 2023.

Years ago it was basically a free for all when it came to the Funko stuff, but they then started doing a lottery-based system whereas people would enter the lottery and put in the days they would attend and then Funko would alert everyone who won an entry ticket a few days before the show. You then show that on your phone or print it out to gain access based on the day/time slot Funko gave you. I believe they restock each day, so ideally you want to be in the earlier time slots each day to get the ones you want. It's still a mad house but a much more organized and control mad house. I myself don't collect, but my booth is generally close to Funko's so I see all the people lining up, etc. Also, most of the stuff they offer at the shows is "shared exclusives" which means one may be a Target exclusive, or Amazon, or Gamestop, but they will then offer the same thing at the convention, but with a convention sticker on it, and apparently that is why the convention ones are more sought after with collectors, is because of the sticker itself. Of course there are then some convention exclusives that are only available at the show itself that aren't considered "shared".

It doesn't look like CGC has a presence this year at ECCC, I saw CBCS will be there. Also, no Image Comics or Dark Horse Comics, or Boom Studios either. However, the expedition hall will be the same size as it was during pre-Pandemic years. For those coming for Funko, their booth is now right inside the main entrance, instead of their usually spot in the main exhibition hall. Have fun those who are coming to the show here, except possible rain (shocking) and temps in the upper 40's. If you don't make it this year, there is always next year....

For those coming into town, while the weather lately has been unseasonably warmer than usual, the temps are expected come show time to be in the low to mid 40's. as a high. No snow to worry about, possibly rain though. While the show won't be as attended as if it was held in March (during a non-pandemic time), I think the show will see a good amount of fans attending, I have seen the show floor and it's just as large as it has been in the past with regards to exhibitor space. Exhibitor set-up started today I will be there Tuesday-Wednesday before the official start date his Thursday. Enjoy the show everyone!

The Crow by Clayton, this was a gift to me by him years ago, the running joke between us was I would tell him to simply work on his actual customer commission requests and when he would have spare time he would work on this piece, so when he finished he signed and dated it 2007-2010 representing when he started it and then finished. A good laugh was had when I saw that, Clayton is not only a huge talent, but a really nice humble soul.

Funko offerings are lottery-only, if they have anything left at the end of each show day they open it up to the public. Chances are any "exclusives" will all get sold to those who win a lottery ticket allowing them to purchase one of each Funko offered.

I pre-ordered the statue, Sideshow does have a payment plan for those on the fence about it due to the price, it is about 10 months until it's released. Not overly excited about the base, but the statue itself looks great!

I believe they will be slowly transitioning back to the March slot for 2023 and the 2022 show will more than likely held sometime in the summer of 2022. That is just the rumor that is floating out there.

Sounds good, looking forward to a return here in 2021.

No problem, thanks for the kind words. Yeah I am looking forward to sending mine in to CBCS, I know the signatures are authentic, but it is something that needs to be done and I don't mind. I will have mine pressed before grading but my #1 raw looks pretty amazing on it's own so hopefully a pressing is enough to bump it up as well. I am waiting on the pandemic to ease down as the shipping carriers are overloaded and packages are going missing or taking longer to arrive with staff being out and distribution hubs especially for the USPS being closed. Also CBCS has a new case which should be out now and want to make sure I get the latest and greatest they have to offer when it comes to the case. Congrats on the 9.8 I have been watching how they have been going up and up on the secondary market.

Interesting I hadn't heard anything was confirmed for 2020 but I realize that with the current pandemic even if the show here in Seattle was on it probably would have been cancelled as most shows are, the latest being Rose City in Portland. Hopefully a return in 2021 is in the books, if that venue doesn't work out there are a few others that can be considered too but hopefully the show returns next year.

I set up at Ace for their 2019 show here in Seattle and while it didn't have the same attendance as ECCC, and nor did I expect it would, I was amazed at how far people were traveling that came out for the show. Everyone I saw was a new face, meaning I had never seen them at ECCC before, I was quite happy with the show and was hoping they would be returning to Seattle for 2020, but when the pandemic first was occurring and saw that Boston was cancelled, they said their next show would be in Chicago in October with no mention of a summer show in Seattle like 2019 and 2018. Naturally now chances are with the current situation we all are facing, had a show been planned for Seattle it would have more than likely been cancelled, but I do hope they are planning a return to Seattle for Summer 2021.

The Crow by James O' Barr. 11x17 inches, inks on Bristol board, March 2020.

I have not posted in quite some time, but wanted to share with the fellow fans here my latest addition to my Crow commissions collection. Having been a fan since the book released in 1989, meeting O' Barr in the early 90's not only campaigning to get him up here for conventions but when I worked for Diamond Comics I got them to approve a special screening of the film shortly before it opened up here in Seattle for the comic retailers and James flew in for it. Over the years developed a friendship with him which continues to this day, one of the nicest guys out there, and absolutely appreciates and loves his fans as many here can attest to that. One thing in my art collection that I didn't have was a piece featuring Brandon Lee in character. As we all know, the loss of Brandon was a huge shock with a sadness that continues to this day as he was perfect in that role. James rarely draws Brandon, as he told me, when he does it is for a special occasion, such as his birthday, an anniversary, etc. When he does do a piece featuring Brandon, James, having the heart of gold that he has, donates all of the money to charity. In March of this year James did a piece featuring the iconic scene of Brandon holding the shotgun at Gideon. When I saw it, it didn't take me but a few seconds to say "I need/want that!". I reached out to James, he told me the price, and I didn't question it one bit. It was well worth it, and I felt even better knowing the money was going to charity, in the case of this piece, a local food bank near him which as many would agree, couldn't be a better place to donate the funds with everything going in the world. The piece is entitled "Is That Gasoline I Smell?" and hands down is gorgeous, even more detailed in person. It is 11x17 inches in size, inks on Bristol board. I received it a few weeks ago, and had it scanned. Here is an image of the piece below...

But remember you guys in Canada have much more nicer looking than money than we do. By the way on today's Jim Lee's Twitch stream a few people brought up the 100 appearances thing I mentioned I had read. He did talk about it and basically he said he has other things he wants to do with his time and that he figures if he does 8-10 appearances a year on average, he figures it will be around 2030 or possibly before when he has done 100 appearances and then it sounds like that will (possibly) be it for appearances but you never know, he may do one from time to time but that is speculation on my part, not what he said. He just mentioned that if he goes based on his current schedule that it would be around 2030. He said he already has his appearances mapped out for the next two years in advance.

For the record, the convention is held at the Puyallup Fair Grounds, and every summer the Puyallup Fair brings in several thousands of people every week that attend so they need large parking lots to accommodate everyone. The con itself is only a few years old, the Fairgrounds have been there for over 30 years so the large parking lots around the venue are mainly for the Fair. But it was a big plus on the organizers to allow people to park for free in the large lot closest to the entrance, a lot of cons would charge people to park, but the organizers of Summer Con went above the call of duty and allowed for people to park for free which was quite nice.

With regards to the 100 appearances there were people talking about it in the Jim Lee appreciation group on Facebook. I have seen several people talk about it and a guy I know who follows Lee quite well online and owns some of his work and is a big fan also had mentioned it. Apparently it was something Lee stated last year, where I am not sure as I had just heard about it a few months ago. What I was told was Lee wanted to do 100 appearances starting last year and then spend more time with his family. He figured it would take about 8-10 years maybe longer. But I don't know how many appearances he makes a year and if what constituents an "appearance" if its just conventions or store signings, etc. Again what I have heard, I will admit I don't follow Lee as much as most of his die hard fans do. I would agree Summer Con did do a very good job at trying to appease fans of all ages and having things that keep kids entertained too. For a new show I was impressed with their comic guest list, they have plenty of room to grow, just was surprised at the lack of attendees on Sunday with such a stellar comic line up. Looking forward to the 2020 show though.

My apologies for those who had responded to this thread with questions, I have been out of the loop on here. I attended Summer Con on Sunday only, I rarely get to enjoy a convention from a fan perspective since I am usually set up as an exhibitor. I wanted to check out the show from both sides. I was pretty shocked at how low the turn out was on Sunday, which was the day Jim Lee was there. From a fan perspective, the lower turn out meant virtually no line for signatures or commissions from the very impressive comic guest list they had with it only being it's second year as "Summer Con". A great mixture of legendary and A-list comic creators of today but where were the fans? I realize that weekend fell on Father's Day, lots of graduations going on for high school and college students, and in downtown Puyallup there was some sort of big street fair going on. The organizer did a great job setting the show up for people to enjoy of all ages. It was held at a portion of the Fairgrounds, plenty of free parking, easy in/out procedure, lots of food vendors, and play areas for younger kids. I had opted for the Gold VIP for Jim Lee mainly to get my Absolute Batman Hush signed, since he was only there for four hours of the day. Jim was his usual cordial self to fans. I didn't see many people looking through Moy's offerings, but I had heard Saturday was a busier day with regards to fan turn out which as most people will agree, generally tends to be the case. From an exhibitor perspective, I saw a number of them I knew and asked their opinions on the show. The majority of them had both positive but also negative to say. The consensus was too many celebrity/actors from years past (and what I saw on Sunday, most didn't have anyone at their booths but again I was only there on Sunday) and that the show really didn't need to put the resources into bringing them in, but rather should have had a few celebrity guests that have a larger fan following, and maybe a few more bigger name comic guests, but overall I liked the mixture of comic guests they had. So if you went for the comic guests alone, it was worth it with there not being much of a line for any of them, on Sunday that is, Jim Lee being the exception. I don't believe the Platinum or Silver level VIP tickets for Lee sold out, Gold did which was limited to 90 people. I was surprised that the organizer was even able to secure Lee, but I had heard Lee has some family this way so perhaps he was in town visiting them. Since I had heard Lee had announced he was only doing 100 more appearances starting last year, I figure this could be one of the few remaining opportunities I had to get my Absolute Hush signed by him doing so from the fan angle. Plus with Williams and Sinclair there it was a bonus added them to it as well. Some I spoke to didn't care for the name Summer Con, I can understand why, there needs to be "Comic" in there somewhere. Also, unsure if Puyallup is the ideal location, while it worked, if it was closer to downtown Seattle, or even Bellevue which is across the water from Seattle, it may have attracted more people. I honestly didn't know about the show myself and I am pretty keen to the shows around the PNW until someone had mentioned it to me a few months ago, but beyond the Facebook marketing, I didn't see really anything in the stores up my way. But at the same time, the organizer wasn't charging an arm and a leg either, I think 10x10 booths were around $300 each, and with the line-up they had, I really was surprised the show wasn't packed both days. I will attend the 2020 show more than likely and depending on the dates may set up as well, as I was impressed with the organizer's communication and clearly a solid dedication to make the show a fun event for all, but there does appear to be some changes and perhaps they already will be addressing those things. For those who went both days, how much more crowded was Saturday compared to Sunday?

Washington State Summer Con 2019 will be held June 15-16th in Puyallup Washington, which is about an hour south of downtown Seattle. They have a very impressive guest list this year including Jim Lee, Roy Thomas, Chris Claremont, Scott Williams, Jim Steranko, Sean Gordon Murphy, Jae Lee, Ken Lashley, Marv Wolfman, Jim Shooter, Andy Kubert and several others. Show Info: https://www.wasummercon.com/ Entertainment & Comic Guest List: https://www.wasummercon.com/guests/ Jim Lee (Sunday June 16th Only) Autograph Packages: https://www.wasummercon.com/comic-guests/jim-lee/

This year is my 15th year as an exhibitor as the show is practically in my back yard. As HighRadArt mentioned yes this year they are going to inspect bags and make everyone go through metal detectors so plan accordingly as it could take longer to get into the show as usual. Also "Will Call" is off-site, not at the Convention Center and the main panel room has been moved off-site as well. Safe travels to those coming here for the show, weather-wise we are "supposed" to have partly sunny days with temps in the 40's during the day and in the 30's at night but that could change as it often does.

Also I believe CGC has multiple booths here at ECCC. Their main booth is on the 4th floor in the main convention hall, but I believe they have a smaller booth in the other hall also on the 4th floor. Also with regards to guests, don't forget to check not only the "guest" list, but also the artist alley list and the exhibitor list because some guests apparently are listed under the exhibitors section. Time flies each year, 2019 is my 15th year exhibiting there, such a great show, hopefully we get nice weather. Remember they have moved the celebrity area down to the Hyatt Regency hotel, lots of people seem upset about it as it used to be at the convention center and then moved to the Sheraton Hotel across the street but now all of that for those wondering have been moved down the street to the Hyatt.

Thanks, I have not heard from anyone yet but perhaps early next week someone will be able to reach out.

It was the contact page on the website: http://www.aceuniverse.com/contact/

I inquired about exhibiting at the show a week ago, have yet to hear a response. its a new show for Seattle, so hopefully the prices are reasonable and affordable. With ECCC, Rose City, Vancouver Fan Expo, and Wizard World Portland for the Pacific Northwest as well as a few smaller shows throughout the year, it is unsure how Ace will fare. I am all for another show here in Seattle, but the comic guest list needs to be improved, with less focus on local comic talent, bring in bigger name comic creators that rarely make it out here, or haven't been out here in a while. With Ace being an unproven show here, I would love to see it succeed and be a yearly show for Seattle, and while the three main celebrity guests will bring people in, there will be a number of fans who can't afford the signature fees and will want to meet comic book artists and writers, especially talent that doesn't get out here and there are several names.