Entry 41: Emerald City Convention Report

This past Friday I made the drive up from Portland to Seattle for the Emerald City Convention. Lauren and I checked into the hotel at 3:30 pm. Our room was a corner room on the 21 floor with a fantastic view of the city.
(What a lame picture) After an hour of settling in and unwinding we went out to walk around. We headed down to the Pike Place Market. I've been up to Seattle a bunch of times now but I've never gone to the Market. It was alright. We stopped into eat something at a Russian pastry place called Piroshky Piroshky.
(I didn't take this picture. Just fond it on line) We had some Piroshkies and Borsch. They had a notebook that you could leave comments in so I took the opportunity to leave a little sketch.
The first day of the convention was pretty crazy. It seemed like a lot of people showed up. I shared a table with my friend, former editor for Dark Horse, and now full time writer, Jeremy Barlow. I spent the whole day face down doing sketches. It was a blast.
I did a lot of Star Wars related commissions but some of my favorite ones were pretty strange mash-ups like a Jedi Ninja Turtle and a Chewbacca Skrull. I don't have pictures of those commissions. Unfortunately I was only able to scan one of the pieces.

(No reference on that piece, by the way) My girlfriend, Lauren, who makes clothes, decided to make a special shirt just for the convention. She likes Gryph from Knights of the old Republic. She's never actually read any of the comics she just thinks that he's cute. Every time I draw him she has to comment about how she likes him. When I told her what he was and how he's a member of an obscure alien race in the Star Wars universe she thought it would be funny to make this shirt.
At one point I had to leave my table to use the bath room and while I was rushing passed booth after booth I suddenly realized I had just passed one of my heroes, Juan Gimenez. I was so surprised to see him there. I had to stop and tell him what a big fan I am. I wanted to talk with him more but he didn't seem to speak much English. Luckily Lauren speaks Spanish so I had her tell him how much I like his work. She went on to have a long conversation with him while I sat at my table. She went on to me about how nice he is.
Over all it was a really great time. Met some cool people. Hung out with friends. And I think that the convention is a really great one. I can't wait to do it again next year. Also, if you got a sketch from me at the show it would be great to get a scan of it or good picture. So, feel free to e-mail it to me:)