Old Man Mitchell's Kitchen: The Other Side of the Table

Note: This was meant to be posted last week but a busy work week and a lazy weekend cause a little bit of a delay, sorry.

For the first time in years I attended Wizard World Philly as strictly a customer and not behind the table at an artist's booth. It was both odd and liberating. I enjoyed the freedom of being able to go wherever I wanted whenever wanted. Leaving as soon as I got tiered was really nice too. I did, however, miss talking up an artist work and helping someone pick out the perfect illustration. I hope to be back behind the table selling my own comics someday soon.

All that being said, I had a wonderful time at this year's show. Thursday I spent reconnecting with people I have not seen in a long time and for the most part only ever see at shows. It's wonderful that they have Thursday as a preview night, because it less crowed and I don't have to worry that I'm keeping someone from making a sale. The smaller crowds make it a great day to get sketches done before an artist gets booked up or overly tiered. I have images of the sketches I picked up at the bottom of this post.

This year I sat in on more panels then every before and I found them all to be very interesting. All the panels I went to were either about creating comics or breaking into comics. The Marvel panel on breaking into the business was especially interesting because it shed some light on what one of the biggest comic book companies are looking for when it comes to new talent. Plus I even made a new friend at one of them.

photo by J.D. Lombardi

Saturday was all about the Cosplay. I for the second year in a row I dressed up as Doctor Strange. This is the close I will ever feel like a Rock Star. Every ten feet or so someone would either comment positively about my costume or want to take a picture with me. My favorite is when little kids recognize who I'm meant to be and want to get their picture taken with me. It really does wonder for your self-esteem I and I highly recommend everyone try it once.

Sunday was John Barrowman day. For those not in the know John Barrowman played Captain Jack Harkness on Doctor Who and Torchwood. If you have not seen the new Doctor Who series, stop reading and go watch it. I'm serious, it's all on Netflix, go watch it now, we'll wait. You back, awesome, no?

This was the first time I had ever done the pro photo op, but I figured if I split it with a friend (limit two people per photo) it wouldn't cost too much and with someone who is as fun as John Barrowman, why not. The line took forever to start moving, but once it did we were though pretty quick. While were waiting to get started he came out and made an announcement. We were pretty far back so we could not hear what he said, but volunteer came by and said "If you didn't hear what Mr. Barrowman said, there is no kissing John Barrowman, he does not want to get sick. Everything else is fair game." I would find out latter that this was not a hyperbolic statement.

Once the line started moving, it was moving fast. They really get you in and out of there fast, but everyone was nice and friendly. I was wearing my Time Lords of Gallifrey shirt, which the guy running the line really liked. Then it was our turn. John called us over and said for one of us to go on either side of him. Then he told us to squeeze in close. Once the picture was taken and we were leaving I told him that it was nice to meet him. He looked right over at me and said "It was nice to meet you too." Now I'm not really into guys, but he is an exceptionally good looking man and I may have swooned just a little.

Afterwards I braved the throngs of people and looked for the print out of our picture. In order here are the highlights of what I saw:

John Barrowman holding a young boy upside down by the boy's ankles

John Barrowman and James Marsters pretending to fight over a fan by each grabbing an arm

John Barrowman cupping a woman's breast

John Barrowman cupping a man's ass

John Barrowman biting a woman's breast

But not a single person was kissing him.

As usual I picked up a few additions to my sketchbook. The book that I have been bringing around for years I call Arkham Asylum. I ask each person to draw their favorite Batman Villain. I also started a new book this year. It doesn't have name yet and only has one sketch in it so far. The plan is to basically have people draw the character they like the best or are most known for, or maybe even the thing that they have always wanted to draw but have never been asked. To start this new book out I had my friend Scott Derby (who designed the Time Lords of Gallifrey shirt) to draw the Green Lantern. Here it is along with the rest of the sketches.