Space Invader (FINALLY)

I've been wanting to post about this since July but I've been stupid and lazy, but a recent facebook post from a friend has spurred me into action.

OK, so I admit, before Exit Through the Gift Shop I knew nothing about Space Invader or any of the other awesome street artists out there (though I had passing knowledge of Banksy), but as I fell in love with Banksy I also fell in love with Space Invader. As I mentioned in my Exit blog, I know I used to see a Space Invader on a building along the West Side Highway. I would look for it every time I drove there and it made me happy every time but also very confused because I couldn't figure out why it was there. I thought it was maybe a sign from a store that had since closed. But now that I know it was put there by someone that just likes to put them there, it's even more awesome! Unfortunately, I haven't seen it since and I think it's been removed.

So, I've really wanted to find (& photograph) my own Space Invaders. I tried to figure out through his website where the ones in NYC are. I found one that was just by the Prince St. station but it too, was removed. I could still see the remnants (why anyone would feel the need to do this, is beyond me), so I decided to make it even more obvious and added a little note:

You can see there are still a couple of white tiles there and all the tile glue. Sigh. Like THIS is so much better to see than the space invader that was there.

Well! When I went to the San Diego Comic Con last year, a friend informed me of this awesome street art exhibit that was on display there at the time. So I made sure to go there (and the person behind the desk assumed I was a college student and let me go in for free! hehehehe). The exhibit was awesome but I couldn't take pictures. But I was told that Space Invader went around and put a bunch of his little guys in the neighborhood. I found a website that gave the locations of all of them so instead of spending time at the convention, I took a couple hours to walk around and find them, I think I got all but one that the website listed. Here they are!

That last one is awesome because the eyes are mirrors so they look different from different angles!

Then on the last day I was explaining these guys to some other Marvel peeps at dinner and on the way back to the Hyatt, someone says "Hey Jen, is that the things you were talking about?" And sure enough it was! And it wasn't listed on the site so I was EXTRA excited! And I wrote down where it was in case anyone else wanted to find it: It was at Island St. & Front St. right by or on The Children's Museum! And here's a picture:

I've since tried to find one that I saw on his site near Queens Plaza but I had no luck. If you know where it is tell me! There's another that I think is on Northern Boulevard or thereabouts that I still have to get my ass to. AND what my friend posted on facebook was another one he saw in Williamsburg so I will have to be making a trip out there soon.

I just absolutely love these things. It's such a cool thing to do to spruce up a neighborhood! haha I just wish people didn't take them down! I mean, I know part of their charm is that they are not permanent but I love them!!! Man, if I saw one near my house I would freak out. And I would walk by it every day just to make myself smile. 

So anyway Mr. Space Invader, if you see this, THANK YOU! :) And to everyone else, if you know where any of these are (particularly in NYC or even London since I'll be back there this fall), TELL ME!

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My Friends Are Super Cool! or I Can Colour!

So if you don't know the work of Jacob Chabot, you should. He is one talented muthafuckah! I've previously posted a sketch he did for me in one of my Sketchbook Series posts. WELL, I've got more Jacob goodness for you.

Commie Colossus vill crush you!

So a month or so ago, I was proofing an Essential X-Men book and I came across issue #124 which has one of my favourite covers. Mainly because I'm obsessed with all things Russian (since I loved studying the language for 4 years in high school) and it's got Colossus with CCCP overalls on it, but also because it's so silly. It's a Commie Colossus calling himself The Proletarian! Trying to kill his friends! Because he was brainwashed by... well, I won't spoil it. But it's silly and awesome and I love it.

SO ANYWAY, Jacob and our other talented friend Chris Giarrusso have done these aweome X-Babies or Mini Marvels versions of classic Marvel covers in the past, so I emailed them to tell them that one of them should draw a kiddie version of X-Men #124. I honestly did not expect either of them to do it as they are both always so busy drawing for actual MONEY that I wouldn't expect them to take time out to draw this thing for free just cuz I wanted to see it. Jokes were made, it was just a fun thought.

Then, a few weeks later, I get an email from Jacob that said "Hey check out this thing I drew without any sort of provocation." (haha) with THIS attached:

Don't do it Baby Proletarian!

HOW FREAKIN' AWESOME IS THAT!?!?! I was shocked and amazed that he actually did this! And SO happy! I LOVE the li'l baby Lenin on his overalls too... hehe BABY COMMIE COLOSSUS! Too fantastic.

Now to explain the OTHER title of today's blog, I asked Jacob for the high-res version so that I could colour it. I so rarely get to colour stuff, and all the classic stuff is the best b/c it's only flat colouring which is pretty much all I can handle. So without further ado, I present to you, the COLOUR version of this fantastic Jacob Chabot homage cover!

As I've said, Jacob has done other X-Men covers like this, one of one of my favourite X-Men comics of all-time: X-Men #171. (I'll leave you to figure out why.) I have actually started colouring that one too and will post it when I'm done. Now if I can just get Jacob to GIVE me the originals for FREE... hmmmmm... ;-)

Oh and Jacob, YOU RULE! ♥♥♥♥ THANK YOU!


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The Bendis Board is Full of Nice!

If you don't know, I frequent the Jinxworld Brian Michael Bendis Message Board a lot (admittedly, not as much since twitter happened...). It's a great message board, mainly about comics, but which discusses many other things as well. And it's full of awesome people. It's a community of fans and friends and I love it and the people on it. (Well most of 'em... haha) (Yeah, I'm talking about YOU, McKeever!) ;-)

Anyway, a bunch of these fantastic peeps did a very nice thing for me and put together a beautiful book of drawings for my 30th birthday (yes, it's coming very soon...). Coordinated buy The Cable Guy, he gave me this fantastic book at the San Diego Comic Con this past weekend (which I will post about very soon, promise!).

I would like to share these with you here:

Dazzler by Chris Burke...


Rogue (hehe with Lockheed peekin'!) by Andrew Huerta...

Marvel Girl by Aaron Bir...


Rogue by Brent Peeples...


Spider-Woman by Andy Kuhn...


I remember this following one! Pat Loika! My buddy who is forever helping me out!! Thanks!!!

I also know this one! My good friend and pain-in-the-ass, David Mack!


Storm by Brian Defferding...


And of course, he knew to go to one of my favourite people ever for one! Chris "G-Man" Giarrusso!



And last but not least, this kick-ass Rogue (w/Gambit! <3) Jeremy Dale...


You can tell they know me by their character choices! ;-)

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!


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Sketchbook Series #8

I've been lazy. Well not REALLY lazy, just blog lazy. Which is probably because my ACTUAL life has been the complete OPPOSITE of lazy! Too busy! Blerg! No excuse, I know. Well, since I haven't posted in awhile and all the stuff I WANT to post is going to take too long right now, here's a filler sketchbook post! I haven't done one in awhile (they seem to be my go-to filler posts, but they have pretty art!), so here you go! This is by the super cool Chris Giarrusso! I chose to use his today because yesterday we enjoyed awesome milkshakes together! (He chocolate, me vanilla w/banana.)


I'll explain this a little. Not too complicated. That's meant to be me & Lockheed (it was drawn like 2 years ago, hence the long hair). Everyone knows I love Lockheed. Well, if you didn't, you do now. So yep, that's me loving Lockheed, and him loving me right back. ::sigh:: Oh and the little faces are a sort of inside joke from back in the day when Chris worked in the Marvel bullpen, basically relating my mood to my hair colour at the time. ;-)

If you don't know Chris Giarrusso and his awesome work, then you are living under a rock and you need to go buy his books now!!!! They rule!


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My New Love: Banksy

How cool is that?! I've seen his stuff online before — friends of mine directing me to find it — but I never really looked into anything about him or his art. After seeing Exit Through The Gift Shop last night, however, I'm hooked! Banksy is a street artist. And until now I never really knew anything about this amazing movement.


Street artists are AMAZING. And Banksy is like their king. haha Well, not really, but he seems to be the most famous one. One of the really cool — and also really frustrating as a fan — thing about Bansky and other street artists, is that the art isn't permanent!!


Many of these images are gone! Especially ones done in controversial places. On his website, he posts a notice from like the parks department over at Alcatraz asking that people not deface their parks with graffitti, saying they're not there "to argue about whether or not this is artwork." What I find interesting though, is them directing you to see the "historic graffitti from the Indian Occupation." Though if guys like them weren't around back then, there wouldn't be any to look at. In 100 years, maybe Banksy graffitti will be protected somewhere. Let's hope so.


I mean, personally, I'm not a fan of "tagging." To me, it's just ugly scribbles stupid kids feel the need to draw so people notice them. Political graffitti, or just plain artwork, can be fantastic, however. Obviously, someone might not want it on their houses, but some commercial walls are improved with stuff like this! :-) Part of me hates that it's often cleaned off or that I can't own a Banksy original (or even reproductios — he doesn't do 'em), but on the other hand, it really just adds to it's specialness (is that a word? ;-P).

I guess I can settle for just looking at these pictures...

Oh yeah, he's British. Did I mention that? ;-) heh Just adds to his appeal. I wonder if he's hot... In my imagination, he ABSOLUTELY is. ;-P

In any case, Exit Through the Gift Shop is actually NOT a movie ABOUT Banksy. As he tells you at the very start of the film, it's a documentary about a guy who was trying to make a documarty about Banksy, but Banksy thinks his story was way more interesting.

But there's plenty in it about these street artists which has sparked a new interest for me to obsess over. And it's pretty fucking funny too. Here's the trailer:



Oh and check this out? Recognise this?


It's the cover to Blur's album Think Tank!! I love Blur...and I never knew. Ugh. I actually I think I have some special version of this CD with a different cover. Booooo...

So now I'm going to be scouring every wall as I walk around. If I ever come across a Banksy original, I might just pee my pants from excitement!


The End.

PS One of the other artists mentioned in the movie is Space Invader, who I also love. And I SWEAR I've seen one of his little dudes on a building along the West Side Highway. Every time I saw it, it drove me nuts because I didn't know why it was there! I thought it was maybe part of a sign for a store that closed down. If it's his, it would make me SO happy. :-)

Desktop Finds...

I like these posts, they're easy!

Anyway, as I troll the interwebs or even just from friends or my job, I find images that I like and I copy them to my desktop. And then they just sit there and clutter it up. So to make good use of them, here's what I found today when cleaning up:

AWESOME David Finch cover that I'm in love with. I think everyone here should tell him to give me the original for free because no one will appreciate it more...and I'm broke. :-P


Super cool drawing of me Chris Eliopoulos did for me after I whined for a drawing of me:


Super cool Terry Moore piece he drew and posted up on twitter this week:


Awesome Zombie Jesus I found on the Atheist Experience:


I don't remember where I found this, but I love it:


Looking for Delirium reference I came across this! So pretty!


And this. Apparently it was a limited print. I want one so badly. I really wish Mike Allred would make more...


One of my good friend Rob Steen's super cool little dudes:


Awesome. I forget where... Huffington Post article maybe...


Yeah, this was a Huffington Post article image. Lost their C... hehehe


And it wouldn't be me without a jab at religion! (I know, Zombie Jesus, but that was just cool, this is hilarious!) Don't remember where:



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KICK-ASS!!!!

Kick-Ass kicks ASS! If you haven't heard of Kick-Ass, that sucks for you. But luckily, I've just fixed that. Kick-Ass is Mark Millar's creator-owned series published by the Marvel Icon imprint. Mark Miller kicks ass, if you didn't already know, and this is just another in a string of excellent comics by the wee Scotsman. (I'm his friend, I'm allowed to call him wee. ;-P) He's the fella that brought us Wanted which was eventually made into a major motion picture starring the (in my opinion) ultra-hot James McAvoy, as well as Morgan Freeman and the beautiful Angelina Jolie. He also wrote very many fantastic books for Marvel, including The Ultimates & The Ultimates 2, Ultimate X-Men & Fantastic Four (all great).

Kick-Ass (drawn by the VERY talented, long-time comic artist, John Romita Jr.) is about a young fella who wants what most young fellas who read comics wants...to be a super hero. Frak. I want that! Though I don't think I'd like to get the taste of really that awaits this young fella as he tries to make his dream come true. Anyway, rather than have me explain any more of this, you can just check out the trailer for the movie! That's right! Another of Mark Millar's creations is about to be released as a major motion picture! (I just really like saying "major motion picture.") Here, for your viewing pleasure, the age-restricted trailer (put in your birthday to view):



And either before or after you see this, you should go pick up the hardcover collection of the series (this collection edited by yours truly, look for my name on the credits page :-P), available in one of two covers, shown below:

The mass-market, everywhere cover (my personal favourite)...


OR the Direct Market Only cover (which means you can only get it at a comic book shop):


(As you can see from the covers, it's NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE! hahaha)

As a special bonus for you, my loyal blog readers, here's one of Johnny's penciled page from the series. I won't tell you when/where/why this happens:

Sooooo...nothing left to say except GO READ AND/OR SEE THIS BOOK AND/OR MOVIE! ;-) heh


The End.

PS Here's a picture of me and the wee one the last time he was in town. Love that guy! <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp90/igotkittypryde/-1-1.jpg">

Sketchbook Series #7

Finally finished Twilight...still have yet to finish Veronica Mars... Eventually, hopefully, I'll actually get back on track to post stuff as they happen (will post soon about a roller derby I attended a couple weeks ago). Meantime...sketchbook series!!!

This sketchbook series post is from... ANDY MACDONALD!! Oooooh! Preeeetttty!!!


This weekend is the Baltimore Comicon and up until today I was going to go. Events occurred however preventing this from happening, so sadly I won't be there. If YOU are attending, please stop by Andy MacDonald's table! He's an amazing artist (as you can CLEARLY see above)! While he's done a few comics for us over here at Marvel (Punisher War Journal, Miss America Comics 70th Anniversary Special), I think his primary work is featured in NYCMech and I believe he contributed to the Tori Amos inspired collection Comic Book Tattoo!

I recommended getting a commission from him as he does a wonderful job. He's also got some pretty cool t-shirts available. (I got one of this robot shark, super cool!) If you DO stop by, say hello for me!


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PS For the ladies/gay lads...he's QUITE a handsome fella, that alone is enough reason to stop by! haha ;-P

The Long-Awaited SDCC Post

Long-awaited by ME, anyway, I doubt anyone was holding their breath in anticipation... :-)

So here we go! I'm missing a few photos from my destroyed laptop, but I'll add them in if I ever get my stuff back...

Anyway, I had a great trip, lots of partying and not seeing everyone I wanted to see! The best part about cons for me, is getting to hang out with all my friends from all over the country (and actually, the world), so its disappointing when some of my favourites are in the same place as me and I still get to see them for only a few minutes (or sometimes not at all). But that's the problem with the San Diego Comicon...it's just so damned big! I LOVE this con for the same reason, though... haha Good thing there are other cons to catch up with my pals! (Next up: Baltimore Comic Con!!)

This year, I stayed with a rather new, but awesome friend, Robyn (AKA Twyst!) in a hotel with a creepy Shining-esque hallway (thanks to the very-helpful Pat Loika!)...


Speaking of Twyst, she had a fun little project during her trip (her first SDCC!) in which she took pictures of people and places "hanging out" with the Mighty Mugg Spider-Man! Very cute stuff, here's my entry:


Pretty clever if I do say so myself! (And I did say so...a lot. haha) ;-)

Almost as soon as I got to the con, I ran out to have dinner with my good friend & pain-in-the-ass, Sean McKeever. I do not have a picture with him, but he took this while waiting for our DELICIOUS sushi!!! Last year was the first time I had any real sushi (before was California or avocado rolls only) and I'm so glad I did, as now it's one of my favourite foods. This was taken outside Sushi Itto in the Gaslamp area. Highly recommended.


I have only a few pics of the Marvel booth, but here they are! I LOVED these Iron Men suits on display...I think there was actually one more I didn't get in the shot...


This is as much of the big Thor wall as I could get in one picture. My co-worker, Mark Beazley was responsible for commissioning this 6-part cover for the 6 issues of Thor: Tales of Asgard which reprints old Thor comics with modern colouring. (They look great, go pick 'em up if you like the old comics!)


It's been Marvel's 70th this year and we've been showing that off wherever we can (I think the logos look cool!) This is the front of the giveaway table.


The front of the signing table.


I thought this looked really cool, this hung from the ceiling!


Cutest Thor I've ever seen...


Random booth shot from the Marvel pics on Flickr. I'm in it! :-) I don't know what was going on at our booth at this time, but clearly it was popular!!


Maybe it was during THIS! Jon Favreau signing!! I could've gotten something signed and/or a picture with him, but I'd already had a much cooler encounter with him AND RDJ two years ago...hehe


So anyway, the first night I was there, I tried to get into the IDW party but it was HEAVILY guarded (thanks for the invite, Schmidt! haha)! I believe it was at the Hard Rock Hotel and in the hall where we were waiting I took some pictures of some cool baseball memorabilia behind glass in the wall...




So instead of the IDW party, I stopped by the Aspen one which was cool, but left that to go to the Brutal Legend party. Fantastically, my co-worker...let's call him Agent M...had a few VIP passes and was able to get me one. Up in the VIP bleachers I found my pals Gerry Duggan & Phil Noto (with whom I had a lot of fun with the entire weekend). At this party GWAR played! Here's where I'd post a couple of pics of that had my hard drive not died... ::sigh:: They weren't amazing pics or anything, but you can see the cool costumes they were wearing. I'll add them in if I ever get them back...

Anyway, Friday I got a chance to walk around the con a bit. Though after only a couple hours, I was exhausted.

Evan's awesome toys! (I've got 'em, of course!)


These guys have cool costumes on their own, but they look so much cooler all huddled together! Rebel planning meeting!! Woo!


The only reason to watch the Transformers movies... I love Bumblebee!!!!


I believe there was a contest to win this car, too...


Castle Grayskull! Awesome.


I bought this for Evan & Sarah's daugher...still haven't given it to her yet...oops! (It's Cheburashka, by the way!)


Bought this AMAZING Momo hat (Momo's a character on Avatar: The Last Airbender, if you didn't know) off a fangirl who made them! I saw this girl wearing one and ran over to ask where she got it, her friend said "I made it!" I was disappointed until she said "But I'm selling them!" Made my frakkin' day!! SO well made, too! You can't see in the pic, but there's even a tail hanging off the back!


One of the many cool things I bought at the Tokidoki booth (also got a cool tokidoki for Hello Kitty handbag, a Hello Kitty dressed in Mozzeralla cotume doll and some little keychains). This just looks awesome! Figured my laptop was old & dirty enough to cover it up (normally I love the all-white Apple look). Have been told that maybe that sticker caused the crash...but that's just ridiculous! Right?!?!



Passed by this on my way to my hotel. Meant to go back in, but never got a chance. I went there the first time I was in San Diego (2005...I was 25) and was carded when trying to go into the 18 & over section of the store! haha I love lookin' young! ;-)


Friday night was an AWESOME night! My friend Gerry brought me backstage to Brian Posehn & Doug Benson's comedy show! It was awesome! Also performing was Graham Elwood, Chris Hardwick, John Roy & Patton Oswalt. All very funny and very nice guys! Here's Brian, Patton & Doug from backstage taken with shitty iPhone zoom app! haha


I also met Mike Allred & family and Anthrax's Scott Ian that night, also a nice guy and a huge fanboy! A bunch of us went out to eat that night and this creepy thing on the wall was staring at me the whole time. ::shudder::


On the way back to the bar, we passed a playground and had a little fun there. I'm waiting for the VIDEOS FROM GERRY...but I may NEVER see them... sigh... ;-)

Anyway, I think this is the night I ended up stealing Lee Duhig's hat...all right, I borrowed it. I'm not mean!


Spent a LITTLE more time on the con floor the next day. As you might be able to tell Star Wars stuff tends to attract my attention...


The reflective glass made these hard to get pics of, but they're pretty damn cool! I love Legos almost as much as Star Wars!


So after that wiped me out and I was starving, I grabbed my friend Paul Azaceta (my usual breakfast buddy at Wizard World Philly) and got some lunch. Didn't feel like going back into the madness just yet so we took a walk behind the Hyatt along the water. There was all this cool stuff back there!

Like ships...


And parrots!!!!


The guy taking care of them (and trying to raise money to keep doing so) just came over and put this guy on my arm without warning! Was SO COOL!


Did the same to Paul, but on his shoulder...and as you can see, Paul was a little worried! (Mostly afraid it would try to grab his earring...) haha


There was all sorts of shops back there as well as face painters, balloon animal makers & caracture drawers. One such caracature artist tried to call us over to get one done by calling out "Hey pink hair & extremely straight eyebrows!!" haha I'll never let him live that down... ;-)


Found this on the side of a building on the way back to the con. Made me very happy. (Here's why if you don't know.)


Also saw this back there, some type of contest where you can win this if you donate blood, I believe. I shoulda done it... :) I would TOTALLY drive this!



When we came back in, I caught Jaime Hernandez signing at the Fantagraphics booth and commissioned this in my sketchbook (maybe I'll eventually get to it in my sketchbook series of posts...) Jaime was VERY nice, as well. This is Hopey!


Immediately after that I talked to Sean Chen & Leinil Yu at the Marvel booth and showed them my sketchbook. While I was busy talking to someone else, Leinil surprised me with this drawing!! Sean promised one too, and don't think I won't collect!! :-)


That night was yet ANOTHER awesome night! I went to the PopCult party with friends John Cassaday & Jimmy Aquino and made two NEW friends Zane & Brea Grant!!

Found these on the Beat...

Zane, Brea, me & John:


Brea, Jimmy, me & Zane (just realising now how colourful Brea & I looked that night!):


After THAT party we went to the Radical party which was ENORMOUS and had Gene Simmons & playing with his son. A bunch of Marvel peeps were there but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get in. Thankfully Brea can get ANYWHERE at Comicon so not only did she get me in with her & her brother, we got to go to the VIP section! Didn't stay there long though, as we abandoned it to hang with the MUCH cooler Marvel crew!

Took a nice picture with CB there. He had a great Japanese phrase for this situation: "Ryo te ni hana" which means "a flower in both hands." Awww, Ceebs!!


LOVELOVELOVE this next picture, taken by Zane, on our super-fun pedi-cab ride to the Hyatt bar after the Radical party. I was well drunk by this point (open bars will do that) and I believe I gave the guy a $10 tip on top of Brea's tip! hahaha He definitely charged us much less than most of those guys do and he made it fun like a rollercoaster, so I'm fine with that! :)


Of course the night I get the drunkest, I have an early morning panel to be on the next day! I made it by the skin of my teeth, a mere 3 minutes late, but with my voice a-shambles! haha This was the second year in a row for me on the Women of Marvel panel and it was a lot of fun. Took this from the Marvel Flickr page, that's me & Laura Martin. (Other panelists included Christina Strain, Emily Warren, Marjorie Liu & Colleen Coover!)


After the panel I got another visit from one of my FAN CLUB members!! Right?! I don't know how I deserve that but this is the second year in a row I've been given a birthday present from my Unofficial Arizona Fan Club!! Clearly the nicest people in the world! Thanks so much, peeps!!!

Had an even MORE amazing sushi dinner with a friend on Sunday, followed by gelato! Yum! Took this picture because I'd never seen gelato with a chili pepper in it before...


No, I didn't try it. Not that much of a chocolate fan, let alone SPICY chocolate...

Finished up the night at the Hyatt bar again, which is much more calm on Sunday night. Was falling asleep talking to some friends so I walked back to my hotel. Ran into Mark Brooks & his wife Lisa on the way there and had a nerd attack talk about the AMAZING news we found out this year...that Tokidoki & Marvel are teaming up to make some AMAZING products (look out for it next year)!! CAN'T FRAKKIN' WAIT!

Had a lovely breakfast with Twyst in the morning (my first Huevos Rancheros) and flew home around 3PM. An arrival at home at 1AM was a good excuse to come in late the next day! :) (The later flight was $100 cheaper. Totally worth sacrificing sleep!)

All in all, this was as great a San Diego trip as any, maybe even better! Other than the Gwar pics, I can't remember what else I lost, but thanks to my facebook mobile uploads & twitpics, I managed to reacquire most of the important ones! :)

Hopefully this was somewhat interesting and if you haven't made it to the San Diego Comicon, I recommend you do so at least once! And bring friends, much more fun that way! :)


The End.