It’s New York Comicon—but probably not the one you were expecting!
Held by Great Eastern Conventions at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers on the northern edge of Times Square (a welcome change from the Penn Hotel), the show boasted such luminaries as Jim Lee (X-Men), Walter Simonson (The Mighty Thor), Howard Chaykin (Star Wars)—and me, of course!
I set up camp in artists’ alley with one of my non-comics friends who was just curious about what a comic con was like—he preferred sci-fi conventions, so this was a first for him. What he discovered is it was a lot of sitting around and chatting while I occasionally sketched to pass the time and made no money.
Not that there weren’t moments of interest—at least for me. Vampirella superstar artist Louis Small Jr., who’d drawn the covers for Lorelei, Volume 1 #0 and #1, stopped by to say hello and let me know what he was working on—he was either at Neal Adams’s Continuity Studios, penciling Ms. Mystic, or had just started a gig at Valiant Comics (I’m not sure which).
Later on in the day, another visitor stopped by: an artist named Fauve (real name: Holly Golightly) was making the rounds on a break from her own table, and Lorelei’s red hair—about the same shade as Fauve’s—had caught her eye. We chatted for a bit and she asked if I’d like to see some of her work. I followed her back to her table, where I learned she was an artist for indie house Carnal Comics, which published comic-book biographies of pornographic actresses; Louis had done one or two of those himself.
(Hey, indie comics in the ’90s was like the Wild West—anything and everything was getting published, especially when it came to black-and-white comics. And adult comics have been and always will be a surefire way for generating income.)
The work was good, and she enjoyed the assignments, but Holly was looking for something a bit more mainstream. We exchanged phone numbers (pre-Internet, remember)…and before the year was over, we had the opportunity to work together on the Heartstopper: Sorrow About to Fall comic that came to an unfortunately quick end. (You can read all about the history of Heartstopper here and here, and download its three issues for free, by going to the Heartstopper product page.)
(As it turned out, Holly did eventually get her chance for mainstream assignments, working for Archie Comics on—I think—stories starring their own redhead, Cheryl Blossom.)
At the end of the day, though, I had little to no sales, my sketches didn’t sell, and my non-comics friend decided he’d stick to sci-fi shows. I, however, was already making plans for whatever my next convention appearance would be…
Stay tuned for more Convention Memories!
