Cave Con Experience (2 of 2) – What did I get?

decarter20
Oct 13, 2018
3 min read

I entered the inaugural Cave Con with some cash, a short list of wanted back issues (spoiler: I didn’t find any of them), a small stack of books to have signed, an empty sketch/signature book (spoiler: it never got used), a list of the scheduled guests with which of their works I would be most likely to buy, a map of the con floor, and a plan.

As is often said, no plan survives the first contact.

So what did I get? In no particular order, I got to:

take my sons to their first comic book convention, teach them the basics of how conventions work, and spend some quality time with them away from the house, electronics, and our usual routine.That alone was worth the price of admission.

help facilitate both of them meeting Bryan Quinn (or as my youngest calls him “The Guy Who Didn’t Catch the Watermelon”) from Impractical Jokers.Both were reluctant, as this was their first time meeting a celebrity that they recognized and they were starstruck.He was great! He gave them his full attention, controlled the conversation but never rushed it, and was simply very down-to-earth.

meet Isaac Crawford, the creator of The Boy and The Dragon, which is a comic that should be in everyone’s collection. EVERYONE’S. I bought a copy for each of the boys and wish I’d bought one for myself. I will next time I see him at a show.

talk with Luna and Maia Cooper about the sketch competition held at LibraryCon a few weeks prior to Cave Con.They are both remarkably talent artists!

have a 30-40 minute conversation with artist David Frizell covering a wide range of topics including Kiss, Alice Cooper, the Muppets and Muppet Babies, Superman, Shmoo, the Bloody Benders, and a dozen other topics. Looking back, this was definitely the most surreal point of the show for me, as I never could have predicted that conversation happening.

chat with Jimmy Z. Johnston about our mutual love for The Tick.I stand by my statement that he co-wrote (with Cave Con cosponsor Cullen Bunn) the best Tick series since the original.C’est manifique!

laughingly compare Branson, Missouri and Bar Harbor, Maine with phenomenal artist Gary Bedell.

meet artist Blacky Shepherd who is a great guy and, if there is any justice in this world, absolutely should be the next artist on IDW’s Transformers!

embarrass myself by asking Chad Thomas to sign a copy of my Middleman book with backup story drawn by artist Chad Thomas. A DIFFERENT artist named Chad Thomas.

chat with Comic Book Man Ming Chen and my oldest son about the original West Coast Avengers line-up, the gold Nintendo Zelda cartridge and why we thought it was such a big deal back in the day, and Back to the Future (sparked by his Flux Capacitor tattoo.)Like with Bryan Quinn, it was like chatting with an old friend.

catch up with Brian Atkins and Timothy Bach, artist and writer of The Family Graves.I’d chatted briefly with them on Twitter prior to the show letting them know I was excited to read the series, and it does not disappoint!I’ve seen it The Munsters meets The Fantastic Four, with a dash of Locke & Key” and “a satisfying combination of The Incredibles and classic Universal monster films” – both descriptions are accurate. This book is a LOT of fun!

meet writer Elton Gahr and artist Seth Wolfshorndl, who have done some projects together and some individually, all of which are worth buying!

The TL;DR version: forged a lifetime of memories in one weekend at a comic book show.

Here’s the stuff I acquired for my collection to represent those memories (not pictured is an amazing Superman print by David Frizell that I regretted not buying for the weeks between LibraryCon and Cave Con):

< Cave Con Programs

- - - - -

Cave Con Shirt >

Pin >

Badge >

My only back issue purchases (for myself) - $1 each save for the Exiles TPB, which was $4 ($1 per issue.) The Frugal Fanboy strikes again!

Family graves #1-4, signed by writer

Brian Atkins

and artist

Timothy Bach.

Also, a

"takeout container"

as featured in the

third issue!

The coolest piece of promotional material

I've seen in decades!

Tick #1-4 signed by the co-writers!

Wooden ornaments...I mean, really, how does one pass up an opportunity to purchase a Groot

that is actually made out of wood?!?

My copy of Seven Dwarfs flanked by the boys' copies of The Boy and the Dragon, all by Isaac Crawford.

Clockwise: Duel! (Which is a blast to read!) by Seth Wolfshorndl and Matt Meyers, bookmarks for The Last Martian and Random Realities, Spectral Void Origin Issue by Chad Thomas, Random Realities by Elton Gahr, , Productive Boredom sketch packet by Gary Bedell, and Rook City by Wolfshorndl and Gahr.