quote:

Originally posted by Over_Worked_Mom:

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Graham (all the way from the U.K.!!)

GRAHAM WAS THERE AND NOONE TOLD ME????!??!??



It's not like I'm hard to find - just looking for the slightly frenetic mother with the REALLY cute kid...

Yeah, Graham was there...but probably not the one you are thinking of. This one is "Darth Graham", not to be confused with "Graham" or "Darth Smittyous", who won the NAR card at the last show. Wow, this is all so confusing. Too many Darth's and people named Graham.

Left for Allentown on Saturday morning and stopped off at the Hilton Gardens on the way in to pick up my buddy Kate Bradley. After breakfast at the hotel, we headed over to the show, which was busy when we got there. I wandered around the show for quite a while, didn't find any sketch cards that caught my eye, so I settled for some nicely priced boxes of Fantastic Four and Jericho. I also picked up commissions from Rich Molinelli and Sean Pence, which I will post scans of later as I am at work now. It was nice to meet Sean, and it's always good to see Rich and Sam, as well as Jim Kyle and Brian Kong. Got to meet and chat with Don Norton, which was cool. It was good seeing Todd Jordan back at the show, and Chris and Sherri also, along with Jane, Tbear, TWS, Laura, Joanna and others I'm sure I have left out. There was a great selection of old and new cards at the show, and some great bargains, too. I took a break from the show and assisted Harris with blowing up balloons and attaching them to the pilliars in the room where the dinner was being held, it's good thing neither of us are rocket scientists! Went back down to the show, Mike Tilford, who specializes in late arrivals, was there and presented me with those confounded Star Trek cereal boxes with the trading cards. Thanks again, Mike! Bill Defranzo also helped with out with some promos, thanks again to you, too, Bill!

Time for the dinner, there was a slide show of past Philly shows playing, and everyone got to mingle a bit before the presentation began. Dave Thompson was quite humorous, and a new slide show was shown with Dave narrating the pictures. The Reighters got a nice gift certificate to Atlantic City, and they were given the original art to the card NAR! did for the dinner, which was of Frank and Phyillis as super-heroes, and looked great. I was one number off from winning the Star Trek set, I will never win because of the curse of Harris!!
The dinner was decent, Kate was happy that they let her keep her "chicken" card and there was cake for everyone, and while we were leaving we all got the exclusive dinner cards and a print from NAR!.

The evening did not end there, however. A number of us discussed meeting back at the hotel where the Red Robin is located. As Mike said, we had a couple of social beverages, along with numerous towers of giant onion rings!
I think everyone enjoyed themselves. As I remember, those in attendance were Harris, Todd Jordan, Bill Defranzo, Mike Tilford, Kate Bradley, NAR!, Brian Kong, Jim Kyle, a couple from Canada (maybe Harris can help me with the names)Dave Thompson, and the poor guy everyone kept calling the "Beckett Guy".

Sunday was a bit more relaxed at the show, I wanted to make the donut social, but some prima donna artist with red hair didn't come down to the lobby at the appointed time!I should have fixed her good and left without her, but she was a guest artist at the show that day so I thought better of it. Saw everyone's favorite editor-in-chief and resident humorist Alan Biegel, who had told Harris he was 50/50 about coming back on Sunday. I said "Alan I heard you were 50/50 about coming back, I'm happy you did". His response? "The 50% won out!" Good one, Alan! I helped Kate out at her table for most of the day, but did manage to pick up some more FF and Jericho boxes, along with a Movie Posters box and a Clone Wars box. Picked up some nice Spirit sketches from Dave Molder for only $10 each, Dave had a nice selection of sketches. The show wound down, which is always a bit of a letdown as the weekend always go so fast.

It was fun seeing everyone, thanks again to the Tosers and the Reighters for a memorable show. I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff, as it was non-stop fun all weekend. See everyone in the fall!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Batman,

Hey everyone! I live near Pittsburgh, so it's about a 4 hour drive (give or take). Getting to Allentown on Friday was a bit of a major task, as there was an accident (mind you, about 20 miles from our hotel!) which left us stopped dead on the highway for nearly 2 hours!! I was really hoping that wouldn't be a "theme" for the weekend, but...

Having never done a Philly Show before, I was a little nervous & apprehensive about how things would go, but to my great surprise, it truly was an AWESOME experience!!

Let me start by saying that my sincerest thanks & appreciation go out to Harris and everyone involved w/the show - thanks tons for having me and for the incredible opportunity!! Everyone was super kind and welcoming (especially Harris' folks) and I know I'll forget to mention somebody along the way, but I'm currently running on empty...

As many of you know, I don't frequent the boards as often as I'd like, so I really only know you guys by your screen names (which is embarrassing to say the least). I also wanted to apologize to anyone if I seemed a bit "off", as I'd been dealing with a migraine most of the weekend (accompanied by the discomfort from some ongoing dental procedures). It was a little difficult for me to talk, but I tried to mask it as best I could. *sigh*

In any event, thanks everyone who stopped by my table and for all of the incredible comments about my work! I honestly never think of what I do as anything 'special', so I'm always blown away at receiving such amazing feedback (special thanks to Don Norton for the above comment - it was a pleasure meeting you sir!) - I'm truly humbled! I'm really bad w/names, but it was great meeting all of you - especially, cverdec & batman - thanks SO much the support and for taking the time to stop by and say 'hi'!

It was also great to interact w/a few of my fellow sketch card artists & friends! It was really cool to talk with Brian & Jim again, plus getting to meet Rich & Kevin for the first time (y'all are awesome & amazingly talented, you know that, right?!) Was glad to have the opportunity to talk with Nar! briefly before the show started on Saturday and Kate Bradley is just a trip to be around! Oh and it was also cool to meet Ted Dastick, who I didn't even realize was walking around on Sunday! Thanks for stopping by!!

And I can't forget to mention my dealer buddies Laura & Tom, who are waaay too much fun to be around! (I'm *still* laughing, btw!! ). HUGE thanks also to my good friend Beth (who is such a sweetheart) and also my neighbor Dave, who literally lives right up the road from me!

Big thanks also to Steve & Robert from Rittenhouse for speaking w/me briefly, as well as Nick from Dynamic Forces and Paul from the Chicagoland Expo for stoppong by my table!! And it was a treat meeting Tom Breyer, who managed to get a super-sweet deal from me on a DEXTER sketch! lol

Once again, MEGA-HUGE thanks to everyone involved for an incredible show and awesome opportunity! Hopefully you'll have me back sometime in the future!!

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:

Graham (all the way from the U.K.!!),

WHAT!!!! He kept that quiet.

Oh not him, i see now.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wolfie,

quote:

Originally posted by Don Norton:

Things I looked for that were not there - any "Lest We Forget - Canada at War sets or cards. I figured if they'd be anywhere, they'd be here.
.

I agree. I could not find any sets at the show either. One dealer did have a box for $30.00. At the end of the show all boxes were reduced to half price. I rushed over but it was long gone. I'm looking forward to their U.S. series coing out soon. The promo that icardz sent to the show was their best looking promo to date.

quote:

Originally posted by Ted Dastick Jr.:

You can call me anytime.

Wait for it.............Hi anytime.

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Originally posted by Batman:
I was one number off from winning the Star Trek set, I will never win because of the curse of Harris!!

Tell me about it Batty. I also have this curse.

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Originally posted by SeanPatrickPence:
And it was a treat meeting Tom Breyer, who managed to get a super-sweet deal from me on a DEXTER sketch! lol

He was raving about it when I talked to him.

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Originally posted by wolfie:

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Originally posted by Ted Dastick Jr.:

You can call me anytime.

Wait for it.............Hi anytime.

I should have mentioned in my post about artists. It was great having you all there...Brian, Jim, Kate, Ken, Kevin, Nar!, Sean, and Rich, who told me that we have to wait until he moved a couple of hundred miles away before we invite him to the show. Er, sorry about that Rich ...we've only be involved with the show a couple of years now! A big thanks for all seven of your for making the trek.

Oh, and speaking of artists, thanks to Dave Moulder too for taking Kate and Nar back to the Hilton two days. He wasn't even staying there so it was nice of him to do so. And hey, he only had one seat to spare for the two of them so Kate got to ride in the back of the van -- it was her choice!. Kate had some fun saying "she always wanted to ride in the back of a van."

Oh, and I need to comment on some things in Batman's post (good post, by the way):

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Originally posted by Batman:
I also picked up commissions from Rich Molinelli and Sean Pence, which I will post scans of later as I am at work now.

Come on man, I'm waiting on one in particular....

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Originally posted by Batman:
I took a break from the show and assisted Harris with blowing up balloons and attaching them to the pilliars in the room where the dinner was being held, it's good thing neither of us our rocket scientists!

Er, we're not?

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Originally posted by Batman:
The dinner was decent, Kate was happy that they let her keep her "chicken"

So that's what happened to the missing chicken card! Kidding.

And yes, Red Robin was great! We need to get Joanna and Robert back, as well as Chris and Sherri.

Also, our friends from Canada are Tim (Otim) and Tammy. And the "Beckett Guy" is Andy. Funny comment, Alan (Mr. EIC).

this was my fist show ever and i had a great time, there were some great promos and artist. At the dinner i ended up sitting at the same table as NAR! and Kate who are very cool even tho i dont think i said more then ten words bc i am shy and nervous are stars like them. i saw some sketchs kong did for dexter which were amazing. i cant wait for next yr already

Nick, are you the person Kate said looked like Dexter? As Ted Dastick posted, Kate is "sick", although in a good way!

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:
Yeah, Graham was there...but probably not the one you are thinking of. This one is "Darth Graham", not to be confused with "Graham" or "Darth Smittyous", who won the NAR card at the last show. Wow, this is all so confusing. Too many Darth's and people named Graham.

Sorry for the confusion with too many Darths. Blame George Lucas. In the original SW trilogy, we only had one Darth, the man, Vader. Then the prequels show up and everybody is a Darth of some sort!

Great show by the way. I was only there Saturday, but I enjoyed it as always. Good trading with Dave Moulder again. It was fun looking around at the dealer tables. You never know what you will find. My only complaint was from an impulse buy of two Transformers boxes, which turned out to be duds. Oh well, the price was good, and I've already sent a letter to Topps to see if they can help out.

I'll be looking forward to the next show in October.

Craig

PS In case anyone is interested, I still have the wonderful NAR sketch I won at the 49th show, and no plans to sell it. It is just too cool... plus I never win anything.

Kate, Nar and myself had a fun ride back to the hotel. We got lost the 2nd night listening to Kate tell us that she remembered the way and everytime she saw a sign or building that we were on course. Of course the 1st night it was still light out and we had the directions. The 2nd night was a little more scary driving thru some of the less scenic parts of Allentown in the dark.

We had the nightmare trip to WAWA trying to get directions from the checkout guy who spoke very little English. Luckily we finally got good directions and were back to the hotel in a timely manner.

Dave

You really need a GPS, Dave! Kate did tell me she was digging the back of the van!!

True Men Don't use GPS.


Of Course with all the Driving around the country I might have to break down.

Dave

Some images of the dinner cards, along with one of the NAR! prints and the commissions I got from Sean Pence:

The two commissions are of Claire from Heroes, I saw so many awesome cards from Sean on ebay that I could never quite get, so the commission of her more than made up for missing out on those, and the other card is Gwen from Torchwood, I blame Alan and Harris for my crush on her, it was so much fun seeing her at the NY comic con, I'm now hooked!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Batman,

That's a dissapointingly small scan.

quote:

Originally posted by SeanPatrickPence:

In any event, thanks everyone who stopped by my table and for all of the incredible comments about my work! I honestly never think of what I do as anything 'special', so I'm always blown away at receiving such amazing feedback (special thanks to Don Norton for the above comment - it was a pleasure meeting you sir!) - I'm truly humbled!

Enough talking, get back to drawing!

quote:

That's a dissapointingly small scan.

I agree, I tried to fix it, but no luck. You have shamed me into trying again, Redemption!!