I apologize for the extreme delay in relaying my experience as an exhibitor at San Diego Comic-Con International 2015! I promise this post will have been worth your wait! There are plenty of things to talk about, so here is the break- down: I updated my display, I fabricated several new pieces for my Adorable Mayhem line, saw many new and familiar faces, and I bought several new graphic novels from independent publishers. I can never leave the convention without purchasing a few incredible, beautifully illustrated books.

My booth set up at Comic-Con

Let’s start with display. Every year I have exhibited at Comic-Con, I always assess my space and continually make enhancements to my set-up. I further embellished my circus turret by adding additional painted gold details throughout. In addition, I lined the edge of the turret with white floral lights.

I finally created a wooden base for my tree branch necklace display. Last year, because of lack of time, I merely taped the tree branch to a table leg. This did not display very well as the branch would project out at an odd angle away from the table. I finally carved a base where the branch could sit stably and stand upright, allowing the necklaces to be viewed much more easily.   Frankly, the fully completed tree stand looks far more finished and professional.

My necklace tree stand with hand carved base.

In the display, you can see several new felt mini sculptures I made for the show. Several people were very interested in my little felt animals and ended up selling out of most of the pieces I made! I try to combine felting with some metal work to make the felt sculptures more unique and detailed.

My felt menagerie on display.

This year,  I also started to invest more time into my physical appearance at the booth. In previous years, I found the idea of dressing up to be too tedious because I must be there at the convention very early in the morning to set up each day. I have to admit, it does take a little more time to get ready in the mornings before the show, however, I figured Comic-Con is one of the few opportunities to dress up in playful costumes. Why not have fun and take advantage of it? I don’t attempt to dress up as any specific character. I mainly dress in such a way that is light and colorful and matches the pastel color theme of the booth. My matching costume seems to pull the aesthetic of the booth together as a whole. Below, I have several images of myself at my booth and the various wigs and outfits I wore throughout the five day event.

First day at Comic-Con! Don’t worry! My more fun costumes come later. 😉

The fun has just begun! I love this lavender and pink wig I purchased from Gothic Lolita!

I made my felted pink cat ear headband. I’m wearing another Gothic Lolita wig in a pastel peach color.

This is a very playful sea foam blue wig with double ponytails that I purchased at Comic-Con last year from Epic Cosplay. It definitely bears some resemblance to the vocaloid singer, Hatsune Miku. Here, I’m displaying my ultimate prize finding from Comic-Con: Hello Kitty Donuts!

This last picture was taken at my booth while I was being interviewed by Cos Connect. You can read my little interview in the Press section of my website. Click on the link below to read!

https://magboocandyandjewelry.com/press-2/

Onto the main event! The featured body of work in my Adorable Mayhem line is my jewelry. One of the new pieces I added at this year’s Comic–Con is my sheepicorn or uni-sheep, whichever you prefer. 😉 I was inspired by my best friend, Keyanna, who is a lover of all things sheep-like. Since I have known her, Keyanna has always loved drawing sheep and renders them in her own characteristic way with rounded bodies and tiny heads. Her sheep sketches were both cute and endearing and I wanted to maintain those qualities while I was carving the wax for my own sheep. Since this necklace is a part of the Adorable Mayhem collection, of course, I had to add some additional quirkiness to this character. The little horn I added to transform my sheep into a sheepicorn gave him that much needed extra sprinkling of magic!

My silver sheepicorn or unisheep necklaces.

Some of you may remember, my smokin’ fox necklace. Last year, I made him entirely in silver. I wanted to visually create a greater separation between the fox and the cigarette, so I decided to make them in different metals. I cast the fox head in bronze and then fabricated the cigarette in silver. This helps differentiate the two parts and makes the pendant more visually eye-catching with the added color contrast. Whether you’re a man or a woman, everyone deserves to feel like a smokin’ fox!

My smokin’ fox necklace in ancient bronze and silver. The photography is by Sara Rey.

I added more color to my new bronze and silver necklaces. Colored donuts, pandas, tigers, and tiny birds are just a few of the many new pieces I added to the Adorable Mayhem collection.

I cannot deny that I was channeling Homer Simpson when I made this pink donut necklace with rainbow sprinkles!

My Hungry Panda Necklace

My tiny tiger necklace

My silver baby bird necklace.

Those of you who were not able to attend Comic-Con or didn’t have the chance to stop by my booth, you can check out my Etsy site and see if there are any goodies you might be interested in!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/AdorableMayhem

Now that I have been coming to Comic-Con for six years now, I have had the opportunity to get to know my fellow exhibitors and make new friends! It is always a treat to see familiar faces each year I return to Comic-Con! Below is long-time exhibitor, Sandra Adair. She is an amazingly talented illustrator and is currently working on a children’s book version of the Three Musketeers. She very generously gave me a beautiful print of a scene she illustrated from Alice and Wonderland as well as her latest self-published book of her work. Definitely click on the link below to see her work!

Sandra and I are sporting our colorful wigs!

Sandra’s website is: http://sandrachang.net

Once upon a time I was an avid YouTube content creator. One day, I will dip back into the pool of video editing, once I redirect the focus of my channel to more inspiring content. I met fellow YouTuber, Montel Thompson, at Comic-Con last year and  he kindly stopped by my booth again this year. Montel creates very thoughtful videos revolving around the topics of relationships, comics, gaming and movies. Check out his videos on Youtube!

https://www.youtube.com/user/navymontel/videos

Montel and I being silly at my booth!

I cannot leave Comic-Con without purchasing some graphic novels. I focus on buying comics from independent publishers because I primarily look for more unique work. Often times, when you purchase books on the last day of the show, many exhibitors will discount their prices and you can often find good deals.

Those of you who may not know, I was originally an illustration major in undergraduate school at the Rhode Island School of Design. I can’t believe that was fifteen years ago! It is certainly evident that a lot of the work that I make, be it jewelry of felting, is heavily influenced by illustration and tends to be representational.  I find graphic novels inspirational because they often spark new ideas for my own work. I look for great content and unique drawing styles.

My favorite booth is Drawn and Quarterly which is a graphic novel publishing company based in Quebec.  This year, I picked up several comics from Anders Nilsen. I purchased a wonderful book last year called, Big Questions, which contains highly detailed pen drawings and its story poses deeper philosophical questions about existence. Anders manages to scatter bits of humor along with the heavier content to lighten the story. Big Questions still remains his piece de resistance but this would be hard to top since this book took the author 15 years to create and is almost 600 pages long! I purchased three books from Anders this year and I was lucky enough to meet him in person. He signed and drew several small sketches in each one.

The Rage of Poseidon by Anders Nilson. This is a hard bound accordion-fold book with a graphic silhouette style of illustration. This I have yet to read!

Anders signed and made a small pen sketch on the table of contents page o f the book. Here you see his comic dog sketch leaping through the contents box.

God and the Devil at War in the Garden by Anders Nilsen. One can simply lose themselves in the richness of his detailed renderings.

Anders made a little crane sketch and signed this book as well.

The third book by Anders Nilsen, Poetry is Useless, has escaped me. It is lost in my shamefully monstrous collection of books. When I do find it, I will write a future blog post review of this comic.

Melody is an autobiographical book about a woman’s experience working as a stripper in downtown Montreal in the 1980s. She does have a primitive drawing style because she took on this project without extensive drawing experience. Somehow her simple drawings make sense as it coincides with her naivete’ as she enters the forbidden world of stripping. Melody is a fascinating autobiography and I definitely recommend this as a good read! This was another purchase from Drawn and Quarterly.

Melody by Silvie Rancourt: The Story of a Nude Dancer.

Excerpt from Melody

If you are interested in any of the above comics, you can check out Drawn and Quarterly’s website: https://www.drawnandquarterly.com/

From  First Second publishing, I purchased the New York Times bestseller, This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki. One Fine Summer is a fictional story about two young girls, Rose and Windy who spend the summer together as they enter that awkward stage between adolescence and puberty. The novel’s refined sketchy drawing style and candid content was definitely reminiscent of Craig Thompson who authored Blankets.

This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki.

Excerpt from This One Summer.

From Top Shelf publishing, I purchased a book called God is Disappointed in You. The book was written by Mark Russell and illustrated by Shannon Wheeler. Do not read this if you are a deeply Christian person! Some of the content may be interpreted as irreverent, perhaps even sacrilegious! Russell summarized each book of the Bible in just 2-3 pages which ended up being quite an undertaking and took him 3 years to complete! If you can read this with an open mind, I cannot recommend it enough because it is absolutely hilarious! My stomach was hurting so bad from busting out laughing. Let’s face it, the Old Testament in particular is fraught with violence, plagues and sexy times and can make for an exciting read especially when composed in Russell’s pointed and comical writing style. Keep in mind that Russell had no ill intention in composing this graphic novel. His was simply to write a candid overview of the Bible without glossing over the vulgar bits.

God is Disappointed in You by Mark Russell and Shannon Wheeler. I love how the book was constructed to look similar to an actual Bible. It has a black hard cover, red ribbon marker, and even has that characteristic metallic page edging that all Bibles have!

Excerpt from God is Disappointed in You. This is the story of Samson and Delilah in the book of Judges.

I had the opportunity to meet the Illustrator, Shannon Wheeler. He signed my book and made a little sketch portrait of me in it!

Another book I purchased was a self-published version of The Wizard of OZ by Evan Dahm. Evan illustrated the original story by L. Frank Baum with his own unique visual interpretation of the characters. Evan’s charming illustration is so well done that I look forward to re-reading this classic.

The Wizard of OZ by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by Evan Daum.

Excerpt from The Wizard of OZ. This is Evan’s illustration of the great yellow Wildcat chasing a field mouse.

My last stop was at the Fantagraphics booth where I purchased Bright-Eyed at Midnight by Leslie Stein. The author recounts her experiences working as a bartender. Late at night was when inspiration would strike her and Leslie would spend hours drawing a comic page a day. This book is a compilation of her best content from her 365 days of comic creation in 2014. Her beautiful watercolor and pen drawings are simply breathtaking! I have to admit the illustration is what really drew me in to purchase the book.

Bright-Eyed at Midnight by Leslie Stein.

Excerpt from Bright-Eyed at Midnight.

I only took a few pictures of costumes while I was at Comic-Con. Below, are a couple of my favorites that I took while at my booth.

This man looked just like Obi-Wan Kenobi! Even his beard was real!

This woman made her own Steampunk costume! Impressive!

I know this was a long recounting of my Comic-Con experience! This was my sixth year exhibiting at Comic-Con and it never ceases to be an exciting time! It has become something of a phenomenon here in San Diego with this year drawing in over 135 million in revenue for the city and over 130,000 in attendees from across the country and around the globe. I certainly hope that the convention continues to stay here in San Diego and I look forward to my seventh year exhibiting at Comic Con 2017! If you are one of the lucky people that manages to obtain Comic-Con tickets, stop by my booth at E-04.