CONvergence 2015 Guest of Honor Badges

Since co-founding the first CONvergence in 1999, I’ve drawn unique, custom badge art for every CONvergence Guest of Honor, every year. It’s time consuming, but I believe—both as a convention runner and as a frequent guest at conventions myself—that it creates a powerful first impression towards CONvergence being a unique convention experience.

I usually try to reference something from a given guest’s body of work in a clever way, as well as try to incorporate our mascot, Connie, on badges for Guests who have been to CONvergence before and are already familiar with the character. Here are the custom Guest of Honor badges I created this year for our CONvergence 2015 Guests.

	Wesley Chu It’s always a challenge designing a badge for author guests if I don’t know of a recognizable visual “hook” associated with their work. But when I saw multiple references by Wesley in various bios and interviews to trying to perfect his “Blue Steel” look (he’s a big Zoolander fan), I knew what I had to do. Upon meeting him, Wesley said to me about his badge “How did you KNOW?” Follow Wesley Chu’s blog at http://www.chuforthought.com/
	Nicole Dubuc When I read that Nicole Dubuc had not only written a Flash comic but had voiced Iris-West Allen on Young Justice in addition to writing episodes of the series, I was tempted to do something with that theme for her badge art. I was worried that it was just my Young Justice bias showing, though, so I instead decided to work with the bigger milestones of her career. Kim Possible was one of Nicole’s first writing gigs and she developed the recent Transformers: Rescue Bots. She told me at the con that Chase happens to be her favorite Rescue Bot! Now if only we’d had more time to talk Young Justice… You can follow Nicole Dubuc on Twitter as @NicoleDubuc.
	Chad Frey Chad Frey has been a set designer and art director on more films that I could even begin to work with, and I didn’t really know which were favorites or his level of contribution to each beyond the job title. I ended up focusing on his design work for Oz the Great and Powerful and had elements from his other films swept up by the cyclone, including references to Transformers, Cloverfield, The Green Hornet and even Mad Men. Learn more about Chad Frey on his website, www.FreyArt.us.
	Charlotte Fullerton While I try not to over-use Connie on our Guest Badges, I knew it was safe with Charlotte. She’d been to CONvergence before when her late husband (the great) Dwayne McDuffie was a Guest of Honor, so she knew who Connie was. It was kind of a no-brainer to dress Connie up as Ben 10, as that franchise has dominated much of Charlotte’s career for several years, including her role as story-editor on Ben 10: Omniverse. You can follow Charlotte on Twitter at @TheCFullerton and on Facebook at The Charlotte Fullerton Page.
	Lee Harris Lee Harris is an author and editor, currently Senior Editor for the new Novella imprint at Tor.com, which presents the usual issue I have with finding a visual hook for someone known for work in a non-visual field. I ended up going for a fun graphic treatment of a picture of Lee himself, which seems to have worked. Lee commented “You must be a great artist. You managed to make me look cool.” I have to note that Lee was fantastically funny our annual, very silly SMACKDOWN! panel. It was great getting to spend some time chatting with Lee over the con weekend! Learn more about Lee Harris at his blog, www.LeeHarris.com, and follow him on Twitter as @LeeAHarris.
	Jennifer Ouellette Sadly Jennifer is the one Guest of Honor I never managed to meet face-to-face over the convention weekend. All you really need to know about Jennifer’s badge art is that one of her books is titled “The Calculus Diaries: How Math Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, and Survive a Zombie Apocalypse.” I feel like I nailed 3 out of 4 elements of that title. All four if you consider bits of a zombie being missing as weight loss. Jennifer writes the blog, Cocktail Party Physics for Scientific American. You can learn more about Jennifer Ouellette on her website, www.jenniferouellette-writes.com, or follow her on Twitter at @JenLucPiquant.
	Gordon Smuder I’ve been friends with Gordon for many years and have been lucky enough to collaborate with him on a few projects. I flat out asked him if he had a preference for what he wanted on his Guest of Honor badge. I swear I thought he said “No puppets,” which baffled me because Gordon is best known for his puppet building and for puppet-based projects like Transylvania Television and his upcoming Vermin (Featuring MST3K Alumni Trace Beaulieu). So I went with something I knew was one of Gordon’s great fandoms: The Herculoids. Gordon said he LOVED the badge, but that he’d told me “No MUPPETS.” Why the heck would I ever have considered putting Jim Henson Studios characters on Gordon’s badge? Ah, well… You can see many more of Gordon’s puppet creations at www.thepuppetforge.com. Learn more about the Vermin web show and its Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/792672696/relaunch-vermin-web-show
	Toni Weisskopf Another stumper: Toni Weisskopf, publisher of Baen Books. I didn’t want go to the “portrait” option for a third time, so instead I did a fun graphic treatment of the Baen logo. I lucked out again as Toni loved it. I don’t think I ever saw her face-to-face again after the Guest Reception on the night before the convention properly began, so I hope she had a great con weekend! http://www.baen.com/
	Bryan Thao Worra And finally, Bryan Thao Worra was another 2015 guest I’ve been lucky enough to have been friends with for a few years. When I asked him about badge art preferences he mentioned a couple of options, including adding something to his collection of Naga artwork. So for a multi-year attendee CONvergence panelist, one more Connie. This one being Connie as a Naga, with each of the Medusa-like crown of snakes sporting their own Connie-style antenna. You can learn more about Bryan Thao Worra at his blog, thaoworra.blogspot.com, and follow him on Twitter as @thaoworra.

So that wraps up all of the CONvergence 2015 badge art. You can check out my 2014 blog posts featuring the CONvergence 2014 Guest of Honor Badges and the CONvergence 2014 membership badge art as well! And if you’re interested in checking out more badge art from previous years, I’ve got most of it posted on my blog under the “Badge Art” tag – click here to check it out!

The Digital Print I Created for Greg Weisman’s Rain of the Ghosts

I created this digital print as one of the rewards for the Rain of the Ghosts full-cast AudioPlay Kickstarter.

Rain of the Ghosts is the first in a Young Adult novel series by Greg Weisman, creator of Disney’s Gargoyles, and a writer and producer for numerous fan-favorite animated series including Spectacular Spider-man, W.I.T.C.H., Young Justice, and Star Wars Rebels. Greg describes the novel this way:

These are the adventures of Rain Cacique, a young girl descended from the indigenous Taíno people of the Caribbean.  Rain lives on the Ghost Keys, a chain of islands on the edge of the Bermuda Triangle, where her parents own and run a Bed & Breakfast that is both Rain’s home and place of employment.  Over the course of the first book, Rain goes from making beds for tourists to learning she has the ability to communicate with ghosts.  Rain has a mystery to solve, a mission to accomplish and a destiny to fulfill.  I can honestly guarantee that if you enjoy the sensibility, characters, plotting and surprises I’ve brought to such series as Gargoyles and Young Justice, you’ll love Rain of the Ghosts.

Now Greg wants to bring the story to life as a full-cast audio drama. Not just an audio book with the text of the novel being read by a single performer, but a full cast of 20 actors with sound effects and music! Greg has already paid to record the vocals out of his own pocket, but funds are needed to complete the post-production work and bring the story of Rain Cacique and her friends fully to life.

I created the image you see above as one of many rewards being offered to supporters of the Kickstarter campaign. The digital download print you can earn as a reward is at much higher resolution than this preview version and doesn’t have the big “Rain of the Ghosts” text in the middle of the image! 

Here’s more on the Kickstarter:

New Print, Schedule, Ribbons, and Young Justice at Gallifrey One 2015

FINALLY got all my prints and ribbons and stuff in order and packed for Gallifrey One. Including my NEW PRINT, “Bat Wolf”. (Why? Because Batman and Doctor Who are awesome and because I can.) I first started going to Gallifrey just attending as a fan, and while I’m now a guest and will be “working” the convention from my table in the Dealers Room, for me its still one of the most enjoyable conventions I do all year. Time to seriously get my “Doctor Who Geek” on!

I’ll also have all my other Doctor Who prints, which you can preview in my etsy store. Find me in the Dealers Room to pick up some art and also to get a ribbon for your badge :)

11×17” color prints are my usual convention prices, $20 each or 3 for $50 – quite a discount from etsy!

If I’m not at my table, I’ll probably be at one of my panels:

• Breaking Into Comics – Friday, February 14, 12:00pm-1:00pm, Program C
• Superhero Supercrush – Saturday, February 15, 1:00pm-2:00pm,Program D
• Kaffeeklatsch (Christopher Jones/Greg Weisman) – Saturday, February 15, 3:00pm-4:00pm, Board Room
• Women of Young Justice – Saturday, February 15, 6:00pm-7:00pm,Program D

I’ll have some non-Doctor Who art as well, if anybody was interested in original sketches or superhero/Young Justice prints.

So some of you know Greg Weisman and I have been doing Young Justice stuff at the Gallifrey One Doctor Who convention in LA because they keep letting us. (Also we like Doctor Who.) This year we would like to present…

WOMEN OF YOUNG JUSTICE

Saturday, Feb 14, 6:00pm in Program Room D

Featuring…

• Stephanie Lemelin – Voice of Artemis
• Kelly Hu – Voice of Cheshire
• Vanessa Marshall – Voice of Black Canary
• Masasa Moyo – Voice of Bumblebee
• Lolita Ritmanis – Composer
• Greg Weisman – Writer/Producer
• Christopher Jones – Comic Book Artist

The panel is open only to Gallifrey One members. Greg and I and anybody else who wants to will stick around for about an hour in the same room for a Young Justice meet-up, if anybody wants to grab an autograph or photo or just hang out and talk YJ for a bit.

YES, we will record the panel. (Here’s the video from last year’s Young Justice panel at Gallifrey One.)

I’m always happy talking to fans at every convention I attend, but ESPECIALLY at Gallifrey One I’m there as a fan too, so please come up and say hello if you see me around the con!

CONvergence 2014 Guest of Honor Badges

Since co-founding the first CONvergence in 1999, I’ve drawn unique, custom badge art for every CONvergence Guest of Honor, every year. It’s time consuming, but I believe—both as a convention runner and as a frequent guest at conventions myself—that it creates a powerful first impression towards CONvergence being a unique convention experience.

I usually try to reference something from a given guest’s body of work in a clever way, as well as try to incorporate our mascot, Connie, on badges for Guests who have been to CONvergence before and are already familiar with the character. Here are the custom Guest of Honor badges I created this year for our CONvergence 2014 Guests.

	Amy Berg One of Amy’s projects is the digital series, Caper, for Geek and Sundry. It seemed appropriate to highlight one of the superheroes from that show, so I drew the armored alter ego of The Machine.
	Emma Bull Emma Bull is probably best known in the Twin Cities for her Minneapolis-based urban fantasy novel, War for the Oaks, so I wanted to visually reference that setting, including the novel’s protagonist, Eddi McCandry, and the shape-shifting phouka.
	C Robert Cargill Cargill is a long-time friend of CONvergence as well as a personal friend of mine. Knowing his tastes, it was a no-brainer to suit him up as Ace Hunter from Megaforce, with Connie along for the ride on his jet-powered, flying motorcycle.
	Sarah Clemens Much of Sarah’s work features the characters of Magnus the cat and Loki the Norwegian Speartail Dragon, so doing something with them seemed the obvious choice. I understood Magnus & Loki are known to be pair of troublemakers, and somehow a “Usual Suspects” motif emerged…
	Matthew Ebel Musician Matt Ebel includes many references to robots, including GLaDOS from Portal. So I placed GLaDOS in front of a keyboard and added Matthew’s trademark beard. This was the design from this year that I most questioned how it would go over, but Matthew was delighted with it. Whew!
	Scott Lynch This was Scott’s first time as a CONvergence Guest of Honor but he’s been attending the convention for many years, so I had no problem casting Connie as the Gray King standing in front of Red Seas Under Red Skies from Scott’s Gentleman Bastard series of novels.
CONvergence 2014 welcomed several Guests of Honor with connections to Disney’s Gargoyles as part of our celebration of the Gargoyles 20th Anniversary. In light of this, I did a mash-up of a Gargoyles character with another thing a given Guest of Honor was known for.
	Greg Guler Greg was Lead Character Designer for Gargoyles and currently serves in the same capacity on Phineas and Ferb, so his badge featured a mash-up of Brooklyn and Phineas and Ferb’s Agent P.
	Frank Paur Frank was the Supervising Producer on Gargoyles and in recent years has served as art director and director of many Marvel animation projects, including Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, so I drew Dr. Bruce Banner transforming into Gargoyles’ Broadway, in an homage to the cover of The Incredible Hulk #1.
	Marina Sirtis Marina Sirtis was the voice of the villainous Demona on Gargoyles, which stood in stark contrast with her role as Counsellor Deanna Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation. So I couldn’t resist putting Demona in Troi’s uniform… With a phaser rifle thrown in for good measure.
	Greg Weisman I’ve been lucky enough call Greg a colleague and a friend for several years. The majority of our work together was on the Young Justice comic book for DC Comics, so dressing Goliath as Young Justice’s Nightwing seemed oddly appropriate. Whelmed, even.

So that wraps up all of the CONvergence 2014 badge art. If you didn’t see it yet, be sure to check out the CONvergence 2014 membership badge art as well! And if you’re interested in checking out more badge art from previous years, I’ve got most of it posted on my blog under the “Badge Art” tag – click here to check it out!

CONvergence is Imminent!

CONvergence is Imminent! Per usual, I’m finishing up last minute things before heading to the hotel tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to hanging out with Greg Weisman and talking Gargoyles and Young Justice all weekend.

I’m also on two shipping panels on Saturday night. I blame Tumblr for that. You can’t see it, but I’m right now comically shaking my fist in the direction I presume Tumblr to be. Yeah, Tumblr, that will teach you.

Anyway, if you see me around the con, ask me for one of my cool Time Lord Batman Ribbons.

I’ll post my CONvergence schedule below with links to the online schedule so it’s easy to join my events. In addition to my signings, I will have a few of each of my art prints available in the CONvergence art show.

My CONvergence 2014 Schedule:

Thursday

2:00pm – 3:00pm Fan Art and Social Media  (Atrium 2)

Discuss how the latest social media platforms and visual blogging sites (such as Tumblr and Pinterest) are enabling more exposure for artists–fan and otherwise. Panelists: Shawn van Briesen, Jennifer Lundstrom, Hal Bichel, Fes Works, Christopher Jones

3:30pm – 4:30pm Parallel Man (Plaza 1)

FREE POSTERS at the panel!!

Take a look at the new sci-fi adventure coming to you later this year as a comic, a computer game, and in development as an animated TV series, feature film, and toy line. With local creators Jeffrey Morris, Rob Callahan, and Christopher Jones.
Panelists: Christopher Jones, Rob Callahan, Jeffrey Morris

7:00pm – 8:00pm Opening Ceremony (Mainstage)

If it’s not exactly a magical invocation, it is nonetheless our official kick-off for the convention! Join Connie as we welcome our Guests of Honor, give out some awards (including the Mark Time and Ogle winners), and get this party started.
(I co-wrote/produced this. My voice is in it, but I won’t be on stage.)

8:30pm – 10:30pm Smackdown (Mainstage)

Bring your wand and cloak to this year’s Smackdown for some Magical Mayhem! Wizards, witches, warlocks, and sorceresses will be judged as our panel of “experts” decides who lives and who dies in our mystical iron cage match!
Panelists: Amy Berg, Tim Wick, C. Robert Cargill, Melissa Kaercher, Tim Uren, Molly Glover, Joseph Scrimshaw, Kelvin Hatle, Christopher Jones

11:30pm – 12:30am Physics of Impossible Costumes (Atrium 7)

We’ll discuss the physics of our favorite highly unlikely costumes, from unreal women’s shapes and male upper bodies to unrealistic body armor.
Panelists: Ryan Consell, Sarah Barsness, Marie Porter, Karine Charlebois, Christopher Jones

Friday

12:30pm – 1:30pm From TV to Comics (Plaza 2)

We’ll discuss the TV shows that expanded into the comicverse, such as Buffy, Smallville, and Gargoyles. Did they succeed? Were any of the comics improvements on the shows? How did canon change during the transition?
Panelists: Shawn van Briesen, Jonathan Palmer, Greg Weisman, Greg Guler, Karine Charlebois, Christopher Jones

2:00pm – 3:00pm SIGNING  (Autograph Table in CONvergence Central)

I’ll be selling and signing Young Justice trade paperbacks and prints along side Greg Weisman and Greg Guler.

8:30pm – 9:30pm Gargoyles Q&A (Mainstage)

Join the cast and creators of “Gargoyles” to talk about the show and comic books.
Panelists: Greg Weisman, Christopher Jones, Marina Sirtis, Frank Paur, Karine Charlebois, Greg Guler

11:30pm – ??? Young Justice Meet-Up  (Garden Court)

Everyone who attends gets a SYMBIOSI ribbon (while supplies last!)

Writer Greg Weisman and artist Christopher Jones host an informal gathering for fans of Young Justice! Come hang out, chat, get autographs and take photos. Cosplay is encouraged but not mandatory!
Panelists: Christopher Jones, Greg Weisman

Saturday

12:30pm – 1:30pm SIGNING (Autograph Table in CONvergence Central)

I’ll be selling and signing Young Justice trade paperbacks and prints.

10:00pm – 11:00pm Blue Mug (Edina Room)

Ever wonder about the sexual habits of Gargoyles? Ever wonder who was sleeping with whom among the Young Justice Team or the cast of Spectacular Spider-Man? Join us for for a late night peek at your favorite animated series. This panel will get blue!
Panelists: Greg Weisman, Christopher Jones

11:30pm – 12:30pm Which Supers Should Hook Up?  (Plaza 2)

If Thor and Storm got together, they would have cute little thunderbabies.
Panelists: Lyda Morehouse, Kenneth Konkol, Lathan Murrell, Samma Johnson (mod), Christopher Jones

Sunday

11:00am – 12:00pm SIGNING (Autograph Table in CONvergence Central)

I’ll be selling and signing Young Justice trade paperbacks and prints alongside Tim Lieder.

12:30pm – 3:00pm Art: Impossible (Bloomington Room)

The artists return to the Thunderdome with new challenges to challenge their brain and their artistic integrity. Join us to find out how artists can achieve the IMPOSSIBLE!
Panelists: Tim Wick (mod), Christopher Jones, Melissa Kaercher, Jerry Belich, Louis Frank, Dawn Krosnowski, Ruth Thompson

3:30pm – 4:30pm Young Justice Panel (Mainstage)

Some of the creative minds behind the Young Justice TV and comic book series will talk about this fan favorite.
Panelists: Greg Weisman (mod), Marina Sirtis, Christopher Jones

5:00pm – 6:00pm Closing Ceremony (Mainstage)

It’s not over ’til the gynoid sings – or something like that. Join Connie and our Guests of Honor as we say farewell to another convention. Shenanigans may ensue.
(I co-wrote/produced this. I won’t be on stage.)