I just got a nice shout-out from TheMarySue.com for the Costumes are Not Consent posters I made for this year’s CONvergence.
Here’s the complete set:
The characters are all mascot characters I created for CONvergence: Connie, the convention’s principle mascot, Professor Max, the scientist who invented her, and his misguided attempt to improve on perfection, the slightly-evil Connie Mark 2.
On Wednesday I will head to the Double Tree hotel in Bloomington, MN for CONvergence 2013! It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since I helped start this convention back in 1999, and since then attendance has grown from 1,500 to more than 6,000. I’ll have a busy weekend there and I’m hoping to see many friends and fans.
I’ll have copies of the Young Justice Trade Paperbacks for sale there, but if you’ve got Young Justice comics or anything else I’ve worked on you’d like me to sign (including your CONvergence Souvenir Program Guide!), please stop by and I’ll be happy to sign them. And if you stop by the signing, show me that you follow my Christopher Jones Comic Art page on Facebook or @ChrisJonesArt on Twitter and get one of two FREE convention exclusive items:
I’ll also have prints in the CONvergence Art Show print shop, so be sure to look for those. They’ll be priced at $20 each, which is a $10 savings over my Etsy Store, plus no shipping fees!
I helped start a sci-fi convention called CONvergence here in Minnesota back in 1999, and still work on it now that it’s grown to a 4-day, 6,000-person event. This year’s CONvergence theme is British Invasion, and it seemed like a no-brainer to bring my friend Travis Richey (aka Inspector Spacetime) to the convention. If you’re a fan of NBC’s Community, you probably know who The Inspector is – traveling through time and space on British television since 1962.
Travis wanted to come, so Hal Bichel and I took it upon ourselves to make it happen. We’re doing an IndiGoGo lightning campaign to help cover the costs, as airfare and hotels aren’t cheap and we’re not made of money! If you’re coming to CONvergence this year (and you should) and want to see Inspector Spacetime there (and you should) please visit our IndiGoGo campaign. You can read more about Travis, the ongoing adventures of The Inspector in Untitled Web Series About A Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time, and the great perks we have for contributors!
Won’t you help Hal and Chris bring Inspector Spacetime to CONvergence 2013?
I was already a fan of Dwayne McDuffie’s writing for comics and animation when he attended the convention I helped start, CONvergence, as a Guest of Honor in 2009. I got to interview Dwayne for a panel, escort him on a tour of the convention parties, and spend some good time with him over the weekend. It wasn’t until the weekend was over that I showed him some of my own comic art, which included art from The Batman Strikes, the series I had been drawing at the time. He said some complimentary things as he flipped through the binder of art, and then upon getting to a page with a streamlined silhouette of Batman said “Yeah, you GET IT.” That made my weekend.
If I’d been a fan before of Dwayne’s work, that weekend made me a fan of Dwayne. His warmth, humor and generosity really blew me away, so I was glad to have played a role in creating a warm welcome for him.
First of all, I had done the badge art you see above. I do custom badge art for all of CONvergence’s guests. Dwayne’s badge featured a face to face meeting of the comic book and animation versions of Dwayne’s signature Static character.
I also play a role in crafting what goes on at the convention’s opening and closing ceremonies. In researching Dwayne to plan for his time at CONvergence, I came across this “ProFile” of Assistant Editor Dwayne McDuffie from a 1988 Bullpen Bulletin page from Marvel Comics.
Dwayne McDuffie – ProFile
In the questionnaire, Dwayne said “The reason I got into comics” was “So I could hit Wolverine in the face with a pie.” This was too good to pass up.
At Closing Ceremony when Dwayne was brought up on stage to say goodbye to the convention, we brought up this ProFile and this quote, and told Dwayne that CONvergence was the place where dreams come true…
Ready… aim…
I would have preferred a volunteer Wolverine cosplayer, but you work with what you’ve got, so I brought out a color marker drawing of Wolverine I’d done on foam core board and Dwayne was given a cream pie to use as ammunition. I was half-expecting that the pie was going to hit me rather than the 2-dimensional mutant, but Dwayne took careful aim at Logan and nailed him square in the puss.
SPLAT!!!
After that, Dwayne left the stage and as I went backstage with the remains of the comedy bit, I heard our next Guest of Honor horror author Brian Keene say “That’s funny. I got into writing so I could hit Chris Jones in the face with a pie.” Before I finished laughing, another pie had been readied and was being delivered to Brian and I dutifully marched back out on stage for the sake of comedy. But that’s another story.
I still have that rather smeared Wolverine drawing. I also have the copy of Dwayne’s script for the Justice League episode “Epilog” that Dwayne had donated to our charity auction, which features an original Bruce Timm Batman sketch on the cover page!
I’m happy to have those treasures but I’d rather still have Dwayne around. I miss you, Dwayne!
In honor of Curiosity’s successful landing on Mars last night, I thought I’d share this piece of artwork. This was originally done as a Souvenir Program Guide cover for CONvergence, back in 2006 for the convention theme of “Boldly Go.” It features the CONvergence mascot Connie and a few familiar friends. Can you identify them all?
Congratulations to everyone at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on this fantastic accomplishment!
Christopher Jones is a comic book artist who has worked on DC's Young Justice, The Batman Strikes!, Batman '66, Justice League Adventures; Marvel's Superhero Squad, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes; Titan's Doctor Who; Re-Animator, Dr. Blink: Superhero Shrink & more!
Conventions, CONvergence, Misc Artwork | Christopher Jones | 
July 9, 2013 5:09 pm | 
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