Jay “Father Geek” Knowles is Harry Knowles’ Dad and quite the fascinating character himself. I tried to thematically connect the art for his and Harry’s badge.
This was the third CONvergence visit for Eric Flint, so I felt fairly safe in using Connie to make a reference to Eric’s 1632 book series.
Harry Knowles of Aint It Cool News – Thor to Father Geek’s Odin. I really loved how these two badges came out.
#CVG2008 – Kenneth Hite
#CVG2008 – Dr James Kakalios
#CVG2008 – John Kovalic
Kenneth Hite’s badge is actually based on an inside joke from a dinner conversation at Giordano’s Pizza in Chicago. It involved Swamp Thing re-imagined as Flor-El, last plant of Krypton. This would be his not-so-convincing secret identity.
You can find physics professor Dr. James Kakalios in his most private moments cursing the name of Reed Richards.
John Kovalic’s badge references our Dr. Blink character. I’d still love to see this art used as a book cover…
For author Lois McMaster Bujold I broke my rule again about not using Connie on badges for first-time Guests of Honor. When I break that rule it’s usually a sign of desperation. The four hands are a reference to the Quaddies from Lois’ work.
Emily Hagins is a remarkable filmmaker who wrote, produced and directed the zombie movie Pathogen at age 12. She’s still going strong, working on new films!
I hated to go to the “zombie well” yet again, but it seemed appropriate for The Rising author Brian Keene.
#CVG2007 - John Kovalic
#CVG2007 - Wally Wingert
#CVG2007 - Bernie Wrightson
John Kovalic’s badge featured a notoriously over-crowded page from the Dr. Blink comic written by John, drawn by me, and lettered and colored by Melissa Kaercher.
Wally Wingert’s badge referenced his role as one of the Almighty Tallest from Invader Zim, and his obsessive love of the Adam West Batman series (a man after my own heart!).
Bernie Wrigthson’s badge refers to the author page on the first printing of Bernie’s magnificent illustrated edition of Frankenstein, which gave a full bio of Bernie including where he resided with his two dogs, but merely said of the author “Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is dead and has no dogs.”
It’s the time of year where in addition to doing my usual day-job art chores, I’m getting ready for CONvergence, the Sci-Fi convention I helped start back in 1999 and still help to run. In addition to my other responsibilities I do a lot of artwork for the convention, including custom badge art for each individual Guest of Honor. As we count down to CONvergence 2012 on July 5-8 this year, I thought I’d share some highlights from past Guest of Honor badges. I’ll share this year’s badgesafter the convention – the Guests of Honor they are for get to see them first!
2003 GoH - John Kovalic
At the time this was done, John Kovalic had been at the convention before and was a personal friend, making it much easier to figure out what to do for his badge art. John’s badge is done in the style of his Chez Geek cards, and features characters from his Dork Tower comic at CONvergence.
2003 GoH - Andrew Probert
Andrew Probert is a production designer whose credits include the Enterprise-D for Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the Airwolf helicopter from the TV series of that name. Those two facts plus a recurring cliche from the Airwolf series provided the joke for this badge.
2003 GoH - Michael Sheard
Michael Sheard was also making a return appearance at CONvergence this year. The British character actor had appeared several times on Doctor Who over the years, including the story that introduced the Doctor’s robotic dog K-9. Michael famously had a love-hate relationship with that “tin dog,” given the remote-control prop’s never-ending malfunctioning on the set.
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!