Hey, gang- have a “Flashback Friday” post for you this week. We’re taking the Wayback Machine a couple weekends back for the MidSouth Mega Con in Memphis, tn.
This was the first year for this comic con and it was at the Memphis Sports & Event Center out at the fairgrounds. Kevin and I manned a promo table for the Mid-South Cartoonists Association at the con. We had a corner space with plenty of room.
It was the first time we’d ever been inside the sports complex and were really impressed with the space. It’s huge, very open, has great lighting, a food court, ninja obstacle course, video game room, and the A/C worked great which is nice this time of year in Memphis!
Kev brought along some of his Muppet friends- Kermit, Fozzie, and Grover. We handed out a lot of MSCA stickers and postcards, and even sold a few zines!
There was lots of great cosplay, including our table neighbors The 731 Ghostbusters and Star Trek fan group Station Shelby.
We loved getting t0 meet the amazing animals from the Soft Landings of Tennessee waterfowl rescue, and the awesomely chill pup from the GameOver Arcade in Southaven, MS. (You can see more pics on our MSCA Facebook page.)
Reb Brown, Captain America from the ’70s TV movies was one of the guests, and set up next to Dean Cain/Superman. (They’ll both be guests at the Superman Celebration next weekend in Metropolis, IL.)
I got to meet him a few years back at my friend Ken Murphy’s con in Cape Girardeau, MO.
I did a Captain America sketchcover to give to Reb at the Cape Comic Con, and gave him some Cap stickers at this con. He really seemed to dig them.
I enjoyed drawing Cap in that style (I call it my ‘Super-Kid‘ style), so I thought I’d draw another one but go more ’70s with the background and change up the pose slightly. I need to do a painting like this!
You can see more of my encounter with Cap in Cape and my sketchcovers of him HERE.
I little while back I did the cover illustration for Retro-Fan Magazine #9 from TwoMorrows Publishing. They used the sketch cover art I did. Michael Eury at TwoMorrows contacted me to buy the sketchcover and ask if they could use the image. I told him it had already sold but they were welcome use my high-res scan of it. They paid me to reproduce it and sent me a few comp copies. Was cool to see issue #9 on the shelf at Comics & Collectibles when I walked into the store. If you’d like a copy and it’s not available at your local comic shop you can order one directly from TwoMorrows website or try Graham Crackers online. You can see a preview of it at the 13thDimention.com website here, and read an excerpt from the article here.
When I talked to Reb at the MidSouth Mega Con he said he had a copy of the magazine hanging on his wall at home- too cool!
Oh, and dig his shoes!
Kevin got to meet Sean Patrick Flanery who played young Indy in the TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
And we both got to talk to voice acting legend Billy West! He’s the voice of red M&M, Ren & Stimpy, and many voices on Futurama including Fry.
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He even wished Kev’s roommate DaMarco well over the phone.
I got to talk toons with local artists including Ryan Ladner, Shane Luttrell, That Katie Jones, Peter Melonas, Dr. Kevin Thorn, MSCA president Kevin L. Williams, and MCFC co-organizer/”Geek Tank Radio” co-host Brandon Olmstead.
You can hear those interviews on Episode 79 of the Drawing Funny podcast.
We had a lot of fun over the weekend and it was nice inside, but man the weather outside was frightful!
Thanks to Austin Bell and his staff and volunteers. I hope they did well enough to do it all over again next year. Uh, there may be a slight name change and branding going forward, though.
This fall Memphis Comic Expo will be at this same event center in September (the same weekend as Cooper-Young Fest down the street in midtown and the West Tennessee Comic Con in Jackson, TN). I’ll have a table at DonnieCon for the first time in a few years. Between the pandemic, travel, and other show commitments I haven’t been able to table there since probably 2018 at the AgCenter. Looking forward to MCX being at this new location.
I’ll be back on Wednesday for Con Man Pt.2 to tell you all about setting up at the Memphis Libraries Comic Con.
Lin
Two sketchy dudes! (Photo by Frank Chin.)