Back from San Diego

So that was an interesting trip, my first time in California. It’s pretty much as hot as Florida but without the humidity so I didn’t get drenched every time I went outside. Nice.

There is next to nothing to report that was Ultraverse-related from the Con. I saw a few artists there and asked them to sign a couple of things (mainly Ultraverse Series 2  cards). Aaron Lopresti and Terry Dodson shared a booth and Dave Dorman (who did all the art for the Ultraverse Masterpieces cards set) was there too. And there were a couple more here and there but honestly it was so hectic and large that I didn’t have time to do everything I wanted. And I was there all four days.

A couple of booths were selling Ultraverse comics but all I saw were commons in the $1 and $2 bins. I didn’t buy any. I saw a couple of pages of original art, but then I wasn’t really expecting to find much. Next time I will try and get a couple of sketch covers done (wish I had thought of that earlier!).

If you’ve never made it to SDCC, I highly recommend it. It’s packed to the rafters but it’s a mellow crowd (some people got a little cranky by Sunday) with thousands of interesting things to look at and a boatload of good deals. Maybe with Valiant Comics getting ready for a relaunch it might get the ball rolling the Ultraverse’s way. We’ll see.

Mantra signed bag

Mantra and Freex were the two titles that launched with the first issue in a polybag with a card and a “Wild Coupon” for Ultraverse Premiere 0 (the coupons for Hardcase, Prime and Strangers were bound into the first issue; the second issues for those titles were polybagged with a card but no coupon).

Anyway, it’s just your average mid-1990s polybag.

I picked up a bunch of signed books a few months back and this was thrown in there, a Mantra 1 with the polybag signed by Terry Dodson. Weird, I know.

That speculator craze made us do some odd things.