Friday 13th
5:15 am BST
After driving, taking two tubes and then the DLR (Docklands Light Railway we near the Excel. We change at Westferry for the right stop. Then we met the fans. All kinds of shapes and sizes. One single, unified love, that binds: Star Wars. Some you would never know who loved, others, well we met a couple of guys who were like the collector in the Simpsons. They were great. We changed train, and we were met but Darth Vader avec Jedi. They were a great opener to the day for everyone on the train, so much so that the Driver made an announcement: ‘How does Darth Vader know what Luke Skywalker is getting for Christmas?’ The answer came floating over the tannoy,” He felt his presents”. Oh, we’ve not heard that one before. Still it was great to see that everyone on the train, from skater-boy to city gent, love the fact that two guys were prepared to get all dressed up for the day. Sweet!
Finally we get there, to Star Wars Celebration Europe 2007. Now, we’ve both got our own lanyards and very nice laminated Passes. I also created my own card to promote my work. I did one for Mike, telling him he had to do his bit to promote me. No complaint from him we put the passes around our necks and strode towards the Expo centre.
You don’t need to see
his identification
Queues. Oh I hate queues. I soo hate them. The British are very good at queuing. The Europeans however, love a good free-for-all. So chaos ensues; Jedi and Sith running around together, mass hysteria. But we have passes, oh thank the maker we have passes. So we move on, but can we go in? No, a burly security guard smiles, “Guys you need to have hyperspace lanyards to get in early.” Yeah no sweat, we’re members we know that. “ Ok no problem” replies our good man, “ You need to queue hover there.” He points to the line of fans that has assembled in a snake the leads of into the distance, very long. This is not for tickets, this is for the blue ribbons. Not good. So we think that we will never get in. I’m not a fan of jumping the queue, but I started looking for a gap where I could slide in. I didn’t need to worry. A few guys saw my pass and saw my promo badge and they beckoned us to join them. That is what Star Wars fan are like! How cool is that. We get our hyperspace lanyards and we’re in.
Jabba, Lea and the
501st
We went to the autograph section and before we got passed the barriers we were greeted by two storm troopers of the 501st . They, along with all the people who populated the exhibition with Star Wars characters were brilliant. They posed and really engaged the visitors with chat, moving people along, arresting and generally being bad ass troopers, officers, and Sith. While the Jedi were there usual complative selves being one with everyone. To those guys, you were fantastic.
The Main entrance hall a fantastic life-sized Jabba the Hutt, looking very slimy. Later on he would be accompanied by a very sexy princess Lea. She just loved the camera, a real pro. I think I’ll use her for a sketch card she was so good at posing.
Do you come here
often?
I let Mike get the tickets for the autographs and while he was sorting that out dealt with a few call from the office, oh that was fun. Not. Forget work. We then walked around the celebs (see www.celebrationeurope.com for details) I bumped into Kenny Baker, Peter Meyhew and had a good chat with Lightning Bear (http://www.lightningbear.co.uk/). Fascinating chap. Very quiet and unassuming. He like the others, professionals doing the job they love. Many people say that celebrities get fed up with these conventions, remember Galaxy Quest? Not these people. Lightning told me he loves it, they all do. The cast of the Star Wars films have a real bond with each other. The old-timers catch-up and ask how things have gone since the last time they saw each other and they like meeting the new ones as they join the circuit. With the live action TV series coming there will be more new blood to fill the ranks. I hope they continue to show the amazing enthusiasm the veterans have for the fans.
Draw the Force
The Artists Alley was an amazing collection of the most talented graphic artists and illustrators on the planet. The atmosphere was bussing from the fans and artists alike. They mingled, people together, celebrating. That’s what it was.
I caught up with Randy Martinez (http://www.randymartinez.net). He was
looking very happy and you could see he was excited and thrilled with the
feedback he was getting from the fans and collectors. Everyone was. Randy has some
excellent posters signed, limited editions and work especially rendered for the
show. He was with his partner Denise, who was on tour in the
He was next to Matt Busch (http://www.mattbusch.com). Matt was on a break but his assistant was doing a great getting people to stop by, I really wanted to talk to him but I was on a tight schedule.
Adam Hughs (http://www.justsayah.com) was pushing his new sketch booklets all about drawing boob and women. He does a lot of that, and he’s pretty good at it. Maybe he need to get out more. Still his work is lively and remind me of Norman Rockwells work, but in the future. Great stuff.
Cynthia Cummens was a star. We had a fantastic chat with
her, more of that in another posting (it’s 11:10pm now and I’m done in). She
had been working on some commissions for Mike and they are fantastic. I’ll get
them posted as well.
< Mike and Cynthia
I’m going to stop there until I’ve had some sleep. In the meantime, here some pictures of the show:
Jedi_Netrix
Please check out Cynthia's website http://www.cynthiacummensart.com.
Me and some of the guys doing the Force Unleashed stand. The lady with the blaster was really nice and smiled until Mike started taking pictures. No smiling in the Imperial ranks then. ;-)
Joe Corroney. I've promised to send this over to Joe for his website. His site is http://www.joecorroney.com. Check it out.
