Long John

Last Thursday was the second annual Art Mix | Crocker-Con at the Crocker Art Museum in downtown Sacramento, and I must say, it was a blast.

What’s interesting about it is the strange mixing that happens because it’s simultaneously drawing two crowds: comics/pop culture fans (both of major companies and independents), and Art Museum crowd (I won’t try to define that for fear of causing accidental insult). Of course, these aren’t mutually exclusive and the Crocker is well versed in popular culture, but I can safely say that of all the conventions I’ve participated in, Crocker-Con had the widest range of conversation topics with guests that I’ve ever experienced. Some conversations went deep into narrative theory and pseudo-ideological goals and implications that the story of Long John can have, and it was really a lot of fun to have those conversations. It is also very exhausting (as is exhibiting at any convention, to be honest).

In the downtime between guests, I doodled on the backs of some comic book backing boards, and––for being Sharpie and pencil––I like how they came out:

An asymmetrical portrait of Long John, from Crocker-Con 2014

Hellrider Jackie sketch from Crocker-Con 2014

Long John sketch from Crocker-Con 2014

It was a lot of fun and it was fantastic to actually kind of see how Long John connected with a general audience, to see what kinds of people had their interest piqued by the art, the characters, and the story––and the results were kind of surprising and, most importantly, encouraging and inspiring. Needless to say, a lot more people than I initially thought––in the dark hermit hole that is my home office––really latched on to Long John despite its significant lack of robots, aliens, or monsters. So, I guess I’m willing to admit when I’m wrong.