I've just signed up for the Saginaw Comic Convention at the SVRC Marketplace in Saginaw, Michigan. It takes place September 28th, 2024 from 11-6. Here's a link to their Facebook event page. I'll be displaying and (hopefully) selling original artwork, and drawing caricatures, comic book and cartoon characters. This is one of the drawings I'll have available. It's an 18x24 graphite drawing.
So, Sammy Hagar has embarked on a new tour to celebrate and honor the music of Van Halen, as well as his career, and the careers of his band members, which right now consists of Michael Anthony of Van Halen, Jason Bonham, and Joe Satriani of Chickenfoot with Sammy and Michael Anthony. This friday, August 2nd, the "Best of All Worlds" tour is going to be hitting Pine Knob music theater in Clarkston michigan, where I and my brother will be going and taking artwork to hopefully give to Sammy and the band. I have not done this and a long time, because I didn't want to put my brother through that again. Since 1997, I've been taking artwork to concerts to try to give to musicians that I admire, and feel as though my brother and my wife have had to suffer through me trying to finagle a way to get backstage over get to the front of the crowd or get to security to try to get the artwork to the bands. So for the last almost 10 years I've given up on bringing artwork to musicians, and that includes Sammy Hagar. But my brother just kind of hinted the other week that the reason he gets tickets so close is so I could try to get artwork to the band on stage, which means that he's always intended for me to do that without actually saying anything! So this concert I'm going to try it again, which works because Van Halen is one of the biggest reasons I got in to music and Middle School, particularly the Sammy Hagar era because that's when I got into music was around the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge album, which is my favorite album of all time, and not just favorite Van Halen album. We were lucky enough to see Van Halen in 1993 and twice in 1995, that's the last time we saw Van Halen. The 2004 tour was too expensive for us to go to, but we've seen all but maybe three Sammy solo tours if you include the Chickenfoot shows. Here are some of the pictures that I created for the band members. Wish me luck on giving these to them face to face!
I have found that I don't sell a lot of original artwork, so I have a plethora of artwork to display. The only money I really make at the conventions is for drawing caricatures, which is fine and good because that is something that people enjoy and I thought it would be a nice addition to events. I have reasonable prices for my artwork and for caricatures and commissions because I know what it's like to go to a show and not have any money to buy anything. I'm also not a celebrity or a published artist, so I don't charge published artist prices. I also feel as though I'm in my element at Comic conventions, because I am fully immersed in comic books and pop culture and can find conversations and interests with other people easily at these conventions, which not many people realize when they think of a comic convention. It's not just about superhero comics. It's sci-fi, it's television, it's movies, it's fiction, anime, cartoons, video games, wrestling, music, all wrapped up in one building for one or two days. There's comic books of course, and a lot of the comic book culture, but it's more than that. That's one of the reasons why I advertised caricatures at the events is for people who aren't into these kind of subjects like people who are being dragged to the show, like as a sister or wife or a brother or a cousin who isn't into any of this kind of stuff, but they can sit down and get some original artwork that's more personal that they can have hanging in their house. It's a personal experience from an event that you may or might not have enjoyed, but you found something out of the ordinary that you enjoyed.
You can find the information about this convention at http://www.reallycoolcomiccon.com
