Water or Water.

The biggest problem I have had here (and lets face it I am not in Japan or similar) is the word water, yes, Water!

You see I say water WAR-TER which I think is fair enough. Our american cousins say water WHAT-ER. It is bloody tough to get a drink here without sounding like I am taking the piss as I cannot say WHAT-ER without putting on a silly accent.

Arse!

Honorable Mentions

Well it has to be said there are a few folk who deserve an honorable mention during my time in San Diego.

Firstly Mr Joe Benitez who invited me out to dinner with his friends and made me feel welcome and got me along to some good drink ups. A top guy, very generous and as Mr Liefield said, DC's hidden secret, a great artist.

Thanks Joe, I owe you one.

Also were Dave and Meredith Finch, Marcia Chen, Clarance Lansing, Billy Tan and family, Liniel Yu and family and everyone else who were very cool over dinner as I geeked out a lot. Cheers guys.

The Top Cow guys who I guess after a litte scepticism about the 'journalist' were very cool and open. Cheers especially to the interns and Alyssa and her pals from LA for the entertainment in the Bar.

Last but not least, JSC for the great DG piece. Pride of place on the wall when I get home.

Movies

Have seen Die Hard and the Simpsons this week, both great fun.

Die Hard was an echo back to the kind of action movie we haven't really seen since True Lies and was kinda refreshing although rediculously over the top.

The Simpsons was just laugh out loud funny, very good.

What have I been up too..

So Comic Con is over, for those of you who are wondering "what do you do for five days at a convention, surely once you have seen everything on offer once, you dont need to see more" let me tell you, everytime I walked around that place I saw more and more.

Other than the main exhibition floor which you have to see to belive the size of, there were panels, presentations and events going on, so it wasnt just a case of walking around looking at stuff. Its also not just comics, a lot of big movies get promoted here as well as games, TV shows and the like. The size of the show is impossible to describe and the visitors just go nuts for the most rediculous things like these cardboard '300' shields, you would think they were giving out money.

Its great and a lot of artists from the comic industry do signings and draw for people. Some charge and some do it for free and I have to say some fans are really, really rude and demanding. It amazed me how professional the comic industry folk were when faced with these idiots.

San Digo Update

Ok, its been a while and now that Comic_Con is over (and I have recovered, Its time for the photos.



The Convention Centre in San Diego. Its waaay bigger than in the pic.



Mr J. Scott Campbell with the fantastic Baroness piece he drew for me, thanks Jeff.



The Indiana Jones stand.



Tim Sale.



Jim Lee has a life changing experience as he meets Russell Sheath.
"Russ you are my inspiration in all that I do" declares an excited Lee. I look like I am getting ready to pounce for some reason....like Spider-Man!



The Batman piece by Tim Sale. "I would only be half the artist I am today were it not for the Ginger God" declares an Awestruck Sale.



Alyssa, Rick and Phil from Top Cow, Cheers for looking after me guys!



Frank Cho



Dave Finch



Elvis and Star Wars, two great things combine to create....The Elvis Trooper.



Post your comments to the Caption competition.....



Leia looks a lot happier with what was behind the door number 2. Anyone says a word about 'The Ginger Jabba' and there will be trouble.



The Image Comics founders, a big geek out moment.



Padme and Leia, KEPT hounding me for a photo and being the kind soul that I am, obliged. Bless them.



Sgt Slaughter signs at the GI Joe Booth. I think he retired from active service........long ago.



Bendis and Quesada. Iron Man looks like he is about to punch Bendis in the head.




For Mr Clarke, the new Indy figures.



The story behind this is that Top Cow who I spent most of the week hanging with were having a 'win the t-shirt from the top girls back' competition. When Brandon came around with her I thought he was joking so I said, yeh I'd pay $15 and before you you know it the shirt was off and the camera was clicking. I'm innocent....honest.



Henry Rollins, not so angry as normal.



Kevin Bacon gets excited when he hears the name....Sheath!


The Lucasfilm booth.

The geekiest day of my life.

You have no idea how geeky a day today has been.


First off I attend a panel with all the image founders.

Then....

I met John Romita Jr, Dave Finch and Marc Silvestri, Travis Charest.

I end up being given a pass to the Lucasfilm /Weta / Dark Horse / Gentile Giant party by a girl at the Larry Elmore stand. Steve Sansweet is at the party as is Dave Prowse. James Clarke, I have an AWESOME keepsake for you. You will not get this ANYWHERE else.

I have beers this evening with J. Scott Campbell, Joe Benitez, Joe weems, Matt Banning, Sarah Beckera and Marcia Chen. Benitez attacks Campbell! The evening becomes the night as its now almost 3 am. My new drinking buddies are my heroes. Weird beyond words.

Bendis and Brubecker are across the room.

Joe Quesada shakes my hand.

I am so geeked out I am writing this at 2.45 am

San Diego.

In San Diego now having caught the train down from LA. Its a greta ride all along the pacific coast and has stunning views.

What can I say about San Diego? Its more cosmopolitan than anywhere you could wish to go. Very hip with bars and restaurants open into the night. A very stylish place indeed. I like it a lot and I have only been here a few hours.

Its bloody hot and the new hostel I have booked into, I have to say I am not so keen on. Its a different chain of hostels than the last one and is a bit 'hippy trippy' and bohemian, people loafing everywhere. Did I mention its hot?

So, Comic-con, bloody hell. Put all the cliche geeks into one room (myself included) and watch them go. Its bloody scary. Its all well and good, but what the hell do you do with a convention exclusive lifesize statue of Optimus Prime limited to 50,000??

I dunno!

Am sticking to art, a few prints and some sketchbooks and am looking out for stuff for everyone too. James and James, I got you covered.

Preview night is supposedly quiet, I would hate to see what Saturday is like!!

Highlight of the con and the trip has to be a gift from Mr DangerGirl himself, J. Scott Campbell who surprised me with a Baroness from GI Joe piece he did just for me. Flattered and chuffed beyond belief and somewhat speechless at the time too.

Thank you Jeff, pics to follow.

I haven't been this excited since I used to sit next to Abbo at work, but that was a 'different kind' of excited!!!

More photo Updates

The home of the legend that is.....The HOFF! This is the Hoff's house with the best view in LA.


Hard Rock Cafe in Universal Studios.


Surely you recognise the Fresh Princes house?

Photo Updates

Hooters Girls in Santa Monica. The redhead is smiling, she wants some Russ Action, clearly!


The redwoods in Muir woods.


Santa Monica Pier.

Here are some photo updates from the last few days including the Redwoods in Muir Woods just outside San Francisco, can you picture the speederbikes racing through there?

Hooters in Santa Monica, I think the redhead had a thing for me, clearly a ginger thing goin' on!

Santa Monica beach.

Today I went on a 7 hour bus tour of LA, we saw J-Lo's new house, The Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills, Hollywood and all the stuff inbetween. I was in two minds because its a bit of a 'lazy' effort and would have preferred to do things under my own steam, but for the time I am in LA I would never have even known where to start to see all that stuff.

Tomorrow (Weds) its the train to San Diego, I am really looking forward to going down there. 1.5 Hour drive or a 3 hour train journey. I am leaving early too so should be cool, get there early and go for it!

Santa Monica

Well, I have to say my aprehension about LA, at least so far was unwarranted.

Its really nice here in Santa Monica, no drive by shootings, not many sirens and stuff like that and if anything the beach looks a lot like Sandown on the Island.

The hostel is really nice, very smart and I would give again a 5/5 for the showers, good effort Santa Monica H-I!

After arriving a hot, sticky mess following 7 hours in a bus with very poor Aircon travelling through the desert I awarded the shower 5/5 and went to an 'english pub' for steak and chips. Was good too, the guinness was better.

The staff were actually english and the woman sounded like Daphnie from Frasier. Weird.

Its getting a bit dull travelling alone now, this hostel is big and less opportuity to meet people so am definatly looking forward to getting to San Diego and catching up with folk I know both from the comic industry and fans I have gotten to know from boards etc.

This morning I had breakfast and went exploring, Santa Monica is very nice, ladies, you would all love the shopping of which there is A LOT!!! The beach is very long and I have to admit somewhat lacking in Baywatch babes. It was a little breezy today so that could be the reason.

After exploring the beach and the pier and failing to find Mitch at Baywatch headquarters or the cop who used to help him out I ventured and checked out the shops. You will be pleased to know that minimal tat has been bought, infact nothing at all.

Did find a comic shop though.....

As if by magic....Hooters appeared and I have to say the girls are only a 3/5 here too. Not overly impressed although the redhead in the picture I will post later did push towards a 5, especially when I told her I was the Duke of Devon after she asked if I knew Prince Harry!!!! Bless her.

Lunch then Top Cow!

I have to say for a major independent comic publisher I really thought their office would be MUCH bigger. Its dinky and I guess the illusion of all these people working in an office with artists in studios etc is shattered as the magic of email and scanned art means we simply dont need to have that kind of setup any more. Unfortunatly (gutted and almost cried like a girl) Marc Silvestri wasn't there but I did interview two top fellas, Matt Hawkins and Rob Levin, who's interviews will appear in Fractal Matter at some point. I will track down Silvestri at the show.....he will not escape.

Photos from the last couple of days to follow. Highlight of the day....

Matt at Top Cow explaining to staff the downside of dealing with comic fans with a particular warning to the attractive female member of staff who looked more than a little uncomfortable at the prospect of dealing with Fanboys.

Bless.

Tomorrow, bit of an LA bus tour for the day, see the sights, pop a cap in some homies ass. Word.

Day 5

Long , hot bus journey. Desert, more Iraq than John Ford....did I mention it was hot?

Highlight, well if there was one it is that we went through Modesto, which of course you all know as the home town of some fella called George Lucas.

Magic.

Day 4 Wonderin on Endor.

Day 4 was a kinda, hmmm, what shall I do day. I was awake mega early again so had breakfast and headed out.

I walked across the bridge and the busses are a bit random so ended up walking to a very nice little town called Saucilito.

My original plan was to go on a Star Wars mission, head up to Lucas Valley Road which is the site of The Skywalker Ranch and then over to San Anselmo home of the great one himself, George Lucas.

Busses here are not straight forward and it looked like there is no way to get along Lucas Valley Road and that it would take me half the day to get to San Anselmo, with no promise of being able to get back. My Star Wars mission was not over though.....

I was told by one of the hostel guys that Muir Woods was the site of a lot of background shooting for Return of The Jedi along with Redwood Forest in Northern California I was also told that the youth hostel in the Marin Headlands is home to THE bunker that housed the death star shield generator!

So, off I headed to Muir Woods, which was a bit of a mission up in the hills to get to but very spectacular.

No sign of speeder bikes or Ewoks, but was still a good day out. Trying to get to the other Hostel, home of the bunker was another story and it was getting late, so unfortunatly that will be an adventure for another trip. Caught the passenger ferry back to San Francisco and back to the hostel.

While I would like to give the impression that its all party's and adventure it was pretty quiet here on Sat and no one seemed to be up for doing anything, so I played chess with a girl called Sophie from London. Ah, its all go on this trip.

Today, I check out and leave San Francisco and head onto LA. Santa Monica. Little apprehensive about LA as its reputation preceeds it but should be fine. Gonna do one of those Hollywood tours tomorrow and have a meeting at Top Cow in the afternoon.

Weds I will go to Universal studios I think and then Thurs......San Diego!!!

My thoughts on San Francisco are that its very cool and very welcoming, its very easy to feel at home here and thats quite nice. The climate is just right, hot but windy so its not too opressive. I like it, its not really the kind of place you visit twice, so if I came back I would stay in Marin County and do more in the wine country and venture further afield and use San Fran as a base.

Good showers though and thats the important thing.

Lets see how LA's showers and hooters compare.

Word!

A book I found in Virgin: San Francisco

And I have to say well worth a read, check out his other stuff too. Great reads from a great guy. I cannot recommend his books enough.

Day 3 Lucasfilm and not much else.....

Russ does his bit for womens charity worldwide....next, world peace!

This poor young lady, when she heard I was in the house grovelled, nay, begged to be photographed with me!

I took pity on her seeing as she asked so nicely and clearly needs some high points in her life.

I think that it's safe to say, this is one of them, if not THE highpoint.

Her day was made, clearly!! I may donate some clothes to the poor girl as she looks as little chilly.

Notice her genuine smile and look of genuine awe at my manly 'hand on hip' pose! (Also notice her clenched fist, ready to strike if my hand slipped too far south......as if I would)!!!

Day 2

I am taking this image to ILM to replace the blonde lady with Princess leia and the bridge with the Deathstar.

Day two was cool...Early morning kick off again, still on 7am wake-up's.



Wondered along to the Bay cruises and went on an hour long boat trip around the bay, under the bridge and around Alcatraz.


Then went on a 3.5 hour bus tour, glad I did that as I saw some excellent sights and vantage points. Really cool.



Lunch in Hard Rock Cafe San Francisco: update for those of you keeping track:


All sauces are still evil, especially Tomato and salad cream. BBQ sauce is edging its way in and may be placed on the accepted list.


Funnisest thing I saw today, a street performer painted entirely silver giving a man and his family a fearsome bollocking for not giving any money and then putting his head in his hand and bursting into tears. Magic!

Day one Photo's

The Palace at Naboo? Maybe I came further than I thought!

5pm

8 Am

The Coolest Post box...ever
The enterence to ILM

Not at all childish Joanne ;-)

On the first day....

So, I woke up mega early and of course the downside of staying in a hostel is that there are a room full of people who you have to try hard not to wake up when you get up.

Even though I got to bed about quarter to twelve our time I was still awake at six and up and about at seven.
So after a bit of creeping about on tip-toes I managed to sort myself out for the day and after a bit of breakfast went out to see where my feet took me.

I have decided to rate each location I stay in by two things....

The showers...where I will take into account power, warmth and distribution.
The standard of the girls at hooters where I will take into account.......well you can work that out.

So, San Diego:
Showers: 5/5 A force to be reckoned with as the blast ripped the skin from my back with the force of a thousand killers whales swimming at once.

So I ventured out and wondered along Fishermans Wharf which I guess is like Blackpool seafront minus the kiss me quick hats. Everything was closed that early in the morning but was nice to familarise myself with the area. It was bloody foggy and as I said before looked like a bad day at "insert grim seaside town in the uk here".
The hostel is right on the waterfront and Alcatraz is just across the water and I have to say although my swimming ability equals that of a lame gerbil, I don't see what the fuss was, anyone could swim that. The prison in Porridge looks more threatening. Wel will see.

So I then ventured into town and the financial and downtown area and had breakfast (awesome breakfast of scrambled eggs and pancakes) in a 50s style diner called Lori's. Good stuff.

Wondered around the shops for a bit and had a good look around, found an interesting book in Virgin called Coppola by some fella called James Clarke, looks like a good read, I think everone should buy it.

It was still very grey so decided to not risk doing anything too adventurous and went to see Transformers at the cinema. Good film, certainly Michael Bay's best, ok, well maybe not as good as the Rock, but better than his other stuff. My eyes needed a rest after that as it was a major assault on the senses. Coming out of the cinema the sun was out and blazing down but with a nice breeze too. Decided to wonder about a bit more, find a comic shop that had been recommended and I ended up walking about 5 miles to find it.

Shop was a bit naff and not worth bothering with so walked some more and ended up doing a big ol' loop and ended up back towards the hostel. I decided to embrace the geekdom of being in San Francisco and find The Presidio, where ILM are based. Its right by the Golden Gate Bridge and no hassle at all to find. Funny considering that you would think it would all be behind gates but you can walk amongst the buildings all of which are very non-discript and listed by address only. As I wondered about I wasn't sure if it was the place but when I looked in windows each one had a toy tie-fighter or R2D2 in the window and when I looked up in the walkway that spanned two buildings I saw glass cabinets that had unmistakable shilouettes of a Star Destroyer and Velosoraptor. I walked a bit further around the building again with no restriction and found the main enterence with a sure fire give away, still no logo or signage other than a statue of Yoda at the enterence. This was ILM.

Cool eh?

After that detour I wondered back along the beach side which was full of joggers and wind surfers and was all rather nice. Lastly Fishermans Wharf, Hooters, fish sandwich thing, very nice.

Hooters San Francisco: Hmmm, ok, my waitress was called Larissa and was very squeaky and loud. Not so keen, not as good as the shower, which is re-inforced by when she asked where I was from I got a very puzzled look when I said the UK and was still confused when I said England. 3/5

Z'sss now, tired, more tomorrow.

Will add pics when I can get them from camera, may require the magic of an adaptor for the card.

Roaming about on Day 1

Ahoy all
Well its been a long ol' day which started off smoggy and foggy and ended up blazing hot.
First inpressions of San Francisco, very friendly and easy going. A really nice place and very quiet. Have no heard one siren all day, which I guess means either the police are not very good or are infact very good.

When it was foggy this morning it looked like a misty day in Ventnor or for you Devon dwellers out there, Exmouth. Luckily the sun burnt off the mist and my first impression changed.

More on the days activities later (need to find somewhere for dinner, dare I say...."Hooters"!

That didn't take long to find, I have my priorities sorted.

Oh yeh, had an encounter with Yoda earlier (James and James, don't get too excited but I went to ILM today)!!! More as soon as I have sorted out the pic.

Arrival

After leaving Matt's in London at half seven this morning I touched down in Miniappolis, was grilled by the Security fellas and then on to California. 11 Hours of flying later and a little getting lost in San Fran means its now 6am UK time, I have been on the go 23 Hours but I have got my second wind and am untired. Typical. Its quarter past ten at night now.

First photo opportunity to proceed tomorrow, as soon as there is some light, its very dark and very foggy.

Word!

Ready for the off

Flew through security which was good and ready for the off!
Great to see Matt last night (cheers for the place to stay) and Steph too, can't believe it has been so long and we are still talking about headbanging.

Feeling a little rough after the guinness last night, so will hoepfully sleep it off.

Ok, pictures and more soon.

Leaving on a jetplane.....

Ok, well the aim of this blog is to keep you lot in touch with my trip to the US the summer.
The route as I am sure you all know is

San Francisco 17-21st July
LA 22-24th July
San Diego 25-2nd Aug
San Antonio 3 - 7th Aug
Memphis 8-10 Aug
Titusville PA 10-14 Aug

Bit like a US tour, maybe I will have t-shirts made up for you all.
I will be on email russellsheath@yahoo.co.uk and on my mobile although please dont text unless urgent as it will cost us both a mint.

I will update you all with pics, videos and the action as it progresses.

Wish me luck, more on Tues from the airport most likely....next stop.....San Francisco