Telltale Games - Adventures in Comic-Con '06

Posted by emily

July 22, 2006

With Thursday's panel out of the way, Friday promised to be a relaxing day of... running from press appointment to press appointment. Our interviews included IGN, GamesRadar, GameInformer, FanBoyPlanet, Gamasutra, and PC Gamer. (Okay, those last two were on Thursday afternoon, but who's counting?) Steve also filmed a segment for SpikeTV. As soon as the resulting interviews, podcasts, and previews are available, we'll let you know where to find them. Three cheers for coverage!

The (relative) downtime on Friday meant I got to spend a little time on the show floor. Jeff Smith did a signing at the Diamond Comics booth, where I met up with him to give him some Bone postcards to hand out. The postcard has a render of Fone Bone shaking Phoney by the neck upon their arrival in Barrelhaven. (The graphic from the Sam & Max GameTap poster is on the other side.) I can't tell you how cool it is when a Bone fan strolls by, notices the postcard, pauses, and goes, "Hey wait, there's a Bone game?!" Awareness of the Bone games is pretty high among gamers, but not as high as we'd like among comic fans, so the more people we can inform about them while we're here, the better.

I've seen a lot of costumes so far at Comic-Con, but none can top the Thorn / Fone Bone combo I ran into at Jeff's signing. Thorn even had Ted the Bug on her finger. Fone Bone was made with her height in mind, so he would be just the right proportion when they stand side by side. He's a marionette, and his handler (apparently Thorn's real-life boyfriend) made him do all sorts of cute things like wave and look up at Thorn adoringly. Very cool.

Jeff had the covers for Scholastic's next two Bone books on display behind him as he signed. I'll try to get a better picture, because they're gorgeous. Jeff's blog had mentioned he would have Bone One Volume posters, but he didn't bring any with him to the signing, so Steve Hamaker (the guy who colors all of Scholastic's Bone reprints) was nice enough to run back and get some. I picked up two -- one for me, and one for the office. With the demolition of The Wall and our subsequent migration to the other side (which is completely safe now that the blue "do not cross" tape has been removed), we have a lot more wall space than we once did.* Perfect for a Bone One Volume poster!

My next stop was Steve Purcell's booth, where I hung out for a few hours. Steve's selling two new pieces of merchandise: a Max skull-and-crossbones shirt (also available as girl shirts!), and a self-published Sam & Max sketchbook with lots of neat old drawings, concepts from the cancelled games and the cartoon series, lines from the cartoon that didn't make it past the censors, and more. As I flipped through, Steve explained what the various pictures were (a giant thumb wrestling machine, a spaceship in the shape of Max's head and the aliens who built it, Flint Paper, a drawing Steve did years ago to piss off his brother). I asked why he hadn't included this commentary in the book. "No one wants to read commentary," he said. "When I get a book like this, I only look at the pictures." Well, they're awesome pictures, and if you're a Sam & Max fan you'll be wise to hunt this book down. Steve said he printed 750 and he only has about 200 with him at the show, so even if you couldn't make it to Comic-Con, I'm sure there will be other opportunities to buy it.

Steve's sharing his booth with two friends, Michelle Harroll and Dan Scanlon. He knows Michelle from LucasArts, and works with Dan at Pixar. Michelle and Dan are selling a new book called The Unmentionables, about a little boy's first pair of "grown up" underwear who's tired of being dumped on, so he escapes from the laundry basket. Along with the book, Michelle and Dan have Unmentionables t-shirts and -- yes, it had to happen -- thong underwear.

Michelle mentioned to me, when Steve was away from the booth, that he'd been grousing about not selling enough girl shirts. Being a big fan of girl shirts, I tried to buy one when he came back, but he just gave it to me and wouldn't take my money, completely defeating the point. Then Michelle left the booth and someone came by to buy an Unmentionables book. I made change for a twenty, which meant Michelle would owe me $10 when she came back. Over the next few minutes I became very preoccupied with the Unmentionables thong hanging on the wall behind me. I am not a thong person. To be honest, I hate them with a passion. But this one has a cartoon thong on it that's sticking out its tongue. How could I resist? I bought one, giving Steve the great pleasure of reporting the sale to Michelle when she returned. (Apparently she'd also been grousing that she wasn't selling enough thongs.) So, day 3 of the show found me wearing my new shirt AND my new thong! (Sorry, a little too much information?)

Steve did some book signings while I was there. It was awesome to watch him work. In a matter of minutes, he went from a blank page to the dog and bunny duo we all know and love.

Oh, I almost forgot about the postal service. If you remember from yesterday's blog, there are an awful lot of postal service employees here, and we had no idea why. Friday afternoon, David Reid from GameTap stood in line to buy limited edition comic book stamps for his wife and kids. Turns out they were just released on Thursday, and there's a bevy of employees downstairs at the far end of the lobby selling certificates and envelopes with cancelled stamps on them. Dan and I admired David's stamps for a second, then looked at each other across the table and went, "Oh, the postal service." It was a true Seinfeld moment.

That's day 2 in a nutshell. Friday afternoon Dave G, Dave B, Dan, and Joel (our marketing guru) flew out, and in the wee hours of morning Jake and Doug showed up. Saturday and Sunday are all about enjoying the non-Telltale aspects of the show (all the while handing out more Bone and Sam & Max postcards to the unsuspecting masses). Enough with the work -- it's time to play!

UPDATE: You can now read part three of our Comic-Con diary here.

*Does anyone else find it ironic that the demolition of The Wall resulted in more wall space than we had before?

Tagged Bone, Deep Thoughts, Events, Sam & Max

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6 Comments

	Wow, I hope the Sam & Max sketchbook finds its way into the Telltale store...
	Comment by JP July 22, 2006, 8:55 pm

	I hope that postcard-sized Sam and Max promo piece also makes it into the Telltale Store
	Comment by pheeph July 22, 2006, 9:02 pm

	I hope EVERYTHING makes its way into the store (except the thong).
	Comment by Diduz July 23, 2006, 12:46 am

	He's not selling enough girl shirts? Well, bring ME one!
	Comment by Deirdra July 23, 2006, 10:42 am

	I love reading commentary! It is too bad Steve left it out.
	Comment by John July 24, 2006, 6:29 am

	Please, let us know if that Sam & Max sketchbook becomes available anywhere! I'm still kicking myself for missing it at the con.
	Comment by ASMDaniel July 28, 2006, 8:44 am

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