Con is concluded

I will post a wrap-up as soon as my brain is capable of doing so and from the comfort of my studio.

Sunday Signing @ CBLDF

Sunday, July 28

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

booth #1831/1833

2:00-3:00

CBLDF has original drawings, limited edition prints, trade paperbacks and all sorts of other Beanworld things for sale with all proceeds going to the Fund.

When you come to the Beanworld panel on Friday....

When you come to the Beanworld panel on Friday chances are you won't learn too much about this character....however if you attend the CBLDF Drink and Draw on Thursday night--there is a good chance you will see me drawing weird stuff like this.

Don't forget that I'll be at the Dark Horse booth on Saturday @ 11 am and CBLDF booth on Sunday @ 2 pm.

(Ohhhhh okay....if there is time left, and you ask me about the dude above, and , I just might chat about where he fits into the future of Beanworld.)

The Official LARRY MARDER Look-See SD08 Schedule

It is really amazing how much has changed in my life since last year's Comic Con International. I still rub my eyes in astonishment that I'm fortunate enough to draw Beanworld each and every day and have a happy publishing home for my creations.

This year I'll be taking meetings, attending panels, and just generally wandering the Con. I'm very curious about the current state of the comic book market place and I will be gathering as much information as I dust off and don my official Larry Marder "Nexus of All Comic Book Realities" Thinking Cap.

Unlike other years, where I was employed by others and my primary responsibilities were to their organizations; this year the only reason I'm at the Con is to meet and talk about Beanworld with you.

If you spot me meandering around, please don't think twice about stopping me to say "Hello."
Anywho, these are the places that I'm scheduled to be!

Thursday, July 24
7:30 PM
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s Comic-Con Welcome Party
Westgate Hotel in downtown San Diego.

CBLDF will have many Beanworld Orphan sketches for adoption at this event. Plus, I’ll be sketching my heart out at the annual meeting of the Drink & Draw Social Club. I tend to be very prolific at these Drink and Draw parties, and some of my most oddball ideas come surging out of my pens in the heat of doing sketch after sketch. They can all be yours with all proceeds going directly to CBLDF.

Friday, July 25
6:00-7:00
Room 2
Panel

Larry Marder: The Beanworld Is Back!
Legendary Beanworld creator, Larry Marder, is front and center in his first solo Comic-Con panel in 15 years. Learn how beans have been part of Marder's life since the day he was born! The rich visual presentation covers the entire history of his peculiar fantasy dimension including Marder's many influences. This is your opportunity to discover why Beanworld has captivated readers from grade school to grad school since its first publication as a series of comic books in the 1980s. Now, Dark Horse Comics is publishing Beanworld for an entire new generation of fans. Hear all the details about Marder's many up-coming Beanworld projects!

Come and see my power point presentation that is partly autobiographical, partly an explanation of my influences, partly an explanation of the process that is the Beanworld, and hear descriptions and see previews of upcoming Beanworld projects from Dark Horse Comics.

Saturday, July 27
Dark Horse Comics booth #2615
11:00 – 12:00
Signing

I’ll be signing a Dark Horse Comics Beanworld promotional card featuring the new cover drawing for Larry Marder’s Beanworld Book One. This is my first convention event with Dark Horse!


Sunday, July 28
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund booth #1831/1833
2:00-3:00
Signing

CBLDF has original drawings, limited edition prints, trade paperbacks and all sorts of other Beanworld things for sale with all proceeds going to the Fund.

Lucky Charms and the Four Realities??

There is no doubt in my mind that the original commercials for Lucky Charms cereal had an indirect but powerful influence on the thought process that eventually lead to the formation of the Four Realities.

When the product rolled out in in 1963, I was 12 years old. I have no idea why my mother allowed me to eat this cereal, but she did. I was crazy for the weird taste and mouthfeel texture of the little marshmallow bit; called "marbits" by those mad scientist food engineers at General Mills.

The commercials themselves really didn't break any new ground, they were an upside-down-and-backwards variation on the tried and true "Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids" theme. Instead of a determined, stalking fantasy character desperately trying to steal cereal from children; in the Lucky Charms ads a group of sleuthing kids are on the hunt for the breakfast cereal being withheld by the elusive and bratty mascot--Lucky the Leprechaun

In every commercial Lucky always catalogued the four magical lucky charms: "Yellow moons, green four leaf clovers, orange stars, pink hearrrrts" Whenever he would recite "pink hearts" his voice would drop and quiver a little and he'd draw out the word. It was incredibly cute and in my junior high school "pink hearrrrts" became a bit of a catch phrase for a time.

As time went by, I lost interest in the cereal and barely noticed as the roster of marbits changed. Blue diamonds, purple horseshoes, red balloons, rainbows, pots of gold, leprechaun hats, shooting stars, and the recent addition of an hourglass.

I read the press release when the new hourglass was announced and to my jaw dropping surprise, I learned that sometime over the last 35 years, the storyline about the marbit shapes had evolved into the actual source of Lucky's powers!

"The cereal contains Lucky’s magical charms, each of which bestow upon
Lucky their own special powers: hearts (power to bring things to life), shooting
stars (power to fly), horseshoes (power to speed things up), clovers (luck, but
you never know what kind of luck you’ll get), blue moons (power of
invisibility), rainbows (instantaneous travel from place to place) and balloons
(power to make things float).

The new hourglass shape gives Lucky "the power to control time."

Anyway, somehow, someway, sometime at the end of the '70s or early '80s, the idea of the Four Realities as the raw building materials of the Beanworld nudged its way into the storyline and, in fact, became central to it.

In my mind, for Proffesor Garbanzo the (originally) elusive Twinks were the emotional equivalent of "Pink Hearrrrts." Thinking about them often made Proffy sigh. "Oh, Twiiiiiinks." They were also were the cause of endless frustration until the discovery of the Float Factor. All of this came flooding back into memory as I starting poking around YouTube looking at Lucky Charms stuff.

I haven't had a spoonful of Lucky Charms in at least four decades, but I loved this clip about Sarah Collins and her obsession of sorting her Lucky Charms by category before eating them.

Don't worry....we'ze ain't losted!

The headline above is in the typeface "Hobo" which was one of my favorite fonts in the '70s. It looks downright antiquarian to me now!

It's been weeks since my last post. I've been incredibly busy. I'm currently working on an 8 page color story for MySpace Dark Horse Presents, a 20 page story for the Beanworld Holiday Special one shot comic book, and covers for both the Special and the hardcover collection for next winter.

Honestly, I haven't had this much fun in years and years, and now I really do feel like a full time cartoonist.

Since I checked in last, I went up to Berkeley for Rory Root's memorial. It was a very emotional evening for one and all attending but it really was precisely the sort of gathering that Rory deserved. a great coming together of his family, his friends, his customers, and the folks from the industry--all people who loved him and fiercely miss him.

I was talking with Fae Desmond from Comic-Con when it occur ed to me that I interacted with Rory during four distinct and separate careers. As an comic book artist--the creator of Beanworld; as a retailer--marketing director of Moondog's & the "Snapper Carr" of the DLG; as a comic book publisher--Executive Director of Image Comics during its headiest years; and as a toy manufacturer--President of McFarlane Toys. I talked business and compared notes with Rory in each and every one of those phases. I had come full circle when I last had a long conversation with him around WonderCon time.

Ricardo and Betsy Gomez at a backlit breakfast.

My hosts when I was up in the Bay area were Betsy and Ricardo Gomez. Betsy is a long time volunteer for the CBLDF and they cheerfully allowed Charles Brownstein and I to crash at their house for a few days. They are amazingly gracious and hospitable people. I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with them, admiring their garden, their incredible cooking, and their extensive collection of recordings of old time music.

Me doing breakdowns for the Holiday Special at Chez Gomez.

And last, but hardly least...

A fan drawing from the daughter of our Chicago pals, Paul and Mary Fricke.

Hi Larry!
I am Paul Fricke`s daughter, Emily. I am eight years old and love your Beanwold comics. I have two favorite characters. They are Beanish and Proffy. I like Beanish because he had a break out and I love bean break outs! I like how Proffy has the big hat that has the four realities on it.
I also like her because she is so different from the other beans. I have a
question in the Christmas comic I would think that Gran`Ma`Pa looks like a
Christmas tree so does the santa bean come and bring presents? I also have another question Mr. Spook looks like a Hoi-Polloi is he really a Hoi-Polloi? I
would really like to have a Beanworld action figure. Any way here is a picture
of Dreamishness that you can enjoy!
From,
Emily

Thanks, Emily.

Dreamishness is one of my favorites too and she plays a very big role in the upcoming Holiday Special.