Comikaze Day 1 – Silvestri and Keep a Breast

The first day of Comikaze is over and even after enjoying a good night’s sleep I am still in a warm haze of happy thoughts from a day that had not started as planned.

After a slow start, hitting the road two hours later than planned and hitting some traffic I arrived at the Los Angeles Convention Center 30 minutes after the doors for day one of Stan Lee’s Comikaze had already opened.  That’s unheard of for me for day one of a con. But all was well, chatted with a few people in line as we waited to pick up our badges.

Once the badge was in hand it was time to hit the floor.  First stop… Top Cow, very easy to find as they are situated right in front of the doors as soon as you walk in.  This set the tone for my day, time with friends.  Went with Elena as she was heading to the booth right by the one I wanted to check out, so it was off to Keep A Breast Foundation.  Met Shaney Jo Darden, one of the founders of Keep A Breast (KAB) and chatted for a bit.  Warm, friendly, wonderful woman.  The breast casts that they have on display at the booth are amazing (and this is before Marc and Bridget Silvestri arrived with the one they contributed).

Then back to Top Cow to spend some time with Elena and Betsy while it was still quieter.  As we awaited the arrival of Marc and Bridget Silvestri with their breast cast.  Once they arrived it was back to the KAB booth for them to deliver the cast.  Though these photos show a bit of how amazing this piece is it is even more amazing in person.  Something you may not know, this is the first time that Marc worked with this medium, which makes seeing the finished piece have even more impact.  And let’s not forget Bridget’s contribution, not only was she the breast cast model but she also painted part of the cast… the pink back of the cast was all done by Bridget.  So this is a true collaboration of husband and wife to create a piece for the benefit of a cause they both believe in and support and it is just as wonderful as they are.

Though I spent most of my day with this team and around their booth it did still include a couple other highlights.  One was going with team Silvestri, as I think I must call them for now, when they headed off to say hello to Stan Lee, thus having the opportunity to take a few photos of them with Stan Lee and Regina Carpinelli. Second was seeing Rahsan and Shannon Ekedal, who I didn’t spend as much time with as I wished but I still have two more days to remedy that.  What I forget to do when seeing them was to ask about Elena’s sketchbook not realizing that the sketch he was in the midst of was for Elena.

Oops, time is getting away from me and I still have to get ready to go back for day two so I am going to wrap up with this handful of some of my favorite shots from day one.

Also, be sure to stop by the Keep A Breast booth and buy a raffle ticket for $5 or even better if you buy for $20 you get a headband of raffle tickets.  The cause is a good one and you could go home with an amazing piece of art (or I think the other item on raffle is a backpack of KAB items).  Spread the word and let’s make KABs first foray into a comic convention an overwhelming success.

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