Saturday Vendors of LA Comic Con
November 13, 2018
Formerly known as Stan Lee’s Comikaze, Los Angeles Comic Con was held at the LA Convention Center from Oct. 26 through Oct. 28. On Saturday Oct. 27, the main hall opened at 10:00 a.m. which allowed attendees to explore the large selection of vendors. From customized notebooks to complete book series, each seller expressed their talent through various mediums.
K. Marie Criddle is among the artistic vendors whose passion is poured into every single piece. The idea to sell notebooks with fictional characters on the cover stemmed from her past when a friend expressed interest in the product. Using watercolor markers and recyclable materials, Criddle makes every character unique by emphasizing certain features or combining colorful elements. Rather than talent, Criddle credits hard work as the reason for her current success.
“This is what I tell people all the time – it’s like, I don’t have a talent for this, I have a passion for it and I practice it like all the time,” Criddle stated. “ So it’s like playing the piano, it’s muscle memory. I know how to draw a face and a body because I’ve practiced drawing faces and bodies so it’s not difficult. It’s really fun to do it; if I’m trying a very challenging thing that I haven’t done before, that’s difficult but it’s still really fun.”
While Criddle differs in her approach to art, Elaine Ho uses her background as a psychology major to create images that provide insight on a character’s emotions. Ho’s pieces vary from original artwork to distinct portrayals of Disney characters. She pulls inspiration from major Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo and Caravaggio to add a dramatic element to her work.
“I tend to try and get into the heads of my characters more than just trying to design cool stuff, so a lot of my stuff pieces center around emotion and trying to convey that feeling rather than that person just standing there looking cool,” Ho said.
Though multiple vendors used art to show their love for pop culture trends, some expressed their admiration through literature. M. Amanuensis Sharkchild is the author of a Lovecraftian horror series called “The Dark Verse”. Each novel features different characters and entities that provide readers a new world to immerse themselves in.
“Really, I want them [the audience] to appreciate,” Sharkchild stated. “I want to create a world for them that they love first of all. And then second of all, I want them to leave it [“The Dark Verse” series] thinking about what they read – whether it’s an unsettled feeling, whether it’s an imaginative feeling or sense of inspiration for someone to create. Somewhere in that realm, something that lingers in your mind, and I say, even with my tagline, ‘These are stories that will follow you into the visions of your sleep.’”
The vendors’ websites can be found on the links below. Los Angeles Comic Con will return on Oct. 11-13 of 2019.
K. Marie Criddle: https://www.kmariecriddle.com/
Elaine Ho: http://artofelaineho.com/
M. Amanuensis Sharkchild: https://shop.sharkchild.com/
