Mondo Con Austin Texas 2016 – Day 1

It’s only been two weeks since NYCC ended and I find myself at Austin’s Mondo Con, which is primarily a two day event, celebrating movies, toys, music, art and even food. Mondo Con is a completely different type of atmosphere compared to your bigger con events like New York and San Diego. 
The artist rows and galleries are smaller, small walkways but the crowds are not as heavy. It’s a tight squeeze to get around but still easier to maneuver than NY was.

Last year, I think the bigger draw to this intimate Con was the artist known as Jock, at least for us comic fans. (You all know who I’m talking about. If you don’t, why are you here reading this?) Jock was back and this was one main reason to attend for me. Along with Francesco Francavilla, who is one of my favorite artists. You can’t go wrong with FF pulp style artwork. (I actually got him to commission a drawing on a Reborn Blank Variant, I’ll post pictures as I have to pick it up tomorrow, Sunday).

Mondo Con really focuses on the movie posters and artwork for movies but it doesn’t seem to limit itself to these, but that’s what you’ll mostly find in the artist alley. Probably the most well known comic book artists who focus on pop media posters are both Jock and Francavilla. But still, the setting is right for us pop culture lovers, that love art and love artists who create art, even comic book fans can enjoy this type of show. 
Now, most of the panels provided are movie and music related, there were a few that caught my attention the most since I’m more into art. The big draw for me was the panel “The Art of Jock”, which I made a priority to see. 
The Art of Jock was very interesting panel to attend. It was around 40 minutes of how Jock got into art, his favorite comic book characters, his early work on “The Losers” and who is his favorite character to draw, which of course is, Batman. Also we learned that Jock is a drummer, surprisingly a very gifted drummer as well. In his earlier life before he established himself as a well known artist that we all know him as, he actually auditioned to be the drummer for “The Cure”, which he gladly got turned down but claims the rejection letter from Robert Smith is eloquently displayed. 
During the panel, they displayed his artwork which was really cool to see while listening. They would discuss the artwork on display as well, providing insight on how he came up with the drawing, what inspires him and so on. We also learned that drawing comics is very time consuming, sometimes one book can take up to a whole month, averaging about a page a day for some artists. This is a common reason why you’ll see 4 or 5 books and then there’s a guest artists on a book, it gives the artist a sort of break.

Pictured is Will Dennis, writer and editor of Jock’s book “The Art of Jock” and Jock is centered in the purple shirt.

I found out that Wytches is coming back soon as it was briefly mentioned, the Image series he does with Scott Snyder is a CHU favorite. Some more series will be coming around but he wouldn’t go into details during the panel. We can all look forward to a Jock series since we all love his cover art.
I wasn’t planning on buying it but the book “The Art of Jock” was available ($175.00) and I just couldn’t resist, since of course Jock was there to sign it as well.

There was more to see but I was cut short today. I did miss out on the “Art of Toy Making” panel that goes into the behind the scenes look of Mondo collectibles. You can see more of their exclusive toys at https://mondotees.com/collections/toys
Some of the remaining panels on Saturday included OMGPosters, which has become a hot art blog that showcases thousands of handmade prints from independent artists and print makers. It’s a really cool site to check out if you’ve never browsed or heard about it. The Fountain & A Conversation with Clint Mansell was another panel that seemed interesting. This was a great movie but this was to mark the 10th anniversary of the epic score on vinyl for the first time ever. Clint Mansell was the composer for the score.

They also were doing a screening of “A Clockwork Orange”. This was later before their Mystery Movie XII, which is a surprise movie screening know one knows what will play until it starts to play. Everyone that attends gets a limited edition Mondo exclusive screen movie print. Sadly I had to bail before this was screened.
Overall the con was great. Had a great time just walking around, viewing all the artwork. It’s funny to see people walking around with big poster tubes compared to all the people at other comic cons where they are carrying comic book holders. This was only day one, I’ll be back tomorrow for day two where I’m hoping to catch the Mondo Live: Draw & Design panel where we, the audience pick the move and Olly Moss, Jock and Jay Shaw collaborate to create an actual poster of the movie live, on-stage.
I’m also hoping to check out the Mondo Booth where they supposedly have some exclusive vinyl albums available. I’m particularly interested in the “Monster Squad” soundtrack Mondo Con exclusive.

That’s it for day one, Mondo Con here in Central Texas.
Learn more about Mondo at https://mondotees.com