There are so many comic book conventions now a day that sometimes one can pass you by and you wouldn’t even notice. That’s both the beauty and the burden of being a geek. But there’s one con that you should never let pass you by. That con is, of course, Tampa Bay Comic Con. Over the final weekend of July (or the first weekend in August) and right before kids have to head back to school is generally when Tampa Con takes place. For those of us, Florida geeks Tampa Con has a long and established history going back to around the early to mid-2000’s when it was a smaller one room Sunday convention at the Double Tree Hotel. Eventually, it was bought out by Imaginarium and expanded into the 3-day event you know of today. And according to them, it is Tampa’s largest, true comic con. Featured are exhibitors that cater to a wide-spectrum of interests including comic books, magazines, toys, games, Star Wars, Star Trek, anime, manga, cosplay, artwork, sketches, and apparel.
And during this years show I had the joy of interviewing one of the greatest artists this industry has to offer. The unbelievably spectacular and incredibly nice Ben Caldwell. Now Caldwell has worked on DC Comics brilliant Prez with Mark Russell, his own creator owned work Dare Detectives and illustrates some gorgeous Red Sonja covers for Dynamite Entertainment. Now he’s done far more than what I’ve listed and you should definitely check out his work via the links I posted below. And for those who you new to the wonderful world of Ben Caldwell here’s a bit about him I stole from Wikipedia.
Ben Caldwell is a cartoonist who has worked in a variety of art and design fields over the past decade, including toy design, animation development, children’s book illustration, and comic book illustration. Most of his work has been for DC Comics, ToyBiz, on projects including The Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man, X-Men, World Championship Wrestling, and Harry Potter. He has contributed to Justice League Unlimited covers, Wonder Woman children’s books, and Star Wars: Clone Wars comic art.
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Ben Caldwell was an incredibly nice guy (I know I’ve already mentioned that but it deserves repeating) and had a lot of great things to say about how he got interested in comics, his start in this industry and his thoughts on the future of the industry as a whole and without giving anything away he did mention that more creator owned work is in the cards. Now, how about that interview? But wait! This time things are a little different. Instead of writing up my interview I’m going to give it to you as an unedited audio to listen to. How cool is that? You’re technically getting it live (not really but go with me here I’m on a roll) and straight from the wonderful convention floor of the Tampa Bay Comic Con.
So check it out, hit play and enjoy. Don’t forget to follow Ben Caldwell via his twitter, Tumblr and Blog.
Tampa Bay Comic Con 2017 Interview: Ben Caldwell
What did you think of the interview? Comment below.
