Boston M10 Pre-Release Recap

Here they are! Finally got a hold of my first two Magic Cards at the Boston Pre-Release event for the Magic 2010 Core set. Plains, for those not familiar with Magic: The Gathering, is one of the basic lands from which power in the game is acquired. It is therefore a very common card. Convincing Mirage is a new card in the M10 set. I don't want to stoke any fires here, but it doesn't seem to be a very popular card among players, even though its another common card.

Popular or not, I really can't explain how excited I am to see my name down at the bottom of the cards.

The Pre-Release event (the official release is July 17th) was a great experience. I learned a lot about the fans, the art and the game itself. I had a table set up in the main tournament hall. I had the original paintings from both of these cards, as well as original color studies, posters, postcards and my portfolio. Fellow Magic artist Cyril Van Der Haegen had a table right beside me. He was obviously more experienced than I, as he brought his own portable gallery walls and had a separate table for all the prints he was looking to sell.

Cyril gave me free advice pretty much all day; everything from printers to industry insider info. He's hilarious and very attentive to his fans. The event's organizer, Rob Dougherty of Your Move Games was very hospitable and generous.

And the fans: My first EVER signature went to a guy named Justin. The people who came by and got cards signed throughout the day were great. Since the Plains were so common, I signed plenty of those (even one shiny foil version!). Some people wanted little doodles on the card too. I sold two prints right out of my portfolio, and some guy bought up all the little sketches I was doing at the table between signings.

At the end, Rob invited me to the Boston Grand Prix on August 1-2. So I continue my debut tour in two weeks, with more artists and in front of more fans.