True-Life Adventures: Emerald City Con, 2014 – Sat/Sun

Yes, folks, it’s part 2 of my comicon report. Because I cannot write short stories, ever.

Warning: many pictures of awesome Lego designs and “garage kit” models within.

As far as the business of getting into the convention, rinse and repeat what I did Friday. Up early, long wait in the queue. The only difference for Saturday was that a little girl (7? 8?) dressed as Poison Ivy – accompanied by her parents, of course – was behind me, and when I noticed that the girl was bored and with nothing to do, with at least 2 hours ahead of us, I offered to let her borrow my iPad to play games. She did so, and played Temple Run much, much better than I ever could.

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SATURDAY!

It was not well-advertised in the program book, but at 10:30 there was a continuation of an annual (so far) event: professional voice actors reading through the script for The Empire Strikes Back, using both the voices that they’re famous for, and voices that they like to do for fun. Put another way, imagine Darth Vader played by Goofy, or Han Solo played by Bart Simpson. That’s because Bill Farmer and Nancy Cartwright were there to play those respective parts. Also William Salyer, Jeremy Shada, Cree Summer, and special appearances by Andrea Liebman and John DiMaggio. Google ’em!

It’s not the whole movie in one shot, but a continuation of what was done last year. It doesn’t really matter, because all nerds have seen Star Wars, so it’s not like they’re missing any plot points.

Here’s a link to a fan’s recording of it (part 1), in which case your mileage may vary on the enjoyment. Once you’re on Youtube, click on the other parts if you like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhj_yKuZ47Y

And still photos from my vantage point. I got a good seat for this one.

        

By the way, just because it wasn’t well-advertised did NOT mean few attendees knew about it. I practically sprinted across the exhibitor’s floor and up the escalator, and was still decently far back in line.

This is how I summed up the experience, via Facebook: “Handy convention tip: if an event consists of cartoon voice actors recreating movie scenes, ATTEND THAT EVENT AT ALL COSTS.”

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Okay, now that the entertainment was out of the way, I moseyed around the exhibit floor some more. Another stop at the Girl Genius crew’s booth was in order. Why? Because they all needed to sign my script copies!! Even Carol the Business Minion, because she was part of the play. She probably doesn’t get asked for autographs a lot. Well, maybe to write checks for the company.

Notable booth visits. Names of webcomics are linked:

Shaenon Garrity and Bill Holbrook: creators of the webcomics Narbonic / Skin Horse and Kevin and Kell, respectively. A side note about K&K: I used to read it many years ago. In fact, I think it was the first webcomic that I ever read regularly. At some point I dropped off, but a focal point of that strip is a corporation known as Herd Thinners, Inc. So now you know where my very first online alias (next to “Maramcc”) came from.

Another sidenote: when I stopped by the Girl Genius booth earlier, Mr. Phil was not there, so I threatened to return later. Also to show them, show them all. But that’s expected. While speaking with Bill, who stopped by but Mr. Phil himself. I said, “I swear that I’m not stalking you!”

Bill Holbrook, aside from selling paper versions of his webcomic, also offered to draw animal caricatures of people. Now, I’m no “furry,” but I realized that I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. In a sense, the man created my whole online identity! So after some thought, I asked – well, paid him – to render me as a bat. I’ve never looked better.

I had brought one of my more usable sketchbooks with me, in case I found time to try drawing again, and showed it to Shaenon while lamenting how my drawing skills have plummeted. But, I can sculpt now, so that eases my dramatic torment. She proclaimed my drawings to be good, as did Mr. Holbrook. I didn’t really know how to respond to that. The last thing I expected was established artists telling me that my work didn’t suck?? Still, I don’t have time to produce a webcomic. Seriously, I tried that when I had even more time than I do now, and couldn’t maintain it.

Little Vampires: Rebecca Hicks and spouse James were enthusiastic pushers of their whimsical webcomic. I hadn’t heard of it until then, but eventually bought a plush version of one of their monster characters, Wolfie. I have a collection of plush werewolves at home. I ended up sending them this picture. Wolfie is smack in the middle:

The weird one at the end, in what appear to be leg warmers, is one that I made. I didn’t bother fixing its pose before taking the picture, but yes, the werewolf is dressed in an 80’s-style aerobic workout suit. Long story.

The Bean: by Travis Hanson. Another webcomic I knew nothing about, but his artwork pulled me in. His character “Bean” is a lowly dishwasher owned by ogres who ends up on an unexpected journey. Yes, he is influenced by Tolkien. Why do you ask? 😉  After much consideration, on Sunday I ended up buying the first three volumes sight-unseen. The reason it was Sunday is that he’d left for the day by the time I stopped by his booth on Saturday, and I wanted his signature. The only caveat I have about the series is that there’s very little humor in it – another Tolkien hallmark.

Tinplate Studios: artist Anthony Hick’s booth. He makes… you know, just click the link. I can’t describe his work. On Sunday I ended up buying what was likely a “chattergrub.” Again, you just have to go there.

Brickstorms: custom LEGO sets and figures. And true to LEGO form, very expensive. Which is why, of course, that I bought the entire Supernatural set from them. Not just the Impala, but all the a la carte figures they had. Shoot me now! I’m not responsible enough to carry money!

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When I returned to the Girl Genius booth later, and Mr. Phil was there, I said, “Okay, now I’m stalking you!” But really, I was just trying to get my scripts signed.

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SUNDAY!

On Saturday I discovered the big Lego displays on the second floor, and the Modelers’ Mayhem on the first. One of the modelers was stunned to learn that I had deliberately sought them out, rather than just stumbling upon it. But rather than make you wade through all those pictures to get to Sunday’s report, I’ll put them at the end. Fair enough?

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Thought the voice actors were done with us? NAY! Now it was time for the Movie Mashup, where the actors read single scenes from different movies. The same person who filmed the Star Wars reading added a series for this event, so give him some pageviews!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTX5ejcZGM8

My view was not as good as it had been on Saturday. Same actors, different lineups! But this time Andrea Liebman was officially part of it. No John DiMaggio this time. Apparently he’d fallen ill. I learned that some of the celebrity guests were sick, too. What’s the story there, SEATTLE??

For my final visit to the Girl Genius booth, I spoke with Carol the Business Minion about limited licensing to sell GG-related things. That is, if I came up with something that takes me less than three months to sculpt and wanted to sell them on Etsy or some site like that, one can purchase a limited license to do so. I got her business card, which was nicely designed by either Phil or Cheyenne, and… well, the next step is mine. Come up with something I can offer to their adoring fans. No pressure.

And the last thing I did before leaving the show for good on Sunday. Yes, I was deliberately trying to smile the way he does in all his pictures that I’ve seen.

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LEGOS AND MODELS!

Here are the pictures of custom LEGO models that I threatened to show, plus actual “garage kit” models. It was a fellow working the modelers’ show that I spoke with about maybe coming up with a Girl Genius-related kit. I told him that I wouldn’t move an inch until I’d spoken with them first. Which I did, as noted above.

Warning: there will be no captions!

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MODELS!

I recommend zooming in, if you can.

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