AX Con Wrap-up
Wow. Well. It's been a few days since my last post about Anime-Expo. Hm. Right. Well, since I'm currently locked out of the Tokyopop messageboards (as I've forgotten my password, the retrieve password function is not working, and my email to whoever gets admin emails hasn't been answered yet - oh, and the cookies that previously helped me login are GONE because of my computer malfunction the other day), I'll get right on that.
Unfortunately for those interested in an extremely detailed recount of the last few days (heh, right. XD), I do not have as good a memory as, at first, it may seem I do. So I guess I'll go over the highlights and hope I get them in roughly the correct order. :3
Lessie. (<-- "Let's see." or, more formally, "Let us see.")
-Vikki (ravichan) succumbed to the temptation inherant in the Copic booth. She bought a set of 72 and mixed-and-matched to her pleasure. And there was joy to be had in the hamlet. (Until she later discovered she'd somehow obtained two of the same grey. We made a trip back to the booth the next day to rectify the situation.)
-Then we had a Pseudome messageboard dinner where I met a TON of really cool, interesting, funny people. I'm not really sure if I want to list them because, for one, I won't remember all the names right off because my brain is swiss cheese (very high quality swiss cheese, but it still has holes and isn't to the taste of some people), and for two, considering several of them were Tokyopop creators, it might seem like name-dropping. Distress. WELL. If any of these people wishes to comment and identify themselves as having been there, I'll add them to this paragraph so they can get pimped. XD That sounds fair!
Well, we'll just say they're extremely cool, and Jess (derjmeister), Vikki (previously linked), Irene (beanclam) and Megan (lynxgriffin) made up one table. We'll also say that I think it was kinda sucky that our booths backed up against each other rather than were one big table, 'cause I would have enjoyed talking with everyone.
While we waited for our food, Vikki and I drew crack and giggled. Please note Nathan's costume (the cute SD guy with the dress on).
-After dinner, we were to meet up back at the convention center for the scheduled Art Jam. We arrived and noted we were expected to sit there and draw on the floor of the hall outside the Artists' Alley. That didn't seem like much fun, really. Apparently there were some things promised/expected and not delivered upon too. Like butcher paper and possibly a table and chairs. Someone said, "Let's do our own art jam... somewhere else!" So we wandered off aimlessly for a few minutes, trying to decide where we could go that would provide seating for about a dozen people or more to draw, without us getting shouted at or expected to buy something or loomed over angrily or what-not. We decided to see what we could do at the Hilton and ended up taking over half of one of their lounge areas (the other half was taken up by some sort of manga/doujinshi sellers. They had boxes of it.)
Then we jammed. For many hours. It was ridiculously fun. The area was a little too big for everyone to hear each other/talk to each other, so I spent some time repeating myself (or, alternately, deciding it was too dumb to repeat anyway. hahaa) when I did speak. Which wasn't much 'cause, y'know, drawing, foo'! I drew a picture of Cherri which Irene inked for me and made it 10x better. I started demanding requests from the other artists, which (through bullying I recieved) - so I also drew a wolverilla (wolverine + gorilla) for Jess (which she didn't scan, so I can't link), Dorothy (and Toto), a Dutch catboy and... uh... I dunno. I could swear I did one or two more sketches, at least, but I've no idea what they could have been. I'd forgotten about Dorothy and the Dutch catboy until I saw them scanned. XD;
Also worthy of note: Vikki drew Kijo dressed in lederhosen at Irene's request. Ahahahahahahaaaa.
-After a few hours, I was getting blurry from lack of sleep and the long day and a headache from dehydration and all the jabber of the hotel lobby (not saying the artist-jabber bothered me, but there were a lot of people in that lobby, including shrieking cosplayers). Jess, Vikki and I packed it in fairly early and went back to the hotel. Irene, who was staying with us overnight, arrived later with a crazy story about a crazy man. It almost made me sad that I had not been there to see the crazy. Almost. I strong-armed Irene into signing my copy of "Mark of the Succubus", which everyone should buy and read until they need to buy a second copy. And a third for friends. We four chattered for a bit before seeing what was on tv. Boondocks was on, which I had never seen and, despite being ridiculously tired, we all sort of watched it. I was the only one who made it to the end of the episode and I tell you, it was only just barely. I turned off the tube and stumbled back to bed. And slept.
-Morning came and with morning comes breakfast. This would come as a surprise to most folks as I almost never eat breakfast, but this was a special breakfast in that it involved the Pseudome awesomes again. Haha. We four ran late, but still managed to make it there before anyone but tentopet (okayfine, I tossed her name down, shush shush shush). Though it appeared that other people had shown up but not noticed her and I think maybe a few had actually noticed her, but weren't there when our group arrived. I dunno, it's been awhile, right? :3 When we finally gathered everyone we thought was likely to show up, we moseyed on to IHOP. Where we had breakfast (mmm stuffed french toast). Then people started leaving because they had a portfolio review and other stuff, so before long, ravichan, derjmeister, lynxgriffin, beanclam and tentopet were art jamming at the breakfast table. There had been a certain amount of that before our breakfast arrived, too. But it was done on the other end of the table. XD; lynxgriffin drew a tiger playing a Nintendo for me and in return, I drew her catboy porn (it's not really porn. But may not be worksafe... View at your own risk). >_> Also - I'm pretty sure this is a photo of us walking back from breakfast, tentopet not pictured because she was on the phone behind us. (No - wait, it'd have to be from breakfast because that was Vikki and mine's Skirt Day - she wore that cute Gothlolli skirt and I wore my Punkbitch skirt. And, also, on the way back from dinner Vikki and I were waaaaaaaaayyy ahead of everyone else because we were discussing NSK stuff and cackling with evil and glee and perhaps evilglee - or maybe that was just me.)
-Uuh... we dropped everyone off at Con and wandered a bit. I can't remember what we did, really. Probably another Copic booth run. HAhahahaaa. Yes. That was almost certainly it. We had, at some point, discussed going to the Tokyopop Creator's Panel and holding up Funny Signs. So I stole an unattended cardboard box and hauled the loot to our hotel room where I tore the box the crap apart and dictatored us some signs. I can't remember all the slogans. I know I made one that had =^:^= on one side and o.o on the other, and one that said NEEDS MORE MAN PORN and I remember Jess made one that said GLOBAL MANGA IS METAL. We were almost late to the panel because of this.
-Next up - the Tokyopop Creator's Panel. Horray! For a few moments I attempted to flash the signs we made because, dude, we made them! but decided they were just dumb-dumb as opposed to funny-dumb. I also nearly drowned myself on a sip of (FREE) water while listening to the presentation. That takes talent, folks. And I'm fulla it. I was highly entertained by the panel. Enough so by Felipe Smith to corner him after it was over and say that if I bought both issues of MBQ, he had to sign and draw in them. He agreed. I felt very awesome until I later realized that he was probably going to draw in any books he signed anyway. XD Damn! I should have asked for something more interesting! *shake fist*
-Directly - and I mean immediately after - was the Gonzo panel in the same room. Gonzo produced the animes Hellsing and Gankutsuou (which I'm informed I'm not allowed to leave this world without having viewed - possibly not allowed to leave this year without having viewed. Okay!) and many others. There was a hugely long line to get in, but Vikki shamelessly took advantage of being adorable with an Aussie accent and went up to one of the convention people guarding the doors and asked, "Excuse me, but is this the Gonzo panel?" and because she had an INDUSTRY badge, she was allowed in, cutting ahead of over 30 people. And I was like, "EEK wait for me, Vikki!" and the con person tried to stop me until I'm like, "aaiie I'm with her. ;_;" and the person was like, "oh, okay then, go" the "I guess, whatever" evident in their voice. So I got a goodie bag (hahaaa yay loot) and joined Vikki.
The Gonzo panel was awesome. We got to see clips of neat animes. And clips of eh animes. And the guy who did most of the presentation was very cute and very charismatic and he could sell me pretty much anything. :3
-Immediately after that was when the Tokyopop booth was having its signings, so we went downstairs and I braved the booth in order to find all the OGM I needed to buy. Because, y'know, two issues of MBQ, Fool's Gold, Sorcerers and Secretaries, Dogby Walks Alone... (Oh, at some point I'd also bought Mark of the Succubus and East Coast Rising and Roadsong. Just in case you wanted to know my total OGM haul for AX.)
It took me awhile to find all the books for the creators who'd shown up for the signing. Mostly because Dogby Walks Alone hadn't been, y'know, stocked within the booth itself - all the copies were at the signing podium thing. So I guess I cut ahead in line? I think Tim (Jess's editor) saw me looking confused and dismayed and was like, "hey, can I help you?" and I'm all, "I can't find Dogby!" and he goes, "Hey, Wes, she wants a copy of Dogby!" and I'm like, "and signed, too!" and he turns around (for I was not in FRONT of the podium) and is all, "Okay, how do you want it signed?" and I showed him my badge because everyone, everyone, everyone (okay, nearly everyone) hears "Chella" and spells it with an "S". Just as they see "Chella" and pronounce it with a "CH" rather than an "S". So, yeah. See "Chella", say "Shella". FYI. XD
Then I paid for my manga and went around and got in line for signings. Horray and yay and omg I bought one of the very last copies of Dogby. That was horrible. The signing had only just begun. Couldn't have been more than 15 minutes into the signing and he was reduced to signing cards instead of books.
Apparently, btw, I looked like I knew WTF was going on, because I was stopped and asked no less than two, probably three times "What's going on here?" so I explained. "Tokyopop's having a book signing of some of their new titles!" and they nodded and looked at me weirdly and wandered off. I think one of them actually wandered into the booth. But those who didn't missed out. Because these books rocked. I can say this without fearing being too wrapped up in, "Hey, I've met these people and they rock."
My books signed, I got out of line and stepped to the side to avoid the crush and also be visible if Vikki or Jess, who I'd been seperated from, went looking for me. I mentioned to someone (I can't remember who), "I seem to have lost my wife." I didn't even think about it, because Vikki and I have been calling each other "Husband" and "Wife" since Valentine's Day. (I honestly can't even remember why, though I'm sure I have logs if I cared to dig.) It was only later that I said to myself, "Self? You may have just confused the hell out of that person." and I'm like, "...oh. Right. >_>;;;" In case anyone at AX heard me refer to Vikki as "my wife", no, we are not married for realz. And, uh, no, we're not dating. Or anything like that. XD;;; (I DIDN'T MEAN IT, VIKKEH. COME BACK!!! DX )
Anyway. XD;;;;; Chattered with two of the Tokyopop editor people (who are awesome), a little bit more with one than the other that I actually, y'know, "knew" from the interwebs. Won't link her LJ because, y'know, she can identify herself if she reads this, if she wishes.
Then I located my wife and Jess and we wandered off. But before we left, Jess pointed out Danny Bonaduce to Tim. Tim had seen him, but was (rightfully?) afeared that talking to him would result in flying fists. I hadn't seen him, but once I recalled who that was, I remembered him as that angry, angry man on "Breaking Bonaduce".
-We wandered away, drawn to the Copic booth again, like moths to a flame. (Our wallets, you see, had taken several hits, collectively.) As we were leaving, we walked past Danny Bonaduce again. His daughter was next to him, dressed up all EGL. She looked cute. I tried to give Bonaduce a casual-friendly smile but he was glaring daggers at everyone and I was concerned for my very soul. Bonaduce has a Cthulhu eyeball, I swear. Just one.
-We decided to flee the convention floor. We went back to the hotel and watched tv. Vikki napped for a bit until the sounds of COPS woke her up and we (Jess and I) tried to explain to her that Americans, sadly, really are crazy. We also laughed, a lot (more than we should have, perhaps), over the infomercials.
-Jess had a Tokyopop dinner to go to, so Vikki and I wrangled the two chairs in the hotel room out onto our balcony so we could draw. Before I got out there myself, I heard her talking to someone, so I get out there to see Vikki seated and talking to the person on the next balcony over... a man in a skirt. A tutu, almost. A square-dancing tutu. Yes, do you remember that there is a Gay Square-Dancing convention in the Marriott? I thought you hadn't! Yes, he was there for the convention. We chatted for a bit while he smoked. He was very funny and I liked him a bunch. He was delightfully catty re: the religious convention that was also being held in the area. Though we hadn't seen it, the religious people had at least cornered anime convention goers (I never heard any rumors/stories of them harrassing the square dancers, which seems odd, don't you think? Maybe they're just so used to it that it didn't bother them enough to mention it?) and told them they were doing something 'wrong'.
He also 'bitched' that he and his fellow convention goers were a little sad because the anime cosplayers were "outdoing" the square-dancers as far as costumes go (I half assume in terms of "freaking people out" - but maybe he just meant in general terms of crazy-awesome?). I thought that was beyond badass. After he left, Vikki drew him something (which he requested when he found out she was an artist). She drew him Hard Gay. (Google it.) While she drew, I people-watched from the balcony. I tried to draw, but, omg, people! I'm also somewhat acrophobic, so I guess, basically, I was being masochistic in a very small dose.
When it got kinda too dim to draw anymore, we went down to Starbucks and had sushi and... uh... some sort of slightly spicy noodles (we were going to get something else, but the thing had closed for the night) and decided to go back to our room to draw rather than sit in the Starbucks. We tried calling aria01 but were DENIED. I think I left a weird message on her machine. :3 I can't remember, but I usually do if I try calling Aria and miss her. XD Vikki and I had bought Moshi, I think... I dunno. Mochi? One of those. They're little ice cream balls with some sort of rice dough covering. THEY ARE VERY GOOD. And rich. Ours were chocolate, so they had chocolate chips in the middle. Yum. Jess was not back at that time, so we were like, "Well, let's see if the ice machine works now. We'll put them over ice and maybe they'll stay good for when she gets back to have hers?" I managed, through great brain power (and reading the instructions), to figure out how to work the crazy ice machine. Horray! It was not intuitive. We took our haul of ice back to the hotel room and tried to set it up so the ice cream balls stayed cool.
Vikki wondered what was in the drawers of the tv center. That was when we discovered we had a mini-fridge. Wait a second. It was July 3rd. We were checking out on July 5th. And only just now do we discover we had a minifridge? THAT IS SO NOT FAIR!!! Arrrr! .... So, we put the ice bucket with the ice cream balls in the fridge, hopeful it would preserve them even further. Jess returned later and they were okay, still, but not the consistancy I would necessarily choose to offer someone icecream like that at. Hopefully, though, they were still awesome. :3
-Next day... uhmmm... we went back to the Con (really???) and happened to run into Tim again, who was with his roommate (who was someone I was vaguely familiar with beforehand, having been to her website, but, again, feels vaguely name-dropping to toss the link up). I heard another story of the religious people harrassing the anime convention goers. Again, I find this weird. Tim told us how AX '07 would be held in Long Beach and it wasn't going to be as awesomely setup as the one in Anaheim and that it sucked that way and we should go to SDCC next year instead, if we were only going to one Con. Concern noted and appreciated, but perhaps I'll be going to AX anyway, seeing as it's more likely Vikki could attend that one. :3 Haha. >_>;
-We hit up the Copic booth. Yes. Again. But for the final time!!! I bought a set of 12 Copic markers of random shades (well, not SO random, they were colors I thought I'd use for NSK), two packs of manga paper, five colored (grey, brown, green, maroon and blue) .03 Multiliners, and got a folding cloth(esque) case for the markers for free. I mis-remembered how much you were supposed to spend to get the How To Use Copic Products book for free, so I'm all, "hey, wasn't I supposed to get a book, too? XD" and the guy's like, "noo, that was if you spent $100!" (I had spent $90 at that one haul) and I was all, "XD Oh, d'oh!" and he was like, ::pick up the book and give to me:: and I was like, "omgthankyou! XD;;;;!!!!" and he put his finger to his lips and was like, "Shhh!" and I'm like, ::veryquiet thankyou! XD::
Which was a fair trade, at the very least, because while I was wandering through the booth, I think I helped sell some pens. You see, there was this woman who came into the booth and the nice lady who directed me to the good Copic markers (and previously helped Vikki choose markers for her swapout) was trying to explain that they'd sold out of the regular Multiliner set, but she could buy them each seperately at this display. And I was all, "But they have the SP set over there next to the register!" and the lady saw the price differences between the regular Multiliners and the SPs and sorta balked and I was like, "The SPs are the kind you want anyway. They are soooo much better. I bought some here the first day of Con and I've totally seen the difference!" and I also added, at some point, that the regular Multiliners tips would wear down within maybe a few months. Which freed the nice Copic lady to say that with the SPs you can replace the tips if they break and blah blah. SO I think if I didn't help make a sale, I at least made the Copic lady's job easier. :3 See, good karma!
-I dunno, stuff happened. We finally found the O RLY? / YS RLY teeshirt booth (which we had been searching for since we saw it the first day) and since I did not have cashmoney and they didn't take cards, I was DENIED. But I did manage to get their website written down or a card or something. So I'll buy one eventually!
-I dunno. Stuff happened. We met up with Vikki's coworkers and went over to Disneyland (which was within walking distance, I might add) to have dinner. Let me refresh your memory of what day it was. July 04, 2006. We were going to be on the park property on the Fourth, dude! Fireworks! Disney fireworks. My mild excitement about that was completely, however, overwhelmed by my memory of what DisneyWorld was like on a normal park night at closing. I imagined, to my horror, getting lost in the crowd, each of the six of us seperated from each other and then wedged between sweaty people in plastic mouse ears. (I'm not normally claustrophobic - I find it somewhat comforting, really, but in that crush of people leaving DisneyWorld a few years ago, I was so upset I was trembling.) I did not, however, let this disuade me from attempting to (not even covertly) take photos of a cute guy while we waited in line for the restaurant. He looked a lot like one of my characters (who I doubt anyone knows - but Marco/Marcus if that rings a bell) and it thrilled me. Anyway. :3
We went to this place called NAPLES Ristorante e Pizzeria. I can't remember what Vikki ordered, or the guys, but Jess got a pizza and I got gnocci, which was very, very good. We ate and yapped and it was grand! Night fell and when the fireworks started, we couldn't really see them through the trees (well, I could see them pretty well, but I don't think anyone else could see them as well as I could).
-So we decided to leave the park before, I guess, the crush of people did. (YAY.) We kept stopping to watch them, though. Which was cool. :3 It was not, thankfully, as scary leaving the park as I had feared.
We hopped on a tram to take us to the end of the parking lot where we could walk to the hotel. :3 The guy who sat on the end of the tram and talked on the mic had this... insanely chipper vocal ... thing. I can't remember any of the things he said, but the six of us were giggling like children because of it, making up how he'd sound in rushhour traffic. "Well, Fuck You! :D" and stuff. XD Though he was very, very far back at the end of the train, at some point we figured he knew what we were laughing at (him). He waved at us. This only made us laugh harder. (Though mine was tainted with a shade of guilt. XD) We parted ways at the hotel. :3
-Vikki and I drew porn.
No, we're not sharing. :3
-Earlyearly the next morning, Jess has to get up to catch her shuttle. We wake up just enough to see her off to the elevator. Then we crawled back into bed and talked about specific NSK stuff we were plotting up. Then we napped for another few hours until I heard the cleaning ladies bashing about in the hallway. I thought it was later than it actually was, so I started packing while Vikki slept. Then Vikki woke up and she packed and I watched tv.
-We dropped our luggage off with the bellhop and took a tram from the hotel to Disney and from Disney to a mall! Because Vikki was giving me the sketchbook she'd been drawing in this entire time and I didn't have a spare one to give her for the 14 (I think) hour flight back to Aussieland. So we were in search of a sketchbook! Unfortunately, there were no art stores in the area (we asked the concierge), but I knew Borders would have them, which is why we chose to go to the mall! We obtained a sketchbook for Vikki and we both got a book - WEAPONS: An Illustrated History. I have no excuse not to draw kickass weaponry now. :3 So I'll make it a priority soon. :3
-We had lunch at a place themed around San Francisco. I think it was called Alkatraz, which made me giggle a bit, seeing as I picture MKC as a cross between NYC and SF and a touch of Miami. We sat under the Golden Gate Bridge at a table with fortune cookie papers on it. I kinda wanted to sit in one of the Chinatown booths, but it didn't really matter. Took several photos for reference. I had Kung-po chicken. I made the mistake of eating the peppers, thinking my ability to withstand spicy would make this a simple matter. And, y'know, after eating three or four peppers, I thought I was right. Then I must have found a SUPER pepper, because it killed me. A lot. I ate nearly half of the mediocre rice that went along with the dish in order to cool down my tongue. My mouth was an unhappy camper.
-Tram ride back to the hotel, during which Vikki and I discussed our plans to work on a major, non-NSK project together. An illustrated novel. :3 It will be awesome. Seriously, desperately awesome.
-We got our luggage back from the bellhop and sat in the hotel lobby and drew (some porn as well) for a few hours until our shuttle took us to the airport. We got Vikki checked in, then were on our way to check me in when we ran across Sly (Vikki's coworker), so we went back to that end of the terminal to check him in, then we checked me in and then, because they didn't have preboarding passes with them, we sat out in a hall about halfway between our two terminals and yapped for an hour or so before Sly was hungry and stole my dear wife away from me. ;_; Maw. So I went to my terminal and read Fool's Gold until my plane boarded at 10:00pm, CA time. (FG was very good, btw, I recommend it.)
-On the plane, I read my OGM and flipped between the Delta radio stations. Which would have a few good songs and then SUCK A LOT. When I finished reading my OGM (all of which were good to extremely awesome), I tried to turn off the overhead light. I burned the CRAP out of myself on accident. To the point where I actually got up to ask the flight attendant if he had any aloe for the burn. Let me state here, I do not like getting up during a flight. At all. I also don't like asking strange people (particularly strange people in some form of customer service/authority) for anything. That is how much it hurt. He did not have any aloe for me, so I went back to try to doze away the pain. It did not help. I still have a shiny cresent-moon shaped burnmark on that finger. I am secretly Sailor Moon.
Got off the plane utterly disoriented. Found my mommie. Slept on the car ride home. Arrived back home in Alabama at 7am central. I may have gotten online for a few minutes to check my email or something, then I slept for nearly the entire rest of the day. Over 12 hours, anyway, if I recall correctly.
The end.
Unfortunately for those interested in an extremely detailed recount of the last few days (heh, right. XD), I do not have as good a memory as, at first, it may seem I do. So I guess I'll go over the highlights and hope I get them in roughly the correct order. :3
Lessie. (<-- "Let's see." or, more formally, "Let us see.")
-Vikki (ravichan) succumbed to the temptation inherant in the Copic booth. She bought a set of 72 and mixed-and-matched to her pleasure. And there was joy to be had in the hamlet. (Until she later discovered she'd somehow obtained two of the same grey. We made a trip back to the booth the next day to rectify the situation.)
-Then we had a Pseudome messageboard dinner where I met a TON of really cool, interesting, funny people. I'm not really sure if I want to list them because, for one, I won't remember all the names right off because my brain is swiss cheese (very high quality swiss cheese, but it still has holes and isn't to the taste of some people), and for two, considering several of them were Tokyopop creators, it might seem like name-dropping. Distress. WELL. If any of these people wishes to comment and identify themselves as having been there, I'll add them to this paragraph so they can get pimped. XD That sounds fair!
Well, we'll just say they're extremely cool, and Jess (derjmeister), Vikki (previously linked), Irene (beanclam) and Megan (lynxgriffin) made up one table. We'll also say that I think it was kinda sucky that our booths backed up against each other rather than were one big table, 'cause I would have enjoyed talking with everyone.
While we waited for our food, Vikki and I drew crack and giggled. Please note Nathan's costume (the cute SD guy with the dress on).
-After dinner, we were to meet up back at the convention center for the scheduled Art Jam. We arrived and noted we were expected to sit there and draw on the floor of the hall outside the Artists' Alley. That didn't seem like much fun, really. Apparently there were some things promised/expected and not delivered upon too. Like butcher paper and possibly a table and chairs. Someone said, "Let's do our own art jam... somewhere else!" So we wandered off aimlessly for a few minutes, trying to decide where we could go that would provide seating for about a dozen people or more to draw, without us getting shouted at or expected to buy something or loomed over angrily or what-not. We decided to see what we could do at the Hilton and ended up taking over half of one of their lounge areas (the other half was taken up by some sort of manga/doujinshi sellers. They had boxes of it.)
Then we jammed. For many hours. It was ridiculously fun. The area was a little too big for everyone to hear each other/talk to each other, so I spent some time repeating myself (or, alternately, deciding it was too dumb to repeat anyway. hahaa) when I did speak. Which wasn't much 'cause, y'know, drawing, foo'! I drew a picture of Cherri which Irene inked for me and made it 10x better. I started demanding requests from the other artists, which (through bullying I recieved) - so I also drew a wolverilla (wolverine + gorilla) for Jess (which she didn't scan, so I can't link), Dorothy (and Toto), a Dutch catboy and... uh... I dunno. I could swear I did one or two more sketches, at least, but I've no idea what they could have been. I'd forgotten about Dorothy and the Dutch catboy until I saw them scanned. XD;
Also worthy of note: Vikki drew Kijo dressed in lederhosen at Irene's request. Ahahahahahahaaaa.
-After a few hours, I was getting blurry from lack of sleep and the long day and a headache from dehydration and all the jabber of the hotel lobby (not saying the artist-jabber bothered me, but there were a lot of people in that lobby, including shrieking cosplayers). Jess, Vikki and I packed it in fairly early and went back to the hotel. Irene, who was staying with us overnight, arrived later with a crazy story about a crazy man. It almost made me sad that I had not been there to see the crazy. Almost. I strong-armed Irene into signing my copy of "Mark of the Succubus", which everyone should buy and read until they need to buy a second copy. And a third for friends. We four chattered for a bit before seeing what was on tv. Boondocks was on, which I had never seen and, despite being ridiculously tired, we all sort of watched it. I was the only one who made it to the end of the episode and I tell you, it was only just barely. I turned off the tube and stumbled back to bed. And slept.
-Morning came and with morning comes breakfast. This would come as a surprise to most folks as I almost never eat breakfast, but this was a special breakfast in that it involved the Pseudome awesomes again. Haha. We four ran late, but still managed to make it there before anyone but tentopet (okayfine, I tossed her name down, shush shush shush). Though it appeared that other people had shown up but not noticed her and I think maybe a few had actually noticed her, but weren't there when our group arrived. I dunno, it's been awhile, right? :3 When we finally gathered everyone we thought was likely to show up, we moseyed on to IHOP. Where we had breakfast (mmm stuffed french toast). Then people started leaving because they had a portfolio review and other stuff, so before long, ravichan, derjmeister, lynxgriffin, beanclam and tentopet were art jamming at the breakfast table. There had been a certain amount of that before our breakfast arrived, too. But it was done on the other end of the table. XD; lynxgriffin drew a tiger playing a Nintendo for me and in return, I drew her catboy porn (it's not really porn. But may not be worksafe... View at your own risk). >_> Also - I'm pretty sure this is a photo of us walking back from breakfast, tentopet not pictured because she was on the phone behind us. (No - wait, it'd have to be from breakfast because that was Vikki and mine's Skirt Day - she wore that cute Gothlolli skirt and I wore my Punkbitch skirt. And, also, on the way back from dinner Vikki and I were waaaaaaaaayyy ahead of everyone else because we were discussing NSK stuff and cackling with evil and glee and perhaps evilglee - or maybe that was just me.)
-Uuh... we dropped everyone off at Con and wandered a bit. I can't remember what we did, really. Probably another Copic booth run. HAhahahaaa. Yes. That was almost certainly it. We had, at some point, discussed going to the Tokyopop Creator's Panel and holding up Funny Signs. So I stole an unattended cardboard box and hauled the loot to our hotel room where I tore the box the crap apart and dictatored us some signs. I can't remember all the slogans. I know I made one that had =^:^= on one side and o.o on the other, and one that said NEEDS MORE MAN PORN and I remember Jess made one that said GLOBAL MANGA IS METAL. We were almost late to the panel because of this.
-Next up - the Tokyopop Creator's Panel. Horray! For a few moments I attempted to flash the signs we made because, dude, we made them! but decided they were just dumb-dumb as opposed to funny-dumb. I also nearly drowned myself on a sip of (FREE) water while listening to the presentation. That takes talent, folks. And I'm fulla it. I was highly entertained by the panel. Enough so by Felipe Smith to corner him after it was over and say that if I bought both issues of MBQ, he had to sign and draw in them. He agreed. I felt very awesome until I later realized that he was probably going to draw in any books he signed anyway. XD Damn! I should have asked for something more interesting! *shake fist*
-Directly - and I mean immediately after - was the Gonzo panel in the same room. Gonzo produced the animes Hellsing and Gankutsuou (which I'm informed I'm not allowed to leave this world without having viewed - possibly not allowed to leave this year without having viewed. Okay!) and many others. There was a hugely long line to get in, but Vikki shamelessly took advantage of being adorable with an Aussie accent and went up to one of the convention people guarding the doors and asked, "Excuse me, but is this the Gonzo panel?" and because she had an INDUSTRY badge, she was allowed in, cutting ahead of over 30 people. And I was like, "EEK wait for me, Vikki!" and the con person tried to stop me until I'm like, "aaiie I'm with her. ;_;" and the person was like, "oh, okay then, go" the "I guess, whatever" evident in their voice. So I got a goodie bag (hahaaa yay loot) and joined Vikki.
The Gonzo panel was awesome. We got to see clips of neat animes. And clips of eh animes. And the guy who did most of the presentation was very cute and very charismatic and he could sell me pretty much anything. :3
-Immediately after that was when the Tokyopop booth was having its signings, so we went downstairs and I braved the booth in order to find all the OGM I needed to buy. Because, y'know, two issues of MBQ, Fool's Gold, Sorcerers and Secretaries, Dogby Walks Alone... (Oh, at some point I'd also bought Mark of the Succubus and East Coast Rising and Roadsong. Just in case you wanted to know my total OGM haul for AX.)
It took me awhile to find all the books for the creators who'd shown up for the signing. Mostly because Dogby Walks Alone hadn't been, y'know, stocked within the booth itself - all the copies were at the signing podium thing. So I guess I cut ahead in line? I think Tim (Jess's editor) saw me looking confused and dismayed and was like, "hey, can I help you?" and I'm all, "I can't find Dogby!" and he goes, "Hey, Wes, she wants a copy of Dogby!" and I'm like, "and signed, too!" and he turns around (for I was not in FRONT of the podium) and is all, "Okay, how do you want it signed?" and I showed him my badge because everyone, everyone, everyone (okay, nearly everyone) hears "Chella" and spells it with an "S". Just as they see "Chella" and pronounce it with a "CH" rather than an "S". So, yeah. See "Chella", say "Shella". FYI. XD
Then I paid for my manga and went around and got in line for signings. Horray and yay and omg I bought one of the very last copies of Dogby. That was horrible. The signing had only just begun. Couldn't have been more than 15 minutes into the signing and he was reduced to signing cards instead of books.
Apparently, btw, I looked like I knew WTF was going on, because I was stopped and asked no less than two, probably three times "What's going on here?" so I explained. "Tokyopop's having a book signing of some of their new titles!" and they nodded and looked at me weirdly and wandered off. I think one of them actually wandered into the booth. But those who didn't missed out. Because these books rocked. I can say this without fearing being too wrapped up in, "Hey, I've met these people and they rock."
My books signed, I got out of line and stepped to the side to avoid the crush and also be visible if Vikki or Jess, who I'd been seperated from, went looking for me. I mentioned to someone (I can't remember who), "I seem to have lost my wife." I didn't even think about it, because Vikki and I have been calling each other "Husband" and "Wife" since Valentine's Day. (I honestly can't even remember why, though I'm sure I have logs if I cared to dig.) It was only later that I said to myself, "Self? You may have just confused the hell out of that person." and I'm like, "...oh. Right. >_>;;;" In case anyone at AX heard me refer to Vikki as "my wife", no, we are not married for realz. And, uh, no, we're not dating. Or anything like that. XD;;; (I DIDN'T MEAN IT, VIKKEH. COME BACK!!! DX )
Anyway. XD;;;;; Chattered with two of the Tokyopop editor people (who are awesome), a little bit more with one than the other that I actually, y'know, "knew" from the interwebs. Won't link her LJ because, y'know, she can identify herself if she reads this, if she wishes.
Then I located my wife and Jess and we wandered off. But before we left, Jess pointed out Danny Bonaduce to Tim. Tim had seen him, but was (rightfully?) afeared that talking to him would result in flying fists. I hadn't seen him, but once I recalled who that was, I remembered him as that angry, angry man on "Breaking Bonaduce".
-We wandered away, drawn to the Copic booth again, like moths to a flame. (Our wallets, you see, had taken several hits, collectively.) As we were leaving, we walked past Danny Bonaduce again. His daughter was next to him, dressed up all EGL. She looked cute. I tried to give Bonaduce a casual-friendly smile but he was glaring daggers at everyone and I was concerned for my very soul. Bonaduce has a Cthulhu eyeball, I swear. Just one.
-We decided to flee the convention floor. We went back to the hotel and watched tv. Vikki napped for a bit until the sounds of COPS woke her up and we (Jess and I) tried to explain to her that Americans, sadly, really are crazy. We also laughed, a lot (more than we should have, perhaps), over the infomercials.
-Jess had a Tokyopop dinner to go to, so Vikki and I wrangled the two chairs in the hotel room out onto our balcony so we could draw. Before I got out there myself, I heard her talking to someone, so I get out there to see Vikki seated and talking to the person on the next balcony over... a man in a skirt. A tutu, almost. A square-dancing tutu. Yes, do you remember that there is a Gay Square-Dancing convention in the Marriott? I thought you hadn't! Yes, he was there for the convention. We chatted for a bit while he smoked. He was very funny and I liked him a bunch. He was delightfully catty re: the religious convention that was also being held in the area. Though we hadn't seen it, the religious people had at least cornered anime convention goers (I never heard any rumors/stories of them harrassing the square dancers, which seems odd, don't you think? Maybe they're just so used to it that it didn't bother them enough to mention it?) and told them they were doing something 'wrong'.
He also 'bitched' that he and his fellow convention goers were a little sad because the anime cosplayers were "outdoing" the square-dancers as far as costumes go (I half assume in terms of "freaking people out" - but maybe he just meant in general terms of crazy-awesome?). I thought that was beyond badass. After he left, Vikki drew him something (which he requested when he found out she was an artist). She drew him Hard Gay. (Google it.) While she drew, I people-watched from the balcony. I tried to draw, but, omg, people! I'm also somewhat acrophobic, so I guess, basically, I was being masochistic in a very small dose.
When it got kinda too dim to draw anymore, we went down to Starbucks and had sushi and... uh... some sort of slightly spicy noodles (we were going to get something else, but the thing had closed for the night) and decided to go back to our room to draw rather than sit in the Starbucks. We tried calling aria01 but were DENIED. I think I left a weird message on her machine. :3 I can't remember, but I usually do if I try calling Aria and miss her. XD Vikki and I had bought Moshi, I think... I dunno. Mochi? One of those. They're little ice cream balls with some sort of rice dough covering. THEY ARE VERY GOOD. And rich. Ours were chocolate, so they had chocolate chips in the middle. Yum. Jess was not back at that time, so we were like, "Well, let's see if the ice machine works now. We'll put them over ice and maybe they'll stay good for when she gets back to have hers?" I managed, through great brain power (and reading the instructions), to figure out how to work the crazy ice machine. Horray! It was not intuitive. We took our haul of ice back to the hotel room and tried to set it up so the ice cream balls stayed cool.
Vikki wondered what was in the drawers of the tv center. That was when we discovered we had a mini-fridge. Wait a second. It was July 3rd. We were checking out on July 5th. And only just now do we discover we had a minifridge? THAT IS SO NOT FAIR!!! Arrrr! .... So, we put the ice bucket with the ice cream balls in the fridge, hopeful it would preserve them even further. Jess returned later and they were okay, still, but not the consistancy I would necessarily choose to offer someone icecream like that at. Hopefully, though, they were still awesome. :3
-Next day... uhmmm... we went back to the Con (really???) and happened to run into Tim again, who was with his roommate (who was someone I was vaguely familiar with beforehand, having been to her website, but, again, feels vaguely name-dropping to toss the link up). I heard another story of the religious people harrassing the anime convention goers. Again, I find this weird. Tim told us how AX '07 would be held in Long Beach and it wasn't going to be as awesomely setup as the one in Anaheim and that it sucked that way and we should go to SDCC next year instead, if we were only going to one Con. Concern noted and appreciated, but perhaps I'll be going to AX anyway, seeing as it's more likely Vikki could attend that one. :3 Haha. >_>;
-We hit up the Copic booth. Yes. Again. But for the final time!!! I bought a set of 12 Copic markers of random shades (well, not SO random, they were colors I thought I'd use for NSK), two packs of manga paper, five colored (grey, brown, green, maroon and blue) .03 Multiliners, and got a folding cloth(esque) case for the markers for free. I mis-remembered how much you were supposed to spend to get the How To Use Copic Products book for free, so I'm all, "hey, wasn't I supposed to get a book, too? XD" and the guy's like, "noo, that was if you spent $100!" (I had spent $90 at that one haul) and I was all, "XD Oh, d'oh!" and he was like, ::pick up the book and give to me:: and I was like, "omgthankyou! XD;;;;!!!!" and he put his finger to his lips and was like, "Shhh!" and I'm like, ::veryquiet thankyou! XD::
Which was a fair trade, at the very least, because while I was wandering through the booth, I think I helped sell some pens. You see, there was this woman who came into the booth and the nice lady who directed me to the good Copic markers (and previously helped Vikki choose markers for her swapout) was trying to explain that they'd sold out of the regular Multiliner set, but she could buy them each seperately at this display. And I was all, "But they have the SP set over there next to the register!" and the lady saw the price differences between the regular Multiliners and the SPs and sorta balked and I was like, "The SPs are the kind you want anyway. They are soooo much better. I bought some here the first day of Con and I've totally seen the difference!" and I also added, at some point, that the regular Multiliners tips would wear down within maybe a few months. Which freed the nice Copic lady to say that with the SPs you can replace the tips if they break and blah blah. SO I think if I didn't help make a sale, I at least made the Copic lady's job easier. :3 See, good karma!
-I dunno, stuff happened. We finally found the O RLY? / YS RLY teeshirt booth (which we had been searching for since we saw it the first day) and since I did not have cashmoney and they didn't take cards, I was DENIED. But I did manage to get their website written down or a card or something. So I'll buy one eventually!
-I dunno. Stuff happened. We met up with Vikki's coworkers and went over to Disneyland (which was within walking distance, I might add) to have dinner. Let me refresh your memory of what day it was. July 04, 2006. We were going to be on the park property on the Fourth, dude! Fireworks! Disney fireworks. My mild excitement about that was completely, however, overwhelmed by my memory of what DisneyWorld was like on a normal park night at closing. I imagined, to my horror, getting lost in the crowd, each of the six of us seperated from each other and then wedged between sweaty people in plastic mouse ears. (I'm not normally claustrophobic - I find it somewhat comforting, really, but in that crush of people leaving DisneyWorld a few years ago, I was so upset I was trembling.) I did not, however, let this disuade me from attempting to (not even covertly) take photos of a cute guy while we waited in line for the restaurant. He looked a lot like one of my characters (who I doubt anyone knows - but Marco/Marcus if that rings a bell) and it thrilled me. Anyway. :3
We went to this place called NAPLES Ristorante e Pizzeria. I can't remember what Vikki ordered, or the guys, but Jess got a pizza and I got gnocci, which was very, very good. We ate and yapped and it was grand! Night fell and when the fireworks started, we couldn't really see them through the trees (well, I could see them pretty well, but I don't think anyone else could see them as well as I could).
-So we decided to leave the park before, I guess, the crush of people did. (YAY.) We kept stopping to watch them, though. Which was cool. :3 It was not, thankfully, as scary leaving the park as I had feared.
We hopped on a tram to take us to the end of the parking lot where we could walk to the hotel. :3 The guy who sat on the end of the tram and talked on the mic had this... insanely chipper vocal ... thing. I can't remember any of the things he said, but the six of us were giggling like children because of it, making up how he'd sound in rushhour traffic. "Well, Fuck You! :D" and stuff. XD Though he was very, very far back at the end of the train, at some point we figured he knew what we were laughing at (him). He waved at us. This only made us laugh harder. (Though mine was tainted with a shade of guilt. XD) We parted ways at the hotel. :3
-Vikki and I drew porn.
No, we're not sharing. :3
-Earlyearly the next morning, Jess has to get up to catch her shuttle. We wake up just enough to see her off to the elevator. Then we crawled back into bed and talked about specific NSK stuff we were plotting up. Then we napped for another few hours until I heard the cleaning ladies bashing about in the hallway. I thought it was later than it actually was, so I started packing while Vikki slept. Then Vikki woke up and she packed and I watched tv.
-We dropped our luggage off with the bellhop and took a tram from the hotel to Disney and from Disney to a mall! Because Vikki was giving me the sketchbook she'd been drawing in this entire time and I didn't have a spare one to give her for the 14 (I think) hour flight back to Aussieland. So we were in search of a sketchbook! Unfortunately, there were no art stores in the area (we asked the concierge), but I knew Borders would have them, which is why we chose to go to the mall! We obtained a sketchbook for Vikki and we both got a book - WEAPONS: An Illustrated History. I have no excuse not to draw kickass weaponry now. :3 So I'll make it a priority soon. :3
-We had lunch at a place themed around San Francisco. I think it was called Alkatraz, which made me giggle a bit, seeing as I picture MKC as a cross between NYC and SF and a touch of Miami. We sat under the Golden Gate Bridge at a table with fortune cookie papers on it. I kinda wanted to sit in one of the Chinatown booths, but it didn't really matter. Took several photos for reference. I had Kung-po chicken. I made the mistake of eating the peppers, thinking my ability to withstand spicy would make this a simple matter. And, y'know, after eating three or four peppers, I thought I was right. Then I must have found a SUPER pepper, because it killed me. A lot. I ate nearly half of the mediocre rice that went along with the dish in order to cool down my tongue. My mouth was an unhappy camper.
-Tram ride back to the hotel, during which Vikki and I discussed our plans to work on a major, non-NSK project together. An illustrated novel. :3 It will be awesome. Seriously, desperately awesome.
-We got our luggage back from the bellhop and sat in the hotel lobby and drew (some porn as well) for a few hours until our shuttle took us to the airport. We got Vikki checked in, then were on our way to check me in when we ran across Sly (Vikki's coworker), so we went back to that end of the terminal to check him in, then we checked me in and then, because they didn't have preboarding passes with them, we sat out in a hall about halfway between our two terminals and yapped for an hour or so before Sly was hungry and stole my dear wife away from me. ;_; Maw. So I went to my terminal and read Fool's Gold until my plane boarded at 10:00pm, CA time. (FG was very good, btw, I recommend it.)
-On the plane, I read my OGM and flipped between the Delta radio stations. Which would have a few good songs and then SUCK A LOT. When I finished reading my OGM (all of which were good to extremely awesome), I tried to turn off the overhead light. I burned the CRAP out of myself on accident. To the point where I actually got up to ask the flight attendant if he had any aloe for the burn. Let me state here, I do not like getting up during a flight. At all. I also don't like asking strange people (particularly strange people in some form of customer service/authority) for anything. That is how much it hurt. He did not have any aloe for me, so I went back to try to doze away the pain. It did not help. I still have a shiny cresent-moon shaped burnmark on that finger. I am secretly Sailor Moon.
Got off the plane utterly disoriented. Found my mommie. Slept on the car ride home. Arrived back home in Alabama at 7am central. I may have gotten online for a few minutes to check my email or something, then I slept for nearly the entire rest of the day. Over 12 hours, anyway, if I recall correctly.
The end.