AnthroCon 2009
To Cleveland:
I usually choose flights that leave at gawd-awful early morning hours. Since it’s a good idea to get to LAX about two hours before your flight (in anticipation of huge lines at the ticket counter and at security) I had to get up for my 7AM flight at 4 AM. At least that means I’ll get to Cleveland so tired I won’t have that much trouble with the 3-hour time difference.
Rain
It was raining when I arrived (causing some nasty turbulence on landing) and it rained most of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Since rain is so rare in SoCal this time of year I didn’t mind. Everything was very very green and lush-it really drives home how much of a barren, sun-blasted desert LA really is. Went for a walk in one of the local parks with my mother and saw an indigo bunting, big frogs, chipping sparrows, and some other stuff I’ve forgotton. There’s also a bird feeder in her back yard, and I saw lots of blue jays, cardinals, chickadees and a red-breasted nuthatch. Also tons of chipmunks. I kept thinking how much the kitties would love it there
Hotel
Thursday morning I left fairly early (driving my mother’s new Toyota Yaris) in order to get parking at the hotel, and get a roll-away bed before they sold out. I ran into some rather heavy rain between Cleveland and Pittsburg, but nothing I couldn’t handle. At least in the Midwest people drive a normal speed in heavy rain.
I was able to get to the hotel in time for parking and to get a roll-away. I was on the 15th floor, which meant the stairs were out of the question unless I wanted to give myself a heart attack. But hopefully it also meant no noisy parties. (yeah, that really worked out! Hah hah hah.)
calicougarand mistahbojangles arrived a few hours after me. Luckily my mother’s friend Lou loaned me a dolly, so we were able to get everything up to the room in one trip. AC also had the dealer’s room open for checkin and set-up, so we schlepped everything over on the cart later on. They also had the art show open for set-up that night, which was wonderful (no getting up early the next morning!) I had too much art for my single panel, but the show staff was very very helpful and I was able to get 2 extra panels.
Dealer’s Room
This year the dealer’s room and art show moved one hall over, so the dealer’s area was ginormous. It also included the art show and artist’s alley.
Good side: tons of room in the aisles and behind the tables.
Bad side: tons of dealers competing for the same money =relatively low sales for everyone.
Sales were ‘ok’ for me. As usual I actually pulled in about half my money from con drawings (a huge thanks to everyone who commissioned me there.) But for some reason the sketches completely dried up late Saturday. I have no idea if people thought I was booked up and didn’t bother coming by, or if they were out of money, or if people simply didn’t want to hire me over all the other people there.
The dealer next to me was a very nice and quiet young lady. For some reason she was singled out by an effeminate black guy to do an extremely complicated drawing, and he kept checking back on her progress every half hour (and the drawing took all day Friday and part of the day Saturday.) Beyond that commission from hell, she didn’t seem to do much business, so I know I did better than at least one person.
This year I had a BIG problem with people standing at the table, reading a whole comic, then wandering off without buying it. After the third time this happened, after a person read through a entire book, then picked up another one to start reading it from the beginning, I finally snapped and told him if he’s planning to read all 50 pages, he damn well better buy it. He actually did (the book was a whole $5.00. Wow!) then scurried off, and I didn’t see him again. I hate being nasty to people who might buy something, but I’m learning to tell the difference between the readers and the buyers. For FurtherConfusion, look for a big standee of Apu saying: “This is not a lending library!”
Pup-party
Thursday night we all went to bed by 11, mainly because Brian was exhausted from traveling. Friday night we had problems. There was something called a Pup-party directly across the hall from us. It seemed to involve people gathering in a room and yipping to each other. There were also a lot of slamming doors and loud voices. At one point Tracy heard someone shout: “I can’t find my master!!” By midnight we were unsuccessfully trying to get to sleep. Then we had to figure out who was going to crawl out of bed and call hotel security. Apparently someone beat us to it, because before we’d decided who was going to do the deed we heard pounding on the door and hotel security telling them to cool it. It got quiet enough for us to fall asleep, only to be woken (out of a sound sleep) at 4 AM by a group of (probably intoxicated) people shouting at each other in the hallway. This time Brian got the honor of getting out of bed to chase them away.
Art show
Unfortunately I won’t be able to do my extensive art show review. I was stuck behind my table 90% of the time, and unable to thoroughly peruse the show and take notes. However, there is some stuff I remember:
Most offensive-a toss-up between a picture with two boys that looked about 10 years old (with huge wangs, of course) or a lesbian picture of a Nazi officer forcing a Jewish prisioner (complete with Star of David) to perform a sex act. Honorable mention goes to a RogMinotar pic (in glorious close-up detail) of some guy shoving a bunch of fingers up another guy’s butthole. I also really wish Blotch would do some straight art for a change.
Good stuff: There was a beautiful black cat head-pretty much the only time I’ve seen a fursuit head that I would have actually worn. Lovely art from Hibbary Surprized to see some art from Huskee in the show. The Goldenwolf prints still doing well, although I don’t think anyone bought her originals.
Much kudos to the artshow staff. I got in and out quickly and efficiently, and they went above and beyond helping me get my extra panels.
Food
I brought most of my own food this time, partly as a money-saving measure, and partly so I wouldn’t have to run around looking for a place to eat. I did have a very nice dinner Friday at the fish place With lunden_otter film2edit + Tracy and Brian. Saturday I didn’t feel like going out, so I grabbed a menu of an Italian place that delivered, and had dinner in the room with xianjaguar and vulpes_rex . That food was really, really good (it gave me bad heartburn, but it was worth it.). Sunday was a food bust. McDonald’s managed to fuck up their breakfast (too dry and crumbly), and then I went to a local sandwich place for lunch. There were 50 million people in there, and the pizza was nasty. Next year, bring more bologna.
“That’s a man, baby!”
The freak factor at this con was pretty high. An ambulance had to visit the hotel at least once. Tracy saw a guy with a bleeding gash on his arm in the elevator, making no attempt to cover it or staunch the bleeding. I was stuck in line waiting for the elevator in front of an obese man wearing a leather kilt and a tank top that smelled really bad. Thank God he got tired of waiting and wandered off. I saw a guy lying on the sidewalk near the hotel being poked at by the police. I have no idea if he was hit by a car, passed out drunk, or something else had happened. The hotel had to institute a maid-check every 24 hours due to people completely trashing their rooms. In the same line with the smelly guy was a girl laughing at all the freaks, while she had teeth that looked like they came out of Deliverance.
The dealer’s room floor had a goodly number of transvestites, transsexuals, or just plain sexually ambigious persons. While it’s a free country and people can dress however they want, sometimes you just gotta gracefully accept the hand nature has dealt you, and if you’re 6 foot 5 and look like Walter Cronkite, wearing a dress, heels and a wig just ain’t gonna work.
The majority of the other con-goers seemed split between older (usually obese) fans, and young, underweight, flouncy gay men that were more interested in scritching and hugging than buying anything.
The old standby Bondage Bob (now wearing a badge that says “Tiger”) was there. He stopped by my table several times, said he supported my work and wished me success, but didn’t buy anything. He also said he wanted to see Judge Dread shoot Salem in the head.
The other very odd thing that happened was Steve Martin waving me over to his table and launching into a pitch for (him) doing a Salem tribute comic. That was so far out of left field I had no idea what to say, other than to ask him to send me a script. He asked me to send him the Jack Salem ‘bible.’ Just for the record, there is none. I have it locked in my ratty mind. If he wants to know about the universe and characters, read the books. It’s all in there. Since I’ve heard his current work ethic is less than stellar, I’m not expecting anything this century, so that leaves me to puzzle why he would even consider doing such a project. His motivation is usually money, but if he thinks *I’m* making tons of money from my work, he’s sadly mistaken.
Grebe!
Inside joke to calicougar: Greeebe!! Grebe in mating plumage!
Miscellany
Saturday night I went over to the convention center and watched 4th of July fireworks from one of the balconies. I had a great view, both of the fireworks and of the hundred or so boats in the river below. Very cool.
I read an interesting book called Fragment. Kind of dumb, but with an interesting premise. Expect an extensive review tomorrow.
Loot: Heat #6 and X from Sofawolf. Heathen City #2 and David Hopkin’s Sketchbook from FurPlanet. A copy of the Lackadaisy Cats graphic novel. The two Extinctioners previews and two portfolios from Ebonyleopard. Jazmyn from Bernard Doove. A few other things I don’t recall. Radio Comixs was sorely missed. Tracy got a cool graphic novel called Seaweed, by one of the GOH’s, but at $30 was too rich for me to justify getting.
Lost
Sunday traveling did not go well. I had trouble getting out of the hotel parkinglot because I accidently left my ticket in the machine (Thank God no one took it until I’d realized what I’d done and went back to get it.) I got lost trying to get out of Pittsburg because I didn’t know that 560 turned into 760 (I know freeway # are wrong, but you get the jist.) and drove around for 20 minutes looking for 760 until I finally went back to the hotel and asked the valet for directions. When I got close to Cleveland I ended up in Parma, due to the fact that there are two streets with the same name, and Mapquest gave me the wrong street. So it took a phone call to my mom’s place in order to get directions back to the right road. When I finally got within a couple miles I kept missing the right street, until I found it be process of elimination. By the end of the day I was sure I was either losing my mind or suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s.
The longest night
My flight back to LA left at 9 PM Monday. I usually don’t like to take such late flights, but it was the only one available Monday. The flight was packed like sardines, there were people with tuberculosis coughs, and I was in the aisle right by the exit where the seats won’t lean back. Imagine a 5 hour flight that lasts until 1 AM with no leaning back seat. I ended up using a box of soup as a pillow to keep my head from banging on the side of the airplane while I tried to sleep.
I didn’t get into LA until after 11 PM (PST), and didn’t get home until 12:30 (3:30 AM EST). But did I get sleep? Nope. Gandalf and Fluffy were so excited to see me they spent the next hour wrestling on the bed, and using my body as a springboard to pounce on each other. Sugar got angry and began hissing and growling at them. Every time I tossed them out of the room they came back in, and Gandalf would attack my feet. If I tried to block my door they’d bang on it and meow. Somehow after an hour of that they managed to wear themselves out and I finally got to sleep. Then I had some really weird-ass dreams about taking a vacation to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, with zrath and some other fans, and getting lost on the tourist bus.