Terry Jones and FallCon report! I'm (in)famous!
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, LAUREN!
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, STEPH!
I hope you both got plenty of cake, ice cream, and presents all around! Any belated birthday wishes? If so, please post here ;)! PLEASE! Steph/bonegoddess, I am working on something involving corn, bacon, and squished fairies for you though >8D!
Oh my gosh, what a weekend O~O! Despite the July-like heat and humidity and double booking of events, I still managed to get almost everything I wanted to do.
After work Friday evening, I hunted around a few stores for some Monty Python stuff to get signed. I went to the new Half Price Books in my area to see if they still had that Monty Python CD I saw there last week. I should have bought it when I first saw it, but I was afraid it might have been a copy of the one Monty Python CD I had. Unfortunately, it was gone as I had expected. My hometown area is extremely HUNGRY for anything, so any inventory anywhere within a 3 mile radius is usually gobbled up pretty quickly. While I was there, I ran into the Moy brothers, Phil and Jeff o-O! Jeff saw me first while we were all waiting in line for the cash register. I bought a voice over book by Fred Newman which included a CD of Newman doing his special sound effects that I wanted. I was surprised to see them there, but I guess everyone loves Half Price Books!
I next went to Best Buy and found a few new enhanced Python CDs which I bought for myself and friends. Since Borders was nearby, I decided to stop by there as well and check what they had. On my way out, I saw a group of people come in, 2 of whom looked just like Jessica/arletta and Darla/mugmoni. After I paid for my CD, I went to search for them to see if my eyes were deceiving me or not. Unfortunately, my eyes and brain are rather STUPID when it comes to finding things, so I searched the entire store twice, first and second floors, before I actually found them ;b! They were sitting in Borders' café with Grant/gdg, Katie/smarbaby, and her husband! I poked in to say, "Hi," at least to everyone in case they got déjà vu seeing me on Saturday ^^;. I mentioned I saw the Moys at Half Price Books as well. Grant surmised all the comic book geeks were probably roaming the streets in lieu of FallCon XD!
As I planned, I went to FallCon first, but not too early this year because Adam Hughes would be skipping this year due to illness. I STILL should have gotten there early though because by the time I got inside, Gene Ha's stunt list was filled for the day 8(! NOOOOOOO ;_;! I promised Rosemary/roseangelo I would do a stunt for her this year! Gene told me to ask him again later or very early tomorrow to see if he had time, so I vowed to get to FallCon early Sunday. Actually, at first, I thought Gene wasn't doing stunts this year since he seemed to be sketching stuff without asking anyone for stunts. I later found out that his stunt list was full when I saw a mini Lord of the Rings play which Gene constructed with a poor sap convention goer who wore a newspaper beard to be the mighty Gandalf!
I quickly walked around the con and got some commissions on a few artists lists before they filled up for the day, like Gene had already --;! After a few circles around, I finally found Chandra's/rous' table hiding in one corner. I reluctantly powered-up my stone computer slab Friday night and Saturday morning to see if anyone wanted something signed by Terry Jones in my previous entry. I saw her post and hoped she would bring the book she wanted signed with her to FallCon. Luckily, Chandra did read my mind and brought her book, just in case 8D, so I took it with me as I left FallCon for Augsburg College!
I made a quick stop again at Best Buy to pick up a DVD copy of The Life of Brian for Chris/rashomonchb whose post I also happened to catch before heading off toward Augsburg. I reached Augsburg around 10:45 a.m., and I feared I was too late. Surprisingly, I got to the bookstore only to find out I was the ONLY one there o-O! I thought, "This can't be right," so I asked the information desk about the signing. Apparently, there was ANOTHER signing right after Jones' sold-out lecture in the bookstore, and it was packed! The bookstore had no more copies of the book Jones was promoting left for sale! There were only a few copies left of Jones' various other books! Maybe I should have gone Friday night if I had known, but I wouldn't have been able to see his lecture. I guess it was a blessing of sorts in that almost everyone else who was interested in getting something signed by Jones probably did so Friday evening. I wouldn't have to compete with the crowd! I waited for 1.5 hours mostly by myself. Other people didn't start showing up until around 11:30 a.m.. By noon, there were roughly 20 people total waiting in line for Jones' signing o-o, which is definitely a LOT smaller crowd than I had thought.
Since there were so few of us, the people who came to wait in line after me as well as the bookstore manager remembered our places in line and insisted I be first since I was the first one there ^^;! The second lady who arrived as well as myself had taken our place at the end of a 10 person line because we really didn't want to 'butt' in at the head of the line which formed while we were still in clump form. The third lady in line insisted we be in our proper places though. I'm grateful she spoke up even though both of us didn't mind waiting in the back. So, I was THE first person to meet Jones for Saturday's signing 8D!
Jones looked very well and fit when he arrived about 10-15 minutes late. He apologized profusely for his lateness although none of us minded whatsoever! I was surprised by his scholarly voice which I've never heard even in his recent documentary TV shows like The Story of 1 o-O! He sounded a bit like my old mentor, John Broadhurst. If you didn't know of his comedic past with Monty Python, you could easily mistake him for a regular college professor. He was surprised to see the DVD cover I brought from The Story of 1 as well as a CD booklet I had from my graduate school days, The Dead Parrot Society! Apparently, he had never seen The Dead Parrot Society CD ever or even knew about its existence! It was a fun CD to play in the office while we were doing our homework XD! He was very gracious and soft spoken. He signed everything I brought, whether it was from the bookstore or not, and he even stood up for a picture with me! It was after he signed my stuff though that he realized he should get a Sharpie instead, so all my stuff was signed with the fancy metallic ballpoint pen his manager gave him Xb. Oh well, I'm still ecstatic! Here's what I got signed! I'll post the picture I took with Jones AFTER I can get it out of my camera ;b.
After I thanked him and carefully packed up my things, I gave him the postcard I got for FallCon in case he wanted to stop by if he had any time that is and kill the entire convention with his presence. I don't think he ever did stop by FallCon, unfortunately, but I tried! I zoomed off back to FallCon, much earlier than I had expected too! By the time I got back, it was around 85° F! It was hot, sticky, humid, and the Education Building had NO air conditioning whatsoever >8(! Nick, one of the guys at Source, who helps run this convention supposedly promised he WOULD find some way to provide AC for FallCon, but we'll see. I thought there was AC in the Education Building, but apparently, there isn't X(! Because of the stagnant hot air, I didn't stay too long Saturday. I managed to get around the entire convention a couple of times, and I made sure to stop by the tables of everyone I knew including Jessica, Darla, Katie, Chandra, and Meredith/uminomamori. I didn't see Rana/chibitoaster until Sunday though because she couldn't make it on Saturday. By the time I got to Meredith though, I was almost out of ca$h! I went on a miniature spending spree in terms of buying art, comics, bootleg DVDs, sketchbooks, and tons of independent comic trade paperbacks O~O! I needed to get some more ca$h for Sunday ;b. I bought 2 bootleg Doctor Who DVDs: one of the spoof The Curse of Fatal Death, which I've been dying to see ever since I first heard about it 7-8 years ago, and some other comic bootleg featuring David Tennant dressing up as various companions to some Doctor for a TV talk show, I think. Yes, I can't view stuff on YouTube because of my ancient computers and connections ;P!
Like I said, I didn't stick around for long on Saturday to do much browsing because it was unbearably HOT. I went to hide at Source's air-conditioned store to cool off and pick-up my week's comic load. I swear manga distributors have no idea how to stretch out their releases.
Sunday morning, I headed out to FallCon around 9:00 a.m. in hopes of staking out a spot on Gene's stunt list for the day. When I got there, there were actually only 2 people ahead of me in line. I guess the big line is always on Saturday, the first con day. I think I need to get there around 6:30 a.m. next FallCon Saturday if Adam Hughes comes X(. I brought my portable chair again and spent the time updating my manga list on my PDA. I LOVE that chair! Thank you, Donny.com-ers for showing me it's worth bringing! I'm also thankful for my parents for buying 2 of them which they saw on sale somewhere for only $2.00 each!
As soon as the convention opened, I zoomed over to Gene's table and somewhat pleaded with him for a stunt. Gene said he would be happy to do a simple sketch for me without a stunt actually. I told him of the giveaway and promise I made on my LJ to Rosemary, so after some thought, he finally gave me a stunt to do for a better sketch than he would have given me without it. For my stunt, Gene asked if he could put makeup on my face to look like a ghoulish vampire to advertise a new local puppet show called Transylvania TV premiering Friday, Oct 12th, on the CW. I agreed, so my face became Gene's canvas. While Gene was applying makeup to my face, I had no idea what in the heck I looked like because there wasn't a mirror nearby. Meredith came by to watch and giggle X}! Gene wrote the website address for the show on my face as well, so it looks as if I have a blue mustache XD! When I was done, I had someone take a picture of Gene with me for my camera. I also posed for Meredith as well, so she also has a picture of my ghoulish face somewhere. I asked her to show me what I looked like with her digital camera since my camera was a regular old non-digital one. My pictures are still trapped in there until I can use up the roll of film, so maybe someone else will put up a photo of me before I do. I've NEVER worn this type of makeup in my entire life, so it was definitely a new experience. Heck, I haven't dressed up for Halloween since 3rd grade ;b! I spent the rest of the con parading around in my ghoulish painted face. Gene said I could wash it off at 1:00 p.m. if it got too hot and sticky, but it was a LOT cooler on Sunday than Saturday, so I just left it on for the entire day.
I stopped by the tables of everyone I knew, again, to show off my face X}! I told them, "I've been Gened!" Gene is now a new verb XD! Reactions were more moot than I thought they would have been, except for maybe Bob from Source who laughed out loud with tears in his eyes when he saw me. I offered my face for pictures if anyone wanted to take one ;b. I made a special stop by the Puppet Force table, the producers of Transylvania TV, to show them my face. Jennifer Menken, the wife of the producer, took a digital picture for her husband whom I later found to show as well. They both thanked me for the 'free' advertising, and I think Jennifer went over later to thank Gene personally as well ;).
I stopped by Gordon Purcell's table again to see if he brought the art he had done for Gargoyles #6 with him. When I stopped by on Saturday, he hadn't thought of bringing that art folder with him because the comic wouldn't be out until Wednesday, just 3 days AFTER FallCon --;. I asked if he would be able to sell any of it even though the comic wasn't out yet, and he said he could! He brought all the pages he did for issue 6 Sunday, fresh from his home! I happily grabbed and bought the first page splash he did with Angela. I would have bought more, but I had already spent alot on this year's FallCon. They were all VERY affordably priced, so if any of you Gargoyles fans see Gordon at another convention, be sure to ask him about the pages he did for issue 6! He was charging only $25.00 per page and $30.00 per splash page, so Angela only cost me $30.00 o-O! I'll post a scan of it on Wednesday AFTER the comic comes out!
Even though it was cooler Sunday, it was still a bit hot, so I spent most of the time up in the main talk room which had tons of fans built into the room which were all turned on at full blast for maximum air circulation. I did get a chance though for some more table shopping, but, as I said before, I already spent a ton of money Saturday and on commissions, so I didn't window shop too much O~O. Moreover, I didn't want my face melting all over someone's merchandise if I could help it ;b!
I love watching the charity art auction FallCon holds every year at the end of the con! It's entertaining all by itself because most of the bidders know one another. Bid wars are encouraged since all the money goes to charity! This year, there were even a few bid wars between ONE person alone XD! They chalked it up to having multiple personalities. Of course, the lasting impact of 2 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fans were always present when bidding was upped by only $1.00 even after passing $100.00 ;b. Bob, from Source, 'threatened' to fire his Source partner, Nick, when Nick tried to outbid him on a $500.00 item by upping the bid to $501.00! I was happy to see the art donated by my friends getting quite nice wins. Chandra's large Batman ink drawing went for $40.00 while Jessica's and Darla's pencil sketches went for $50.00-$60.00 each! I can't remember what lot went for the most =/, but it was somewhere in the $500.00-$1000.00 range. There were a couple of gag FallCon 2007 art drawn especially to commemorate this year's BLECH NO AC con! Those did very well. I should have bid on one of those --;!
After the auction, I stopped by Gene's table to pick up my sketch for Rosemary. Gene signed it, "To my Vampirella," on it even though he knew it was for my friend ;b. Gene said it would make a good story for her collection, or I could ask Rosemary to dress up as Vampirella for it ;P. The answer is, "No, I won't!" Rosemary ;P! Rosemary, if you want me to scan it in for you, please let me know, and I'll do so! Before I went home to take a shower, I stopped by Source, again, to show the guys there my face before I washed it off.
I scanned in some of the stuff I got this year already except for a few bigger pieces which I'll have to scan in via other means. You can see new art in my puny gallery. The bolded categories are the ones with recent updates which also includes some older art as well.
If any of you have a picture of my face to post, please do so while I try to use up the rest of my film O~O!