convention report, boston comicon 2013, almost but not quite the 2nd worst con ever. (ended well!)
so, I will admit I did no research in advance about this convention, which had been rescheduled due to the marathon bombing. Saturday morning, bought my ticket online my printer was in my roommate's room, and i didn't want to wake her so I had to join the 21st century, reactivated the google apps thing on my phone which I thought I'd never use, but couldn't delete, (I guess I can deactivate it again), downloaded a ticketing app called eventbrite, I think, so I could have a Q-code on my screen to be scanned at the con (you'd think telling them my confirmation number which they could then cross off their list would suffice d: ) and decided to travel light, umbrella, a couple of granola bars, left the camera at home, ( cell phone cam is so-so on the galaxy s4 people say it's great but the pics look better on the phone than on a PC), picked up Donna, who had woken with a headache so Joe went in earlier by himself on the T, stopped at starbutts and felt terribly modern and bourgeoisie. (digression; what the fuck do I keep hitting without noticing, that suddenly bumps the cursor way up so that suddenly I'm typing in the middle of a word 7 lines above where I thought I was typing? is it the trackpad? I don't like laptops.I like and use a real mouse because I'm a real man!) (I need a proper mouse!) anyway, there I am realising I'm in a starbucks with a digital ticket on my smartphone, and thinking "what's happened to me? :/ ) well, that's not how I spend most of my time. I'm usually up a ladder or under a sink covered in filth. I mean, making fantastic art for tons of money. yeah.
so we get to the convention center, I drop off Donna at about 10 past 10 and drive 0.7 miles to park for free at my sister in law's office parking lot. 12.5 minute walk back to get in line, the line is half a mile long. it's an amusing line to walk down due to fun people in costumes, but it wraps around the back of the building. a boy in a home made cardboard iron man costume, which is astonishingly great gets in line and I take pics of him. many attractive ladies in tight and or skimpy costumes saunter by. this is not so terrible. 2 lowd bawstonians are tawking behind me, one going off to smoke every 10 minutes, not so amusing after a while. looks like rain, glad I brought my bumbershoot, but the sun comes out, still glad I have it and deploy it to keep the sun off me. the line takes OVER 2 hours to move enough for me to actually get a wrist band which I have to put on myself, which is tricky actually, so I've njow spent about $7 to stand in a line for 2 hours, there are, I believe, 6 hours left of the con, for which I paid a little over $28 to get into. I'm relieved to be indoors, but frankly pretty pissed, there are only a handful of clerks for thousands of people trying to get into this building. (the facebook event says saturday 10am til sunday 6pm, I misinterpret that to mean the con ends at 6 each day, saturday actually goes til 7, although it would make more sense to think that meant it went all night, as it should do, but can't because this isn't Arisia, it's mostly just one big dealer's room.)
I wander inside looking for Donna and Joe's table, she texts me their location, ("around aa216") but I don't know what this means, and there is no map on the one page programme they handed me, nor any maps or signs around. eventually at the back half of the hall I see some numbers, "800" "700" and realise aa means artists alley, the numbering is inconsistent and disorganised, on the right the numbers get higher towards the back of the hall, but at some point this reverses, which is amazingly stupid.
eventually I find Donna and Joe and put down my umbrella and jacket behind their table. I think, next year I should just get a table so I don't have to wait in line for 2 hours, but a table is $100. next year I'll volunteer to help at the BCR table so I don't have to wait in line for 2 hours. although the dealers and artists, I hear also had a bit of a wait to be processed. so I wander around a bit looking at things I really shouldn't buy, and don't have room for at the moment, especially now since I'm about to move, I make a note incorrectly reading the wrong side of the flyer, that the costume contest is at 3pm, (it is, just on sunday when I wont be there, not saturday), we try to say hi to George Perez, legendary comic book artist, and old acquaintance of mine, and are told we need a ticket. we are also told there are no more tickets. one of the loud bostonians behind me had talked about how he thought if he got a virtual ticket he'd be able to just walk right in and get a wrist band, not wait for 2 hours to get in and miss the first 2 hours of the 9 hour day. I also thought that. what time would I have had to get there to wait in line in order to actually get inside at 10 when the con started? 8am? 5am? had I gotten in sooner I might have found out I needed a ticket to get to talk to George, and gotten one. we went to say hi to Phil Jimenez, George's protege', there was a line to see him too, but no ticket required, but when Donna went off to the loo or ATM, someone handed the guy in front of me a piece of paper that said "last in line" meaning I wouldn't get to talk to Phil because he had to go get lunch, and then do a panel til 445pm.
at a quarter to 3 I decide to see if it's possible to get a seat at the costume contest, 1.75 hour long event, I get into the room, DC's awful head of marketing Dan DeDildo gets up the podium, and starts introducing some DC artists and writers, who I assume are the judges. after introducing themselves it dawns on me this is NOT the costume contest, Yaya Han is not in this room hosting it, and I look more carefully at the schedule and realise I had been looking at the wrong side of the page. I leave. Then Donna texts me she's outside looking for food but there are long lines everywhere inside and outside for everything and can I please go get the van so she can get food for Joe who is hungry? at this point I think there are only 3 hours left of the con and I'm pretty miserable. I walk back to the van, 5 minutes down the street I spot the deli-market I knew was around here somewhere, should have stopped then and told her to walk, it's only 5 minutes, but I went all the way back to the van, picked her up, drove the wrong way because she thought there was a store in that direction (north) eventually wound up back at the market, could not park, let her out, circled the block, waited outside for what seemed a very long time. she brought me a croissant which was probably the best I'd ever had, and we drove back to the con. I dropped her off and spotted an empty parking meter, I had to cut across and cut off a taxi to get to it, but I got in it, and it was a broken meter, that didn't even have a sign on it saying "if broken one hour limit" free parking for the rest of the day without having to do the 12 minute walk 2 more times? thank you yes.
Alexa showed up, always delightful to see her, we talked to Colleen Doran a bit, and later went to her panel, which she dominated, tho there were 2 other people on it, I could listen to her all day, hilarious stories and she's just awesome. she's sunk thousands into restoring her work for republication due to some disorganised idiots losing her filmed archives. so buy her damned book. I realised then that there were actually a ton of women at this convention, 20, even 10 years ago a comic con would have mabe 10% female attendance, this one felt like 40%. probably wasn't that much, but I tend to notice women more, so sue me. d: still, seriously though, a lot of women there. there were actors from some zombie tv show there, which you had to pay $80 extra to hear them talk, and $20 on top of that for an autograph. because actors in successful tv shows make so much less than comic book artists XP.
then shortly before we were to leave, I made a last approach to George's table, the last 2 ticket holders were wrapping it up, someone with a cable tv show from melrose was trying to get him to do a 5 minute interview which he begged off of citing a pending exclusivity contract he can't discuss yet, and George spotted me and recognised me, so we chatted a bit, and he liked my Starfire shirt, when I showed him Mercy's hand painted Starfire heart shaped button he spoke wistfully of how long it had been since he'd seen her and Ken, gave me a great big bear hug and we took some pictures and said a fond farewell. I got what I came to the con for after all. I don't need a ticket to talk to George, he has my painting hanging in his studio, he told me it's still up there! one of the most highly regarded and awarded artists ever to work in the medium has my art hanging in his studio motherfuckers, that's right. I confided that meant a lot to me. not just because he's famous. but that's a nice factor too, heh.
so what was the worst con ever? one sunday years ago there were 2 comic cons the same day in boston, one at some little hotel near the Pru, I think we went to that one first, and it was just a sad little room with a few tables, most of them empty.
so we get to the convention center, I drop off Donna at about 10 past 10 and drive 0.7 miles to park for free at my sister in law's office parking lot. 12.5 minute walk back to get in line, the line is half a mile long. it's an amusing line to walk down due to fun people in costumes, but it wraps around the back of the building. a boy in a home made cardboard iron man costume, which is astonishingly great gets in line and I take pics of him. many attractive ladies in tight and or skimpy costumes saunter by. this is not so terrible. 2 lowd bawstonians are tawking behind me, one going off to smoke every 10 minutes, not so amusing after a while. looks like rain, glad I brought my bumbershoot, but the sun comes out, still glad I have it and deploy it to keep the sun off me. the line takes OVER 2 hours to move enough for me to actually get a wrist band which I have to put on myself, which is tricky actually, so I've njow spent about $7 to stand in a line for 2 hours, there are, I believe, 6 hours left of the con, for which I paid a little over $28 to get into. I'm relieved to be indoors, but frankly pretty pissed, there are only a handful of clerks for thousands of people trying to get into this building. (the facebook event says saturday 10am til sunday 6pm, I misinterpret that to mean the con ends at 6 each day, saturday actually goes til 7, although it would make more sense to think that meant it went all night, as it should do, but can't because this isn't Arisia, it's mostly just one big dealer's room.)
I wander inside looking for Donna and Joe's table, she texts me their location, ("around aa216") but I don't know what this means, and there is no map on the one page programme they handed me, nor any maps or signs around. eventually at the back half of the hall I see some numbers, "800" "700" and realise aa means artists alley, the numbering is inconsistent and disorganised, on the right the numbers get higher towards the back of the hall, but at some point this reverses, which is amazingly stupid.
eventually I find Donna and Joe and put down my umbrella and jacket behind their table. I think, next year I should just get a table so I don't have to wait in line for 2 hours, but a table is $100. next year I'll volunteer to help at the BCR table so I don't have to wait in line for 2 hours. although the dealers and artists, I hear also had a bit of a wait to be processed. so I wander around a bit looking at things I really shouldn't buy, and don't have room for at the moment, especially now since I'm about to move, I make a note incorrectly reading the wrong side of the flyer, that the costume contest is at 3pm, (it is, just on sunday when I wont be there, not saturday), we try to say hi to George Perez, legendary comic book artist, and old acquaintance of mine, and are told we need a ticket. we are also told there are no more tickets. one of the loud bostonians behind me had talked about how he thought if he got a virtual ticket he'd be able to just walk right in and get a wrist band, not wait for 2 hours to get in and miss the first 2 hours of the 9 hour day. I also thought that. what time would I have had to get there to wait in line in order to actually get inside at 10 when the con started? 8am? 5am? had I gotten in sooner I might have found out I needed a ticket to get to talk to George, and gotten one. we went to say hi to Phil Jimenez, George's protege', there was a line to see him too, but no ticket required, but when Donna went off to the loo or ATM, someone handed the guy in front of me a piece of paper that said "last in line" meaning I wouldn't get to talk to Phil because he had to go get lunch, and then do a panel til 445pm.
at a quarter to 3 I decide to see if it's possible to get a seat at the costume contest, 1.75 hour long event, I get into the room, DC's awful head of marketing Dan DeDildo gets up the podium, and starts introducing some DC artists and writers, who I assume are the judges. after introducing themselves it dawns on me this is NOT the costume contest, Yaya Han is not in this room hosting it, and I look more carefully at the schedule and realise I had been looking at the wrong side of the page. I leave. Then Donna texts me she's outside looking for food but there are long lines everywhere inside and outside for everything and can I please go get the van so she can get food for Joe who is hungry? at this point I think there are only 3 hours left of the con and I'm pretty miserable. I walk back to the van, 5 minutes down the street I spot the deli-market I knew was around here somewhere, should have stopped then and told her to walk, it's only 5 minutes, but I went all the way back to the van, picked her up, drove the wrong way because she thought there was a store in that direction (north) eventually wound up back at the market, could not park, let her out, circled the block, waited outside for what seemed a very long time. she brought me a croissant which was probably the best I'd ever had, and we drove back to the con. I dropped her off and spotted an empty parking meter, I had to cut across and cut off a taxi to get to it, but I got in it, and it was a broken meter, that didn't even have a sign on it saying "if broken one hour limit" free parking for the rest of the day without having to do the 12 minute walk 2 more times? thank you yes.
Alexa showed up, always delightful to see her, we talked to Colleen Doran a bit, and later went to her panel, which she dominated, tho there were 2 other people on it, I could listen to her all day, hilarious stories and she's just awesome. she's sunk thousands into restoring her work for republication due to some disorganised idiots losing her filmed archives. so buy her damned book. I realised then that there were actually a ton of women at this convention, 20, even 10 years ago a comic con would have mabe 10% female attendance, this one felt like 40%. probably wasn't that much, but I tend to notice women more, so sue me. d: still, seriously though, a lot of women there. there were actors from some zombie tv show there, which you had to pay $80 extra to hear them talk, and $20 on top of that for an autograph. because actors in successful tv shows make so much less than comic book artists XP.
then shortly before we were to leave, I made a last approach to George's table, the last 2 ticket holders were wrapping it up, someone with a cable tv show from melrose was trying to get him to do a 5 minute interview which he begged off of citing a pending exclusivity contract he can't discuss yet, and George spotted me and recognised me, so we chatted a bit, and he liked my Starfire shirt, when I showed him Mercy's hand painted Starfire heart shaped button he spoke wistfully of how long it had been since he'd seen her and Ken, gave me a great big bear hug and we took some pictures and said a fond farewell. I got what I came to the con for after all. I don't need a ticket to talk to George, he has my painting hanging in his studio, he told me it's still up there! one of the most highly regarded and awarded artists ever to work in the medium has my art hanging in his studio motherfuckers, that's right. I confided that meant a lot to me. not just because he's famous. but that's a nice factor too, heh.
so what was the worst con ever? one sunday years ago there were 2 comic cons the same day in boston, one at some little hotel near the Pru, I think we went to that one first, and it was just a sad little room with a few tables, most of them empty.