Connecticon Report
Day 0 - Thursday, July 6, 2006
If I'm going to do this right, I might as well start strong. Connecticon day 0 started with something I doubt you'll find in any other con report- jet planes. Now, I'm not talking about your Boeing 747 or Embraer 170 or anything. I'm talking freaking fighter jets. First on the bus on the way to the airport, and later while waiting on the runway for them to clear the area, I was treated to at least 6 flybys of a squad of 4 F-22 Raptors practicing for a Pittsburgh air show this weekend. Photo proof is in the day 0 images directory (just don't tell USAir I had a camera on during taxi...). I also saw a few other older aircraft practicing, but couldn't grab my camera quickly enough for a shot.
My own flight, alas, was not as graceful in the air, having suffered form a pre-takeoff breakage of the front cargo net requiring all baggage to be moved to the rear of the aircraft and many people moved to the front of the aircraft to counter the shift in center of gravity. I swear commercial airliners aren't supposed to bank that steeply or wobble so much in adjusting heading...
I very nearly left my suitcase at the airport, broke my glasses for the 4th time, at least, in as many weeks, and spent far too much of the evening doing tech support for my parents, but any trials now should pay off tomorrow and for the rest of the weekend if CTCon '06 lives up to expectations.
Day 1 - Friday, July 7, 2006
As with most cons at which one is not a registered artist, the first day started with lines. I was actually impressed- apart from being outside, the lines were quite reasonable, and the preregistered line was, unlike last year, shorter and faster than the at-the-door line. Opening ceremonies included a review of CTCon 2005, an introduction of all the artists in attendance, and a big thank-you to all participants in the Save Connecticon drive last year.
One of the improvements over last year which I noticed immediately was the expanded video game room. Best Buy donated some few dozen TVs and computer displays of varying sizes and shapes, and while I would have preferred more retro consoles, console rerpresentation on a whole was stronger than PC representation.
While the dealer's room was still being set up, I attended "scruffy webcomic guru" (and all-around awesome person) Mookie's meet & greet, which was the hour of crazy awesomeness I expected, covering such topics as sharks, paintbucket envy, crazy fans, uber-top-secret Mookieworld facts, and what you don't want to know about Hell.
One lesson learned today was that no matter how cool it may be, and no matter how much artists gape when asked to sign it, carrying a .25 x 11.25 x 9.3 inch piece of 1991 Apple portable goodness around on your back for an entire day of congoing is not necessarily a good idea. Still, for a friend of mine who I only recently learned was none other than the crazy MacHall Otakon 2002 armsign girl I picked up the autographs of Matt, Hawk, Ananth and Jeph. The AppleGeeks posse was all in attendance, with all new swag, and I think I may have even convinced Hawk not to buy Comedity over my head this year. Matt, however, appeared to be suffering swag and co-creator existance failure at the MacHall table until mid-afternoon.
I hit the Comedity table a few times, had some nice chats with Garth, Larom, and a couple frequent forumgoers, and stoled the Penguin before anyone had a chance to stop me! I then tried to walk off with it, to which they surprisingly didn't object. Late in the day I also said a quick hello to Akiko, the other half of the pair I met the first half of last year, who have pulled their own comic up by the bootstraps in what has become one of many inspirations for SED's protocol. The '06 Artist Alley is not actually in the dealer's room, which makes sense, but means new, up-and-coming, independent, and generally non-invited artists (such as perhaps myself in a year (!!)) don't get the benefit of the traffic to the invited big names and stuff vendors.
Hawk ran a mean Photoshop panel, giving me a few new technical ideas to try on or tangential to SED. We also learned why drugs are bad and how slow and tedious it is to turn an inked sketch into a real episode of AG Lite. Bah, lazy artists actually using a panel demo piece as a normal update... :\
The dealer room, as usual, had FAR too much stuff I need to have for my budget, especially considering I really want to get me an artist at the auction tomorrow. Ah well. At least if I don't manage to win an artist, I'll be able to drown my sorrows in the original Tales of Phantasia... There were other things which I didn't actually need, including any of the entire frigging table full of second-printing Nuklear Age paperbacks sold by Brian. I swear the guy only tolerates the northeast because we give him so much money.
Cosplayers didn't disappoint, even on the first day. I met last year's magnificent Captain Jack Sparrow, and saw truly labor-intensive life-size Alfons Elric plushie, complete with two beautiful State Alchemists (Fullmetal is the one anime series I've actually let my self get hooked by, and I managed to catch a few episodes in the dealer's room late in the day).
I finally checked out of the con at about 4:45 to pick up the new pair of perscription shades I ordered, and return home to write, update, and generally crash for the day. Day 1's full photo list can be found here.
Day 2 - Saturday, July 8, 2006
Any day that has two great Connecticon traditions involving over a dozen webcomic artists on the same stage can't go too blandly. Main event number one on Saturday was the Artist Auction in which visitors can bid on their favorite artist(s) for a number of artist-dependent perks, or on certain other specialty merchandise not available elsewhere. All proceeds benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund set up to back independent artists in legal freedom-of-speech disputes over their work.
The techs running the auditorium screens had some fun before and during the event, Larom flew, Mookie went shirtless, Dave sold his ninja girlfriend in his stead, Hawk passed up Comedity in favor of Mine's Bigger's Trish, and then managed to sell the 2-comic 4-artist comission-enhanced package for a whopping $300. Comiku also had a piece for sale, which fetched as much as many artists, and the infamous Comedity Green Balls O' Signage, donated to Save Connecticon but never actually sold, went at the very end for a fair $140, including my own $5 assist to the lovely Vash cosplayer who gave me a good run for Comedity itself (and Garth's original pencil of the '06 Con Booklet cover!).
A step up form last year, the Uber Webcomic Panel featured two Nintendo DS units in the hands of the Mac Hall crew. Brian didn't have his PSP, but made no bones about being too famous to require introduction. We were all, possibly inadvertantly, offered free underwater cameras by the generous folks hosting the bass fishing championship convention downstairs. Hawk was assailed by a chain-chomp, Brian C. pitted his Positive Music of the Universe against the wave of Death Metal backed by at least half the group. We more or less agreed in a battle between Pirates and Ninjas, Vikings win, drugs and lack of sleep are the creative basis for a disturbing number of webcomics, and if you piss off the techs you WILL get a spotlight in the face.
Mookie got a special treat, with over half a dozen Dominic Deegan cosplayers, including at least three full green body-painted orcs and a tattooed rocker-Donovan. As Red mage, I managed to track down last year's excellent Fighter, a new Black Mage and a passing White Mage for an oldschool Light Warrior group shot, Pantsman got himself thoroughly RightGuarded, and a significant percentage of the Fullmetal Alchemist cast were assembled for multiple photo sessions.
I ultimately blew almost the full remainder of my con budget on one of the best Super Famicom RPGs ever released, but I'm tempted to say it was a worthwhile call. Sadly, the after-con party for auction winners deal is no longer formally in effect, but I may still try to stick around, help strike tables, etc. and maybe tag along to dinner if Garth and Larom stick around that long.
Day 2's full photo list can be found here.
Day 3 - Sunday, July 9, 2006
Day 3 was all about the A ballroom. Piano Squall performed excellent renditions of better and lesser known anime and video game music starting at 9am. The man can seriously convey emotion in his music- themes I'd never even heard before, even out of context, elicited precisely the reaction he described in his introductions.
After that came Human Cosplay Chess rehearsal, scheduled seating, and performance. Turnout and costumes this year were impressive, including Fox McCloud, a whole team of X-Men, Pantsman, and the nameless DW6 Hero. Strong Bad even showed up multiple times during the rehearsal. I myself got in as a knight on the black side played by none other than Larom. Sadly, being a knight didn't prevent me from being moved once then killed, so of the diverse arsenal of maneuvers I had prepared, the audience only got treated to my Lagomorph and Run Away. Meh. I suppose that isn't too far from accurate for Setzer...
Oh, and Wolvie does a mean shuffle. And fans agree FFX beats FFVII.
The early Closing Ceremony started with Bob-Omb taking questions. Brianna eventually took the mic and miraculously staved off sleep through the reintroduction of all guests and major sponsors, who all had something to say. For my part, I know I'm biased by location, but the more I learn about Connecticon, the more I see just how unique and special a convention it is. Once again I saw multiple recent webcomic startups welcomed as family, I saw many of the best established artists being mutually wonderful with staff and attendees, and I saw a growing community of supportive fans old and new. Connecticon definitely has a magic that has motivated my work on SED for longer than the strip has even been around. I seriously look forward to the posibility of tabling next year if circumstances allow.
On that note, after some discussion with both Garth and Brianna, a plug of mine quoted in the Hartford Courant read aloud by Brianna during the closing ceremony, and enough background check to determine that I wasn't some crazy stalker (crazy- probably, stalker- probably not), I have obtained permission to hang with the Comedity crew at the traditional post-con dinner outing later tonight. There may be a report addendum if anything crazyawesome happens there, there may not. As with everything SED, time will tell.
Finally, big congrats to Comedity for winning the all-weekend Webcomic Challenge with over 400 points (that's more than Team Mookie, more than Team AppleGeeks who got a $300 bonus from the auction to Comedity's lowly $66, and over 8 timmes the lowest registered score)!
Not too many pics from day 3, since I spent too much time being the attraction to film it, but what I have is here.
Day 3 After-Con Addendum
News flash- after a convention, everyone is really frigging tired. Myself included. I had a great chat with Larom over Comedity and some of his own under-development solo projects, exchanged nods with Garth and a few other Guests, met an energetic representative of 17 Magazine, learned that Garth's brother is rather like he is in the comic (aaaaand... that shot's not what it looks like :P Based on his tangential antics, however, I'm not sure whether he was deemed more likely to break the elevator, Hikaroo, or himslf...) and fortunately had enough people to back up my presence at the decidedly exclusive after-con time period. The intended dinner reservation ended up pushed back until 8:30pm, so a number of folks, Larom included, had to bail for travel reasons. After that, I figured bailing gracefully myself would go more smoothly than sitting at a table with dead artists and not really eating anything. Meh. It was worth doing once, but I think in the future I'll get there on my own comic ratehr than by buying an artist.