con report- wizard world texas '05
(work in progress here!)

Alice and i got off to a late start. opps! but we were on the road by noon or so. the drive was pretty uneventful except of one driver once we were in texas. a little red car that would not stay in their lane. alice calls the cops on them, but eventually they exited off the interstate. also on my way down i learn that jacksonsport state park recieved my resume and would like me to fill out an application. cool. mail or internet they ask? internet, since i'm on the road. we listen to The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett on the way down.
basically, we got to the hotel and proceeded to crash. alice had made some cute Ferdinand shrinky-dinks and i beaded one as a dangle for my backpack. i'll post an of it image later.

Friday: first day of the con. we get up early to get to the convention center by 8. alice has done this before so i follow her lead. we meet the other volunteers, such as James, Dan, Faythe, Jonathan, etc. and Steve Latour of Wizard, the volunteer wrangler. volunteer of the con goes to bryan, a spunky 10 year old who knows what's going on. very helpful, real polite and smart as a whip. this kid will go places. trust me.
we sign in, get our badges and shirts (icky. blaze orange. very good for deer hunting.) we take the morning shift. friday's crowd was small. the front doors are not all unlocked so alice opens doors for folks while i am among the volunteers steering them to the hall to line up after the con goers have checked in.

after awhile when things slow down, we go walk to con floor. first i walked around solo. i look for Antartic Press's booth, but just like Wizard World Chicago '03, they don't show. the turkeys! i wanted to show them the blue canary pages i've drawn so far. 8^( *pouts*
i walk around some more. what the? i did a double take! blank label has a booth here? and there's Steve Troop. cool! if i had known i would have brought my copy of ultimate melonpool vol. 1. i chat with steve (nice guy, btw! if you ever get a chance, go say hi to him at a con. and let him show you the melonpool puppets!) he only had the mayberry puppet with him today, but is working on new ones. they should be spiffy. i got a sketch from him (another to hang on my "studio" wall.)

i go back to hang out with the volunteers and start to talk with Steve Latour.
"Need any designers?" steve directs me to Mel, an editor with Wizard who graciously looks over my design portfolio. he says if i was willing to relocate to NY state to eamil him and he could set up a portfolio review with the design dept. yay! 8^) i was so excited.

next, alice and i go to the beckett comics booth to see David Mack.
alice had met him before at an art show of his. she had made some quilts featuring his art from the daredevil comic, "Wake Up." he loved it.
i got him to sign my copies of Kabuki: Circle of Blood and Kabuki: Dreams. Alice was borrow vol 3, Masks of the Noh, so it didn't get signed, but i did pick up copies of Vol 4, Skin Deep and Vol. 5 Metamorphasis.
vol. 5 was in hardcover only, but he gave me a good deal! i also picked up 2 of his art prints from Kabuki. one was the cover for Kabuki: The Alchemy #5. he even game alice and i kabuki patches for free and game me a free signed copy of the kabuki gallery. a genuinely nice guy. he even drew me a quick sketch.
about this time, 2 chicks holding big nets and dressed in camo come by with some fake speech about looking for their "lost crocodile." it's all ploy for some energy gum. we all try it and soon regret it! it's nasty. these girls became the bane of the con.

then we went to artist's alley and met the guys from stumblebum studios: 3 artists and an editor. one of the artists, dave, is drawing a webcomic. i'll post links to the strips i saw on the table. another artist at the booth, Kevin Steele is selling marker sketches and they're cute! one is of spiderham! alice has to get it and a few others and commissions a daredevil for $5. not a bad price! i get him to draw Odile and Amelia. i'll post a link to that soon.
next to them is the "Feeping Creatures" booth. i never got the guys name, but he makes little cute "creatures" out of sculpey. very nice work, too. Alice got one that resembled her cats, a red tabby.

Then we go sit in on the last half of the Terry Moore Q&A. the sketch at stumblebum's booth ate up the first half, but oh well. Terry is very funny! Alice had never heard of him or of Strangers in Paradise. i even got the courage to ask about how he developed new characters.
i met Terry back in 2003 with Ken at Wizard World Chicago. here's another guy you need to meet, nice and funny! i love SiP. i even got to see some of the original pages! back in '03 Ken and i both got sketches and Ken bought copies of the Paradise, Too trades. my sketch was a profile of Francine from SiP and Ken's was Lizzie from Paradise, Too. i still need to frame them.
this time, the line for sketches was too long. i got the first SiP pocket trade (since i don't have all the issues. the old comic shop in jonesboro was bad about not ordering every issue in a series,) and Alice picked up a copy, too. i think she will like SiP. she enjoyed the Q&A. Terry graciously interrupted a sketch to sign them.

the rest of the con, we hang out and walk around. Alice passes out lots of business cards for her superheros quilts. then the day is over, we go eat and then head back to the hotel. Alice had been meaning to make David Mack one of her nifty braile shirts for awhile now and this is the perfect time! she also makes one for his girlfriend, Mandy. she also makes a new one for me.
i had wore my braille shirt that read "If you can read this, you're too close," as free advertising for alice. i thought wearing another one wouldn't hurt. the new one is black with black pearl dots. it reads "Stop Staring." for dinner we went to On the Border. alice decides to get a Margarita so i drive back to the hotel. it was my first time driving in a big city. we stop at a wally world to get a wireless modem for alice's laptop. i need to fill out that application for Jacksonport State Park, but it's gone from the website, so i download a pdf of it and decided to take it to kinkos in the morning.

Saturday: Again, up early to be there by 8. we drop by kinkos and i print out the application. i start to fill it out, but i don't have a copy of my resume with me. uh-oh! that means i don't have the addresses of my references or the exact dates on my work history. yikes! i call mom to email the files i need. we head to the con. Lots more folks this time, but alice says the crowd isn't anything compared to last year's. alice is back opening doors. one of the special guests is ron perlman (hellboy,) and he say's hello to her as he walks in. 8^)

i'm at the cash ticket table i guess you could call it. Bryan, kid volunteer extrodinare, is assiting me. some folks wait until the day of to get their tickets and i'm making sure they fill out the survey form, otherwise they won't get a ticket. for the most part people are polite, even if they think the questions are too personal. i tell them that if they don't want us to send email, then don't list their email addy. if you don't like the question or don't know the answer, just mark stuff down. anything to make people happy, even if the wizard marketing team won't be after going over the forms.

again alice and i walk the floor. David is late in arriving, but alice says that he's more of a night owl. Alice missed getting a blue minimate the day before, but she's bound and determined to get one now. they are given away free at noon. we stand in line and get one each. the object is to try to get a rare silver spider-man minimate, but we're happy with the little blue ones. I bug Steve again at the blank label booth and introduce him to alice. they make a deal: he exchanges copies of TUM Vol. 1-3 & 5 (four is out of stock except at lulu,) and she will embroider his chracters on a jacket for him. i go ahead and get copies of TUM 2, 3 & 5. 8^) Steve! makes usre you don't forget to send a jacket to alice!

We visit artist's alley again. and who do i spot? it's Ben Dunn, creator of Ninja High School! someone from Antartic showed up after all! oh, happy me. so, i ask him to look over my blue canary pages. he said i had a good storytelling ability. *jumps for joy on the inside* i also get a sketch ($10 but it's a good one!) another to add to my studio wall. we taking a break at the tables near the gaming area. i get out my art stuff and work on blue canary page 14. it felt great in there, all the presence of creative types. alice goes off to get a couple of Andy Lee sketches. just beautiful! they'll look great on her wall at home.

we walk around some more. i renew my CBLDF membership. it's been expired for over a year, (i've been poor.) we also get word of a artists get-together in town at j.gilligan's. the guys from blank label are going and alice and i decide to go, too.
David & Mandy finally show and alice presents them with their new shirts. They went over well, i must say! David's says "Man Without Fear" in braille, while Mandy's reads "Hands Off!"
after that i thought it time to look for free stuff! the wizards of the coast booth had folks in line to roll a hugh D-20 for prizes. to get bonuses on your roll you had to set through or participate in demos for their games. alice and i tried one, but that type of card game is not for me. give me chez geek anyday. we ended up deciding against rolling but fellow volunteer larry had some extras from that booth that he was willing to part with, a hat that alice claimed and i got a paperback copy of R.A. Salvatore's Servant of the Shard for ken. he likes salavtore's stuff and likes his work in the Forgotten Realms D& D.

Sean Astin was signing that day, but you needed a ticket for that and those were gone quick. he also had a Q&A, but i missed it. Margo Kidder was also there, signing in Artist's Alley. Summer Glau of "Serenity" and Ron Perlman were signing on the main floor.

there were lots more folks in costumes, but not nearly as much as some cons. i saw 2 batmans, a supergirl and i think the gentleman with her was dressed as someone out of Firefly. some stormtroppers showed up as well as someone in an armor suit from Halo. (nicely done, too.) also some kids showed, a little ninja, a mini superman and batman. the cutest of all, IMHO was the pint-sized riddler. alice has photo and i will post a link to that.

back at the hotel i check my email. it's the wrong file, but mom is trying. i get some info off of it but it's not enough to send the application in yet. i ask her to try again for tomorrow. besides, it's saturday and park offices are likely not open, even is the rest of the park is.
the artist get together was awesome. loud music, mostly hip-hop but i could take it in in this atmosphere. we met steve and proceed to have a great time. steve introduces me to a scwiggle game: each person takes turns, one puts down and random scribble and passes it to another who uses the scribble in a drawing. we all had a blast. my best on was turning a scribble into Krazy Kat. steve's IMO was turning one into fred flintstone. meanwhile, the guys at fanboy radio were posting paper and matte board on the wall. Jim Mahfood of "Grrrl Scouts" and Dave Crossland (both with awesome graffiti art drawing styles,) started the show with sketches. what one would start, the othter would finish. Andy Lee shows up and proceeds to add his work with brushes to the mix. Then David Mack arrives! 4 great artists working in front of an audience-it became a performance. Alice is snapping photos with her digital when she gets an idea. i look up from the scribble game to see her getting paint handprints from the artists! Mahfood even tags her with spray paint! LOL go Alice! i snap some photos of it for her. 8^D we had a great time!
i plan on posting the scwiggle game sketches to my sketchblog sometime with weekend.

Sunday: we don't have to be there until 9. we can sleep in an hour. i wake up early though and try to work on the application. no dice. mom sent the wrong files again. i guess it's my fault, i think i steered her to the wrong place on my computer. *shrugs* i'll try wheni get home.
we go to the con and alice is manning the doors again and i'm handing out the ticket surveys, this time with Al. the staff hand us magazines to give out.
one guys says "we have to fill this out to get a ticket?!" his face contorts with rage as he crumples the survey into a ball and throws it at Al. he then proceeds to stomp out, turning around to flip us off. alice hears him mumble, "bitch!" under his breath as he leaves. later we tell the wizard staff, but what can you do. i'm just glad the jerk left.

we do our shift and this time i stick around to help some more. i hang out in the volunteer room and sketch a bit for Dan and James. i also go with alice to get another blue minimate. 8^) Alice commissions another daredevil sketch from Kevin at Stumblebum. i get a little purple feeping creature, too cute! i look around the floor show some more, looking for a deal. i find a copy of Blue Monday vol. 4, Painted Moon! i've been looking for this! cool!
lots of vendors are giving good prices to help sell the stuff and have less to carry home.
we get our goodie bags and there begins a search. alice and i want indy heroclix. no, we don't play, but they are cool little things. we're looking for any character from Kabuki. i discover that some are of Scarab. so we look around and finally find some. 8^) i give her my copy of the exclusive comic, since i don't really read that series. i think she'll ebay it.
we go eat after the con and rest up for the drive home the next day.

Monday: we head out at check-out time, 11a.m.
now, our plan was to head to frisco, tx before we head home. why? Ikea. 8^) we had a good time, lots of cool things in there. we ate at the store, good food btw. alice picked up some nifty chairs and i snagged a dresser that i had been wanting. we had to reorganize the car. it was about 3 when we were finally on the road! we got into jonesboro around 11:30 p.m. i helped unpack alice's car and then i was on my way home.

and that was the con! it was great and i'd like to do it again next year. maybe ken can come with next time. (he was too poor this time around.)

and that's the con folks! there are photos of the volunteers at the volunteer blog! check it out!