And so it continues...

Okay, so where was I?  Oh yeah, artists!

Won't you be my neighbor?

My table was located at the end of the row I was in, but as fate would have it I still had two neighbors by the time Sunday rolled around.  You see for the first day and a half the table right next me was empty.  Which was actually one of many empty tables in artist's alley.  Something I found rather odd as because the empty ones all had names on them, so assume they'd been paid for, and I can't understand why so many people would pay for their tables and then not show.  But I digress.

Sequential Scribbles

So due to the empty table my first neighbor ended up being Sequential Scribbles, which was helmed by Peter Ash and his finance, who's name, I'm embarrassed to say despite the fact that I talked to her several times throughout the con, has been completely wiped from my mind.  

Shelly?  Cheryl?  Man, I feel like such a moron (sorry!).  What I do remember though is that the advice she gave me to eat an apple and / or drink some apple juice pretty much saved me from losing my voice during the con (I have a very weak voice, which is one of the reasons I've never tried out for American Idol...that and the fact I'm not American, I can't sing, and I fucking hate that show).  Thanks!

Peter had a ton of work to show and sell that touched upon a lot of different genres of geekdom.  Once again I wish I had more money to spend at the con, because if I did I would've picked up some of his work in a heartbeat.

Patrick Kyle & German-Selim Shible

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Early on into the second day the empty table between me and Peter became the new home of two artists who were seeking refuge from the "dead zone".  Patrick and German are a couple of great guys, and truly talented artists.  I've hear more than a few horror stories from other artists who have had the misfortune of being seated next to some less than desirable people at other cons, so I consider myself very fortunate to have lucked out while in Toronto.

Thanks for the sketch book, German. And Patrick, thank you for the Irish candy (and for managing to lure some of the Suicide Girls to your table with your artwork)! 

Famous Folks

Despite the fact that some of the other artists kind of got the short end of the stick with where their tables were placed, I have to admit that I was VERY happy with mine.  Not only was I placed at the end of the row (which exposed me to people both walking through artist alley, and past it), and with spitting distance of Jennie Breeden (I didn't actually test out that unit of measurement however), but I was also right next to a few of the "Special Guest" artists.  And while I didn't have a whole lot of time (or money) to spend at their tables I did get a chance to talk briefly with three of them.

Georges Jeanty, who among other projects, has worked on the Buffy comics for Dark Horse.

David Peterson, the creator of the indy hit Mouse Guard (who got front row seats to, and seemingly a bit of amusement out of, my energy drink explosion the first day of the con).

And Stuart Sayger, who's unique art style can been seen in Shiver in the Dark (he borrowed some tape from me...I think we really bonded there).

Like I said though, I didn't get much of chance to talk to these guys while I was there, but I do feel I should thank them for inadvertently bringing a few more people my way.

And last but certainly not least...LAAAAARRRRRRRRR!

Getting my first chance to hang out and catch up with the one and only, Lar deSouza, in over year, pretty much made the whole con worth while for me.  Granted it would've been nice if Lar had a table at the con, but even still he was able to drop by a couple of times over the weekend.  The first night he dropped by I got to meet his niece (who's name I am so painfully sorry I've forgotten...seriously, if this is what my memory is like now, I shudder to think what kind of shape it'll be in when I reach Lar's age ;P)., and go out for dinner.  A very late dinner I might add, due to my getting us lost twice on the way back to my hotel.

Now I didn't actually record the conversation in the car, but I think it went something like this...

Lar: Are you sure this is the way to your hotel?

Me: Yeah, I think so.  As long as we keep heading west we should be okay.

Lar:  Good to know.  By the way, we've been driving east since we left the Con.

Me: Oh...then this probably isn't the way, is it?

Lar: That depends. Is your hotel in Newfoundland?

Later...

Lar: I don't think this is the right street.  Did you say we're supposed to be on Queen's Quay or Queen Street?

Me: It's...wait, you mean there are two streets in Toronto with the word Queen in them?

Lar: *pained sigh*

Later still...

Lar: Does any of this look familiar to you?

Me: I'm not...Oh!  There's a Coffee Time!  I think there's one of those near my hotel.  And hey, look!  A McDonald's!  I had breakfast at one this morning...but, that's...probably not the same one. 

Lar: A McDonald's?! What the hell kind of landmark is that?!

Me: Well uh...LOOK!  A tree!  I think I saw one of those near the hotel too!

This is the point where I thought either Lar's  was going to toss me out of a moving car, or his head was going to explode.  In the end though we did finally find my hotel, grabbed some food, and talked about art, webcomics, crooked toothed hookers, driving in Washington, and Frosty the snowman.  Btw, story time with Lar is well worth the price of admission.  Oh, and speaking of story time with Lar, one last thing about his visit...  

On Sunday, when Lar dropped by again, this time with his friend, Ann Bardawill (very nice to meet you btw!), I learned a very important tid-bit of information.  If you're at a con, and you see a posting for a panel on the topic of "Slash", chances are they will not be discussing the guitar player for Guns n' Roses.

And all the rest...

Well that pretty much does it as far the artists I met at the con.  Now before I wrap this all up, allow me to share a few last random moments / thoughts regarding the con.

Return of the Evil Dead...

On Saturday, Mike "Nug" Nahrgang (Jake) and Matt Olmstead (Scott), a couple of the actors from Evil Dead the Musical dropped by the con to check things.  I recognized Mike right away and ended up going kinda fanboy on him and Matt for a few minutes.  I was even able to show them the part of my portfolio that had some of the Christmas Day of the Dead stuff that had Noname in his zombie hunting Ash gear, and they seemed to get a kick out of it.

However, despite the fact that I had my camera sitting in front of me the whole time, I did have the presence of mind to get photo of them.  On the plus side though, they did swing by a little later and drop off a poster which they were kind enough to sign for me.

You do not want to make fun of this man's hat...

I'm a huge fan of all the folks who come out to cons in costume, and while I never end up getting as many photos of them as I would like I was able to get a few this time out.  And off all the costume pics I took, this one is hands down my fav from any con to date.

For those of you who may not recognize it, it's Jayne Cobb from Firefly.  The man behind the costume is a fellow named Sid, who's other costuming work can be found here at his site.

3...2...1...DRAW!

Now given the fact that Geek Tragedy is far from being a "well known" webcomic, and I still have a loooong way to go before my art skills are where I wish they were, I was surprised that I received as many sketch requests as I did at the con.  And while I'm still not sure my scribbles were up to snuff when compared to the other work I saw in some of the sketch books, it was good practice for me and a lot of fun.  So thanks to everyone who saw fit to allow a hack like me to deface there valued sketch books and made me feel like a professional artist for a day.

Oh, and to the person I did the "ultimate Dazzler", if we meet at a con again in the future I really want to take another crack at that (and hopefully buy then I'll be a little more proficient at drawing women).

And now let me end this (long overdue) con report by bringing up what the most important part of these things are for me...

Thanks for making me sound like I was going through puberty again...

I'll be perfectly honest here and say that with one exception, not a single soul I met that weekend had ever heard of Geek Tragedy before.  Despite that fact though, there were still a lot of you out there who were kind enough to drop by the table and let me ramble on about my little bit of digital nonsense till my voice started to crack under the strain.  

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful people I met at the con for their kind words about my work, and especially those of you who have since popped by the site to check it out, and in some cases dropped me an e-mail to let me know that you liked what you saw.  I'd also like to thank those incredibly thoughtful folks out there who found fit to mention me / the site in their (much more timely) con reports.  As I write this I don't actually have any of the links to these con reports, but if I dig them up I'll be sure to post them here later.  In the mean time if you'd like to drop me a link, I'll be sure to post it on the site so that others can check out your reports.

Anyway, I really wish I could mention all of the cool people I met out there by name, but unfortunately I lack the mental capacity to actually store that much information in my brain (what can I say, I'm much better with faces).

Well that's all for now folks.  I know I'm forgetting about a million different things I should've mentioned here, but I guess that's what you get when it takes you almost three damn weeks to write a con report.

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this weekend such a great experience, and hopefully I'll see some of you at the next con.

Later,

-Ed