Anime Central in Chicago is Fred's "home" convention, since it's within a day's drive for him. It's my home convention even more, as I'm only an hour away. Even so, the main draw for it in past years has been to see the MegaTokyo panel and to stand in line in the dealer's room, MT book in hand, to get an autograph and quick sketch from Fred, and maybe buy a t-shirt or something from Sarah.

That was before Jack came along. When Fred mentioned that he was considering this year's ACen for his return to conventions, I knew that Sarah was going to be too busy with the little dude to manage the booth and promptly informed Fred I would be there at his disposal. Rather than waiting in the line, I became a fixture at the front of it, distributing fine MegaGear merchandise to the fans.

Thank you to a bunch of people: To Dom for flying out to be with us, even just for one day. To Hawk for dropping in to hang out with us every now and then. To the Miho and Yanagisawa cosplayers for being there, and to the forum member who pulled up his pant leg to show us his Miho tattoo in person. Thanks to the gang from the Fredarting chat for stopping by, especially the three of you that stayed late on Sunday afternoon to help us pack up. And to the people whose photos I stole for some of the above links.

Apologies to everybody who visited the booth hoping to see Fred during the times he was away at his panels and whatnot, especially those of you that came by several times and never did get to see him or get something signed. And no, I am not Fred. Or Dom. The giveaway should have been the absence of a line of fans.

By the way, Dom managed to borrow Fred on Friday night long enough to record an S-Words podcast with him. The crew from The Enthusiasts were there as well and one of them filmed the main MegaToyko panel that afternoon. It's not up for public consumption yet, but keep an eye on their site, I'm sure it will appear eventually. I'm going to have to watch it myself, I'm told Jack stole the show.