[440] NNM: Suicidal Rocket Tap

console

< Seraphim >

"smiling a lot"

Monday - July 14, 2003

Piro and I are - and have been - getting ready for San Diego Comic-Con. I had the crazy idea that we should have books for sale while we are at the booth nine hours for 5 days. Hey, we were going to there anyways right? Somehow that snowballed into shirts and posters too. The apartment has been a pseudo warehouse for weeks.

Frankly, we have no idea what we are doing. Usually we just show up somewhere and I try to smile a lot and look like I know what's going on and we planned it that way all along. Our longest signing was six hours and we were pretty much the walking undead by the end. This is going to last 2 hours longer everyday for 4 days with a panel on Sunday. Two months ago this all sounded like great fun. I was obviously a raving lunatic at the time I agreed to this. I've got giant, killer butterflies in my stomach. There is a fine line between excitement and mania.

What I am really curious about is our combined trash pickup and water bill. So this month we are going to be gone for one week. A fourth of the month. Anyone want to place odds on if our bill will be one quarter smaller. Even a fraction smaller. I'm sure we are also paying for them to fill the pool which we don't have time to use and water the grass which I don't care a crap about either.

That fee just ticks me off. It has nothing to do with your actual water consumption or trash production. We are very conscientious about recycling and conservation. We have eco-friendly appliances and we sort and lug plastics, glass, paper, cardboard, Styrofoam and even useless computer parts to the local recycling center. We take our one weekly trash bag to the dumpster and our fellow community members are throwing away couches and half their apartments. It so makes me want to be wasteful just because they are ripping me off.

If you are going to SDCC stop by and see us at booth 4705. Check Piro's rant for links and additional info. I recommend coming Thursday or Friday before we totally have lost our tenuous grip on sanity.

-------

[start piro transmission]

oi, Piro here. It seems I got bumped by Dom and Seraphim, but that's ok - I just wanted to convey some specific information regarding our appearance at San Diego Comic Con.

First off, and this is important, they DID give us the wrong booth number initially - the Megatokyo / Real Life Comics Booth number is 4705 - it is right across from the Central Park Media booth on the east side of the convention hall. This is the same side of the hall as the Artists Alley. We're near the doors at the front of the hall, we shouldn't be too hard to find.

Like Seraphim said, we've lost our heads and are actually selling stuff ourselves - I have to tell you, I have so much more respect for retailers after going thru this, especially retailers that have to travel from show to show. ^^;; We'll have shirts, some of which are a little unique (I have a white version of the 'evil l33t' tshirt, for example), Posters (Broken Miho, Ph34r the cute ones, and a limited number of Pirogoeth and Capture the Bear), and even some Megatokyo books. We had to ship this stuff out there (special thanks to Greg and Liz who will be driving the stuff down to the show for us ^_^) so please stop by and pick up a shirt or a poster. The less I have to lug home on the plane, the better :)

Also note that Greg from Real Life Comics will have his own t-shirts available for purchase at the booth, and they look pretty sweet (plans to steal one...)

Oh, and Greg has put together this neat little guide on where to find us :) Plus a picture of Greg himself, so you can have something to visually ID the booth by ^^;;

Other than that, I plan to spend as much time as I can sitting at the booth doing my usual sign and draw stuff for anyone who asks. This does bring up one small issue that I want everyone to take into consideration who might show up at the booth. Usually, there is like this big line of people waiting for me to draw stuff for them (it is only large because I am so slow) - we can't really do that at this show - I'll do my absolute best to take care of everyone, but try to make sure that we don't cause any problems for the booths around us. Seraphim and I will be there Thursday right thru Sunday, so we hope we can take care of everyone.

The only other thing to note is that there will be a Megatokyo panel at San Diego Comic Con! It's on Sunday, from 11:30 to 12:30 in room 18. Dom, Seraphim and myself will do our normal panel thing, and try to answer as many questions as we can.

Also, if you are going, be sure to check out Penny Arcade's booth - I don't know exactly where they are going to be, but be sure to drop by and throw things at them. Just at Tycho and Gabe - be nice to the girls, ok? ^_^

I've never been to SDCC before, so I'm a tad nervous about it, I mean, there are gonna be a LOT of really talented people there, so I'm feeling very much like an upstart who doesn't belong ^^;; Regardless, it should be a lot of fun, and if you are going, be sure to stop by the booth and say hi.

piro

[previous rant] - [rant archive] - [next rant]

< Dom >

"Sunny San Diego"

Thursday - July 24, 2003

[Dom] - 18:00:00 - [link here]

Sorry this rant is late, but there has been much more lying in wait for me this week than I ever expected.

On the plus side, Hodge-Podge has finished the Webcomic cosplay archive, a project to collect pictures of those fans crazy enough to dress up like their favorite webcomic characters. So far we're collecting pictures of MT, Real Life and Penny Arcade cosplay, since that has been by far the most common. But if you have other cosplay pics you want to send in, feel free to. Oop-Ack exists to pay respect to the madness of fans, so submit your pictures and get recognized! (And as a special note to the family of that Boo cosplayer who showed up on Sunday: A space is being reserved for your little sister)

Anyway, it's time to talk about San Diego. I was only there for a day and a half due to work constraints, but it was still a blast. Besides getting to talk to Brian Michael Bendis and thanking him for his mean, cynical letters columns (no, I didn't thank him for monkey ass, though I should have), I got a nice sketch from Oeming. My Comic-con would have been complete if I'd managed to get autographs from J Michael Straczynski and John Kovalic, but working the MT booth prevented me from doing everything I wanted. As always, though, it was great to meet all the fans, talk to them (especially the ones who didn't know who I was) and just plain hang out.

I know Greg Dean won't let me get away with writing a con report that doesn't include him, so here's the part where I give him the love due to a man who shared the same hot, steamy space with me for the better part of a day. And yes, the person who shouted "Oh my God, you're GREG DEAN!" was me. Seriously, Greg's a great guy to joke around with, and we even played phone tag as if it was still E3. I kind of wish I bought one of his T-shirts, but I was all tapped out from buying a Fruit Friend T from the Penny Arcade booth.

And, of course, the panel was as fun as always. For some reason, Fred likes to book really tiny rooms, even after two years of packing 'em in like sardines. See, he figured that no one would come (as always...) since it was a Sunday afternoon. The problem was that attendance on Sunday was estimated at some 65,000 and at least 600 of those tried to get into a room that seated 120. I apologize to MT fans who were cut off and to the Comic-con staff, who were just as put out as the people who were left out. I ended up giving my seat to a Miho cosplayer, because I figured she needed it more than I did. Those boots can't be comfortable.

Some actual highlights to the panel include the look on Greg's face when someone asked him if he really had a Master Sword (fun fact: he doesn't and is really tired of answering the question. I have a Zelda letter opener, which is the closest either of us will get) and talking about a Piro action figure with kung-fu angst.

Oh, I guess I should explain the kung-fu angst thing. See, someone asked if there would ever be limited edition MT items made. And the answer is an unequivocal no, since MT merchandise is made for people to enjoy, not for people to collect and sell on the secondary market. If someone wants a T-shirt or a plushie, then they should get it, says I. There's no reason to limit the number of people in this world who own MT stuff, since that's against our way of doing business.

Oh. And no, there's no kung-fu angst coming out, though maybe that can turn into a nice, tongue-in-cheek T-shirt... hmm. Ideas bobbing through head... must go.