-- ACEN Report - Saturday Morning --

Just a quick report this morning - tres tired, and i'm worried about being this tired for the big Saturday con thing. Since i have to be downstairs in about 30 minutes, i dont have time to write much :) Yesterday was very busy, and i've made some notes so i don't forget what to write about tonight :)

Just a few quick things - the Megatokyo panel is at 3pm this afternoon, and i honestly have no idea what i'm going to do for it yet :P Also, i have to say that what they've done with the Artist's Alley this year is great - it's right next to the dealers room and there's a lot of great artists here. For starters, Michael Poe is here, and i have to go over and bug the bad man himself. :) Speaking of Mr. Poe, if you are feeling the burn of lack of Megatokyo comics this week, go here and start reading. It's good stuff.

I'll have a more full report on who's here showing what when i post later tonight. Jen Brazas from Mystic Revolution is, i believe, heading up the Webcomics Roundtable this afternoon at 4:30 in Live Programming 3, and while i won't be able to go (;_;) a lot of other great people will be there. Also, i know that Alpha Shade is here if you are a fan of thier work (yet another great read if you are looking for something new :)

Ok, i gotta run - more stuff later

-piro-

Well, if you saw my status update last night you'll know that i kinda flubbed the schedule this week. Seraphim and I have only really had brought our 'store' to one convention before (SDCC) and that was a fairly limited thing do to the fact that we had to ship everything and bring the rest on the plane with us. Now that we have MegaGear, when we load up and go to conventions from now on, most of the time we'll be dragging the store along with us.

That said, i was kinda surprised by just how much work was involved getting everything together and loaded up on Wednesday. Between merchandise, fixtures, display stuff, and the fact that Blankets take up a lot of room and books weight a ton... it was a surprising amount of work getting it all loaded up and ready to go. I never did get a block of time to work on the comic wednesday, so i figured that since we were leaving for Chicago pretty early on thursday, i'll just work on it after we get there.

Yeah, right. After a five hour drive and more than five hours of setup, plus all the delays, problems, and other things that had to happen Thursday... by the time we got to our room it was 10:30, and I hadn't even started. Well, so much for this week, i guess. I really need a stunt double.

Anyway, i have a little something i started last night that i'll try to finish up later tonight when we get back here to the room to crash. Kind of an impromptu Piro and Seraphim adventures strip. It's kinda rough, but it does a good job of capturing my panic level and Seraphim's "yknow, i'm the one who's really doing all the work here, can you stop walking around with that box in a panic" look. I don't have time to finish it right now, but i should be able to clean it up tonight (i have my scanner and tablet with me)

Thanks for your patience with this flub week (though i've already heard from many of you who were pretty irritated by my lack of professionalism with missing monday's comic and doing a DPD, so i can only imagine the ire missing todays comic will raise :) Well, you can certainly find fault with my problems doing everything i try to do, it doesn't mean i don't try to do my best. Ya, ya, not always good enough, whatever :) At least now i know i can focus on doing a nice job on monday's comic rather than a rush job it was looking like it was gonna be. That's usually better for the comic anyway, and i should have just planned it this way in the first place.

Off to the con. Since you're getting gypped on a comic for today, i might as well give you some con report stuff. I'll even take some pictures :)

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Ok, if you are going to Anime Central this weekend, i have some updated info:

First off, if you want to find Seraphim and me your best bet is to look for the MegaGear booth in the dealer room - that's where I'll be most of the time. Sketches are free, you don't have to buy anything from us to get a sketch. I am going to try to limit it to one drawing per person, just to be fair to the other people standing in line. Just have an idea of what MT character you'd like me to draw for you :) For example, if you have three books, i'll draw a sketch in one and just quickly sign the others. Please don't bring a stack of books to sign for the 10 people in your anime club... it's not fair to the others waiting behind you. One or two is ok, but lets keep it to a dull roar. I only have one drawing hand :)

The main Megatokyo panel, noted as "Naze Nani Megatokyo" in the Acen program guide, will be on Saturady from 3pm to 4:30pm in Main Programming. Now, i don't have anything really planned for this, we'll be winging it, so... well, it's basically like any other show/panel i've ever done. We'll try, as usual, to make it somewhat entertaining, if possible.

Now, i don't know if i'll be able to attend, but if you are into webcomics, please make sure you drop in and visit the Webcomics Rountable at 4:30pm in Live Programming 4 right after the Megatokyo panel. I'm pretty sure that Jerry from Secret of Mana Theater and Carrie of 9th Elsewhere will be there - i'll ask Jerry tonight and see if he knows who else will be there. Be sure to also visit Jerry and Carrie at their table in the artist's alley :)

It should be a fun convention - that is, if i get a chance to actually see any of it. I hope i get a chance to see The Pillows perform - I tend to avoid the concerts at cons (I like Jpop well enough, but i usually have other priorities) but i'm a big fan of the Pillows. There is one tune that they did that really makes me think of Ping on a rampage... ah yes. FLCL influence there :P

This is long enough to be it's own rant... Guess it should be :)

If i have anything else, i'll post it here. See you there, if you are going :)