-- OTAKON updates added --
-- (SEE END OF RANT FOR NEW STUFF) --

Well, Otakon 2005 is now 9 days away, and i'm feeling all nostalgic... the frenetic panic, the pre-con exhaustion, the "what the hell am I going to do to keep 1000 people entertained at my panel/show Saturday night?" "will anyone actually come to the the panel/show?" "how am i going to two weeks worth of comics done between now and when i leave?" "what will I do for those comics??" "will people tolerate a week of SGD?"

Brings back memories, it does.

Otakon 2005 will be our biggest con appearance this year, and i'm pulling out all the stops i'm capable of pulling to make it a fun show. The MegaGear booth will be in the Industry room right next to the dealer room (i can give you a more precise location soon - watch this rant, i'll be leaving it up and modifying it right up to the con next week).

At our MegaGear booth we be debuting a bunch of new Megatokyo swag at Otakon, including some new t-shirt designs, a new hoody design, stickers, a new mousepad, etc, so be sure to stop by the booth and see what we have to offer. I will be spending as much time as humanly possible at the booth signing and drawing stuff for people. As you know, i would love to spend hours doing really nice rendered pencil sketches for everyone, but at a con with over 20,000 people in attendance, that's kinda hard to do. So, in the interest of making sure i can take care of everyone who wants a sketch and signature, i will be doing only ONE sketch per person. I am sorry, i can't do sketches and signatures for all of your friends, so please don't bring a stack of books and hope to get them signed. Also, I'd rather do a sketch and sign one of your books than just scribble my name in all three volumes (it's actually more work to sign my name than do a drawing. It's too long ^^;;). Please don't make me feel bad about not being able to do more - two years ago, a i was not able to get through the line and take care of everyone and that made me feel really bad. You are welcome to go through the line a second time - but i really can only do ONE sketch/signature per person at a time. Remember, sketches are free, and you do NOT have to buy anything to get one. Also, if you want a particular character, tell me, i wont be giving you a lot of time to think about it :)

The Naze Nani Megatokyo show, the main Megatokyo event at Otakon, will be Saturday Night from 5pm to 6:30pm in Main Events (Ballroom) - thats the big room where they have the concerts and stuff. Hopefully, there should be enough seats for everyone (remember these? ah, the days when we never had big enough rooms :) Anyways, i'm working to make it as nice and entertaining a show as possible... not something i'm actually very talented at. I'm a manga/comic artist type person, not a stand up comedian, after all, so please don't be too harsh on me :) One fun thing we have this year is live music... yes, live. A good friend of mine is a studio/stage musician and will be trying his best to keep me from being massively boring. I really shouldn't worry so much, since it's tradition that naze nani megatokyo shows are the picture of disasters in progress... but it's my nature to fret over these things.

All Megatokyo cosplay is welcome and encouraged. In fact, i want pictures. As we do every year, we will try to gather everyone together and get a big picture of all the MT cosplayers at Otakon, but remember that we will NOT be doing this on the main stage - there is a large area OUTSIDE of the Main Events room, and we will gather everyone there for pictures. Please do NOT come up to the stage after the show is over! Seraphim and I will be running out a back door anyway :P

I may be doing some other things at the con, and i'll be posting more information here in this rant over the next week, so be sure to check back from time to time to check to see if there are any changes. All in all, its pretty simple - Seraphim and I will be there for the entire show, and most of the time you will be able to find us at the MegaGear booth in the Industry/Dealers room. The big show is Saturday night, and all Megatokyo cosplay is welcome.

Just, please... no naked largo cosplay. I beg of you. Think of the kittens.

...

I will be posting information here in the next few days in regards to other webcomics and english language manga artists that will be at the show. I will try to cover everyone who will be there, and i apologize in advance for anyone i may miss.

Someone pointed out to me that it's the five year anniversary of Megatokyo this sunday. I've been doing this for five years? Good grief. I keep waiting for this thing to flop, but it sure is taking its time. I guess i'll have to try harder.

-- OTAKON updates: August 16, 2005--

Wow, and i thought it was hard to prep for a show when it was just me going and signing stuff and doing a silly little show. Try bringing a store with you, and the work load goes up quite a bit :) The good news is that everything looks like it's in order, and while we still have to load up and drive tomorrow, i'm feeling less stressed about the whole thing. Also, i managed to finish the show dev and Keynote presentation stuffs. Seraphim and I will be tweaking things once we get there, but for the most part it is done and ready to go. All that's left now is for me to get on stage and crash and burn. :P

All of the times listed above are still good - the show is Saturday at 5pm, and it should be fun. The Megagear booth is in the Industry area with the likes of Funimation, Broccoli, Tokyopop, Tofu, Antarctic Press, etc... we shouldn't be too hard to find.

There are some panels and events i'd like to point out here while i can - i won't actually be part of most of these, but if you are interested in webcomics, they are worth checking out:

- Webcomic 101 - Friday @ 3pm in Panel 2
- Webmanga vs Webcomic - Saturday @t 12pm (noon) in Panel 3
- Draw Comics the Manga Way - Saturday 7:30pm to 10:30pm in Workshop 2
- Great Teacher Largo - Sunday @ 12:30pm in Panel 3

Please note that the Great Teacher Largo panel is a fan-run show, and even tho we are Megatokyo aren't involved in it, they have a lot of fun with it and it's worth going to see :) Several years ago they did it in the Lobby... they won't let them do that anymore, for obvious reasons :P

Also of note is that there are a LOT of webcomics at Otakon this year :) Here's a list of all the webcomics that i know are going to be there - i know i'm going to miss some, so i apologize if you feel there is someone who isn't on this list and should be - i didn't exclude anyone on purpose!

Anyway, here's the rogues gallery:

- Bunny
- Instant Classic
- VG Cats
- Applegeeks
- Clone Army
- Paradox Lost
- Mac Hall
- Little Gamers
- Konsekai Swordwaltzer
- Katie Bair
- Chugworth Academy
- Dominic Deegan
- 8-bit Theater
- Ctrl-Alt-Delete
- Alpha Shade
- Fallen
- Mine's Bigger

Most of these folks will have artist's alley booths or booths in the dealer room, so be sure to stop and see what everyone is up to :)

I am sorry about the lack of comic on monday - weekend prep for the show was far more intensive than i figured it would be. I'm going to work on some things this afternoon and post a DPD for wednesday and for monday of next week. Dom said something about massive pain and spreading the hurt for friday.

We shall continue with Chapter 7 on Wednesday August 24. Thanks for your patience! We're gonna see what we can do to provide pictures (and perhaps some other stuff - i've had requests for podcasts, i'll see what i can do) to share a bit of how things went at the show. I'll keep you updated.

For those of you going to Otakon, looking forward to seeing everyone. Should be a fun show. For everyone else, see you when we get back!

-- more news! --

Hey! just got some other news i'd like to share. It appears that Rodney "Largo" and his wife Ruby have some good news:

"I thought I would let all you folks know that the baby was born at 8:05 PM on August 15th. Both mother and baby are doing fine. "UPDATE: IN THIS CORNER weighing in at 5lbs 9.9 ounces, measuring 19 inches long, sporting the famous red hair, the one, the only, the mighty l33t Ethan Case Caston!!!"

Congrats to Rodney and Ruby on the birth of their son, Ethan. We all wish you guys the best!