A week between two large conventions isn't a good thing, especially when it's two of the largest conventions of the year. It's even worse when they are on different sides of the country. Ever since we got back from San Diego Comic Con, we've been scrambling to get everything together for Otakon 2006. My head hasn't stopped hurting yet.

Otakon is a little harder to prepare for because we bring the MegaGear store with us. (Last night was spent loading boxes and figuring out load limits on the minivan - books and shirts are heavier than you might think) We won't be brining everything, but we'll have a nice selection of shirts, blankets, COPIC markers, and other nick nacks for you to choose from. Also, Hawk and Ananth from Applegeeks will be joining us in our booth and we will have a good selection of Applegeeks swag to choose from.

The most coolest thing we'll have at this years show is the new Miho poster that Hawk and I worked on. The proofs looked really good (we actually had to review and approve them in San Diego in order to have them in time) and we will be debuting them at the show. If you'd like one and you'lll be at Otakon, please drop by the booth and pick one up. For those of you who can't make it to the show, the poster will go up for sale in the MegaGear store as soon as we get back from Baltimore.

Our booth shouldn't be too hard to find, we are once again going to be in the Industry room, so if you have time please drop by and say hi. Hawk, Ananth, Seraphim and myself will be on hand to sign and otherwise deface innocent pieces of paper and merchandise as usual.

One thing i should mention that i am adjusting my signing policy somewhat. One signature and sketch per person per day, please. When there is a significant line of people, it's unfair to them to have to wait while i sign multiple books (my signature is pretty useless anyway, IMHO). I'd rather take the time to draw something nice for each person that comes up than have to rush and scribble my incomprehensible signature in dozens of books. Also, a lot of people have been coming through the line multiple times to get multiple drawings. I don't really mind taking care of a sketch for you and a friend, but i've been seeing people come through the line 5 or 6 times a day to get more drawings. I appreciate the fact that you are willing to spend most of your time at the con waiting in line to get little scribbles from me, but please, cut me some slack. Depending on the length of the line, i can be somewhat flexible if you are only going to be there one day (and you want to get a book signed for a friend) and the line isn't too bad i can probably take care of you but please, just use your judgement. :)

I'm not planning anything special for this year's Megatokyo panel, which means that this years panel will probably be a lot better than last year's. I've come to the conclusion that i'm really not very good at public performances and it's best if i just ad lib things and field questions from the audience without any attempts to be fancy or clever. The Megatokyo panel this year is from 4:30pm to 5:30pm on Saturday, in Theater 1. It's just going to be a laid back panel with the usual level if inane silliness and mind numbing rambling i tend to do when talking to people. In other words, it'll probably be fun and unpredictable, so stop in if you've got nothing better going on around 4:30 on Saturday.

(btw, when i say last year's panel was bad, it was very much my fault, and my fault alone. I really didn't have things planned out or practiced well enough to make them work. I'd like to thank Bill for all his help last year in trying to help me liven things up by being on stage and adding musical backup to the show. It was really irritating that the guy at the sound board couldn't get it through his head what Bill was trying to do and in the end he had to give up on much of the musical backup. I think Bill would be more than happy to make those tracks available via a torrent, i'll look into doing that when i get back.)

Oh, and Pontus and Christian? Please dont tell them when this year's panel is. Please?

:P

The one thing that I'm really worried about right now is comics for next week. I do not know what the comic schedule is going to be yet - there will be a comic for Monday, but Wed, Fri and Monday are up in the air right now. It all depends on how well things go over the next few days. I'm trying to be realistic about what i can do and not promise strips to you and then not deliver. I'll post an updated comic schedule over the next few days.

I'm sure there are other things i want to talk about - tons of other things, really, but it will have to wait till i get back. I kinda new that this three week period would be a disaster, but i guess it's not as bad as it could be. Oh, earlier this year... i seriously contemplated trying to show at Summer Comiket in Tokyo, which is the weekend after Otakon. That would have left two or three days between getting home from Otakon and then flying to Tokyo.

Even i came to my senses on that one, thankfully.

Ah... Comiket. One of these years ~ :)