Phoenix Comicon 2012

Time flies when you're having fun and dang if I haven't been having a ball! Before I forget, I wanted to post a little something about Phoenix Comicon and all the fun that was had.

So! This year I upgraded my artist alley table to a 10x10 booth (!!) and was able to get a spot right next to Erin, Stacey, and Brianna so we became the ultimate party booth of handmade awesomesauce. I decided to get my paintings up off the table for the first time and bought some gridwall to display them. I think it really worked out well and having them at eye-level helped people find me better. The peg people were still on the table in their dollhouse, which worked out okay. We've already booked the same booth configuration for next year and I'm noodling some ideas to get the peg people up off the table, too. Stay tuned!


Kate also shared space with me, which was really great. She just released her third book, Maggie Get Your Gun, which is the 2nd in the Maggie McKay, Magical Tracker series (super fun - go get your copy NOW!).




It was SO MUCH FUN hanging out with these ladies all weekend. Plus, it was great to have some back-up. Like, you could go to the bathroom and someone would watch your stuff! Or if you needed some back-up, you could call out a code word and someone would come running. It was excellent!!

And as if the convention wasn't enough excitement, Adam, Kate, and I had an additional adventure! To start with, we went to Ryan's panel discussion about various DC Comics which was really fun and funny and Ryan, of course, had a moment where a moth came out of nowhere and landed on his head. Always a bug attraction, that guy! HP took some excellent photos, including this one:

So, after the panel was over, Adam, Kate, and I were rushing back to the booth because it was time to close up shop for the night. We decided to take the elevator because it was the quickest route. Well, it should have been. Instead, we got in and a guy and his daughter squeezed in at the last minute and just as the elevator started to descend, the guy realized that he'd wanted to go up so he pushed the button for a higher floor and - SHUDDER STOP. The elevator just stopped. After a minute, we realized it wasn't going to fix itself, so we used the emergency call button and alerted the maintenance crew that we were stuck. They were very kind and patient and were ultra concerned that we would panic. They stayed on the line with us through the intercom and also called my cell phone to "maintain contact" and gave us minute-by-minute updates (which were mostly "we're working on it, sit tight."). After about 30 minutes, we decided to take a seat on the floor and wait it out.



The little girl on the elevator with us was determined to 'save the day' with her new lightsaber and was constantly whacking at the door with it (seen above). But there wasn't much that could be done from inside.



It was boring and stuffy (when they emergency stop the elevator, it also disables the air conditioning) but otherwise uneventful. We had to wait for about an hour for the fire department to come. I was expecting that they'd just jimmy open the door with a crow bar (I had pulled it open about 1/4 inch with my fingers and could see that we were only slightly higher than the floor - about 2 inches). Instead, they decided to "rescue" us through the ceiling.

I made a short video of the fireman opening the roof hatch and moving the heavy panel over.



Here's our rescue squad! Dropping through the ceiling!



The firemen dropped in a ladder and then instructed us to climb out, one at a time, up through the roof. So we did. Adam was the gentleman and the last one out, so I was able to snap a few pictures of him being rescued.



The best part was that when we finally got out, there was a HUGE crowd of people standing around the elevator, cameras ready! Flashes were going off, videos were being made. We felt like babies being saved from a well! It was hilarious. And then Security whisked us aside to sign some paperwork and confirm that we were safe, etc. They were pretty strict about the crowd not touching us or talking to us... it was like a celebrity getaway! Only with more legal forms and security dudes who were not fluent in English trying to fill out paperwork for us (they wouldn't let us write it ourselves, we had to dictate our names, addresses, etc. but the guys were really slow on the translation, so spelling your name A-D-A-M took about 10 tries. It took a long time.).

We missed the end of the show, but thankfully our cadre of friends closed up the booth for us and made sure our stuff was safe.

The next day, we were minor celebrities and got to enjoy telling everyone not to overcrowd the elevators because "we were trapped in an elevator last night and don't want to go through that again!" Luckily, we were all cool, calm, and collected so it wasn't really a bother - more of an adventure and a bit of a time waster, but it was okay.

My prizes from the show were a pair of Ocarinas. Okay, I know! Shut up! But this booth was near ours and I could hear the ladies playing the Legend of Zelda songs and it was so charming! I had to have them!! The first one is a ceramic Ocarina that plays 12 notes, so it can play the full Zelda songbook (included!) and the second one...



The second one is a TEA-carina. Oh yeah, that's right! It's a tea cup AND an ocarina! So you can sip your tea and when you're done play a little tune. OBVIOUSLY this is the next step in my career: master ocarina player. And I might have been listening obsessively to the songs that St Louis Ocarina has recorded.



The whole weekend was so great that even Tracy had to come by. We were so punchy and tired by the end, that we started doing cheerleading moves or something while pictures were being taken. Maybe that was just me. I dunno. It was so much fun, I can't wait to do it again next year!!

Phoenix Comicon

So after taking the Kidlet home, we left for Phoenix for the long Memorial Day weekend. It was kind of a nice break from the stress of May although we felt incredibly guilty for some reason.

Ryan and I drove out to Phoenix, where we were staying with Erin which is a delight in and of itself! The drive was really smooth and we went straight to the convention center to set up. Ryan dropped me off at the curb with all of the stuff while he went to park the car. While I was sitting on the bench waiting for him to come back, a guy stopped by to chat with me. He recognized my peg people (in a clear box, sitting on the ground) and said he was excited to see me because he bought some last year and wanted to see what was new. So that was a great ego boost! There was a really good turn-out for the preview night, which is always fun (most shows have a mild turn-out for preview night but Phoenix is always really strong). The time went by pretty fast and I actually did a decent amount of business for preview night. Exciting!

Kate flew in that night and came to meet us at the convention center. We actually found her on the street, dragging her GIGANTIC SUITCASE. No shit, she could have brought 3 other people in that bag. Did she? No! You can go be mad at her for not bringing you. She was on the opposite corner, waiting for the signal to change and we were all antsy and wanting to run in front of cars to go hug her around the neck. We finally all connected and hauled all of our gear a million miles away to where Ryan parked the car. The drive home to Erin's house was all giggles and ridiculousness (Ryan was driving, not knowing where the heck he was going and we got mixed up downtown, where there is First Street and First Avenue, only blocks away from one another!). Back at Erin's house was no different. We settled into the guest house and then dragged Randy with us out for dinner.

There is a great Italian place, Riga Tony's, near Erin and Randy's house where last year we had this gigantic buffet of... um... well, we couldn't remember exactly. It was cheese? And delicious? And maybe it was melty? Was it alfredo? possibly... so we told the waiter BRING US ONE OF EVERYTHING IN THE KITCHEN. And he did. With extra bread, with a side of bread. We literally ate 400 servings of bread. It was AWESOME.

The rest of the convention weekend was kind of a blur... it was all just fun all the time! Well, except for Ryan. He was working on an extremely high priority project, which meant that he had to work at the kitchen table every night, all night, so he was in a grumpy mood. But... we didn't let HIM ruin our weekend!

Highlights of the convention:

• Kate was a superstar! There were people coming to look for her, to buy her book - even returns the next day to buy other copies for friends. It was awesome.
• Seeing people from last year. Several people came by again, which was super sweet. It's always nice to have people who appreciate your work.
• Erin's success! Her whole booth, that she shared with Stacey and Brianna was crazy busy all the time. Brianna even had a special celebrity guest who is determined to popularize spats again! Sock Zombies sold like hotcakes! It was amazing.
• Ryan's success! He had people looking for him and during the show it was announced that he's the inker for the reboot of Detective Comics with Tony Daniel. So his stock was climbing! (Ryan's recap)
• QuikTrip! We don't have these near us so it was a special treat. It's basically a giant convenience store and gas station, except it's GIANT and they have tons of awesome stuff and the people are soooo nice. It's completely odd. Have you ever been genuinely greeted by someone at a gas station? NO YOU HAVE NOT! The guy there? He even went into the back and made breakfast sandwiches for us. Service! With a smile! Randy swears by QT and he's been known to give gift cards for Christmas. I have to agree. You know what they have there? A MILKSHAKE MACHINE! Kate bought one. There's a video of it somewhere... I have to find it!

It was so much fun! My favorite parts were hanging out with everyone back at Erin's house. She has a fantastic patio that is like an outdoor living room, that just makes you want to settle in and never leave! And we hardly did. It was great just to chit chat with everyone and hear all the stories and catch up face-to-face. Plus, we got to talk about the scariest movie in the world: Event Horizon! Yeesh! Why is it so scary? I dunno, but man we were all on the same page about never seeing that freaky ass movie again!!

The whole weekend was amazing. Kate flew home on Sunday night, but Ryan and I stuck around for another day. We spent some time with our friends Mark and Deborah and their new baby - Max Danger. I just wanted to squeeze him so much! But since we were coming off a convention weekend and were probably crawling with cooties (and the usual desert laryngitis) I didn't want to freak out the new parents too much. Next time, though, I am going TO EAT THAT BABY. You've been warned!!

Before we left on Tuesday, Ryan and I went to lunch with Erin to another Italian place... sooooo good. We decided that the best thing to nosh on before driving across the desert for five hours would be gnocchi with alfredo and pesto. No regrets!

Phoenix Comicon!

Last week was bonkers. I spent the first half of the week traveling for business and was in Minnesota and didn't have a chance to get home before the Phoenix Comicon, which meant the burden of not forgetting anything and also getting to the show on time was laid heavy on the shoulders of Ryan and Adam. Ahem.

I flew to Phoenix and arrived with only my dirty laundry and worried that the guys wouldn't show up or get hopelessly lost in the desert. Eventually, the boys DID arrive with all of my stuff (and by "arrive" I mean they roared up in a Volvo c70 convertible, sunburned all to heck) and we set up quick. I snapped a couple of pictures and then totally forgot that I'd dragged a camera all over the place and only took 2 more pictures the whole weekend. C'est la vie!

I decided to only display one example of the peg people on the table -- all the duplicates were under the table. To me, it looks kind of sparse, but there's still quite a lot going on here.

New Star Wars inspired peg people


And Ghostbusters!



Plus, the staff of Sterling Cooper


Santa and his cohorts


Plus the usual arsenal of heroes and villians.


The second story of the house was for animated/cartoony folks...


Including the Futurama set, which was my first attempt at painting these characters and they proved quite popular. Everyone loves Dr. Zoidberg! Hooray!

Thanks to the good citizens of the Phoenix area, a LOT of these peg people went home with someone else. Which is always my goal, obviously, but it made me feel REALLY good to see how some of these goofy little goodies made someone smile.

I have a new theory that there is a single detail on each one that "sells" people on it. I could watch people look them over and smile and think "that's funny" or whatever and then their eyes would go big and they'd squee over a detail -- the Jawa's yellow eyes or the Ghostbusters' ghost traps or the vampire's little teeth -- and that would be when they'd get a giant smile on their face. I love that look! That look is enough to make me want to paint forever and ever...

Special thanks to the little boy with the missing front tooth who had that magical Disneyland look on his face. YOU MADE MY YEAR.

Phoenix Comic Con - we love you!

This weekend was such a whirlwind of fun, I'm not sure that I can do it justice in a simple blog post. We got to talk to so many different people and see so many fantastic costumes! Phoenix Comic Con has a really big CosPlay audience and they had so many activities going on too. Lolita croquet! Tea parties! CosPlay Red Rover!! (!!) and tons of great sessions on costuming and wig styling - plus the comic-related stuff - and we were situated in the hallway that lead to all the discussion rooms, so we got to see a lot of people going to and from and meet them in between.

We drove straight home after and talked non-stop (5 hours) about how great it was and all the fantastic people that we met. Special thanks to Carol, who is an all-around fantastic lady (also a honcho at the Star Wars club in PHX - you should join!) and really inspired Ryan to do some good work. Thank you also to Alison for sharing her original character ideas and fantastic costumes. I wish all the people of the internets could have seen her. She was so dedicated that when she came dressed as one of the nurses from Silent Hill and after talking to us (super sweet girl), she twitched away, back in character. If you're not familiar, this is a clip of another CosPlayer with the same idea. Thank you to little Tim who drew us a hawk, although he was only drawing falcons for everyone else that day. Thank you to everyone who came by the table to say hello or look at our art. Thank you to everyone who bought one of my paintings and gave it a good home! Thank you to the people who came by to share their favorite Futurama quotes (which is very near and dear to my heart)! Thank you to the folks who commissioned paintings (I'll get 'em out quick, I promise!)! Thank you to the Ghostbusters for the Twinkies! (p.s. the Ghostbusters in AZ exist solely to raise money and awareness for charity! Could they be any cooler?) Thank you to the convention staff for putting on a great event! And thank you to everyone who went for supporting this great event!

We will definitely be coming back in 2010 - but I hope to see everyone at another convention before then!

like a hole in the head

So the last thing that I could possibly EVER need is something else to do which is precisely why I have launched the Comic Book Ladies' Auxiliary & Social Society (LASS). Why? Read about it here. 'Tis a boring life, that of a comic book wife! I am dragged across the country to conventions and autograph signings and cocktail parties and woe is me and I never know anyone and it gets reeeeeeally boring. So, I basically started a club to make friends. YES I AM SURE THAT MAKES ME A DORK. But I don't care. I'm hoping that by the Big Comic Con in San Diego, I'll have enough people in my little network that we can start planning outings and go to the zoo or something instead of expiring on the convention steps. So, there.

Next weekend, Ryan and I will be heading out to the Phoenix Comic Con for the first time ever and we'll have a table in the Artist's Gallery section. Hopefully our table will be directly across from Zombie Pie, which is the combined efforts of Erin, the Sock Zombie Queen of the Undead Sweatsock and Stacey Rebecca of Puppet Pie who wants to make the whole world a puppet show. I hope our tables are nearby so that I can throw nerds at them. Won't that be fun?

I also get the added bonus of meeting Erin in real life for the first time. I think I have been following her blog for... um... 8 or 9 years? Maybe longer? I swear we've been emailing since the dotcom boom, but I could be wrong. In any case, I'm crazy excited to get to meet her and The Jake and barking at some horses in her neighbor's yard. It's gonna be some GOOD TIMES.