ConnectiCon

Oh my God, I can’t wait to NOT be going somewhere for a new and whacky weekend adventure. I haven’t had a weekend with my wife since before Wizard World Philly. That was back at the beginning of June for anyone not counting the days.

I rolled in from ConnectiCon an hour or so ago and I am toast. But since I don’t want to mess up anyone’s Monday routines I’m staying up to write this so I can post it first thing in the morning. Don’t say I’ve never done anything for you guys.

I missed the first day of the con due to a shipping snafu with Atomic Robo shirts –so on Friday I drove 2hrs down South of Boston, “helped” make shirts, and drove back to pick up the Widget at Girl Scout Camp. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Lets go back to Tuesday.

I got home from my rockabilly wedding Monday afternoon. Monday evening I decided that I looked like a total fucktard with my new haircut and decided not to share the photos with you guys. I busted my ass to answer or read the 50 some-odd emails out of 173 emails that were not spam or weird chainmails from my mom, then busted someone else’s ass to get a couple of commissions done so I could move on with my life. Wednesday was a really awesome work day. I got several pages of KOD penciled and even drawing a sketch of Kid Samurai for the Widget. Widget wanted me to draw her as a character so we used super-science to double her age and made a fun little manga-esque heroine for her.

Wednesday night my arm was killing me and I was having a funny little spasm in my back so I took a muscle-relaxer hoping the issue would be resolved come the dawn.

Woke up Thursday morning stoned out of my mind. Hit the snooze button one too many times and tried to lick the grape jelly that I could have sworn was oozing out of the bedroom walls. Somehow got Widget to camp (though I have no memory of driving there or back) and proceeded to stare like a zombie, drool, and get lost in the internet. I tried to draw several times, but my inability to feel my fingers made that an exercise in frustration. So I took a nap figuring my head would be clearer when I woke up.

Woke up screaming about lizards in my hair. Went out for coffee.

Called my wife in a panic from a coffee shop. She looked up the muscle-relaxer in her big medical dictionary book at work and told me that it should all be over in an hour or so.

Several hours later she comes home to find me a gibbering mess crumpled on the couch. I think I teleported Widget home from camp. Dorinda took me out for Mexican and then put me to bed.

Woke up fine on Friday. Vowed NEVER to take a muscle-relaxer of any sort ever again, even if the muscles in my arm were dancing a fucking jig under my skin.

Friday would have been a great work day except I was supposed to be at ConnectiCon. I would have liked to go to ConnectiCon, but I had to drive almost to Cape Cod instead to get Robo shirts. As much as that sucks it was also awesome. Based in a secret bunker beneath a thousand foot tall bronze bust of Edward Kennedy’s fat head, two guys run a high-security underground t-shirt racket. I won’t use their real names because I don’t want to make the Dept of Homeland Security’s job any easier. I’ll just call them “Mike” and “Ryan”.

Mike and Ryan run a slick little shop and I had a blast hanging out with them. I’ll take you on a photo tour later but for now lets skip ahead (back?) to ConnectiCon.

I met Brian Clevinger an hour or so before the second day of the show got started and we set up our boss new Red5 Comics banner, laid out the Robo shirts and sketchbooks, and set up my portfolios. As always, it was awesome hanging out with Brian. I spend most of my time with him trying not to laugh coffee through my nose.

I saw some folks that I seem to run into at a lot of cons, but seeing them at an anime/manga show was a pleasant surprise. Not that I was surprised, since the first time I met them was at this very show last year. Jen B. of the Devil’s Panties was there and her pal Christie Johnson (with man-hunk Ryan).

I also made nice with some new people this year, like Michael “Mookie” Terracciano and his pal Katy. There were a bunch more, but unfortunately the business cards with their websites and correct spellings of their names are out in the car. And its raining. So poop. But anyway, it was fun, they were nice, and Mookie showed me were to find a fantastic sushi place the next time I visit Hartford (Insurance Capital of the world) Connecticut. Which I hope won’t be until ConnectiCon 2008.

Most of these folks are part of the webcomic world. Webcomics are something that both fascinate and terrify me. Many of them are really great. But many, many more are so horrible you have to wonder why their creators bother investing the time and energy. Though I guess that makes them exactly like comic books. So screw it. Anyway, this year was much better as far as after-con activities were concerned. Mostly anyway . . .I don’t want to talk about it.

Last year I was just some dude who showed up to hang out with Clevinger. This year they had some sort of context to place me in and things were a lot less socially awkward. I feel that I an now a member of the tribe.

Robo swag sold fairly well. As usual, both Brian and I were pleased and amazed at just how well it *does* sell. I mean, think about it; here is a comic book that hasn’t even come out yet. No one really knows anything about it. But ever show I’ve been to this season I sell hundreds of dollars of Robo-related stuff. It makes me 50% happy and 50% nervous as hell. I hope these people like the book.

I picked up a pair of totally boss t-shirts from Shawn Handyside and Jeph Jacques. Yay for having my own shirts to trade with! Shawn hooked me up with a classic Nintendo reference, and Jeph laid some sweet science on my head with his Delicious Math.

I guess the last thing to say about ConnectiCon is how different it is from the other shows I do. The anime/manga crowd is not so different from the people that go to the Wizard shows and other comic book cons. But they are a lot younger. And while the “regular” comic cons are wall to wall asshattery, the anime/manga scene seems to add an additional level of high-school-drama-club action to the mix. Draw whatever conclusions you like from that . . .

I’m afraid that I don’t have much in the way of Random Splendor for you this week. What with my traveling all over New England and my inadvertent drug tripping and all. But the family and I did get treated to a little show on the front lawn of MobileRobot while cruising the back roads of Amherst NH for ice cream. We got to see this guy running amuck for about fifteen minutes -www.MobileRobot.com Check out the videos.

Okay, lets see how Atomic Robo shirts are made.

This is the magical shirt press making McThingamajiggy.

This high-frequency laser raspberry emitter array fires a 1.21gw photon beam onto the blank shirt, burning its robotic image into the very fibers of the garment.

Then Ryan rubs on a healthy coat of Elmer’s glue to help cool the raspberry laser array down.

Mike applies a personalized nose goblin to ever shirt they make!

The shirts are then run through an 800 degree oven to seal in the freshness.

And then finally, I fold each and ever shirt like an OCD Gap employee for maximum retail enjoyment when displayed for your consumption at the shows.

Yes folks, its just that exciting!