Jer's Otakon '05 Report

Inspector Gadget

by Con Bard Drew, posted Aug 25, 2005

For those whom want to see anyway:

Also, some Panel ideas for future cons:

Congoing 101: (AKA, "How not to be a douchebag.")

Covering such topics as Sharing a Hotel Room, Standing in Line, Elevators, Hygiene, Shopping in the Dealer's Room, Cosplaying Characters that Fit Your Body Type, Using a Microphone Properly, Cosplay Photo-op Locations, How Not to be a Creepy Fuckwad, and Other General Behavior; this panel will teach you everything you ever needed to know about being an excellent convention friend. Staffers will love you, Your friends will thank you, The hotel employees will appreciate it, and milk and honey will flow freely throughout the land.

Congoing 201:

Slightly more advanced for the experienced congoer, topics such as Trash Talk in the Gameroom, Heckling the Masquerade MC, Hooking Up and Where To Do It, Attracting Business to Your Artist Alley Table, Intro to Parties, and Knowing and Respecting Your Limits will be covered. Armed with this new knowledge, you will be equipped to pass yourself off as a con-circuit regular. (18+ with ID, or proper demonstration of swearing technique.)

Parties 101:

Here you will learn about such important things as Importance of the Doorman, Guest-List Policy, Carding and Marking your Guests, Noise Levels, Bartending, Freepouring, Knowing When Someone is Flagged, Removing Problem Guests, What to do When Security Arrives, Legal Liablilty, and Plausible Deniability. Parties are the life of cons; as we all know the con would crash without sufficient social lubricant. Knowing how to throw a rocking party without getting arrested or thrown out of the hotel is essential to this. (21+ with ID, or demonstration of sufficient liquor knowledge. No responsibility is accepted or implied.)

My first Otakon

by Q, posted Aug 25, 2005

I've been apprihensive about it for weeks, feeling that I wouldn't belong amongst the arrogent, sweaty cosplayers and the 'Chibi-Sakura-Neko-Chan's' that I hold so much distain for. So as we set up our table, I sat, with nothing to sell, and with not a spit of noterioty to my name. I sat, sneering at cosplayers and muttering "I hate you. I hate you, oh God I REALLY hate you!" under my breath.

Yet slowly, I became acustomed to the atmosphere. I even usurped Jer's position as merchandiser and sold a good chunk of our stickers!

However, other then Jer begging me to accompany him to meet his friends, I only made the trip for three reasons:

1) To aquire the super duper crunchy creamfilled holy shit that weighs a ton you gotta be a true fan to own THAT Boogiepop Phantom Box Set. I ended up buying a previously viewed copy of the 'Hi. I'm all the episodes and an extra disk in a box set' Box set....for $49. The Dealers Room had the same thing for $55.

2) To get the vocalist of Silent Hill 3 & Silent Hill 4 to sign my SH4 game. They capped the line a few people ahead of me. I exclaim that I flew all the way from Canada for this. Mister-Happy-to-cap-the-line-because-his-winky-is-small informs me that she never even showed up. I leave. Someone compliments my coat.

and 3) To meet my awesome friend Ducky, whom many of you probably know as TurtleMonkey, and I know by her true name. I was at the dealer's room when she stopped by our table, so I didn't meet her until Day 3. But we met, and all was resplendant!

I spoke with Juno of SXD, and she won't link to Elven Lacryment. Bah! I also met Creepo Suabe. He complimented my Nekkid-Dragonlady shirt. *Cringe*

I hugged Johnny The Homidical Maniac, I didn't get to see ELFIN LIED, can anyone tell me if it is worth purchasing? And Ultimate Hellsing of course, got canceled.

People were taken in by my art by my fanart of Deadpool. One person asked Jer if I'd sell it, he said no (Because I'm vehenimently against the idea of selling fanart.) It was interesting, people flipped through the book, saw Deadpool, flipped again..and again..........and again....by the time they got to the guys in bondage gear, most tended to walk away quietly.

Speaking of the selling of fanart, one guy was selling beautiful Silent Hill fanart prints. I wanted it. I needed it! It was of Valtiel SPINNING LIKE A DJ!! But I won't buy fanart. So, I promised to plug him anywhere I could if he gave me the fanart. So come next F4E, I shall plug him. I'd plug him now, but I don't remember where I put his card. Heh.

Eldrich Monkey stopped by, I chilled with some Sailormoon fans, an old friend, Fate, I met T.M. Chiba of Sailormoonfanfic.com, AND....I bowed to the girl who coined the phrase "His hed iz pastede on yey!".

But the apparent highlight of the entire trip was this: I am on my way back from the Dealer's room when I get a text message on my cell from Jer, asking where I am. I enter Artist's Ally and there's this man asking about A Girl Called Kermit, specifically, he's asking if I'll draw his daughter a picture like it. At first I decline, because my ego is about the size of a pinhead, but he insists. He all but shoves a bill into my hand and...well..I accept. 20 minuts later he returns to a finished pic of Kermit, holding a dogbone, dog leash, and standing by a grave that reads "R.I.P. Puppy". It was my first comission ever.

So some bad, some good. Many jokes involving BAWLS.