Once Upon a Geek

I’ve appeared on several podcasts in the past few months, but have been horribly negligent about giving them a shout-out here.  These were all podcasts hosted by my good buddy Michael Bailey (of Views from the Longbox and From Crisis to Crisis).  He’s been kind enough to invite me to participate a number of times, and I always enjoy bantering with him.  These were recorded some time ago, so please forgive if they are covering things from a while back.

Views from the Speed Force – Flash: Rebirth #3 – Mike and I discuss Flash: Rebirth #3 by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver.  Here we disagree about the middle part of this issue, talk more about Iris’ age and even go into how Diamond Previews can be used for good…and evil. We recorded this quite a while ago, but I’m just now getting around to telling you about it.  Also, DC isn’t in any hurry to get this series out, so why should we be any different?

Dragon*Con 2009 Review – Back in September while still at Dragon*Con, Mike and I discussed our experiences at the event up to that point.  Much fun was had and you get to hear all sorts of juicy stories about which comic pros and celebrities are nice and which ones kind of suck.  Also making appearances are our friends from THE UNIQUE GEEK, Ravenface and Race.

Mike has embarked on a fascinating 13-part journey reviewing comics from his first 13 years of collecting.  Each episode covers a single year, starting with ‘87 and working his way towards 2000.  In addition to covering the relevant comics from each year, Mike shares personal stories about his life and activities during these times. Mike was kind enough to invite me to join him covering 1992 and 1993 – two very important years for comics.

• The Year in Comics 1992 – One of the biggest years in comic book history! Not only do we discuss the creation of Image Comics but we also discuss the Batman books, a bit about Batman Returns, the 10 issue Justice Society of America title, Spider-Man’s 30th Anniversary, Marvel 2099, Eclipso: The Darkness Within, the Marvel Universe Series III card set, the Death of Superman, and more.   In between all of that we go into personal annecdotes, the art of the mixed tape, my career as a comic store manager, and more!
• The Year in Comics 1993 Part One and Part Two – The year the comics industry started to come off the rails. In this episode we cover: the end of Superman: Funeral for a Friend, how readers were reacting to the post-Death of Superman material, Destiny’s Hand from Justice League America, the Return of Barry Allen from Flash, the introduction of the Milestone Universe, Knightfall, Maximum Carnage, Reign of the Supermen, Lois and Clark TV show, and then some really personal stories. After that Mike and I get into the whys and hows the comic industry crashed in the nineties.

And still in post-production, but out soon… Views from Sector 666 Episode #3 – I join Mike and Thomas Deja (of DJ’s Comics Cavalcade and Better in the Dark) as we discuss last months crop of Blackest Night books.  Issues specifically discussed include: Blackest Night #3, Green Lantern #46, Green Lantern Corps #40, Blackest Night Superman #2, Blackest Night Batman #2, and Blackest Night Titans #2.  Watch the Views from the Longbox website for details on release.

Presenting another very special blog entry by my wife, The Irrepressible Gena!  Just a little background for you, my wife is not a geek.  She’s a wonderful (and gorgeous) normal person.  So I thought her perspective would be interesting to share here.  Without further ado, The Irrepressible Gena’s thoughts on DragonCon…

Labor Day Weekend … The weekend my husband looks forward to all year, to sleep in a hotel room with at least five other guys, eat junk food all weekend, and see science fiction celebrities, comic book artists and scantily clad women dressed as superheroes. I’ve seen the pictures… some of them should not be wearing those outfits. My mom, myself, plus our two children get a condo in Destin for the weekend and spend time at the beach, the pool and visiting my other relatives who are staying in a condo nearby. We have fun. It is my time bonding with my children and my mom. You see, I love the beach and Shag hates the beach (Editor Note: Names have been changed to protect the innocent. Believe me, there is no way my wife will call me Shag). Shag loves superheroes and science fiction, and my science fiction is Twilight, True Blood and Eureka. I don’t “get” his stuff, and he doesn’t “get” my stuff. They do say opposites attract.

Anyway, I know Shag has good time and he enjoys seeing his pals. He gets excited seeing Dirk Benedict, Lou Ferrigno (for the fourteenth time) and watching the parade (I have seen the parade before and it was pretty cool). I was excited this year that Eric Roberts was there (I am sure Shag is laughing at this) and some Twilight folks were there, too. The beach is my solitude. I look across the ocean and I am exactly where I want to be. Here is the catch, I don’t like being in the water. You see, there are things in the ocean – big things – that eat you and bite you. So my toes go in, and I hang out in my chair.

I like looking at Shag’s pictures afterward of all of the costumes. Some are pretty cool, and some I don’t quite understand. Why does some one dress up like Steve off Blue’s Clues at DragonCon? I’ve come to understand some of my husband’s science fiction addictions like Doctor Who. I watched some of the episodes with Christopher Eccleston and was quite upset when David Tennant came along. Then you get used to him and they switch him again! My kids like superheroes. Our daughter likes to wear her Supergirl costume and both kids like going to the comic book store.

I do realize that Shag could instead be an avid hunter or golfer instead of my geek. Then I would never see him and I would have dead animals hanging on my wall. For those of you who do not know me, I am an animal lover and a long time vegetarian. So, I think I will take geekdom, DragonCon and ONCE UPON A GEEK any day.

I do love him very much. He is the person I waited for all of my life. So, let him have his weekend with the guys in the tiny hotel room all snoring. Let him have his Incredible Hulk. I have him the rest of the year.

Coverage of Dragon*Con 2009 continues here!  I’ve already recapped Friday and Saturday, so today will cover Sunday and Monday.  If you’d like to see over 600 pictures I took at the event, you can view them on Flickr and THE UNIQUE GEEK photo gallery.

SUNDAY

After going to sleep around 5am the night before, we all slept-in on Sunday morning.  Eventually I awoke, cleaned up, and got in line to see Patrick Stewart.  Yes, THE Patrick Stewart!  Patrick Stewart, as in Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Patrick Stewart, as in Professor X from X-Men.  Patrick Stewart, as in the famous Shakespearean theatre actor.  Patrick Stewart, as in teh awesome!

I waited in line for about 80 minutes with the Methvin clan for the Patrick Stewart panel.  We were in another one of those lines that stretched outside and wrapped around the block.  Surprisingly, even though I was around the block, I was only number 400 in line for a room that holds 1,500.  Just before showtime, we got into the room and scored great seats.  Patrick Stewart was wonderful!  From what I’ve heard, he doesn’t do a lot of conventions.  Based upon his apparent nervousness and unrehearsed stories, I’d guess that was true.  I’m really glad his stories were unrehearsed because they sounded a lot more genuine that some celebrities at conventions.  He talked at great length about his time on Star Trek, mostly focusing on experiences he had during filming (rather than about the stories themselves).

I waited in the Q&A line, unfortunately they didn’t get through many audience questions.  So I returned to my seat about 15 minutes before the end of the session saddened that I didn’t get to ask my question.  Then surprisingly Patrick Stewart seemed to fumble while trying to answer someone else’s question.  After a really protracted pause by Stewart, I saw the opportunity to ask my question from my seat (without the benefit of a microphone).  The question Stewart was attempting to answer was something like, “What things did you enjoy while filming Star Trek?”  He seemed to have run out of things to say on the subject and was pausing quietly on stage.  So I took it upon myself to fill the uncomfortable silence and yelled out my question with my loudest stage voice, “What about the dune buggies?”  I wanted to ask this question because in the movie Star Trek: Nemesis, Patrick Stewart genuinely looks like he’s having the time of his life during the dune buggy scenes.  My question from the audience caught Stewart by surprise, but it was apparently a pleasant surprise.  His face lit up at the mention of the dune buggies!  He then made a joke about the audience leading him by the elbow (which I was pretty embarrassed about, deservedly so).  Next he went on to talk cheerfully about filming the dune buggy scenes for about ten minutes.  In fact, someone tried to change the subject and he responded with, “I’m not done talking about the dune buggies.”  PATRICK STEWART LIKED MY QUESTION!  Hooray!  I guess I was thrilled with this because celebrities have usually heard just about every question.  It’s rare to catch them off-guard or,  even better, to excite them with the subject matter of your question.

Overall, Patrick Stewart was an amazing guest and a real joy to listen to.  I’m not sure how many opportunities I’ll have in my life to see him, so I’m really glad I did.

Next up was lunch with an internet buddy of mine, Adama.  Adama runs the Green Arrow blog, Dispatches from the Arrowcave. This was the first time we’ve met face-to-face.  I’ll detail this meeting more in a future post over at my other blog, FIRESTORM FAN.

While all this was going on, I missed out on the DC Comic cosplay photo shoot.  While I didn’t get any pictures of it, thatdjspider on Flickr did.  It looks like it was truly amazing!

I did a little shopping at the Tales of Wonder booth and picked a couple amazing deals.  First up was Marvel’s Hulk Visionaries: Peter David volume 1 which normally retails for $19.99, but I got it there for $6.  This trade covers Peter David’s earliest Hulk issues with art by Todd McFarlane.  I’ve never read these issues, so this was a real steal!  Next up was Dark Horse’s Star Wars: A Long Time Ago… Volume 5 which normally retails for $29.95, but I got it there for $15.  The A Long Time Ago… series of trades reprints the original Marvel Star Wars comic.  I’m a huge fan of the old Marvel run and have been slowly picking up these trades.

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Sunday evening was the night for THE UNIQUE GEEK Board of Directors dinner!  This is basically a chance for all those that participate in THE UNIQUE GEEK to get together and hang out. It’s open to anyone who participates in our listserv, listens to our podcast, or that we find randomly wandering the streets.  This time 21 of us descended upon a local Mexican place to cause havoc!  We had good food, lots of booze, and lots of laughs.  The gang included: Serv, Doctor Jen, Jon, Choco Taco, Damian, Leigh, Rox of Spazhouse, Scott C, Eli, Jemma, Jamin, Ron, Holly, Race, Erika and her husband John, Ravenface, Shockwave, myself, and Michael Bailey and his wife Rachel.  Shockwave’s spouse made her annual brief appearance decked out in her Cobra Baroness costume! Below are a couple pictures from dinner.  Again, visit Flickr or THE UNIQUE GEEK photo gallery for a great deal more photos from dinner.

After dinner (and working out everyone’s share of the bill using differential calculus), we headed off to play late night games.  We played several rounds of Werewolf (also known as Mafia or Assassin) into the wee hours of the morning.  This game is becoming a DragonCon tradition for us!  Another tradition is for our game moderator to become completely wasted!  It makes the game more interesting, trust me.  We were joined (unwillingly for us) by a freshly-turned 18 year old girl in full Michael Jackson zombie make-up.  She didn’t exactly gel with the crowd, so we soon dispersed.  We wandered the hotels for a while and eventually settled in a room party.  Sometime around 3am (I think) we finally crashed.

MONDAY

Since I had an early afternoon flight, Monday was really a day for goodbyes and last minute shopping.  Back at Tales of Wonder again I picked up another great bargain.  Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson normally retails for $24.95, but I got it there for $5.  I’ve never read these issues, in fact I’ve read very few issues of Thor in my life.  However, Walt Simonson has never disappointed and I’ve heard rave reviews of these issues.  Can’t wait to jump into this book!

I also picked up the Big Finish Doctor Who spin-off audio adventures Dalek Empire at a reasonable discount.  I picked up the first four disks for $40.  This is one of the few Big Finish Doctor Who spin-offs I haven’t picked up. Given the discount, I just couldn’t pass it up.

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That wraps up my on-site coverage of DragonCon 2009.  Come back tomorrow when I’ll feature the best of DragonCon 2009 costumes!

Coverage of Dragon*Con 2009 continues here!  To read about Friday, click here.  If you’d like to see over 600 pictures I took at the event, you can view them on Flickr and THE UNIQUE GEEK photo gallery.

Saturday

After the WAR OF THE SNORE the night before, Choco Taco and I decided to grab some breakfast.  Thankfully we had access to the Executive Level in the Hilton where they supply complimentary breakfast.  Turns out that many of the celebrities also have access to the Executive Level.  So there we were eating, while a couple tables over were Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter), Adam Savage (Mythbusters), Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh on Battlestar Galactica), Neil Innes (best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python), and others.  It was neat being with so many celebrities during their down time.  As I looked around the room trying to identify everyone, I wondered if they were looking at us trying to figure out if we were famous too.  Probably not, but a boy can dream.

We then made our way to the parade.  We got there minutes before the parade started, so we didn’t have a great view.  Last year there were approximately 3,500 spectators for the parade; I’d say we had more this year.  The parade was pretty good this year.  The Colonial Marines lead the parade and the Star Wars characters finished it.  In-between were the usuals like the Cobras, Star Trekkies/Trekkers, superheroes, Middle Earth folk, pirates, Stargate folks, Battlestar Galactica folks, horror folks, Ghostbusters, Doctor Whovians, Anime folks, and many, many more.  I’ve got over 100 pictures of the parade up on Flickr and THE UNIQUE GEEK photo gallery. The most creative parade costume I felt was the two-person AT-AT.  Unfortunately, my pictures of the AT-AT didn’t turn out that great, so here is a pic from the costume creators.  A really clever idea!

After the parade I visited the Walk of Fame.  I considered taking my picture with Eric Roberts since he was in Doctor Who, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  I can’t stand his acting and really hated him in the Doctor Who TV movie.  I did stop by and visit Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Spin City, Star Trek: Generations).  He was super cool!  We shook hands (he offered his hand immediately) and he asked me my name.  I’m not much for autographs, I usually prefer to get my picture taken with famous people.  So we chatted for a few moments and then he came around the table for the photo.  A couple days later, we were both on the same street corner waiting for the light to change.  We started to chat and he remembered meeting me and shook my hand again.  He was probably one of the nicest and most approachable celebrities I’ve ever met.

Then I visited Dirk Benedict (Battlestar Galactica, A-Team).  One of my goals at Dragon*Con this year was to meet him.  To me he represents everything that was fun about television in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  I had a question prepared that I didn’t get to ask during Friday’s A-Team panel, so I figured now was a good time.  I asked if the scene with the Cylon in the A-Team opening credits was originally scripted, or was improvised on-set.  He said the shot was his idea as a joke for the guys who weren’t there on-set that day.  Apparently the Director didn’t want to do the shot, but Dirk convinced him to.  Turns out the shot was so well-received, it ended up in the opening credits!  After that I got my picture taken with him and also purchased one of his books. I’m about a quarter of the way through his first book, Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy: A True Story of Discovery, Acting, Health, Illness, Recovery And Life.  The book covers his early life, his battle with cancer, the benefits of a macrobiotic diet, and taking control of your own health through diet.  There is a lot of controversy surrounding his dietary suggestions, but it’s worth listening to.  I don’t normally go in for autobiographies, and I REALLY don’t go in for health food propaganda.  However, I’m really fascinated by this book and find myself questioning the way I eat.  I’d recommend this book to anyone with an open mind.

I then when hunting for more great costumes to take pictures of.  I was shocked to find out I’d filled my memory card entirely after about 500 pictures!  Wow!  Thankfully I brought my laptop that has a built-in SD reader slot.  So I downloaded all the pictures, cleared the memory card, and started off again.

There were two panels I was planning to attend but was disappointed to find out they were canceled.  Both the Eureka creator panel and the Leonard Nimoy panel were canceled for Saturday. Bummer.  So instead I got in line for the Stargate Atlantis panel.  I’ve seen some Stargate panels before at Dragon*Con. They’re very well organized and the guests are great, so I figured it was worth a shot.  The line was insanely long.  It went outside and wrapped around the building.  I waited for about an hour with some very nice people and we had a great chat.  Once we got inside we were lucky enough to find seats on the fifth row!  That was awesome! While I’m not an expert on Stargate Atlantis, I have watched my fair share of episodes.  The cast were funny, kind to the fans, and genuinely seemed to be having fun.  One of the stars, Rachel Luttrell (Teyla), was late.  So Joe Flanigan (Colonel Sheppard) called her on his cell phone.  He held his phone to the microphone so we could all hear the conversation.  He lied and told her the panel hadn’t started yet and the hilarity ensued!  Throughout the panel they all had some really good banter and teased each other mercilessly.  This panel was a blast. I’m going to be sure to attend more Stargate panels at future Dragon*Cons.

After that I hit the Art Show.  There I picked up my third Tom Fleming print. This time out it was Doctor Fate!  I’ve already got an Aquaman and Firestorm from him.  They look great framed in my office!  He’s slowly working his way through the JSA, so I might pick up some more from him in the future.  You can see more of Tom Fleming’s work by clicking here and clicking here.

Later Ravenface and I came across someone in an Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld costume!  We couldn’t believe it!  You may recall a few months back Ravenface and I interviewed the creators of Amethyst for this blog (click here for more on that interview).  This was the first time either of us had ever seen someone dressed as Amethyst.  We chatted with this lady for about ten minutes.  She was super sweet and really was a big Amethyst fan.

After that we witnessed the astonishing Alpha Flight photo shoot being organized.  Allen (a.k.a. The Evil Twin) had dressed up as Firestorm last year for Dragon*Con.  This year he created an impressive Sasquatch costume.  Seriously, this costume was eight feet tall!  You can read more about it on his blog. We were only there while they were preparing the photo shoot.  So I’m using some pictures here from other photographers.

During the convention, some of our friends were handing out THE UNIQUE GEEK bingo cards.  You can see the cards below.  In order to qualify to win, you had to have very specific pictures.  My old friend Shockwave took this challenge as a personal crusade.  Through determination and cleverness, he managed to get a bingo!  Way to go Shockwave.  Below you’ll see one of his required photos, a JSA member in Saturday Night Fever pose.  In this case, Doctor Fate discoing.

Finally, from 10pm until 4am we were at the Nuts on the Road: Gonzo Sound & Vision film fest (presented by NeedCoffee.com and Quickstop Entertainment)!  This thing is amazing!  They play hilarious video clips all night long, taking breaks every hour to hand out thousands of dollars in prizes.  Seriously!  If you show up, you’re going to go home with something.  More than likely you’ll go home with multiple prizes. This year I went home with Sideshow Collectibles gift cards, Batman The Brave & the Bold The Atom action figure, and a DC Universe Infinite Heroes action figure set with Bizarro, Supergirl, and Wonder Girl.  There were also numerous packages of caffeinated mints, caffeinated chocolate chews, and Bacon-flavored chewing gum given out (or to be exact, thrown out to the audience).  They offered a lot more prizes, but I declined as my suitcase was already beyond full.  Also featured was an opening musical act, Neil Innes (best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python – yes, the same guy we saw at breakfast).  There were other celebrities on-hand, such as Adam Savage (Mythbusters), Dr. Forrester & TV’s Frank (Mystery Science Theater 3000), Doc Hammer (Venture Bros), and more.  As always, we had a phenomenal time.  This year’s crop of comedy videos was possibly the best yet.  If you attend Dragon*Con next year, this event is a MUST!  Below is a photo of THE UNIQUE GEEK gang around 4:00am after the event was over.

That was Saturday!  Come back tomorrow for a recap of Sunday and Monday…

Dragon*Con was four days of zany geekiness with 30,000 of my closest friends. Today kicks off my recap of celebrities, costumes, events, friends, swag and more!  While I’ll cover a lot, this is only a fraction of what took place during Dragon*Con 2009.  At certain times, there were as many as 50 different simultaneous sessions going on! This program was astonishing!

Last year’s Dragon*Con was so amazing, I didn’t think this year could hold a candle. Well, I was wrong.  This year was as good as, if not better, than last year!  One of my goals was to take more pictures this year.  In 2008, I took a little over 400 decent pictures.  This year I managed to take over 800 pictures, with over 600 of them worth keeping!  If you want to check out my pictures, they’ve been uploaded to Flickr and THE UNIQUE GEEK photo gallery.  Additionally, I’ll be featuring some of my favorites here over the next few days.

The hardest part about coming back from Dragon*Con is re-acclimatizing to regular life.  After complete immersion in the geek-lifestyle, it’s hard to readjust to “normal” people. Just imagine four days surrounded by people with similar interests and that understand every vague reference you can imagine; phrases like the following are understood by everyone there: Docking Bay 94, Ootini, Kobayashi Maru, Red Shirt, Can’t stop the signal, It was a bad call Ripley, Pwned, My Precious, Pre-Crisis, or It’s Clobberin’ Time.  You can’t help but get caught up in the experience.  It’s like an affirmation of everything geek.  It’s like Christmas for adults!

FRIDAY

My flight into Atlanta arrived around 9am.  Serv got there just before me, so we caught up in the airport.  We hung around for a bit waiting for our friends Holly and Race.  We grabbed a beer (remember it’s only 9am) agreeing that it’s only alcoholism if you attend meetings.  Holly arrived on-time, but no Race.  Huh?  Yeah, super-punctual Race missed his flight.  Race-less, we grabbed the MARTA and headed to our hotel.  After getting off at the Peachtree station, we knew we were in the right place when we saw someone dressed up as the Mad Hatter and an overweight guy in a Star Trek costume.  Bingo!  We’d arrived.

Immediately after checking into the hotel, I went to get my Dragon*Con badge at the Sheraton (most sessions have Dragon*Con staff checking for badges).  The line for pre-registration badge pick-up was about three hours long.  Aaaarrrrggghhhh!  I was really bummed because I was gonna miss some panels I wanted to attend.  Thankfully someone informed us that certain lines up front were vacant.  It appears the majority of people checking in had last names starting with A, B, or S.  So I side-stepped the rest of the line and walked right up.  In-and-out in five minutes!  I guess that makes up for the 45 minutes I had to wait last year.

Sadly we missed the William Shatner/Leonard Nimoy panel.  I’ve heard it was great!  There is some video available online, so I’ll be sure to check that out later.  I quickly zipped over to wait for the Torchwood panel.  While there I got my picture taken with a life-size TARDIS replica from Doctor Who.  This thing was amazing!  The owner handed me the key, suggesting I unlock it and step in just like the Doctor.  There was a sound system inside playing the background hum of the TARDIS as well as the occasional Cloister Bell!  Totally cool!  The owner explained they have different windows and decal treatments to emulate the different eras of Doctor Who (as the TARDIS has changed slightly over the years).  It’s currently decked out to appear as the TARDIS 11th Doctor Matt Smith will be traveling in.  In addition to touring with the replica TARDIS, the owner also sells Tom Baker scarf replicas that she knits.  I still have my 12 foot scarf my Great Aunt knitted for me back in the 1980s.  We talked quite a bit about the different scarves worn in the show and the efforts she’s going through to ensure accuracy. Really neat lady.  You should check out her website, the WittyLittleKnitter.com.

The Torchwood panel was pretty good.  It featured Gareth David Lloyd (Ianto Jones) and James Marsters (Captain John on Torchwood and Spike on Buffy).  Last year these two did the same panel together, so there were several rehashed stories. If I hadn’t attended this same panel last year, I probably would have enjoyed this more.  New stuff included some good discussion on ramifications of the recent “Children of Earth” storyline, as well as some unrelated anecdotes from Marsters.  All-in-all it was a good panel and I’m glad I went.

Next up was the Avengers Symposium on Assembled 1 & 2 in the Hyatt.  The first 30 minutes was an interesting literary analysis of the comic book super-team the Avengers and the Assembled books by Van Allen Plexico.  Then it turned into a Q&A session with Van, George Perez, Keith RA DeCandido, George Kopec, and Joe Crowe. Great panel!  This was also considered the book release for Assembled 2: The Unauthorized Guide to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Their Foes, so I purchased my copy and got the whole panel to sign it.  Hooray!  Also on sale was Super Comics Trivia!, a book containing questions and answers from ten years of Van Plexico’s comic book trivia tournaments at Dragon*Con.  Surprisingly, I’m on the cover of the book!  Seriously, I’m not kidding!  I was lucky enough to participate in one of Van’s Marvel/DC Comics Jeopardy tournaments a few years ago.  Someone happened to take a picture of the game and that made the cover of the book.  Interestingly enough, Van posted this picture to his website a few years ago. I jokingly asked if he could color in my bald spot.  For the cover of the book, he did!  If you look closely you can see where they colored in my bald spot!  LOL!  Thanks, Van!

You can order both Assembled 2 and Super Comics Trivia from Amazon.com. I’m the guy closest to the camera in the blue shirt below.   The back of my head is on Amazon.com!  I’m famous!

After that was the A-Team panel featuring Dirk Benedict (Faceman on A-Team and Starbuck on the original Battlestar Galactica) and Dwight Schultz (Howling Mad Murdock).  They really had chemistry and were lots of fun to watch.  They were definitely old pros on the convention circuit and knew exactly what would get the crowd cheering.  They had some really funny and surprising things to say about George Peppard and Mr. T.  I’m glad I made the time for this panel.

Then I hit artist’s alley.  My goal… to get an autograph from George Perez on an old Flash comic featuring a Firestorm back-up story he drew.  When I arrived at Perez’s table, turned out he was doing head sketches!  Awesome!  In addition to signing the comic, Perez sketched Firestorm for me!  In the Assembled panel, Perez mentioned he always likes to add something extra when delivering an art piece.  I’d asked for Firestorm, so he took the time to add in an “extra” of Professor Stein’s astral head!  To see the Firestorm sketch you’ll have to watch future posts on my other blog, FIRESTORM FAN.com.  Needless to say, George Perez was super cool!

The last event of the evening for me was in the comic book track, Marvel vs. DC Family Feud.  The host, Van Plexico, changed the format this year from the usual Jeopardy to Family Feud, which allowed many more players to participate.  He selected returning champions and finalists from previous years, so I got to play!  On our team (dubbed the “DC” team) was my good buddy Michael Bailey (from Views from the Longbox and Fortress of Baileytude), a Dragon*Con acquaintance Mike Stewart, another Dragon*Con acquaintance named Michael, and two other guys named Michael.  Seriously, on our team there were five guys named Michael and one guy named Shag.  And if you know me at all, then you know how ironic this really was.  On the opposing team (dubbed the “Marvel” team) was our good friend Choco Taco, publisher Lars Pearson, and four other blokes.  It was a close contest with some unexpected survey results, but in the end our “DC” team triumphed!

The rest of the night was spent hanging out with friends and taking copious amounts of pictures.  Sadly around Midnight the battery in my camera died.  I was just about to snap a picture of Barbie Jedi when it happened.  Aarrggghhh!  Sadly I never got the picture, but thanks to the wonders of Flickr, I found that someone with the online handle Charfade did get her picture.

Sometime around 2am or 3am we all retired for the night.  In our room was Serv, Ravenface, Choco Taco, Race, Jon, and myself.  Six guys all packed into one hotel room.  It’s no surprise that what happened next can only be described as THE WAR OF THE SNORE!  I believe I have permanent hearing damage from the racket we created with our snoring.

Great first day! Wonderful to see friends again and have so much fun! I’m sure I’m forgetting things, so there may be addendums throughout the week. Come back tomorrow for coverage of Saturday, which will include: breakfast with Draco Malfoy, a parade, and people throwing caffeinated mints at my head at 4am…

Hey gang – I haven’t forgotten about the faithful readers of ONCE UPON A GEEK.  I’m just taking a few days off to recover from Dragon*Con.  I’ve just about finished sorting through and cataloging over 600 pictures for your enjoyment.

I should be up and running next Monday with Dragon*Con recaps, pictures, stories, swag, and more.

As a teaser, here are the Tweets I sent from Dragon*Con.  If you’re on Twitter, you can follow me @onceuponageek.

• Looking at Dragon*Con schedule. I call B.S.! Saturday at 4pm @Widgett Walls reading. That’s gotta be a lie. We all know Widge can’t read!
• Anyone who says the recession is reducing airline travel obviously didn’t have to wait in a long TSA security line like I just did.
• Just got my picture taken with a life-size TARDIS! About to see stars of Torchwood at Dragon*Con. #doctorwho
• My boss is trying to make me work from Dragon*Con. Meanie! And he’s following.
  
• Holy crap! I’m on the cover of a comic trivia book for sale at Dragon*Con. Seriously.
• Just saw panel with artist George Perez. Next up A-Team panel with Face/Starbuck & Murdock. Dragon*Con.
• Took over 300 pics at Dragon*Con today. Camera battery dead. Gotta recharge.
  
• Just met Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller & Spin City) and got my pic with! Super nice guy. Dragon*Con
• Actually filled my Camera memory card with 500 pics. Having to off load pics to laptop so i can take more. #Dragoncon
• Best t-shirt at #Dragoncon , “… And then Buffy killed Edward. The End.” LOL!
• Another great #dragoncon shirt, “I just had an evilgasm.”
• Both Eureka creator and Leonard Nimoy panels cancelled today. Aaarrrggghhh! Now in long line Stargate panel. Is it worth it? #Dragoncon
• Waited in Stargate stars panel line around the building. Now sitting in 5th row. Sweet! #Dragoncon
• At all-night Gonzo Sound & Vision film & music fest! Music, celebrities, and hilarious videos. #Dragoncon
• In line for Patrick Stewart. Number 400 out of 1500! #dragoncon
• Patrick Stewart panel about to start. He was great in Men in tights! Maybe he’ll talk about Dune too. Was he in anything else?
• At TheUniqueGeek.com Board of Directors dinner. Now serving party of 21! #Dragoncon
• Patrick Stewart Q&A on Sunday with 1,500 people was great! He really enjoyed the question I asked about Nemesis dune buggies! #Dragoncon
• #Dragoncon is over for me. On plane home with over 800 pics to sort through, tag, and upload to Flickr. Watch for them this week.

Assuming all is well with air travel, I should be in Atlanta this morning!!! Me and 30,000 of my closest friends all weekend long! Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US.  It’s the 6th largest convention in the city of Atlanta, has over 500 guests (actors, authors, artists, bands, etc),  and offers over 2,750 hours of panels, seminars, demonstrations, and workshops. Check out the DragonCon website for details on the event!

Below are a few snapshots from Dragon*Con 2008.  I typically take about 400 pictures each event.  While these aren’t really the best quality shots, they do give you an idea of some the diverse things going on.

Click here to view all my Dragon*Con photos on Flickr.  Also, for some of my favorite Dragon*Con shots click here and click here.  Finally, you can read about my 2008 Dragon*Con exploits by clicking here, here, here and here.

Shag and Captain America.  Check out my t-shirt.  Eat that, Steve Rogers!

Shag and Iron Man.  Again with the t-shirt backing up Tony Stark’s Civil War position.

Gareth David Lloyd & James Marsters from the Torchwood panel

Comic writer Peter David

Comic writer Mike Baron

The Convention Vixens

You never know who you’ll run into at Dragon*Con.  Race and Serv with Axl Rose.  … yeah, right.

The Unique Geek Board of Directors dinner

Iron Man!

Adam West and the Batmobile in the parade

Speed Racer’s Mach 5 in the parade

This Marvel vs. DC shot shows you just a tiny fraction of comic book costumes to be found at Dragon*Con

Talk with you sometime next week.  Assuming I recover.  

One Week Until Dragon*Con 2009!!!

‘Nuff Said.

Not exactly what Eastman & Laird had in mind, but it works.  A great costume idea for a Dragon*Con quartet.  Somehow I don’t think I’ve got the legs to pull off Raphael.

Originally found at CollegeHumor.com.

While at DragonCon this year, I commissioned a sketch from artist David Wong.  I’d seen some of his work in the past at DragonCon and was impressed.  He doesn’t draw comics for the primary publishers, but he appears to make his living off his art.

I just received my commission in the mail.  The image below is Blue Devil (in his classic gear) versus Doctor Fate (with his signature ankh shield).  Both are in my ‘top five favorite characters of all time’ and both happen to be magical, so I thought an image together would make sense.

When I asked for these two characters I didn’t think about the fact that the color scheme would be a bit limited.  Both characters primary colors are blue and gold.  It’s a happy accident that having only two main colors created a nice sense of balance in the sketch.  Also, I feel the artist did a good job using various blues and orange highlights to bring out texture and shading.  Nicely done.

I think the sketch came off pretty well.  The only part I’m slightly disappointed in is Blue Devil’s face.  It just doesn’t seem quite right.  Other than that it looks pretty good.  Doctor Fate looks great!  In an ideal world, Blue Devil would have been sketched by Paris Cullins and Doctor Fate would have been sketched by Walt Simonson.  One can dream…

Next year I gotta figure out a way to get a sketch of Firestorm, Aquaman, and Flash all together.  Hmmm… if only George Perez was coming next year.