Convention Report: Ad Astra, Day One
Posted April 3rd, 2008 by Howard Tayler
We arrived in Toronto a day early with some of the other guests, and so it was that Chris Golden, Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Sandra and I all found ourselves at loose ends at dinner time… and it was Kevin’s birthday.
We piled into a taxi van and ate out, celebrating with Kevin, and talking about business stuff. It was very, very educational for me. I contributed anytime we touched on teh intartubes, but Kevin, Chris, and Rebecca don’t pronounce it that way. We ate at The Keg, and I had the very delicious prime rib. It’s good to be a carnivore.
Back at the hotel we got to meet the rest of the ConCom, and Sandra and I had a great conversation with Liana K. of the “Ed and Red’s Night Party” show. It’s not every day you meet a charismatic, buxom redhead who confesses to collecting comics, and creating her own roleplaying game (so that all of her friends favorite characters could all come together under one roof.) Sorry guys, she’s taken.
It was a reminder of how lucky I am to have Sandra, who is similarly geeky, every bit as beautiful, and (most importantly) sticking with me through the best and the worst of the last fifteen years.
Anyway, I bounced the idea for the “Filler Strip” April Fools’ gag off of Liana, and she thought it was a fantastic idea. Sandra and I were both a little trepidatious, but it turned out Liana was right. She and I and the late-night remains of the ConCom talked and talked until about 2am, discussing the things we’d cover on our joint panels, and basically revelling in group nerd-dom.
Friday was a rest day. Sandra and I both slept in a bit, and then had breakfast with my friend Jim Zubkavich (”Zub” if you collect Udon comics like Street Fighter or Exalted). We made arrangements to do dinner with Jim just before opening ceremonies.
Fast-forward through a couple of naps, some badge-collecting and schedule-memorizing, you know, the basic “just before the convention starts” drill…
The evening with Jim was awesome. He drove us to downtown Toronto, and we got to see the very webcomic-friendly comics store called The Beguiling. They have Schlock books in stock, and I’ve defaced the backs of them. Be warned, however… there are only two of each!
After buying some swag there at The Beguiling, we went for sushi a few blocks up the road. Mmmm… sushi pizza! Good stuff. Jim’s girlfriend Stacy joined us, and she and Sandra hit it off right away. More hardcore nerd-fu among the ladies… it became something of a recurring theme for the weekend.
We got back in plenty of time for the Opening Ceremonies, at which I got to meet Yvonne Gilbert and Danny Nanos. Yvonne was the Artist Guest of Honor (I was the Sequential Artist GoH), and had never been to an event like this before. I tried to explain fandom to her, but I’m not sure my explanation took. I worry that she may have spent much of the weekend worrying about whether any of these people were sane.
Explore posts in the same categories: Comics, Conventions
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Umm … sushi pizza? How the heck does that work?
Sane? No, fans generally aren’t sane. Sane people don’t do things like conventions, gaming, anime, etc. (sane people are typically pretty dull).
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I may or may not be sane, (they have yet to keep me in a mental hospital more than three days) but I do agree that “normal” people are totally boring.
Give me the thrills of blowing stuff up, jumping off cliffs while trusting your life to your skill in knots and praying that you doubled up enough on the para-cord that you are not going to go splat, and of course trying new things like sushi-pizza.
Ahhh, now THAT is life!
April 3rd, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Howard,
It was wonderful meeting you at Ad Astra. Strange that I should run into you on the other side of the continent considering that we’re closer to each other than either of us are to Toronto.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Sushi pizza:
1) squash a ball of sushi rice flat. Dip it in Tempura batter. Deep fry.
2) Layer the top of this hot, battered “pizza crust” with raw fish in attractive colors and patterns.
3) Eat.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Oo! Hanging out with Kevin J. Anderson? I would’ve bored him with questions about his Star Wars franchise writings, which were some of the better for the genre.
By the way, I know I’ve been promising this for some time, but for sure I am gonna do a Blast Off! some time this spring. Some work came up and I can afford to pay the property taxes and still have enough left over for some ammo. Heh.
April 4th, 2008 at 1:13 am
“The Beguiling” sounds like a Steven King horror movie title.
Sounds like fun, all told.
April 4th, 2008 at 5:48 am
Sounds like you had fun! Good to hear :)
April 4th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Howard,
It was nice to meet you at Ad Astra. Strange, though, that I should run into you on the other side of the continent considering that we’re closer to each other than either one of us are to Toronto.
April 5th, 2008 at 6:32 am
Psycosomatic,
You will have to post more pictures from your next Blast Off. Also, include some pics of the aftermath.
Sure wish I could be there with you.
April 6th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
*** OFF TOPIC***
SHIRT!! SHIRT!!! The last panel in Sunday 6-Apr’s comic SCREAMS, make me into a shirt!
SHIRT!! SHIRT!!!
Now back to your regularly scheduled blog.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Hey, WEKM, I hardly ever get down into the plinking pit *after* blasting away for several hours. However, I’ll make an effort to do so this time. Perhaps I can have before and after pics of an old Dell Inspiron 5100 that won’t stay on anymore. This was the church accountant’s laptop until it stopped running. I searched all over the internets for a fix, but it appears the hardware is toast. So now it’s a target.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:41 am
*** ALSO OFF TOPIC, BUT VITAL ***
Uwe Boll promises to stop making movies IF the online petition begging him to do so reaches 1 million signatures.
In memory of Bloodrayne, please sign the petition.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:06 am
“What are they powering?” “Conversation, apparently.” Classic!
Samldanach: I see three possibilities:
1) It’s a scam, and petitiononline.com wants contact details to sell to spammers.
2) Uwe Boll doesn’t realise that it doesn’t matter how many people hate your work, only how many like it and how many love it. Of course, in his case both of the important numbers are approximately zero, but that’s not what that petition measures.
3) It’s a desperate cry for attention.
In any of those cases, he may or may not honour his promise. What we need is an awareness campaign – “To avoid damage to your brand, do not sell movie rights without a clause banning Uwe Boll from any involvement.”