Blógünder Schlock

On Friday I delivered the 2:00pm keynote at the Utah Open Source Convention (UTOSC) at Salt Lake Community College. It would have been nice to attend the whole show, but it has been a full, busy week, and this weekend is the family reunion up in Pocatello, Idaho.

So Sandra and I packed all the reunion stuff into the van, loaded the kids, and drove to SLCC. She dropped me off at 1:00pm and took the kids to lunch and to a park. I met some folks, delivered the keynote, and then jumped in the van and headed north at 2:45pm.

It was kind of a drive-by keynote. By 5:45pm I was lounging in the hot-tub at the Best Western watching my kids splash in the pool. I’d tell you that this is the cartoonist’s life, but mostly it’s just THIS cartoonist’s life.

Gotta go. The breakfast buffet has a waffle-maker…

Let’s lead off with a picture, shall we?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I provided all of the Denvention newsletter comics. They’re all in this post after the “Read the rest of this entry” link…

(more…)

WorldCon 66 has been amazing thus far, and I don’t expect to be at all disappointed for the remaining three days.

As always, the highlights are the people. Countless (or at least “I lost count”) fans have stopped by to say hi, buy stuff, gush, or otherwise interact. It’s great fun for me, and Sandra has been enjoying it as well.

Then, of course, there are the fellow professionals with whom I’m privileged to rub shoulders. We had dinner with Phil and Kaja Foglio and friends on Wednesday night, and Steve Jackson and Monica Stephens on Thursday. After each of those meals we wandered the room parties and the con suite as a posse, meeting and greeting other notables, fans, and friends along the way.

And for all that there are still a million-zillion-bobillion people here I don’t know, but who I can meet if I want to. I expect I’ll be meeting a bunch more tomorrow, because the comic I created for the newsletter has no dialog — it’s a “caption this” contest. I hold out reasonable hope that in this festival of creative minds SOMEBODY can make me laugh hard enough that I give them free books.

For those of you who have been by to buy stuff — THANK YOU. Sandra and I were worried that the large expense of this trip (flying our children off to California for fun at Grandma’s falls under “babysitting,” for instance) would make it unprofitable, but apparently we’ve more than broken even already.

For those of you who plan to come by to buy stuff — HURRY. We’re already running out of T-shirt sizes, magnet sets, and mouse-mats, and at this rate it looks like we’ll run out of books before Sunday. Yes, you can buy this stuff online, but here at WorldCon there’s no shipping fee, and we’re eating the sales tax.

My only complaint with WorldCon 66 here in Denver is that it’s very spread out compared to WorldCon 64 in Los Angeles. We’re in six or eight different hotels, the Convention Center is being shared with two other events, and the result is that fandom doesn’t seem to be developing the critical mass it did two years ago. We’re just a little too far apart, and when we leave the Convention Center for hotels, we scatter, rather than clumping up and raising the ambient temperature of the networking.

Still, it’s a good event. No, a GREAT event. I’m having a fantastic time.

This Wednesday through Sunday, August 6th through 10th, is the 66th annual World Science Fiction Convention, held this year in Denver, Colorado. Sandra and I will both be there at the Colorado Convention Center, along with some of the biggest names in Science Fiction and Fantasy.

I’m not on any panels. I didn’t ask to be put on any panels. I figured I’d be too busy in the Dealers’ Room selling books and drawing pictures. The good news is that this means I’ll be really easy to find, as will the piles of Schlock loot.

We’re bringing shirts, posters, books (including Sandra and Angela’s Hold On To Your Horses), Tagon pins, a few badge ribbons, and just twenty-one sets of those magnetic warning signs (the manufacturer has had a hard time keeping up, and the magnets were popular at Comic-Con.) We’ll also have pre-order forms for Schlock Mercenary: The Teraport Wars (Web pre-orders begin in about two weeks), and you can get an up-close look at a nice print of the cover.

If you’re in Denver but not attending the convention, I doubt our paths will cross. My evenings are going to be full of room parties, meetings, scheduled events, and perhaps even some filk, so I’m not able to accept invitations to dine out. I know WorldCon is kind of pricey to attend, but if you want to see me in Denver, attending is likely your only option.

As a special treat for those attending (I know, I’m just rubbing it in now) I did eight single-panel comics for the newsletters they’ll be publishing throughout the event. I’m quite pleased with the way they turned out. (Okay, fine. You can see the first one…)

Tom Racine of Comics Coast to Coast interviewed me briefly at Comic-Con, and that interview is up as part of Episode 47 - Justin and Tom’s Comic Con Recap. I haven’t listened to it yet, but from the liner notes it looks like mine is the second segment in the show, around the 22:30 mark.

Follow the link above, and then click on the iTunes link on the right-hand side of the page. (I’m not sure how non-iTunes listeners get to the show. Sorry!)

Comic-Con International, aka San Diego Comic-Con, was wonderful. It would have been better had I not lost my voice on Saturday, but on Sunday I decided to draw up a few signs allowing me to distribute flyers.

I would hold up a sign that said PLEASE TAKE A SAMPLE, and catch the attention of a passer-by.

He/she would usually look at me wondering why I was using a sign, at which point I would gesture at a sign propped up to my right that said I LOST MY VOICE.

They’d smile, express sympathy, and take a flyer. I would then spin my “take a sample” sign to the other side, which said “THANK YOU.”

Then they’d really grin, and sometimes laugh. At that point I’d often reach for a sign that said “THE PITY CARD. I AM PLAYING IT” and there’d be more laughter.

It’s one of the more effective gimmicks I’ve dreamed up. It’s a shame it’ll only work when I’m sick.

Speaking of which, I’m still sick. I drove home with the help of four or five of those little two-ounce energy drinks and some pseudoephedrine. I timed it just right, too. I didn’t collapse from the shakes until I walked into my house twelve hours after departure.

I’ll blog more later. For now I need to convalesce (pun intended…)

Howard wanted me to post a message to let you all know that he’s sorry for not blogging more during the convention. He’s working on the convention floor for 8-10 hours per day. That is followed by dinner meetings with other creative professionals to talk shop and share tips for keeping the business rolling. By the time he hits his hotel room he’s too exhausted to think, let alone compose an amusing blog entry. In the mornings he has to hit the ground running and has no time for blogging. I only get to hear from him by phone when he is in transit walking from the hotel to the convention center. All is going well. The sales have been brisk enough that we’ll make a small profit on the convention. Howard will be back soon.

So busy…

Did a brisk business once the doors finally opened. Met lots of fans, met lots of peers, met lots of friends. There’s a social aspect to this event that is easy to understate.

I saw Randy Milholland across the way as we were setting up, and I hollered out “HEY RANDY!” Milholland turned to see me, and so did an unfamiliar face. Turned out it was Randall Munroe of XKCD fame, and of course I didn’t recognize him right away. But now we’ve met (he’s charming, and every bit as knowledgable as his strip may lead you to suspect). Oh, and Milholland and I had a great talk, too.

Had a wonderful dinner with Joey Manley and friends, and we had some fascinating business discussions. The food at Bocca was delicious, too.

But I don’t have time to tell you about everything. I can’t even scratch the surface.
As of this morning there is only one advance-copy pre-order sketch edition available. I expect it to be gone before 10am.

And now I need to get back to work

If you’re coming to Comic-Con and you want to find me, Come through door B1/B2, head straight back through the rows of comic-book collector booths into the 1300 aisle, and look for the color orange on your right.

If you find yourself looking at orange and black pumpkins, you looked to the left. We’re behind you now. Turn around.

Blank Label Comics is right next door to Penny Arcade, and just across the way from Dumbrella, Blind Ferret, and Studio Foglio. It’s a choice location, and nirvana for hardcore webcomic fans. Come see us all! (But especially come see me. I have stuff you waaaant….)

I’ve arrived in San Diego, safe and sound. All the Schlock stuff and booth stuff has been unloaded and spread around the Blank Label Comics booth (#1330) at the convention center, and I’ve checked into my hotel. I had a great dinner with my friends Jim and Stacey, and now I’m going to try to blog.

Oh, look. It worked.