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There and Back Again – Texas Comicon 2014
11 years ago
TLDR
Without a doubt, I have to say that Texas Comicon was one of the best experiences I’ve had in a very long time. Everyone, from the Hotel, to the guests, to the con staff were a real joy to work with and made my weekend one to remember very fondly. Read on for more details.
Day 1 – June 19
I wouldn’t normally start my trip summary off at the Pittsburgh Airport, but the hospitality of the Springhill Suites reached out to me before I’d really started my journey. When I was waiting for my plane, I received an email from Elizabeth, the manager at Springhill, noting that both my package and my scooter rental had arrived safely and they wanted to know when I’d be there, since they only had 6 rooms left. I called the back and told them that I’d planned to be there around 2AM and planned to hang out until it was time to get into my room (June 20th) and the manager said that she’d hold a room for me on the first floor with 2 double beds and allow me to go straight in as soon as I arrived … at a reduced cost. Thanks, Elizabeth! You got my journey off to a great start, and it’s a good thing too considering I didn’t get in till about 4am and crashing in the lobby wouldn’t have been very pleasant.
Day 2 – June 20
I was up again around 9am and decided to grab some complimentary breakfast before they took it down for the day. While speaking to a lady at the front desk, I was approached by David Sobelev (TF Prime Shockwave/BW Depthcharge) and we had a great conversation. He was very nice to me and I was a bit disappointed that I’d forgotten my TF Prime and BW dvds as I would have loved to have had him add his signatures to them!
I decided to go check out the con and, of course, bee-lined for the autograph room.
Jake Roberts greeted me by waving wildly at me from his booth. I went over and said “You’v been waving at me for 10 minutes, what can I do for you?” He said, “Hey man, I needed to f*ck with somebody!” We talked a bit. I asked him how he was feeling. He seemed to be having a bad day pain-wise, but laughed it off. I bought an autograph from him and he signed a tee-shirt for me and gave it to me as a gift. I would check in with him for the rest of the con and see if he needed anything and he was always very gracious, but didn’t ask me to run any errands for him.
I worked my way over to Gregg Berger, who was one of the main reasons I’d come to the con in the first place. I’d been wanting him to sign my Masterpiece Grimlock box since I got it in 2009. We had a nice conversation and I went back to my room to collect my junk for all the voice actors to sign. Gregg signed my Masterpiece Grimlock and my Matrix of leadership DVD boxset. Next, Neil Ross was nice enough to sing my Matrix Boxset, followed by Michael Bell. I had a very nice conversation with Mike about Soul Reaver. I wish I hadn’t missed his solo Q/A panel as he seems to have a lot of really good industry stories. Then I stopped by David Sobelev and we talked a bit and he signed a TF:Prime Shockwave 8x10 for me. He mentioned he was happy that I got to meet Gregg as he knew that was pretty important to me. Lastly, I had a nice conversation with Jeffery Combs and had him autograph a Ratchet 8x10 and ‘something else’ for a friend of mine. (I’ll note it is a bit surreal having a friendly conversation with Herbert West)
I putzed around a bit in the dealer rooms and artist alley for a while, chatting with different people and asking them about their art, or items, making note of prices and cool stuff that I’d like or might make nice gifts. The real gem I uncovered was the booth of J.R. Knoll. He was an author and his books had lots of fantasy covers, depicting dragons and mostly fantasy settings. Something told me to talk to him, so I introduced myself and started asking him about his writing. Turns out he’s a self-published fantasy/horror author who mentored under Peter S Beagle. Anyone who knows me also knows I hold Peter S Beagle in very high regard and he has been very supportive of my own writing. I picked up one of JR’s books for the flight home, feeling inspired by his story of how he writes while working a full-time day job.
I also ran into Dan Khanna and bought a few prints form his table (and got him a coke since he was thirsty and couldn’t leave his table – you owe me Dan! :D)
I finished out the day attending the Transformers voice actor panel comprised of Gregg Berger, Neil Ross, Michael Bell, David Sobelev, and Jeffery Combs. I need to take this moment to explain how much I LOVE hearing people talk about their lives and careers, especially people involved in creative vocations. Hearing to how the g1 voice actors used to sit in the parking lot and listen to Scatman Corothers play his ukulele was an absolute joy for me. Hearing the comparisons of Voice Actors vs Face Actors was really enlightening and hilarious (especially Neil Ross’s story about Lionel Standard during the VO sessions of TFTM.) You can check out the VA panel here: http://youtu.be/WMKw1NXqPrQ
I finished out the night with some pizza and the last 2 episodes of GOT and then went to bed.
DAY 3 - June 21
4am – Phone ringing. Front Desk wants to know if I know anybody from Shreveport, LA. Well, yes I did, but I wasn’t sure when they were gonna show up. Soon, I was in a room full of fellow Transformers nerds: Sharon, Daryn, and Morgan, and all was well … if a bit groggy. We spoke, caught up as much as our foggy heads would allow, then went to sleep.
Saturday morning found us grabbing a quick bite to eat at the breakfast bar, where I caught a glimpse of Alan Oppenheimer, but didn’t want to bother him in the hotel. Later I caught him in the autograph room and got a photo and his autograph. I told him how much I loved Skeletor and his response was (in Skeletor’s voice) “I know you do!”
Peter Cullen was only there on Saturday and getting his autograph required the purchase of a $200 package. While I do want him to sign my Matrix DVD boxset, I already had his autograph from Botcon 2006, so I decided that I’ll tack him down another time to get that taken care of. There will always be more cons and more opportunities to get signatures scrawled all over my DVD box.
Attended the Bob Budanski panel, and enjoyed hearing him talk about his days in comics. Being more of an industry junkie, I love hearing about other folks’ creative processes and Bob is very much all business. His stories about how he helped create character traits, mythos, and other pieces of the Transformers universe that are often worked into the modern series were fantastic. He is very matter of fact and sees his time with the Transformers as “a job that I did that you people still seem to still like.” I liked his matter of factness about how he left the series in 1989 because he was “burnt out on Transformers” and “it was a dying toyline.” He doesn’t romanticize his time spent working with Transformers and I really respect that. His perspective brings a true dose of reality to the business aspect of comic books and franchises. I chatted with him about a commission request I had, and he has my reference sheet, but was unable to get to it before I left for the airport. He did, however, give me his card and said he’d be in touch.
The rest of the day was spent chatting with the LA crew and reminiscing about old MUSH times (and explaining them to the non-MUSHers :)) Eventually, we watched a few Dinosaucers episodes and marveled in its’ horrible awesomeness
Day 4 – June 22
This was the last day of the con, so most of the morning as spent packing and checking out of the hotel. I poked around for last minute gift ideas for a few friends and then rushed over to the Gregg Berger panel (Video coming soon.) Greg was gracious and as funny and informative as ever. Of course my video crapped out when I asked my question about if he’d ever worked with Mel Blanc, but he tells a great story, so maybe you can ask him about that someday.
After Greg was done, I headed off to the airport, unable to really say my goodbyes to anyone from the LA crew other than Morgan. Daryn and Tut, you were in my thoughts and I had a great time with you this weekend. You can count on me hanging with you again, should the opportunity ever arise again.
On the plane ride home, I read a good portion of JR Knolls’ Shalhy’s Quest and must say it is a real gem. Fans of “The Last Unicorn” will love it and I can’t wait to share JR’s work with my friends.
All in all, I had a great weekend and want to thank everybody involved. The Hotel staff made me feel more welcome than any I’ve ever encountered in all my travels. The con staff were great and showed real concern that I was able to get around and do everything I wanted to do. The guests were gracious and extremely generous with their time. Reconnecting with old friends and making new ones was just the cherry on top.
It was a great weekend.
My heartfelt thanks to everyone involved.
Without a doubt, I have to say that Texas Comicon was one of the best experiences I’ve had in a very long time. Everyone, from the Hotel, to the guests, to the con staff were a real joy to work with and made my weekend one to remember very fondly. Read on for more details.
Day 1 – June 19
I wouldn’t normally start my trip summary off at the Pittsburgh Airport, but the hospitality of the Springhill Suites reached out to me before I’d really started my journey. When I was waiting for my plane, I received an email from Elizabeth, the manager at Springhill, noting that both my package and my scooter rental had arrived safely and they wanted to know when I’d be there, since they only had 6 rooms left. I called the back and told them that I’d planned to be there around 2AM and planned to hang out until it was time to get into my room (June 20th) and the manager said that she’d hold a room for me on the first floor with 2 double beds and allow me to go straight in as soon as I arrived … at a reduced cost. Thanks, Elizabeth! You got my journey off to a great start, and it’s a good thing too considering I didn’t get in till about 4am and crashing in the lobby wouldn’t have been very pleasant.
Day 2 – June 20
I was up again around 9am and decided to grab some complimentary breakfast before they took it down for the day. While speaking to a lady at the front desk, I was approached by David Sobelev (TF Prime Shockwave/BW Depthcharge) and we had a great conversation. He was very nice to me and I was a bit disappointed that I’d forgotten my TF Prime and BW dvds as I would have loved to have had him add his signatures to them!
I decided to go check out the con and, of course, bee-lined for the autograph room.
Jake Roberts greeted me by waving wildly at me from his booth. I went over and said “You’v been waving at me for 10 minutes, what can I do for you?” He said, “Hey man, I needed to f*ck with somebody!” We talked a bit. I asked him how he was feeling. He seemed to be having a bad day pain-wise, but laughed it off. I bought an autograph from him and he signed a tee-shirt for me and gave it to me as a gift. I would check in with him for the rest of the con and see if he needed anything and he was always very gracious, but didn’t ask me to run any errands for him.
I worked my way over to Gregg Berger, who was one of the main reasons I’d come to the con in the first place. I’d been wanting him to sign my Masterpiece Grimlock box since I got it in 2009. We had a nice conversation and I went back to my room to collect my junk for all the voice actors to sign. Gregg signed my Masterpiece Grimlock and my Matrix of leadership DVD boxset. Next, Neil Ross was nice enough to sing my Matrix Boxset, followed by Michael Bell. I had a very nice conversation with Mike about Soul Reaver. I wish I hadn’t missed his solo Q/A panel as he seems to have a lot of really good industry stories. Then I stopped by David Sobelev and we talked a bit and he signed a TF:Prime Shockwave 8x10 for me. He mentioned he was happy that I got to meet Gregg as he knew that was pretty important to me. Lastly, I had a nice conversation with Jeffery Combs and had him autograph a Ratchet 8x10 and ‘something else’ for a friend of mine. (I’ll note it is a bit surreal having a friendly conversation with Herbert West)
I putzed around a bit in the dealer rooms and artist alley for a while, chatting with different people and asking them about their art, or items, making note of prices and cool stuff that I’d like or might make nice gifts. The real gem I uncovered was the booth of J.R. Knoll. He was an author and his books had lots of fantasy covers, depicting dragons and mostly fantasy settings. Something told me to talk to him, so I introduced myself and started asking him about his writing. Turns out he’s a self-published fantasy/horror author who mentored under Peter S Beagle. Anyone who knows me also knows I hold Peter S Beagle in very high regard and he has been very supportive of my own writing. I picked up one of JR’s books for the flight home, feeling inspired by his story of how he writes while working a full-time day job.
I also ran into Dan Khanna and bought a few prints form his table (and got him a coke since he was thirsty and couldn’t leave his table – you owe me Dan! :D)
I finished out the day attending the Transformers voice actor panel comprised of Gregg Berger, Neil Ross, Michael Bell, David Sobelev, and Jeffery Combs. I need to take this moment to explain how much I LOVE hearing people talk about their lives and careers, especially people involved in creative vocations. Hearing to how the g1 voice actors used to sit in the parking lot and listen to Scatman Corothers play his ukulele was an absolute joy for me. Hearing the comparisons of Voice Actors vs Face Actors was really enlightening and hilarious (especially Neil Ross’s story about Lionel Standard during the VO sessions of TFTM.) You can check out the VA panel here: http://youtu.be/WMKw1NXqPrQ
I finished out the night with some pizza and the last 2 episodes of GOT and then went to bed.
DAY 3 - June 21
4am – Phone ringing. Front Desk wants to know if I know anybody from Shreveport, LA. Well, yes I did, but I wasn’t sure when they were gonna show up. Soon, I was in a room full of fellow Transformers nerds: Sharon, Daryn, and Morgan, and all was well … if a bit groggy. We spoke, caught up as much as our foggy heads would allow, then went to sleep.
Saturday morning found us grabbing a quick bite to eat at the breakfast bar, where I caught a glimpse of Alan Oppenheimer, but didn’t want to bother him in the hotel. Later I caught him in the autograph room and got a photo and his autograph. I told him how much I loved Skeletor and his response was (in Skeletor’s voice) “I know you do!”
Peter Cullen was only there on Saturday and getting his autograph required the purchase of a $200 package. While I do want him to sign my Matrix DVD boxset, I already had his autograph from Botcon 2006, so I decided that I’ll tack him down another time to get that taken care of. There will always be more cons and more opportunities to get signatures scrawled all over my DVD box.
Attended the Bob Budanski panel, and enjoyed hearing him talk about his days in comics. Being more of an industry junkie, I love hearing about other folks’ creative processes and Bob is very much all business. His stories about how he helped create character traits, mythos, and other pieces of the Transformers universe that are often worked into the modern series were fantastic. He is very matter of fact and sees his time with the Transformers as “a job that I did that you people still seem to still like.” I liked his matter of factness about how he left the series in 1989 because he was “burnt out on Transformers” and “it was a dying toyline.” He doesn’t romanticize his time spent working with Transformers and I really respect that. His perspective brings a true dose of reality to the business aspect of comic books and franchises. I chatted with him about a commission request I had, and he has my reference sheet, but was unable to get to it before I left for the airport. He did, however, give me his card and said he’d be in touch.
The rest of the day was spent chatting with the LA crew and reminiscing about old MUSH times (and explaining them to the non-MUSHers :)) Eventually, we watched a few Dinosaucers episodes and marveled in its’ horrible awesomeness
Day 4 – June 22
This was the last day of the con, so most of the morning as spent packing and checking out of the hotel. I poked around for last minute gift ideas for a few friends and then rushed over to the Gregg Berger panel (Video coming soon.) Greg was gracious and as funny and informative as ever. Of course my video crapped out when I asked my question about if he’d ever worked with Mel Blanc, but he tells a great story, so maybe you can ask him about that someday.
After Greg was done, I headed off to the airport, unable to really say my goodbyes to anyone from the LA crew other than Morgan. Daryn and Tut, you were in my thoughts and I had a great time with you this weekend. You can count on me hanging with you again, should the opportunity ever arise again.
On the plane ride home, I read a good portion of JR Knolls’ Shalhy’s Quest and must say it is a real gem. Fans of “The Last Unicorn” will love it and I can’t wait to share JR’s work with my friends.
All in all, I had a great weekend and want to thank everybody involved. The Hotel staff made me feel more welcome than any I’ve ever encountered in all my travels. The con staff were great and showed real concern that I was able to get around and do everything I wanted to do. The guests were gracious and extremely generous with their time. Reconnecting with old friends and making new ones was just the cherry on top.
It was a great weekend.
My heartfelt thanks to everyone involved.
