So it's always fun to see an event waking up and getting ready for the public. We started off having smokes and coffee at an exit patio while we waited for logistics on getting our badges. While we were cooling our heels, we got to see the early ebb and flow of the con folks as they steeled themselves for the onslaught they've committed themselves to. So when a couple folks approach shamefacedly looking to bum a final smoke before they weld themselves to their booths and exhibits, I'd be a churl to accept their offered dollar. And you know someone seriously wants a smoke when they're offering a greenback for whatever you've got.
And thats how we made our first Wondercon friend, Tina. More about her later. First was my initial impression of my first real sizeable comic book convention. It's BIG! I'm sure Comicon is many times larger, but even Wondercon is far to vast to be able to take it all in on your initial viewing. There is a riot of vendors with every geeky, dorky knick knack you've never known you coveted, displays and demos of all shapes and sizes. And it wasn't until day 2 that I finally saw any of the artist areas.
We took it pretty easy for day 1. There were some basic munchies, most of which I completely forgot about once I realized we were also sharing space with Brianna Garcia. You might not know the name, but you should certainly seen her artwork passed around the social media scene. Check on my first celebrity of the day. Rapidly followed up by Kaja Foglio of Girl Genius fame and Kevin Grevioux from Underworld. Naturally I'm such a rube, I'm turning to my friends and exclaiming "Isn't that the dude from the..." And I'm answered with a much suffering "Yes..." and a look that tells me that I'm still a jackass at heart.
Friday at a con in a new town is fairly slow....I'm told. Still, I saw probably 2 or 3 thousand people file past our booth alone during the hours I was passing out flyers. Many of them were folks working the con and taking their one opportunity at a slow time to walk the floor and get a feel for the event. Still, folks with exhibitor badges were quite kind to the smelly weirdo with bloodshot eyes shoving a card in their hand and decrying his wares as the cutest at the convention.
As the day wound down, we beat feet from the convention center towards Mom's house, with a quick pitstop for some sanity defending beers. Upon arrival at the place I was doomed to get a maximum of 4 hours sleep in, we immediately tucked into some delicious breaded and baked trout filets accompanied by a deliciously spicy shrimp gumbo. The red bell pepper had a pleasant front seat in the gumbo's flavor profile, with the seafood flavor of the shrimp peeking up from the cajun seasoning. And the trout just had an outright clean and mild flavor that stood well against the seasoned breading.
I was irritably dragged from my plodding enjoyment of dinner for a coffee gab at a local corporate diner with some associated local friendlies as well as keeping our booth bound artist friend up well past her pumpkin hour. But great and fun conversation was had, discussion of the unrealistic expectations of female anatomy in funny books was made and general goofery and fun was had by all. My night ended tucking in with some PBRs and a nice Warhammer 40k novel until inebriated exhaustion crossed my eyes too much to read. Meemees now. Day 2 tomorrow.
-Pook
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