IF YOU ARE AT THE SAN DIEGO COMIC CON, PLEASE READ:
posted by Aeire

First off - If you are at Con and have already stopped by the Keenspot booth (that's booth number 1328/1229, it's an endcap) and said hi or gotten a sketch - thanks! I love chattering maniacally at people. If you stopped by to say hi to Chris over at HIS booth (S3, it's on the back wall in the Small Press Pavilion, he's with Jennie Breeden of The Devil's Panties), thanks! If you haven't, for goodness sake stop by and say hello!

Also, Chris is offering an Angela print at the convention center, and he will sign it - and you can drag it over to me and I will sign it as well! It's a full-color print of Angela striding merrily along and flipping off the general public, as she is more than likely to do.

ALSO (there's a lot of these it seems) - I have leftovers of the Naptime print that I drew of Angela and Heather. These will be at the booth with Chris (that is, again, booth S3 in the Small Press Pavilion), and are signed and numbered. If you drag them to me, I can put additional stuff on them, such as 'To (name), thanks!' or 'Your mother is a banana!' or other phrases, etc. Or you can get Chris to sign them too. Or you can wear them as a hat, but I wouldn't recommend it.

BEYOND all this, I am very sad, as I had what was about the scariest experience of my life today. You see, they were doing a special screening of Stardust, the movie based on the comic by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess which I collected eagerly back when it first came out (wow that was a long time ago, now that I think of it) - and I really wanted to see that screening, as there was a Q&A with Gaiman himself afterwards. So I get to the booth where they are giving out tickets a bit early (er....okay forty minutes early), and manage to land myself a nice spot right in front near the table so I can get a ticket. Meanwhile, people are starting to pile up, but I don't think I was quite aware of how many, not at the moment.

So The Time rolls around, and they pull out the tickets, and I grab one and turn around - and I am confronted with a SEA OF PEOPLE ALL SHOVING TO GET A TICKET. I think I almost got knocked over twice, and my bag was nearly pulled from my shoulder in my attempt to escape. But I did! And I had a ticket! And I had a lovely number to call to RSVP. The very next thing I did was go outside and call the number from my cell phone to do this RSVP thing. Mind you, they gave the tickets away around 4:30, and the show was at nine. So I go back to the Keenspot booth.

But here's the thing - the ticket wasn't really a REAL ticket, it was just....a notice of a ticket? A chance of a ticket? It said it was not a guaranteed seat, and that seats at the theatre were on a first-come first-serve basis. So my roommate and I get our asses over there around seven (we had to go see the Dumbrella panel, which was incredibly fun), thinking two hours early would be enough. 

But it wasn't. We got there, two hours early, and were informed that the REAL tickets had already been given away - and that some people had been there as early as FIVE PM for the thing. So I was nearly crushed in a sea of people and wasted forty minutes of my time dawdling at a booth for...absolutely nothing really. They were nice, and took my address and said they would send me tickets for a future screening, but it's not really the same, as Mr. Gaiman will not be there.

And don't get me wrong, I DO understand, the man is insanely popular (as he should be, he's a brilliant writer), the movie has been hyped to hell and back, and everyone and their mother wants to see the thing and see him - but half the reason I wanted to go was to finally get to actually see him in person, even if I didn't get to...talk to him. It would have been nice. And I'm kind of disappointed that they didn't really run the giving away of the tickets a bit better. I got there early on purpose, I nearly got crushed, I was so terribly happy I managed to get one, and then it turns out people that didn't have booths to go to and things to tend to, people that were probably in the back of that sea of people I nearly got trampled under, get to go see the film, and I...didn't.

So tomorrow I get to spend another I don't know how long waiting to get into a drawing (by drawing I mean lottery, not sketch) for an opportunity to get the book that I bought so long ago (it's a printer's proof of Good Omens. We're talking pre-published edition. Don't ask where I got it. >.> ) signed. I get to spend my time at con waiting to see if I get to get a moment with him. A very tiny moment.

If it were anyone else, I would simply say 'Fuck this' and not bother. This is how much I love this man's writing. So cross your fingers for me, okay? Okay. And I will try not to get trampled any more.

Webcomicon 2007

For the first time ever, Webcomics have unified their presence at Comic Con International. "WebComiCon," the heart of the webcomics action in San Diego, will be found in the middle of Aisle 1300, where some of the top names in webcomics -- Abismo/Nerve Bomb, Blank Label Comics, Dayfree Press, Dumbrella, Keenspot, Penny Arcade, PvP, Rooster Teeth and Studio Foglio -- will be assembled.

With a combined readership best counted in millions, this will be a gathering to remember. Located in a prime location in Aisle 1300, WebComiCon is a short walk away from DC and Sideshow Collectibles -- and just around the corner from the Small Press Pavilion. Download our handy map (PDF) and print it out to guide you along your way. This centralized location is tailor-made for fans of webcomics who want to see many of their favorite creators in one area.

Expect to see all your favorite artists joining up for group sketches, sketch mashups, practical jokes, and a sense of excitement that only comes once a year at the biggest webcomics meetup in the world. Other webcomics creators can be found in Artist Alley and Small Press, making WebComicCon the center of the ultimate webcomics gathering in the world. Watch Fleen.com for an updated map of all of the webcomics creators in attendance.

And now for something completely different.

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posted by Aeire

What is this line for?

It is for people that got tickets. There are a lot of them aren't there?

I got a ticket too. As you can see, here is me showing Neil Gaiman how to spell my name and looking like an idiot (which happens in almost every picture I am ever in), unable to say anything particularly eloquent or nice beyond a tiny 'thank-you'. This is because my brain has completely ceased to function upon meeting someone whose work I've been reading since I was very young, and who taught me all sorts of interesting things, via careful observation of his material, about plots, and characters, and how to weave things together into a tidy little bow of a story, and how sometimes it is much more fun to make the bow less than tidy and watch everyone else panic because the bow isn't just so.

But he spelled my name right!

You would think that the story would end here with a happy ending, and I was very, very happy to get that book signed and get to meet someone that I admire so much (even if I couldn't really bring myself to...say anything), and I scurried off to the rest of my day, but no, the story does not end there.

Apparently while I was away getting things signed, some of you were busy, or you were very busy last night, because Mr. Gaiman somehow found out about my newspost and was very sad. You people made Mr. Gaiman sad. Bad people. Bad, bad people.

Please consider this a Dawna-esque mild talking-to, as later in the day an entourage of Neil's people showed up at the Keenspot booth to find ME and take me back to where HE was so that he could apologize in person for my almost getting squished, and they said they would take a picture and email that to me, too.

There was a moment or two where, when they said he had read my post as they were leading me away, I was slightly terrified that I was going to be given some sort of stern talking-to until they explained that he felt bad. And then I felt bad that he felt bad, so I think we spent a good chunk of time simply apologizing at each other, and then I finally managed to spit out words although I don't know if they were quite as nice as they were in my head when I was thinking them. And I got hugs!

Suffice it to say Mr. Gaiman is one of the most gracious people it has ever been my pleasure to meet, and now I really, really don't mind almost getting squished. At all.

And I have my book now with names in it!