Deathstroke
11-12-2006, 05:03 PM
I spent yesterday at the United Fan Con in Springfield, MA. I had gone 5 years ago, but until this year had never been able to make it back.
The cast of characters for the trip included myself, the woman I work with Shawna, her fiancee Kenny (who as big a fan of scifi as me, if not bigger), and a couple friends of theirs, Tom and Sue.
Skipping past the boring travelogue to get to Springfield, we got there about 9:45 and got in line to check in. Originally we planned to leave at 6pm, but then Sue decided she wanted to go to the William Shatner talk and photo session. This meant we wouldn't be out until 8 or 9 pm. No big deal, because as it turned out, her decision to do that was a bonus for me.
Once we got checked in, the first thing we did was go to the grand foyer where all the guests were going to be set up for signings throughout the day and the big mass signing at the end of the day. The change from the last time I was at the con is that the fan club tables which dominated the hallway leading into the guest area was now taken up by a variety of comic artists including announced guests Sean Wang (The Tick) and Paul Ryan (The Phantom strip, The Avengers, The Flash and more).
The first table we hit was of course Peter David's. I'm sure a few of you know that I am a gigantic fan of his writing. Kenny loves the Star Trek book he wrote, Imzadi, so he was pretty interested in getting that signed as well. I didn't have any of my stuff signed at that time. I was going to get back to PAD's table later in the day, but I had to get some other stuff done first.
I got the Babylon 5 Season 1 DVD booklet signed by Claudia Christian (making her the third B5 person to have signed the booklet), and I got a signed photo of Jewel Staite, as well as my Firefly Volume 1 Companion signed by her as well.
Both Claudia and Jewel were beautiful and friendly, not that I think that should be surprising.
The surprising part of my whole trip was that I attended a bunch of panels, and for the first time in my limited convention going experience, was an active participant in some of them.
The first panel was a Firefly/Serenity related one. It was called Just Believe, and it discussed the belief versus faith in relation to Mal, Book, and the Operative. Normally any kind of religious discussion would have me bolting from the room, but I actually took part. I made some observations and exchanged some conversation with other people in the discussion. This turned out to be the catalyst to a superiorly successful day at the con.
After the panel was over, I went over to the woman I had exchanged some dialogue with during the discussion. I struck up a brief conversation and it turns out that she (Deb) is part of the New England Browncoats, a Firefly/Serenity fan group. We talked briefly along with another friend of hers, Michelle. I ended up being invited to go to dinner with them. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to or not, but I said that I would check with the other people I was there with, making sure they had no contradictory plans.
I found Shawna and Kenny and they practically threatened me if I DIDN'T go out to dinner with them. They said they had plenty of options while they would be waiting for Tom and Sue who would be at the William Shatner talk when I would be at dinner.
Deb was in the room set aside for the fan club organizations, since she was one of the people running the table for the New England Browncoats. I let her know that I was in for dinner. We were going to be in another panel so we agreed to do the arrangements then.
I was then off to the Claudia Christian photo session. Nice and easy of course. It costs extra for the one on one photo sessions but for me it's worth it.
I was supposed to go to the Doctor Who "Who In Review" panel, but I ended up missing that as I went back to Peter David's table to get the material I brought to get signed. The great thing about Peter David is that he signed whatever you brought for free. The only things you paid for was if you bought something he had available from his table. I had three books, a comic, and the Babylon 5 Season 2 booklet (he wrote two of the episodes) signed, and I bought his Fall Of Knight book and got that signed as well. Besides Claudia and Jewel, he was the third point of the trinity behind my decision to come to the show. I asked him a couple of questions, and moved out of the way when other people came up so they could have their turn. He's very funny and has a ton of stories to share.
Afterwards, I stopped by artist Paul Ryan's table. Shawna and Kenny were there talking to him about some of his available prints. Kenny's a big fan of The Phantom. They ended up buying a few of the prints, as well as one of the She Hulk with Tigra on her shoulders. I got the four issue Legion Science Police he did the art for signed. I was really impressed with Ryan. He's soft spoken but very gentlemanly. I asked if he was doing sketches, and when he said he was, I ended up ordering a Saturn Girl sketch. It's just my second ever piece of original art, and it looks fantastic. (Sorry, no pics of it, darn it.)
I ended up going ten minutes late to the Firefly/Serenity panel After Miranda. It was a discussion of what people thought might have occurred after the events of the Serenity film. I didn't really participate much in this discussion but I did like listening to what everyone else had to say. I spoke to Deb afterwards and it was decided that we'd go to dinner after the last regular panel of the night that ended at 6pm.
Tom likes Linda Blair so he went to her photo session and both he and Sue went to her panel. Kenny, who is a HUGE Star Trek fan, and Shawna both went to the Star Trek: New Voyages panel. That's the online video series that has new adventures of the original Star Trek series. The review from Kenny and Shawna afterwards was that it was excellent and they really liked it.
I was going to the Claudia Christian panel after the Linda Blair one wrapped up but as it turned out, Blair can talk and went almost 10 minutes over time. So I heard her blather on about eating healthy or whatever she was doing. Major turn off.
Claudia, for anyone who hasn't seen her talk before, was both saucy and sassy. She really had the crowd in stitches with her answers and asides. One interesting bit that came out of the panel was that she has written a Susan Ivanova Babylon 5 novel that is supposed to come out next year. I didn't ask any questions, but anything I would've asked got covered by other people who did stand up to inquire. The funniest line was when someone asked if she was going to be doing anymore music CDs. She replied, "What, five bad ones weren't enough for you?"
After Claudia's panel ended I had about 45 minutes to kill before my next "appointment." I ended up talking to Peter David for about 10 minutes, stopped by Paul Ryan's table again. (Don't worry art fans, I didn't go to check on the progress of the sketch, I actually ended up talking to him about the Phantom strip). I also took a look around the dealer's room.
That's were my biggest problem with the con lies. I did end up buying three patches. Two of the Harry Potter house emblems (Hufflepuff and Slytherin) and a Serenity patch (to get the 3 for 20 bucks special). However, after making a circuit of the room, I was unimpressed. You had the stuff that was just out of my price range which looks great, or you had the stuff that looked like crap or unofficial. The purchase of the patches was the only thing I bought from the dealer's room. I don't know exactly what I would do to make the dealer room more interesting, but I just wasn't impressed with what I saw.
Next up was the Jewel Staite photo session. Obviously, she's amazing beautiful. My uncle is jokingly pissed with me because I didn't tell him about the show. He's a big fan of hers. So after I took the photo with her, I said "Thank You, my uncle will hate me forever." and she burst out laughing.
Next up was the Peter David panel. He did a 45 minute talk on his various current and upcoming projects. I ended up asking one question for clarification about an upcoming story he'll have published, and then I asked him if there was any chance that Soulsearchers and Company would be continued in some form. He explained to the rest of the people in the audience the situation with Soulsearchers and said that it wouldn't happen because while he'd do write it for free, he can't draw.
The next panel in the same room was Still Flyin', the third Serenity/Firefly panel of the day for me. This one dealt mainly with the hopes of the story being continued one day and the bevy of tie in merchandise available. One of the women who ran the panel talked about ordering the movie DVD from various foreign countries. She mentioned if you wanted an adventure, try filling out an order form that's in Cyrillic.
I left the panel about 5 minutes early to go pick up the Saturn Girl sketch. Again, Paul Ryan was great and the sketch looks fantastic.
The cast of characters for the trip included myself, the woman I work with Shawna, her fiancee Kenny (who as big a fan of scifi as me, if not bigger), and a couple friends of theirs, Tom and Sue.
Skipping past the boring travelogue to get to Springfield, we got there about 9:45 and got in line to check in. Originally we planned to leave at 6pm, but then Sue decided she wanted to go to the William Shatner talk and photo session. This meant we wouldn't be out until 8 or 9 pm. No big deal, because as it turned out, her decision to do that was a bonus for me.
Once we got checked in, the first thing we did was go to the grand foyer where all the guests were going to be set up for signings throughout the day and the big mass signing at the end of the day. The change from the last time I was at the con is that the fan club tables which dominated the hallway leading into the guest area was now taken up by a variety of comic artists including announced guests Sean Wang (The Tick) and Paul Ryan (The Phantom strip, The Avengers, The Flash and more).
The first table we hit was of course Peter David's. I'm sure a few of you know that I am a gigantic fan of his writing. Kenny loves the Star Trek book he wrote, Imzadi, so he was pretty interested in getting that signed as well. I didn't have any of my stuff signed at that time. I was going to get back to PAD's table later in the day, but I had to get some other stuff done first.
I got the Babylon 5 Season 1 DVD booklet signed by Claudia Christian (making her the third B5 person to have signed the booklet), and I got a signed photo of Jewel Staite, as well as my Firefly Volume 1 Companion signed by her as well.
Both Claudia and Jewel were beautiful and friendly, not that I think that should be surprising.
The surprising part of my whole trip was that I attended a bunch of panels, and for the first time in my limited convention going experience, was an active participant in some of them.
The first panel was a Firefly/Serenity related one. It was called Just Believe, and it discussed the belief versus faith in relation to Mal, Book, and the Operative. Normally any kind of religious discussion would have me bolting from the room, but I actually took part. I made some observations and exchanged some conversation with other people in the discussion. This turned out to be the catalyst to a superiorly successful day at the con.
After the panel was over, I went over to the woman I had exchanged some dialogue with during the discussion. I struck up a brief conversation and it turns out that she (Deb) is part of the New England Browncoats, a Firefly/Serenity fan group. We talked briefly along with another friend of hers, Michelle. I ended up being invited to go to dinner with them. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to or not, but I said that I would check with the other people I was there with, making sure they had no contradictory plans.
I found Shawna and Kenny and they practically threatened me if I DIDN'T go out to dinner with them. They said they had plenty of options while they would be waiting for Tom and Sue who would be at the William Shatner talk when I would be at dinner.
Deb was in the room set aside for the fan club organizations, since she was one of the people running the table for the New England Browncoats. I let her know that I was in for dinner. We were going to be in another panel so we agreed to do the arrangements then.
I was then off to the Claudia Christian photo session. Nice and easy of course. It costs extra for the one on one photo sessions but for me it's worth it.
I was supposed to go to the Doctor Who "Who In Review" panel, but I ended up missing that as I went back to Peter David's table to get the material I brought to get signed. The great thing about Peter David is that he signed whatever you brought for free. The only things you paid for was if you bought something he had available from his table. I had three books, a comic, and the Babylon 5 Season 2 booklet (he wrote two of the episodes) signed, and I bought his Fall Of Knight book and got that signed as well. Besides Claudia and Jewel, he was the third point of the trinity behind my decision to come to the show. I asked him a couple of questions, and moved out of the way when other people came up so they could have their turn. He's very funny and has a ton of stories to share.
Afterwards, I stopped by artist Paul Ryan's table. Shawna and Kenny were there talking to him about some of his available prints. Kenny's a big fan of The Phantom. They ended up buying a few of the prints, as well as one of the She Hulk with Tigra on her shoulders. I got the four issue Legion Science Police he did the art for signed. I was really impressed with Ryan. He's soft spoken but very gentlemanly. I asked if he was doing sketches, and when he said he was, I ended up ordering a Saturn Girl sketch. It's just my second ever piece of original art, and it looks fantastic. (Sorry, no pics of it, darn it.)
I ended up going ten minutes late to the Firefly/Serenity panel After Miranda. It was a discussion of what people thought might have occurred after the events of the Serenity film. I didn't really participate much in this discussion but I did like listening to what everyone else had to say. I spoke to Deb afterwards and it was decided that we'd go to dinner after the last regular panel of the night that ended at 6pm.
Tom likes Linda Blair so he went to her photo session and both he and Sue went to her panel. Kenny, who is a HUGE Star Trek fan, and Shawna both went to the Star Trek: New Voyages panel. That's the online video series that has new adventures of the original Star Trek series. The review from Kenny and Shawna afterwards was that it was excellent and they really liked it.
I was going to the Claudia Christian panel after the Linda Blair one wrapped up but as it turned out, Blair can talk and went almost 10 minutes over time. So I heard her blather on about eating healthy or whatever she was doing. Major turn off.
Claudia, for anyone who hasn't seen her talk before, was both saucy and sassy. She really had the crowd in stitches with her answers and asides. One interesting bit that came out of the panel was that she has written a Susan Ivanova Babylon 5 novel that is supposed to come out next year. I didn't ask any questions, but anything I would've asked got covered by other people who did stand up to inquire. The funniest line was when someone asked if she was going to be doing anymore music CDs. She replied, "What, five bad ones weren't enough for you?"
After Claudia's panel ended I had about 45 minutes to kill before my next "appointment." I ended up talking to Peter David for about 10 minutes, stopped by Paul Ryan's table again. (Don't worry art fans, I didn't go to check on the progress of the sketch, I actually ended up talking to him about the Phantom strip). I also took a look around the dealer's room.
That's were my biggest problem with the con lies. I did end up buying three patches. Two of the Harry Potter house emblems (Hufflepuff and Slytherin) and a Serenity patch (to get the 3 for 20 bucks special). However, after making a circuit of the room, I was unimpressed. You had the stuff that was just out of my price range which looks great, or you had the stuff that looked like crap or unofficial. The purchase of the patches was the only thing I bought from the dealer's room. I don't know exactly what I would do to make the dealer room more interesting, but I just wasn't impressed with what I saw.
Next up was the Jewel Staite photo session. Obviously, she's amazing beautiful. My uncle is jokingly pissed with me because I didn't tell him about the show. He's a big fan of hers. So after I took the photo with her, I said "Thank You, my uncle will hate me forever." and she burst out laughing.
Next up was the Peter David panel. He did a 45 minute talk on his various current and upcoming projects. I ended up asking one question for clarification about an upcoming story he'll have published, and then I asked him if there was any chance that Soulsearchers and Company would be continued in some form. He explained to the rest of the people in the audience the situation with Soulsearchers and said that it wouldn't happen because while he'd do write it for free, he can't draw.
The next panel in the same room was Still Flyin', the third Serenity/Firefly panel of the day for me. This one dealt mainly with the hopes of the story being continued one day and the bevy of tie in merchandise available. One of the women who ran the panel talked about ordering the movie DVD from various foreign countries. She mentioned if you wanted an adventure, try filling out an order form that's in Cyrillic.
I left the panel about 5 minutes early to go pick up the Saturn Girl sketch. Again, Paul Ryan was great and the sketch looks fantastic.