This past Saturday (9/27) was my trip to Baltimore Comic Con. Lemme tell you, it was an adventure. It started off not so great. I was scheduled to grab a Greyhound bus from Philly to Baltimore, but it ended up running 20 minutes late (possibly due to the rainy weather). This means I missed my city bus to the con, and the next one didn’t come for another half hour.

“Dear I ask, fair bus attendant,” I asked, “how far along the road is Ye Ol’ Convention center?”

“Like, a Mile or so.” She told me, quickly going back to her magazine.

I decided, heck, I walk that to and from work on a regular basis. I bet I could make it to the con before the city bus even gets here! Well, fate decided to smile upon me because not 3 blocks from the con, it started to drizzle. Than it picked up. Pretty soon, it was a good ol’ downpour and I looked like I’d jumped in a lake with my clothes on. And I still had 2 more blocks to go.

To make things worse, the line to buy a ticket when I got there was less than ideal.

This is me in line at about the half way point. It starts at that window on the top left, snakes around the perimeter of the lobby, zigzags up some stairs to the right off-camera, behind me and out the door, and then snakes 3 times outside. I honestly didn’t think I was gonna make it in. It was 1:00 when I first got in line, and being I had to leave by 5:00 to catch my bus in time, I was scared I’d get a half hour in the con… if I got in at all.

I did get a free Flash ring out of the deal though.

Did the Flash even wear a ring? I don’t even know.

Thankfully, I DID get in… the line moved fast, and by 1:45 I had my ticket. Let that be a lesson to you kids though: get your tickets ahead of time!! That’s 45 whole minutes of Geeking I missed out on!

Sad to say I didn’t get a ton of pictures of the con itself, as I’m notoriously bad at taking pictures. First person I ran into was Chris Flick, creator of Capes & Babes and a fellow HalfPixel forumite. I didn’t get to chat for very long, but he was a super cool guy!

I also very briefly met Conor from the iFanboy video podcast. He was on his way somewhere, so I just got the chance to shake his hand and let him know I dig their podcast. If you like comics, you should go watch it!

Also got to meet Danielle Corsetto who does Girls with Slingshots. Her comic is awesome, and so is the cactus. His name is McPedro, and she sewed him herself! Gives me some ideas of my own…

And of course, I couldn’t let myself leave the con without saying “hi” to these guys:

Left to right: Scott Kurtz, Brad Guigar, Kris Straub, and Dave Kellet

These guys do a podcast called “Webcomics Weekly”, and to be dead honest, my comic would not be here if it wasn’t for their podcast. I already had the pleasure of meeting Brad at Wizard World Philly a few months back, but this is my first time meeting the rest of the guys.

Dave was super nice, even thanking me for my posts on the halfpixel forums (squee!!) Kris also recognized me from the forums, and said he liked my work (double squee!!) I wish I’d had a chance to chat with Scott, but he had a lot of other people who wanted to get sketches & signatures from him, so I’m happy that I at least got to shake his hand and thank him for the podcast & his comic. There will be other cons where I will hopefully be able to chat when he’s less busy.

I DID manage to get all of them to sign & doodle in my “How to Make Webcomics” book (Brad already did at Wizard World), which was sweet.

Thank you guys! You were awesome!!

And now…. The Phat Lootz!!

I had enough money to grab 3 trades: I’ve been meaning to read Maus, so as soon as I saw this I grabbed (not realizing till later that it was the second book in a twin set. ARGH!! Now I gotta find the 1st one). I also found the guys who do the Warhammer Comics. I chatted with the publisher for a bit about 40K, and ended up grabbing this book. No Tyranid book unfortunately, though he said that due to the new game they’ll probably be working on something with ‘em soon. Lastly, I grabbed the 1st volume of Popgun from the Image booth. I didn’t realize it was so thick! everything in here is short stories, anywhere from one to 20 pages, though most are around 8 to 10. This was a good 3 hour read for my trip home, and I’m definitely looking up some of the artists & writers from it to see what else they’ve done.

There is of course the bunches of fliers, business cards, and whatnot. I haven’t had the chance to go through all of them yet, but I will say that the long, tan flier on the left, which is for the comic “Wondermark”, is HILARIOUS. Also, Kris Straub’s business card was too neat not to get a close-up of:

Speaking of aviators, I actually got into a discussion with Kris about an odd pair of… I guess they were aviators, or at least aviator-shaped sunglasses, someone left in my box office for a month. They had plastic frames and zebra stripes.

Also, a shirt!

Not from the box office, but from Dave. Arthur is the man… er… duck. I’m champing at the bit for a Flaco t-shirt. (Webcomics Weekly listeners will get that joke.)

A couple buttons from Danielle Corsetto of McPedro (top) and Tyler, the perviest kid ever.

Any time David Mack is at a con I’m attending, I make it a point to stop by and get something if I can. I LOVE his work so much. He didn’t have his new “Alchemy” trade out yet, though he did say it’s at the printers and will be available in a few weeks! He did have all of the issues, but I never liked buying comic issues because I’m always so afraid they’ll fall apart or get ruined. So instead, I bought 2 prints from him, making my Mack Print collection total to 4. I really should frame these up already. ;^_^

Last but not least…

A Scratch Fury from Scott, a Jinxlet from Kris, and an Aurthur from Dave.

And ya know what? Even though it was from Wizard World, here’s the sketch Brad did for me on the previous page:

Overall, while it got off to a rough start, it was a good con. With any luck, I’ll be behind a table next year with some “Broken Plot Device” goodies to sell. ^_^