We came, we saw, we conned.

Comic con. Comic-con. SDCC. Connnnnnnnnnn! However you spell it, thats what we did last weekend. It was intense! Me, Mike, Jess, Andrew, Derek, and Eugene drove down friday night after work, got to Derek's at around 1ish, got up Saturday early and got to the con at 10am. Saturday was crazy crowded, but crazy fun. Started off the day by browing around the floor for about 2 hours. I got a cool Edgar Allen Poe book illustrated by Gris Grimly (think Tim Burton, but this guy can actually draw) which is awesome, and a Ragnar art book too, which I wanted to get since last con. Then I was super suprised that I could get a King Randor from He-Man and they weren't sold out, so I got that and got it signed by the 4 Horsemen, geeked out a little, but tried to keep it to a bare minimum, and we all headed to go see the Quick Draw panel.

Quick draw was really fun. It was 3 of the top comic strip artists drawing what is suggested as fast as they could. Quick, if you will. It was really funny. A good time was had by all (even if we were kinda falling asleep.) Then after that, was the panel I came to see. Ray Harryhausen.

If you don't know who Ray Harryhausen is, then you haven't truly lived. And if you think you have lived, then I will come to your house and kill you just to prove my saying true. Or maybe I won't.... But I most likely will, most likely. He's the guy that did the stop motion animation for films like Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans, and Seventh Voyage of Sinbad single handedly! He's an amazing fellow and the way he incorporated animation into live action paved the way for todays CGI boom. Just listening to this man talk was incredible. Oh yeah, and Ray Bradbury was there too, and he was pretty kick ass as well lol. You can learn so much from people who have been in the biz for the last 60+ years!! I also got a DVD of his early works and tests which looks awesome too.

After that, I went back down to the floor only to meet the author of my favorite comic ever (Usagi Yojimbo), Stan Sakai! He was such a cool, nice, humble guy. I completed my Usagi collection, got an action figure, and he signed it all and drew a sketch in every book as well! Kick ass!!!

Man, what a day? Could it get better? Hell yeah! Two words: Umm, well, one word that's hyphenated? Err.... Two words (I guess): He-Man! The classic He-Man finally came out on dvd last week, and I was able to pick it up at the con. That was cool in itself, but what was even cooler was the fact that the people who made the dvd were there to sign it, along with a he-man.orger I had known from online. Cool stuff.

That was a crazy day...... oh wait, I almost forgot! We also saw a Tenacious D concert!! It was sooooooo fun. The D is so funny, and they know how to rock the house. Top it off with a little Juanitas, finish it off with some Nick Arcade starring Mikey, our video adventurer, and you have a pretty awesome day.

Oh, and we also ran into PB$, and we invited him to stay with us at Derek's so he wouldn't have to sneak into the hotel across the street and sleep in the kitchen again (!) So that was cool.

Sunday was spent mostly recovering from Saturday. We woke up later, got to the con later, and mainly just wandered all day, and that was fine with me. The highlights were getting to see the head animator of the Corpse Bride (Peter Dodd) animate Scraps the dog and being able to ask him a few questions, meeting Ray Harryhausen again and getting his autograph, and mostly wandering around checking stuff out. I found Captain EO on dvd (bootleg of course) and I spent about 3 hours looking for a Rocketeer comic from the 80's done by Dave Stevens. I finally was able to find one (just one!) which I bought with 10 minutes left of the con. I got the guy to drop the price $10 so that was cool. Andrew picked up a sweet Sin City poster and an even sweeter Pirates of the Carribean 2 poster (if thats even possible) so now that means I need more frames! And of course I spent too much money, but thats what overtime is for, eh?

We got back to Derek's pad, chilled out a bit, had some cookies, some brownies, some pita, some hummus, and shared stories. We then packed up and rolled out. Headed to the local New York pizza place, ate and started the long traffic ridden trek home. Good music and good company made the time past quickly. Good times.

MAT!

and as a frequenter of the Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con, Comic Book Guy would say, "longest........blog........ever........"