I wish I could say I was going to make this short, because I’m EXHAUSTED AND JUST WANT TO CRAWL INTO BED AND DIE… but I have a number of things to cover, so I’ll just knock ’em out of the way as needed and go from there. :)
Why am I exhausted? No, it’s actually nothing to do with Harper. She’s amazing. A 2-month old that sleeps 6+ hours EVERY NIGHT is un-freaking-heard of. No, I’m exhausted because I think my boss is trying to kill me. Two weeks ago, I had to run to Visalia to teach a class that I’d taught a number of times before, but never live in front of people – I’d always taught it as an online class. So then, last week, he drops the news on me that I need to teach not just that class, but the OTHER two classes we offer, neither of which I’d ever taught before. Thankfully, that was all at our office, so I didn’t have to travel for it. Well, this week, my ass has been up in CHICO for the past two days, teaching all three classes, and driving to and fro from there each day. Nothing beats a 2 1/2 hour one-way commute, amirite? On the plus side, I now know I can teach people anything they need to know about LEED. (not that you’d want to learn) As a negative… my brain has begun to liquefy just a tad, so I’m having to wear earplugs to keep it all in.
With THAT out of the way, it’s time to start talking about the big event next weekend! Liz and I (and Harper!) will be guests at the inaugural year of WebcomicsCon in Norwalk, Connecticut! That’s really just a hop, skip and a jump for you New Yorkers and other nearby people, so you should come out to it! I have to say, the concept behind this con is extremely exciting to me – a con centered around JUST webcomics is an awesome idea! A ton of your favorite webcomics artists will be there as guests… and I’ll even be there, too! They even just added the programming page, and Liz and I are going to be in a number of different panels!
- Adobe Illustrator – Liz and I will be doing your basic instructional panel introducing people to Adobe Illustrator. We’ve done this before at a number of anime cons, but we’ll give you the basic rundown of how to use the software, and basic uses that apply to comics and such.
- The Good, the bad, and the ugly of webcomic living – This one sounds fun. Chris Hastings (Dr. McNinja), Gordon McAlpin (Multiplex), Katie Tiedrich (Awkward Zombie) and myself will be (ostensibly) discussing the trials and tribulations of webcomics creation. Likely, it’ll just take the shine off the apple that is being a webcartoonist, but that’s fine by me. :)
- Graphic Design – This one’s all Liz, with no help from yours truly. Now that Liz has herself a gen-yoo-ine edumacation, she’ll be talking about the finer points of graphic design, and how to make your designs not suck. Or, at the least… suck less? Expect a 45-minute rant about typography. :) (Kidding, Liz!)
- Significant Others of Webcomics – Liz will be joining the significant others of a number of different webcartoonists in this panel and discuss why the only thing worse then being a webcartoonists is being married to one!
- The Real Life Comics Panel – This one was kind of a no-brainer, amirite? Make sure to catch it, because if the room has 5 people in it I’m going to cry. And maybe cut myself. I will definitely go emo as hell on you, so we don’t want that. Remember – webcartoonists have incredibly shallow and fragile egos, so we need constant care to remain intact! All that aside, just come on by because we do a Q and A panel that’s usually fairly raunchy (dare I even say RIBALD) and tends to be a lot of fun for everyone involved. I promise to even keep my pants on this time. NO SERIOUSLY.
In addition to all that, we’re going to be selling a bunch of our shirts thanks to a ton of support from our buddies at SplitReason, so if you’ve been on the fence about buying one of those bad boys, come by our booth/table/quonset hut and buy one! We might even have something TOTALLY AWESOME THERE. Something that maybe is pictured at the bottom of this post. (And actually, it’s not “might”, it’s “will”, ’cause we totally will)
Also, Liz is going to be judging the cosplay contest, so make sure to see that! I personally can’t wait to see the webcomics cosplay that shows up, so I’ll be there with bells on. And hell, just come on by to meet the kidlet! This’ll be her first major trip, so let’s make it a memorable one! :) You can see the details of the con and register by clicking the yellow sticker up there on the whiteboard, or by heading to webcomicscon.com
In somewhat unrelated (except that it’s totally related) news, you know how a few months ago we put up that awesome “Son of Flynn” Tron shirt up, and then it completely sold out in like a matter of weeks, and hasn’t been replaced yet? You probably thought it was just a one-shot deal. Not so much. See, after the shirts sold out, I went to SplitReason and said “Guys… for the reprint of this, I really want to see if we can get it to glow.” And they said “Well, we can, but it’ll have to glow in a green color, ’cause that’s the standard glowing ink we have.” And I said “NO WAY. It’s blue or nothing! I own this bar, and the drinks are on me!” And then THEY said “Greg, you are crazy. We’re not even in a bar, this is an e-mail conversation.” That’s when I said “Bar or no bar, we need to find out a way to make these shirts glow BLUE, dammit! I’ve seen it done, we need to make that sucker happen!”
I’ll just leave this here.
Why yes, that IS a photograph! More info regarding it tomorrow!