[news] Con Report - AnimEvo06
The report so great I had to write it twice! (=__= fasdfkjfldksjf stupid browsercrashsdflksjdf)
If you are looking for cosplay pictures, they are all in this album!
And if you are linking this blog, please use this link (permalink)... for your sake not mine!So Anime Evolution is now officially over, and it was an awesome awesome time. Seriously, this year’s experience blew last year’s con out of the water with a grenade launcher. Launched by snakes. Read below for the unnecessary details.
First I’m going to link all the people here at once so that I don’t have to do it over and over again.
CAST (in order of appearance)
FRIDAY
Friday began when Dave arrived at the airport at noon. I work weekdays until 5ish so I had JJ and Kyle meet him at the airport. They apparently had a good time hiking around Burnaby mountain and they got a bite to eat at Timmy Ho’s. I APPROVE.
We met at my place downtown and then decided to go down Robson Street (a very touristy street.) We stopped to eat at the White Spot where we coerced Dave into getting a BC Burger. Afterwards, we went along the SeaWall for a little while, and back up Davie Street. (hahah everything in Vancouver has a website!)
Then it was SNAKES ON A PLANE at the Paramount! Oh man that movie was AWESOME. I think it was so awesome because of the insane crowd, though, more than anything. I don’t think I’ve ever been with a more fun crowd in a theatre, ever.
(Snakesonaplaniacs and Habbo Raiders!! Sorry the SOAPiacs pic is out of focus :{ )
Everyone was SO excited. People were throwing snakes and paper airplanes and shouting chants… there was one guy who was leading the crowd:
“When I say snakes, you say plane! Snakes!” (whole crowd: Plane!)
“Snakes!” (Plane!)
“When I say Sam, you say Jack! SAM!” (Jack!)
“Sam!” (Jack!)
“When I say mother, you say F**KER! MOTHER!” (“F**KER!”)
“MOTHER!” (F**KER!)
Usually at premiers they have trivia and prizes (boring) at the beginning, but they skipped it this time… I wonder whyyyyy. It was hilarious that the manager was there, looking tough but at an utter loss of what to do. He probably heard that there were “some rowdy people” in SOAP, but when he got there he realized that the ‘some rowdy people’ was actually the whole crowd. My engineer friends also showed up at random, with lots and lots of rum hahaha.
I don’t remember the previews, because all we did was yell loudly that there were not enough snakes in them. The best part of the movie by FAR was when the escorted-dude was drawing this elaborate, colourful sketch of a surfer. And the guy behind us yelled “HE DID THAT WITH A PENCIL!?!!” (the character was indeed holding a no. 2 yellow pencil. We just about died laughing, like “ah! Ahaha! I … can’t … BREATHE!!!” laughing.)
After that amazing example of prime cinema, we went back to Chez Jam, Dave, Trev and I watched some DS9.
SATURDAY
I guess there were too many snakes for me to handle, because I woke up late and Dave had to wait 40 minutes! That boy is too polite for his own good. We took the skytrain to SFU (where the con is) but we had a really tough time dragging around Dave’s heavy bags of shirts around that campus (which was designed in an Escher nightmare, by the way). We eventually got our way to the table.
I had bought a pass, but was too lazy to wait in line and was going to wait for it to thin… but then all of a sudden two guest relations staffers came and gave Dave his guest pass… and apparently he got one for me too!! I was floored; AnimEvo treats their guests SO well. They were bringing us water and sandwiches and stuff… so rad! The other guests didn’t show up for awhile, but that was fine because Dave’s stuff was flying off the table. Also, because he made a “combo deal” with my mini prints (to make even bills), I managed to break even by mid day first day! Such a change from last year when I didn’t break even at all. (Jack Sparrow and Sora were doing especially well!)
Sam and co. and Greg and co. showed up eventually, but we didn’t have much time to chat because of all the selling going on. I also met a bunch of really cool people, including Aika and Rhia-chan who read WT! (you guys are awesome!) We packed up early to do some con-things… An autograph session (which was pointless) and two panels. Dave’s panel was kind of a gong show at first. I totally warned him this would happen: we get to the photoshop panel and there is no computer. It took forty minutes before we managed to get a computer, another ten to set it up, only to discover that it could only display in four colours and only on the projector (not the laptop screen). Oh, and by the way… photoshop wasn’t installed. Well done. But there was a good QandA and eventually someone showed up who had a laptop and she donated it to Dave’s cause. Awesome!
Greg’s Illustrator panel was really good. If you don’t know illustrator and he’s doing it at a con in the future, I highly recommend you go; I learned a lot. I will probably forget it all if I don’t try to use illo soon, but I did learn it, and now I know of a lot of functions that EXIST.
Also, Sam plays a meaaaannn Piano.
Sam: “o/ DoodododododDododowoddo! o/”
JJ: “Lawl.”
After that, AnimEvo treated the guests to a dinner at Horizons Restaurant on Burnaby Mountain.
(JJ (yellow) and Dave (red) admire the view of Vancouver from Burnaby Mountain).
The dinner was amazing… moreso for the company than the food. Which says a lot because the food was phenomenal. I had melt-off-the-bone Alberta short ribs with Chai Crème Brule for desert alsdkjflskdjfso gooododd.d.dd….. But yes, the company. It was the first chance we really had to sit and talk with the other webcomickers, and we all just kind of clicked right away! It was really surprising how well we got along, I think that no matter what kind of comic you are doing, you have to be a similar kind of person. The conversations we had were really interesting, too! JJ drew a South African in a very snappy hat.
Afterwards, JJ drove Dave and I back downtown (what a hero!) and we watched some Ouran High School Host Club (because we had seen so many cosplayers… it’s really funny!) before crashing.
SUNDAY
To make up for my previous in-sleeping, I got up an hour early and biked to Kinkos to get more flyers made (I’m so dedicated to WT, I know… hahaha). Interesting note is that one of the fans I met yesterday called me out (as "Jam"... I still need to get used to that) on the bus and pointed out a much better way to get to the con... THANKS SO MUCH!!
I don’t have as much to write about today’s con because basically Dave abandoned me for HOURS doing the panels that I wanted to go to, too! Grr! At least I sold a lot of the stuff. And it was a bit slower so I got to talk a lot with Liz Dean and Sam Logan, mostly about how we need more webcomickers here next year (moar I say, MOAR!).
The highlight of the day was definitely when Dave came back and a fan asked him to sign her forehead.
There was also my personal favourite cosplayer of the con: Gold HardGay
After that was the “guest reception” dinner, which apparently people pay for to meet guests. If you are considering doing this in the future, I wouldn’t recommend it, at least if you’re interested in the webcomickers. It’s better to just say hi at our table and hang around until there’s a selling lull and we could talk. This event… it was cafeteria style so if you *got* a seat by a guest it was great, but if not it would be lame, and plus our mouths were full of (good) burgers. So… yeah. Otherwise, HUEG EXBOX IS HUEG!:
When I left the dinner I had to say goodbye to Sam, Greg and Liz *tear*.
After that we (Ashton, JJ, Dave and I) went down to the Eatery, which was ridiculously crowded. Way more than I’m used to, man, I used to go to that restaurant BEFORE it was so popular. Service was understandably slow, but the food was still amazing. (Fat Elvis so deliciousdlfkjlkdfj, man all I talk about is food. It’s not my fault that we hit all the best restaurants. Ok it is my fault, I took them there hahaha) JJ went home with Dave (ooh la la!) and Ashton came home with me so he could catch the ferry in the morning! But JJ didn't leave before drawing this on my National Post. (We decided that grumpy happy beaver friend was the 'American' hahaha)
MONDAY
I went to work. Ashton came with me as far as Science world and then we parted *tear*. Work was work. After work I headed to the con and had a DELIGHTfully impossible time finding Dave hahaha But I did manage to find him eventually in the charity auction. His VGcats prints sold for $150! Yay children! There was also a Mouse painting (from Ranma ½) that was painted by the voice actor (I think) that sold for almost $300! Awesome!
Then we went down to Richmond because it’s neat to see. I was kind of sad because we got there so late and everything was closed/closing, and the night market wasn’t on, so we’ll have to come back some other time when it’s daytime. But at least 7th Heaven was open, so we got a chance to get our Escargot, Ox Tongue and Hot coke ;) Delicious! Oh, we also met up with Jay from the forums who is a cool kid. Then we went to get Bubble Tea because Dave had never had any. A Travesty! It was a really awesome place we went to, I’m glad Jay was with us, because we probably wouldn’t have found it! Also, I decided to liberate a fuzzy animal from a globe in a vending machine. There was a small chance I could get a dolphin, and that was a chance I was willing to take. And I got one!!
He now hangs lovingly from my cell phone, so I can be true to my Honger heritage haha.
When we dropped Jay off we got stuck in the “Guai-lo Trap” that is suburban Richmond. For like a million hours!!11 Ok maybe two hours, but still a really long time. Pleasant drive, though. And then I said goodbye to Dave and JJ *supar tear*
I really hope Dave gets home ok through the airport strike. (Perfect timing, I know.)
In summary:
- Dave and JJ are f**king awesome. People put down internet conversations, but seriously the second we met it felt like we had known each other forever. Dave is super nice, but he’s also more sick in person than he is in his comics. (He says he has to censor himself!! )[/*:m]
- Ashton, Sam and Claire are all awesome people too. I spoke a lot more with Ashton than Sam, just by virtue of sitting next to him at con, but I’m so glad I did. I hope I get to know Sam and Claire better (next year!?)[/*:m]
- Greg and Liz are super nice too. What a team! And awesome for conversation! I was scared/shy at first because they were the “biggest” webcomic name, but I didn’t need to be, it seems. This was their second year up, I hope they will come back again![/*:m]
- Dave and I will definitely be coming back, and JJ will probably join us next year because he had fun “selling things”. Dave should come with a few days that are NOT con next time, though, because everything closes at 5 and that suuuuuuuucked.[/*:m]
- This event successfully broke me out of my “conphobia”. I’m even considering going to Otakon next year! 0_o I just want to meet everyone!![/*:m]
There will probably be Wasted Talents of this some time in the future when I remember the jokes and draw them :P
If you have con reports, or photos, put them in a comment and I’ll link them here!
Linkerdinks: Ashton's perspective, Enerjak's Cosplayer Perspective