Connecticon 2004
During the weekend of July 16-18th 2004, I had the good fortune to be in West Hartford, CT attending ConnectiCon. ConnectiCon is a special convention for me, because it is run by very good friends of mine, Matt Daigle and Briana Benn. It is also attended by many of my close friends and fellow webcomic artists that I don't get an opportunity to hang out with outside of conventions. ConnectiCon makes me feel at home, like I'm surrounded by family, and I am proud to say that ConnectiCon 2004 was easily the best convention I have ever been to.
Wednesday:
I guess you could say the convention experience started On Wednesday, though it wasn't a very exciting day. After a solid two weeks of gearing up for the convention, by getting things ready, getting the comics drawn so that they would update while I was away, and trying to get as many of the new books shipped as possible before I left, Wednesday had been set aside for packing. Packing my clothes, packing t-shirts and books and posters, etc.
I picked up the rental car late Wednesday evening. The convention was originally going to fly me up, but I decided to drive it instead once I realized how much stuff I had to bring. It was just too much of a pain in the ass to ship it all ahead of me, and ship it back, so I rented a car.
I had planned to get to bed early that night, because I had to be up at like 5:00am, but I started watching Rocky IV and it just didn't happen.
Thursday:
Bam, Thursday morning. Alarm goes off at like five in the morning, and I roll out of bed on maybe three or four hours of sleep. Go through the motions half asleep; brushing teeth, quick shower, quick breakfast. Then it was spending fifteen minutes walking in circles around my apartment to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything. I had loaded up the car the night before, so I grabbed the last of my stuff, said a quick goodbye to my cat, Amsterdam, and headed out.
The sun was on its way up as I got into the car. My first stop was to swing by and pick up my friend Rob Balder, who lives about 45 minutes away. Our plan had been to leave
as early as possible and miss as much of the traffic as we could. No dice. The sun wasn't even over the trees yet, and I hit traffic on the highway, because Virginia drivers suck. Not as much as Connecticut drivers, but I'll get to that later. So what should have been 45 minutes to pick up Rob, turned into an hour and a half.
Finally get to Rob's apartment, which is fine I guess because he was running late. Load his stuff into the car and we're off again. We didn't hit any more realy traffic for the rest of the drive, thankfully.
The drive from Virginia to Connecticut isn't that bad. It's all straight highway, and we made really good time. About five minutes after I picked up Rob, we launched into conversation, and hardly stopped for the entire eight-ish hour drive. We talked about
everything imaginable, mostly about webcomics and the webcomic industry. This helped the time fly by, and also gave my voice quite a good workout. When I'm at conventions I talk all weekend long, talking to my friends and peers, talking to fans, speaking in front of crowds at panels, etc, so I have to be very diligent about taking care of my throat and voice. Otherwise I get a sore throat, or, god-forbid, lose my voice. The car ride up was good preparation. I also probably spent a fair amount of the ride bitching about how much I hate driving automatic transmissions.
We stopped in New Jersey for lunch at a place called the Colonial Diner off of exit 9. We were originally going to meet a friend of Rob's for lunch, but she couldn't make it. I had the french toast. I love french toast. It was pretty good, too.
As I said before, we made very good time getting to Connecticut, so we arrived at our hotel early afternoon. As soon as we checked in, I gave Matt and Briana a call to let them know I was there. They were at the campus (University of Hartford, where the
convention is held) setting up and getting everything ready. Rob and I dropped our stuff off in the room, stretched and cleaned up a bit, then headed out to the campus.
Now, the previous year I had attended ConnectiCon, my friend Brian Carroll had given me the directions that I used all weekend to get back and forth from the campus and hotel. Now, a year later, I had totally forgotten those directions, so I was relying on Mapquest's monkey-drawn directions. Now, keeping in mind that Rob and I had been driving all day, at this point we were starting to get a little punchy. I took a wrong turn and it was about ten minutes before we realized it. Then I ran a red light. It wasn't my fault though. I was stopped at a red light, and the person to my right started to move. So I started to move. But they were taking a right on red, and I just drove straight through. Rob freaked out a bit, and I couldn't stop laughing like a jackass.
Fifteen minutes later, back on the right track, I'm stopped at another red light. Rob turns and says "It's red, you can go". Unfortunately my brain registered that wrong, and I actually started to go, before he freaked out again and stopped me. It's miraculous that we made it to the campus in one piece.
Once on-site, the first order of business was to find the ConnectiCon gang, because it was being held in a different area of the school this year. On the phone with Briana, she helped guide us in. Found the gang, said hello and then decided to stick around and hang out for a while. Checked out the new Artist's Alley, hung out with Matt in the Dealer's Room while they were setting up, the usual. At some point I turned my back on Rob, and when I looked back, he had successfully smashed some trophy to bits. We spent the next half hour scouring the floor for a small piece of a gryphon's tail which, of course, was the
same color as the damned carpet. Also there was a really creepy cardboard standup of Jar Jar Binks, that Matt wouldn't let me destroy. When he wasn't looking, I snuck up on it, but when I got close, it started talking to me, in that really horrible Jar Jar voice. I stayed away from it after that.
After a few hours, Matt got a phone call from our friend Mookie, letting us know that he had just arrived at the bus station. I immediately volunteered to go pick him up, rather than him taking a cab. I haven't seen Mookie since... I-CON, I believe, and we were sharing a room at the hotel anyway. I didn't know how to get to the bus station, so I kidnapped a convention staffer by the name of Emily (possibly Kim), grabbed Rob, and we headed out to get Mookie.
I swear, I almost crashed the car as soon as I saw Mookie standing outside the bus terminal. He had cut his hair short, and it was such a dramatic change I hardly even recognized him. It looked absolutely sexy though, I will admit. So I pull up next to him, still gaping at his remarked lack of... hair, so that he can get in. The trunk was full of my books and shirts and posters, and the back seat was full of humans, so poor Mookie had to pile into the front seat with his duffel bag of clothes, large box of Dominic Deegan shirts, and his large case of art supplies, all piled on top of him. Squished Mookie.
Quickly swing by the hotel to remove Mookie of his burden, then it's back to the campus because... well... we had sort of kidnapped one of the staff. Thursday night was very uneventful, and we sort of all just hung out, catching up, I showed off my new book, etc. Somewhere during this period, however, I got ahold of a program book and started really looking at the schedule. It was then that I discovered that I had a meet and greet at 9am Friday morning. Bloody fucking hell, I'm not even supposed to be conscious that early, much less awake and meeting and greeting people. On top of this atrocity, I also notice that the first gaming event for the Webcomic challenge (a weekend-long tournament between Webcomic-representing teams) was Mario Kart: Double Dash, and was also scheduled at 9am. This was ridiculous in its own right, simply because there was no way my team was going to be at the convention that early. I was convinced no one would be at a convention that early in the morning.
I came across one of the convention staffers named Jeff, and I started bugging him, half-seriously, to try and find me a TV that I can have behind my table. It's a college, surely they have an A/V center, and surely they can borrow a TV for a weekend. Jeff, obviously eager to please, tells me he'll see what he can do. I thought he knew
I was just joking around.
A short while later, Jeff finds me and informs me that he couldn't get me a TV because they were too heavy, but he got me a mini-projector. Score.
We turned in somewhat early Thursday night, out of respect for the long day, and the asscrack-of-dawn schedule we had the next morning.
Friday:
Here we go. Friday, first day of the convention. Mookie, Rob and I get up bright and early, get ready and head out. I think we got to the convention at about 8:45am, so I hauled all of my crap into the Artist's Alley, then, coffee in hand, headed over to the room where my meet and greet was being held. Sure enough, I got there
at 9am and there was not a single person in sight. Hung around for a few minutes, then walked right outside and sat on a bench to drink my coffee and attempt to reach some semblance of coherency. There were a few people milling about the area... I had a hunch they were looking for me, but I couldn't be quite sure. Hung out for a bit, then headed back into the room. Those few people finally realized who I was, and came into the room. We sat there for a few minutes in a mix of small talk and awkward silences, as I wasn't quite sure if I was expected to entertain these people or not. I had met them, and bid them good morning... it's a meet and greet. What else was I supposed to do?
Quarter past eight at this point, and no one is coming. Screw this. I ask everyone in the room if they want to walk back to the Artist's Alley with me and hang out there. I write a big sign on the chalkboard that Ctrl+Alt+Del could be found in the Artist's Alley, and we head back. We hang out for a few minutes, I sign some posters, we conversate, 'nuff said. I'm sitting there, relaxing, enjoying my coffee, and my phone rings. It's Briana.
"You have a meet and greet right now."
"I know. I was there. No one showed... BECAUSE IT'S NINE IN THE MORNING!"
"Well there are a bunch of people there now, and they're looking for you."
"...shit."
So I drop what I'm doing and head back over to the next building, back to the meet and greet room. And when I get there... not a person in sight. So I call up Briana.
"So I'm over here in the meet and greet room, where you said the masses were waiting to shower me with rose petals? There's no one here. No rose petals, no masses, nothing."
"Well they were there a minute ago."
"They aren't here now."
"Sorry. Just write a sign on the blackboard that says you'll be in the Artist's Alley."
"..."
"Tim?"
Back in the Artist's Alley, and people are starting to show up. Con-goers, other artists, etc. I decide I'd better set up shop. I start filling up my table and the wall behind me with posters, T-shirts, and books, then I sit back to relax. Fridays are usually slow starters at conventions. A lot of people are still at work for the most of the day, so Fridays can be pretty relaxed, which is nice because it eases you into the convention mentality. And so it all starts, hanging out, talking with the fans, selling some books, shirts, etc. Mookie's table is directly to my right, so I get to chat with him during the slow periods.
Suddenly Jeff shows up with the projector. Now, the reason I had been asking for a TV was because I had brought my Xbox with me. As luck would have it, there were a couple of power outlets directly behind me, so as soon as I had the projector in hand, I dropped what I was doing and started setting it up. Five minutes later my Xbox was up and running, and projecting a 4'x4' image onto the wall to my left. Needless to say, I immediately drew the attention of the entire room. So that's how I spent my Friday morning, playing Halo, Crimson Skies, and Soul Calibur 2 with friends and fans, and Spiderman 2 when there was no competition. Not a bad way to start off the convention.
My friend Aaron (a real comic book artist) and I.
My friend Brian Carroll and his girlfriend Aido showed up eventually, to take their spots at the table to my left. Brian is one of those good friends of mine that I really don't get to hang out with enough. In fact, the last time I had seen him was at ConnectiCon 2003, so it was awesome to have him around.
Most of the afternoon was pretty standard. A whole lot of talking, a lot of fans coming through, which was great, and just an overall good time. Brian had picked up a couple of suction-cup dart guns, which promoted the high-tech equivalent of the rubber-band wars that often happen in Artist's Alleys at conventions. Friday was pretty mild in this regard though. We'll touch more on that later.
At some point Friday morning, the air conditioning in the Artist's Alley broke, and the temperature started to rise. We all assumed it was just due to the increased number of people passing through and hanging out in this little room. So by early afternoon it was getting pretty sticky and gross in the Artist's Alley. I found myself taking frequent breaks to walk around in the hallway and cool off, or hit the bathroom to freshen up.
It wasn't all bad. There were enough cool people coming through the Artist's Alley to talk to that at times you hardly even noticed the heat. Brian Clevinger hadn't brought any of his t-shirts to sell, so he didn't have a table, but he spent most of his time wandering around chatting with people, so I got to hang out with him quite a bit here and there. Rob didn't have a table either, so he stopped in on occasion to see what was going on. At one point I took a break from the sauna to go deliver signed copies of my book to Matt and Ian, and ended up chatting with Ian for a little while. Their booth was moved to the dealers room last minute, so they didn't have to deal with the oppressive heat, and instead they were stationed right beside Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca, for the uneducated). Trust me when I say, this man is gigantic. He could have stepped on me and never even noticed. Gigantic.
Sometime early evening, Mike Smith showed up. He had been stuck working that day. Mike is another friend I haven't seen since Connecticon 2003. These people are all so incredibly awesome, it's a shame I can't hang out with them on a regular basis.
Eventually 8pm rolls around, and it's time for my big panel of the weekend, "The insanity that is Ctrl+Alt+Del", which runs from 8pm to 9:30pm. On my way over there I run into Brian, Aido and Mike, who are all on their way back from a panel of their own. I'm always convinced that no one is going to show up at my panels, and it's just going to be me in an empty room, so I talk them into coming to my panel. We start looking for the room, room #125. We're walking down a hallway reading off numbers... and then they just stop at something like #124. So I'm totally confused, trying to figure out where I'm supposed to be. The hallway just ends and there's this big auditorium. Where the hell do I go? And that's when we realized. The auditorium was room 125.
I walk in, and there's already a good 20-30 people there, sitting in front of a stage. I stood there for a minute, then, looking at my watch and realizing I was a few minutes late, I screamed "Where the hell is this guy? Ctrl+Alt+Del Sucks!". And so began the best panel I have ever done.
I would love to be able to post a transcript of the panel, but I don't feel that a hazy retelling would do it any justice. I talked for a full hour and a half, and we had so much fun, I get giddy remembering it. I had some really good questions, some really funny answers, and I believe a good time was had by all.
When the panel was over, I walked off stage to a standing ovation. It was an absolutely incredible feeling. Followed immediately by an absolutely nauseous feeling. As soon as I was off stage, I felt like I was going to pass out. This is a perfect example of how much conventions and panels can take out of you. It passed fairly quickly, and I was left feeling exhausted. We headed back to the Artist's Alley.
The Artist's Alley was scheduled to close soon, and there weren't many people around, so I decided to just hang out with Mookie and Brian and the gang until closing. As I was entering the Artist's Alley, I heard someone say "Hey Tim!". I turned and said hello in a pretty casual manner, and he introduced himself as Scott. Immediately I went into "Oh shit... I don't remember this person" mode. "Scott... Scott... OH! SCOTT!". He was on his way out to grab food, but I chatted with him for a moment, then wasted the last half hour or so remarking at how well my panel had gone. Seriously, it was that good.
Mookie. Rocking out.
"Of course he won't be" I replied. "He doesn't have a key."
So Mookie and I put our stuff down and started to unwind, when suddenly Mookie trips. He looks at me in shock and points to the floor, and there is Rob. Or I should say, there was a giant lump in a sleeping bag, with Rob's hair sticking out of the top. I probably stood there for five minutes with my jaw hanging open, out of sheer surprise, alarm, and curiosity. We immediately went into stealth mode so as not wake him.
I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow.
Saturday:
Note: This con report is becoming pretty long winded. Coupled with the fact that I am now sitting down to finish it a good month after the convention, I'm going to summarize a lot from here on out, for the sake of just finishing this damned thing.
Ahh, Saturday. I had no panels on Saturday, save for the giant webcomics panel later on in the evening. We got to the Artist's Alley on time (a rarity for me on Saturday's at conventions). Saturday morning was pretty standard.
Me with my friends Briana and Britanny.
Around early afternoon, due to a miscommunication with the convention staff that I am privvy to yet will not get into, we were ordered to perfom a mass exodus of the Artist's Alley. We were to move from the sweltering little room, to the wide open lobby area. Tables and all. Let me explain to you why this was a problem.
First we had to close down the existing Artist's Alley. Then everyone had to pack up their stuff, fold up their tables, and haul everything down the hall into the lobby, and set everything back up again. A pain in the ass to be sure, but not what irritated me the most.
The Artist's Alley had been set up by Matt according to specific requests given by the people who had reserved the tables in advance. It had been laid out deliberately. When we had to move, all of the people whose tables were closest to the door, were the first ones to leave the room. This means that they were the first ones to set up in the lobby, which means they got first crack at the best spots. My table was at the very back of the room, against the wall (because I needed wall space to display t-shirts and posters behind me). I helped Mookie move his table and gear out to the lobby, and when we got out there, there was no more space left. What a pain in the ass.
At this point I was tired, overheated and irritable, so I decided not to even bother moving my table. Instead I hung out in the old Artist's Alley for a little while with Mike Smith, and we hooked up my Xbox to the room's hefty projector, and played Halo on a 8ftx8ft screen for a couple of hours.
All was well and good until fans started finding me, and I felt totally guilty about being practically unlocatable. About this time Rob came along, and I explained to him my rising level of frustration and annoyance. He suggested we take a drive and get some grub. So we took off so that we could get some food and I could relax a bit.
I think we ended up at the Macaroni Grill, and decided to just eat at the bar. Actually I think we decided to wait at the bar for our table to be ready, and then just decided to eat there. At any rate, it was about then that I decided that what had happened was no big deal, and that I would go back and hang out at the con, and do the big webcomics panel that night. But by the gods, I was going to go piss fucking drunk. So I ordered a drink and polished it off.
After that, I just had Rob order drinks for me. Rob is the kind of guy you want at any party. He's like an encyclopedia of drinks. He's the kind of guy, that once he learns all of the drinks there are to make, isn't satisfied, and starts making up his own fucking drinks. So every time I finished off a drink, I turned to him and said "order me something else". I like to try new things.
Dinner was pretty good, and by the time we were done I had a very sufficient buzz going on. We paid the check and walked outside with a second mission... and sure enough, right across the street was a liquor store. We headed over with the intention of getting me a little metal flask I could keep filling up, but instead I settled for a perfectly pocket-sized bottle of vodka. Now I was ready to get smashed.
As well equipped as I was, we headed back to the convention, with me feeling much happier indeed. I was drunk by the time I walked in the door. I approached Matt and he apologized again, and explained that when the Artist's Alley closed down, they were going to rearrange all of the tables, and they'd make sure I had a spot. I explained that I was drunk, and it was all groovy. I spent a little while hanging out, every so often ducking around a corner to nurse the bottle of fun that I was carrying. I wanted to be sure that I was plenty plastered for the panel. I mean hell, someone's gotta do it, right?
So anyway, Uber Webcomic Panel. And I mean fucking Uber. I've done quite a few panels at quite a few conventions, and this is easily the largest one I've ever been a part of. There were easily thirty or so webcomics on stage. And maybe fifty or sixty people in the audience. It was insane.
Anyway, somehow I got situated center-stage, right between the incredible Rich Stevens and the deliciously British John Allison. And again, somehow I got volunteered to moderate this panel. Now, in my defense, I did try to derail this flaming wreck. I did publicly announce that I was pretty damned drunk. However that was met with cheers and applause from the audience, so, with the help of Rich Stevens, I ended up acting as moderator. Sure enough, the very first question of the night, "Exactly how drunk are you?".
Here's a shot of the massive Webcomic Panel.
After the panel I was scheduled to compete versus Mac Hall in the big Webcomic Challenge Halo tournament. I approached Matt and Ian and offered to base the entire Webcomic Challenge on the outcome of the Halo match. CAD had been winning all of the events by default, and it would have been a pretty hollow victory otherwise.
Again, keeping in mind that I spent the better part of Saturday night pretty drunk, my recollection is hazy. The Halo tournament was held in two adjoining rooms, two networked Xboxes hooked up to two projector screens, one team in each room, teams of four. I believe we played Blood Gulch, CTF to five points. It was a pretty intense battle, let me tell you. Mac Hall scored the first point early on, but we came back later with two consecutive captures. Eventually Matt Boyd came in and forfeited the battle. It was past 1am, and he wanted to sleep. SO it ended up being a fairly hollow victory anyway, but it was a really fun match. We spent about fifteen minutes in the hallways afterwards doing the "did you see the time when...?!" and "I can't believe you got me that one time..!" thing. Good stuff.
I was surprised to see Mookie there... actually, there were a lot of people there. From what I heard, there were like thirty people crammed into our room watching us play. That's how intense the match was... I never even noticed a crowd of people directly behind me.
Anyway, either Mookie already had the keys to the car, or I gave him the keys to the car... I forget. At any rate, Mookie drove us back to the hotel. When we got into the room I swore I was ready to pass out, and layed down on the bed. And then the phone rang. It was Rob, and he was a couple of floors down in Pete Abram's room. Reluctantly I stood up and I wandered down to join them for some more drinking and socializing. There were a few other webcomic artists there. We ended up calling Brian at like 2am or something, and got him to come down. Ian J. and Josh Mirman were there as well. Mookie finally came down and joined us too. We hung out for a bit, ate pizza, talked about all sorts of things (mostly work... I've found that when webcomic artists get together we mostly talk shop). Eventually we crawled back upstairs and went to bed.
Sunday:
I woke up on Sunday moring, not hungover (I never get hangovers) but pretty dehydrated. My first order of business was to get food and drink in me, so we stopped for coffee and breakfast on the way to the convention. When I got to the convention, specifically the newly arranged Artist's Alley, I found I had a table next to Trish and Damien of Novablade Studios, and in the vicinity of Ian J. and Josh Mirman.
Sundays are often slow days at conventions, so I was hanging back, relaxing, talking with friends that I knew I wouldn't see until the next convention. It was around this time that the Dart Gun hyjinx that had been taking place over the weekend escalated into a full-on war. There were suction-cup darts flying every which way. Brian Carroll and Mike Smith were across from me, but with a large pillar inbetween us prodiving cover. We would collect and hoard ammo, and then unleash a relentless barrage of hellfire down upon eachother. At one point, while my attention was diverted, Mike Smith managed to sneak right up to the front of my table, on hands and knees. Ducked down right in front of me where I couldn't see him, I was oblivious to his presence. Suddenly I see an arm shoot up from the edge of the table holding a dart gun aimed my way. It fires, striking me dead center. As I was startled, Mike begins to scurry back to his table to reload, a feat that takes a good ten seconds with these guns. I recover my bearings, and as he's running away, I leap out of my seat with the intention of crossing over my table and shooting him in the back. However, I plant my foot too close to the edge of the table on my side, and so as I push off to jump the table, the entire table and all of my belongings tip over. I've already gained momentum at this point, but the table slipped out from underneath me has altered my entire angle, and the length of my body is now parallel to the ground beneath me. Knowing that the only way I'm going to land is very painfully, I take aim and fire, mid-air. Time slows down. I'm sailing through the air. Mike, having heard the crash of my table, turns to see me flying through space in his direction, just as I fire my shot, scoring a direct hit. I land with a crash at his feet, and immediately begin attempting to reload, while Mike is frantically trying to do the same. We end up faced off in a Resevoir Dogs style pose, with me on the ground and him standing over me. We both fire. I am making
none of this up. This is the kind of stuff that only happens at conventions.
Brian Carroll and I got into it as well, chasing eachother around the artist's alley, until we found a desk/counter sort of thing, that acted as the prop for our "barscene shootout-esque" gunfights. A crowning example of our gunplay involves me ducked down behind the bar reloading, with him across the room doing the same. I sense an "over-the-bar" attack, so I lie down on my back and kick off with my legs, sending myself sliding across the floor and out from behind the bar just as Brian leaps onto the counter in an attempt to shoot me from above. Atthe same instant he realizes I am no longer behind the bar, he sees me slide out from under it. My shot may have hit, it may have missed. I don't remember. That's hardly the point.
Unfortunately, as with all good things, especially conventions, things must come to an end. People started packing up to make the trips home, goodbyes were said, and the crowds dissipated.
Most of us went out to dinner that night, the majority of the webcomic artists, most of the convention staff, and some of the guests, including Peter Mayhew. We got to hang out in a relaxed environment, a successful convention weekend behind us, eat some good food, and socialize. I can't say it enough that I regret not being able to hang out with these people more often. I did get a chance to hang out with my friend Brian Clevinger a bit more though. His plane didn't leave until the following day, and Rob and I certainly weren't going to be driving back to Virginia late Sunday night, so we all hung out in my hotel room, ate some pizza and watched TV. We caught a terribly fascinating documentary on the Octopus, which has supplied us with inside jokes for years to come.
ConnectiCon is and always will be very close to my heart. It's run by close friends, attended by close friends, and has a general family atmosphere for me. Thank you to all of the fans who came out to say hello, to play some video games with me, and attend my panels. Thank you to Matt and Briana for running the convention, and thank you to all of my fellow webcomic artists who made it such a memorable, pleasant experience for me.
