Steven D. Forbes

So there I was, getting ready for the San Diego convention, when things got a little hairy…

Yes, I admit that it’s partially my fault.  Was being damned lazy.  Okay, here’s what happened:

My four day pass was paid for first.  San Diego sold out of passes FAST, and I was happy to get a four day pass.  They went first…MONTHS before the show.  Probably set a show record.  Anyway, the system sent a confirmation through e-mail.  I use GMail for my e-mail needs (and you should, too!), and I just left it sitting there.  GMail doesn’t get rid of any e-mails.  It just sits there on the server until you tell it to do something with it.  So, I was set, and I knew it.

We bought Lenora’s passes later.  Saturday was already sold out, so we got her passes for the other days.  Again, we got the confirmation through her e-mail.  Now, something told me to either print hers out, or to at least forward her confirmations to my e-mail.  Lenora uses hotmail, and while I used to use it myself, GMail is much friendlier for me.  Anyway, I didn’t do either, and we nearly paid for it.

My orders for the t-shirts came in, the camera came in, I already had my cards, and things were looking up.  The Scarlet Spider costume is coming together nicely.  So, I started getting things together for the convention.  First things first: print out the confirmations.  I went to print mine out, and had no problems at all.  Then I went to print out Lenora’s…and found only one of three confirmations.  This was over the Fourth of July weekend.

No, no panic.  We sent an e-mail to the show, asking to resend the confirmations, and we waited.

I didn’t think to check her e-mail until Tuesday, and found that they had resent them on Monday.  Talk about efficiency!  And we dodged a bullet.  Thankfully, I like to get ready as soon as possible.  So, I printed her confirmations, and put them in the the bag we’re taking, along with copies of Bullet Time and a lot of my cards.  I’m also going to be writing up a script for Viper Comics and their contest, so that’s going to be going in the bag, too.

The Group webcomic was also experiencing some problems.  I have already put up all the pages I have, and that takes me out to the end of July.  Sara had to put the project aside for a while in order to do other work to pay the bills.  And you know what?  That’s why we were going with a weekly update, anyway.  It was for things just like that.  I was just happy that we had enough pages to last us without going dark.

Anyway, I got an e-mail from her near the end of June saying she’d be getting pages back to me very soon.  And she was good to her word!  The new pages are GORGEOUS!  So far, it’s only two pages, but that still gives us a month of new pages before we run out.  It’s near the end of the chapter, and she’s printing out the next chapter and looking through it to see if there’s anything she’ll need photo reference for.  Can’t wait to see what she does with it.  That means, of course, that I need to letter up the new pages and put them in the que for publication, and I’ll be doing that tomorrow at work, depending on where I’m sitting.

But, that wasn’t the only problem facing me.  The webcomic is a little broken right now witht the navigation buttons.  I need to have those fixed before I can start the media bombardment I have planned.  I have something in the works for that, and hopefully, my friend can lend a hand with it.  I hope so.

And that would be enough, wouldn’t it?  But no!  Wordpress has an update available, and I went and updated it.  When I tried to go back in, it told me I had a fatal error!  I couldn’t log in!!  No logging in means no updates, means no media, means no forward movement.  Yeah, I was pissed.

My friend found some instructions on how to get around the error in order to log back in.  I did that, and found that there was an update for the plugin that I use for the webcomics, and everything is back to normal again–meaning, I can update, but the navigation is still broken.  And you know what?  I can live with that for the moment.  It means I can update and get things fixed, because I can log back in.  And that was just a few minutes ago.

I’m also learning to do things for myself, and let me tell you, it’s a wonderful feeling.  I’m learning to make my own web banners, as well as banners for my signature.  They’re actually pretty fun to do.  Looking forward to making more, which would be great if I had a fully functional site to see.  But, things’ll be okay soon.  I have faith.

I’ve also been sitting on the script and outline for the cookbook.  I have to look those over tonight, make sure they’re good to go, and then send them off to Lee.  I’m still waiting to hear about the other book, but I understand these things take time.  I’m itching to move on a few things, but the waiting game seems to be paramount.

The waiting ends soon, though.  I’ll talk about that in a little bit.

I’m closing in on one year of writing Bolts & Nuts!  One full year of weekly updates, without being late once.  And I’ve just passed six months of The Proving Grounds, too.  That’s something, really.  I didn’t think that TPG would go as long as it has.  I figured maybe three months, and it would be over.  It’s a show that is basically run by the readers, because they have to send me scripts to edit.  I did a poll to see if there was any interest in it, and got a little less than my desired response, but went through with it anyway.  I’m glad I did.  While the response hasn’t been overwhelming, I’ve been doing this for six months, with only a couple of calls for scripts.  I missed a couple of people, though, and decided to put up a list of who’s next for everyone to see.  This way, they’ll know who’s next, and when they’re going.  It should also hopefully prompt people to send in their scripts when I start to run low.  We’ll see what happens.

And yes, dear friends, we’re moving again.

We’re going back to apartment-ville, and you know what?  I’m looking forward to it.  The houses were nice, but moving into them was a mistake.  It’s a nice goal to get back to, though.  They’re expensive to live in, and a big drain on our very stretched funds.  So, we’ll move, and things will get easier almost immediately.  No more money worries.

We’re going apartment hunting on Saturday, and will see if we can get a place pretty near to her job.  The move won’t happen until September, and things would be easier just about all over.  Lenora could very well walk to work, except when it’s raining, or just have one of her co-workers pick her up, because it’s just that damned close.  We’ll see.  It would be less wear and tear on the car.  Right now, when I get off from work, I come home and take Lenora to work, and one of her co-workers brings her home.  When I’m off from work, I take Lenora to work.  It’s wear and tear on the car, a drain on gas, and I lose some work time for things I can’t do at my job.  (Hm.  I may get an air card for the laptop to use while at work…)  Even if I have to still take her to work, it’ll be okay, because we’ll be saving money.

Money is the great greaser.  I’m looking forward to doing something I really haven’t done since we got here: go out.  We’ve been to the movies only a few times since we’ve been here, and there are a LOT of movies I want to see.  There are a lot of movies I want to buy.  I’d like to be able to go out with friends to a bar every so often.  I’d like to be able to do a lot of things.  It’ll be good not to worry so much about bills, because they’ll be covered.  It’ll be great.

And that’s really about it for now.  Just watching the 60’s Spider-Man cartoon as part of my comic book festival before Comic-Con.  On Disk 2 of 6 (I think), and will be replacing those pretty soon with another two, then some Marvel movies (The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man), and Superman III.  Richard Pryor goodness.  Can’t really go wrong with that.  (Hey!  No booing!)

Okay, I have stuff to do, so I better get to it.  Go watch a comic book movie.  You’ll be glad you did.

-Steven

Okay, I’m back from San Diego, and rested.  My legs are a little tired still, but my feet don’t hurt, and that’s a glorious feeling, believe me.

Basically, I’m going to run down this year’s San Diego experience.  Everyone ready?  Let’s go.

First, we left late.  We wanted to leave at 5pm or so, but didn’t actually leave until 2am.  Money issues.  Yep, pissed me off, too.

The four of us get on the road (Lenora, myself, Angie, and my grandaughter Alycia), and we’re off to the races.  Lenora isn’t feelig that well, and we eventually pull over to get her some Pepto.  She’s a trooper, though, and she did the bulk of the driving.  (I do most of the driving around town here in Tucson.)  We finally pull over in Yuma, and we switch sides, so I get to drive.

As soon as I pull off, I hear a clicking sound near the left front.  I did NOT want to hear any strange sounds!  However, whenever we travel for a long distance, we always do so with money.  I was just hoping it wouldn’t be more than we could afford.  The sound was coming from the tire, I knew, because it was too damned regular.  I pull over again, get out, and check the tire, and find a Phillips head screw embedded in the tire.  I was hoping for a rock or something, but no, it was a damned screw.  What made it worse was that the screw was doing its best impression of a nail.  The tire would have to either be repaired or replaced.

We get off the road and find a repair shop.  A Goodyear.  The guy looks familiar to me, but I can’t place him.  I don’t worry much about it.  He gives an estimate of under $20 to repair the tire.  I say fine, go for it.  They were just opening up, too.  So the tire gets repaired, and we’re on the road thirty minutes later, and I’m feeling much better about it.

We finally pull into San Diego at about 10am, which pisses me off a little.  I had plans to make it to a panel at 10.  Instead, we don’t make it there until nearly 1, because of all the crap we have to go through, first.

First, we drop off Angie and Alycia at one of her friends’ house.  Angie is flighty, and has to be kept on task.  She already knows that if she’s not back here and ready to go when it’s time to leave, she’s getting left behind.  Then, Lenora and I go eat breakfast at Denny’s, because eating at the convention is madness.  Horribly, HORRIBLY overpriced.  Horribly.  Then, we have to go pick up a key to the place we stayed at–one of Lenora’s friends.  It was then off to the apartment to shower and change, and then off to the convention center!

Now, this is my third time going to the convention.  The first time, I went with my ex-wife, April.  The second time was with Lenora, before we were married.  I got her a 4 day pass, and it was a waste of money because she stepped into the convention center for all of an hour on only one day.  Yes, it was a crime.  This year?  She was trying to piss me off even further because we had passes for her for every day but Saturday, but she was trying to get out of it, make plans, or do whatever else besides be on the convention floor or up at a panel with me.  Yeah.

So, we get there, park in one of the parking lots, and have a pedi-cab take us to the convention center.  It was a beautiful day in San Diego.  About 80 degrees, but with a breeze, because the San Diego Convention Center is literally right on the harbor.  This is why CBR can have a boat show.  Anyway, we go and check in, and start getting inundated with free stuff.  You go in the convention center, up the escalator, make a left, make another immediate left, and walk down a hallway, where you then make a right and do the check in.  It might have been crowded in the morning, but it was pretty fast and efficient when we went through.

We walk past a table of free flyers, cards, and people trying to sell their wares.  We take a good sampling of it, and we continue to mosey along.  Downstairs, we go into the show proper, and walk the floor.

It was a crush of humanity,but not as bright and loud as the previous time I went.

There were just TONS of stuff to look at.  I mean, so much stuff that you go into overload, and no longer really register what you’re seeing.  It was horrible.  It was great.  And then we go upstairs to a panel (because I have to get the panels in.)

This panel was an Image workshop.  It was moderated by a guy who’s name I forget (I think it starts with a C…Chris?  Chip?  I don’t know, but he’s the marketing guy for Image), but on the panel were Jim Valentino, Jimmie Robinson, John Layman, Richard Starkings, Joe Kelley, and Steven T. Seagle.  A nice cross-section of creators and an Image founder.

John Layman said next to nothing.  He introduced himself, spoke a little bit about his background, and then shut up for almost the entirety of the panel.  He made no other impression on me except that he didn’t belong up there if he had nothing to say.

Jim Valentino had to leave early, which was a shame.  Richard Starkings is a lovely gentleman.  British, for those of you who don’t know.  Nice sense of humor.  Joe Kelley looks to be kinda shy, even though he spoke a lot.

Now, there were two people that made an impression on me, both for different reasons.  The first was Jimmie Robinson.  First, let me say I’ve never picked up an issue of Bomb Queen, or anything else he’s done.  Just so we’re clear on that.  However, I didn’t know he was black.  That was surprising to me, and not at all in a bad way.  The second thing that surprised me was that his book is truly creator owned.  He does it ALL: writes, draws, colors, letters.  He’s friggin insane!  And yes, that’s in a good way.  And Jimmie said something that called to me about the state of supervillains, something I spoke about in Bolts & Nuts recently.  I was talking about supervillain motivations and how a lot of the supervillains, aside from wanting money, aren’t really villains.  Magneto isn’t a villain, he’s just going about things differently.  Jimmie basically said the same thing, word for word.

The other person who made an impression was Steven Seagle.  He sat up there, the only guy wearing a button down shirt, slack, and a blazer.  He also looked totally relaxed.  He was smart, he was sarcastic, he was funny.  He seemed like he could be a bit of a dick if need be.  He reminded me a LOT of myself.  I liked him instantly.

He was also the only one up on the panel saying the truth.

Getting into comics is hard.  The best way to get in is to make a comic.  Making comics is expensive.  Talk to your artists.  Go out on the internet and find them.  Find them around here.  Talk to the guys and gals showing their portfolios around.  Have a voice.  Comics is hard.

Honestly, he and I could have been on that panel together, and answered a LOT of questions.  Hell, I would have been more entertaining than John Layman, who, like I said, didn’t say much at all.  There were people asking questions about where to find artists, where to find feedback for their writing, where to do a lot of things.  I wanted to say “I run a couple of columns that can help you!  Do it!”  I probably should have.

Anyway, I gave my card to an artist that was sitting beside me.  I took a quick look through his portfolio.  He’s going to get hit on anatomy a lot.  I think Steven even said it while the artist was showing him a sample.

That was the only panel for the day that I attended.  There were other things I wanted to do, but I was exhausted, so instead, we went to get one last piece for my costume, we went to eat, and then we went to bed.  In all, a decent night.

More tomorrow: the costume, the mild annoyance, the tiredness.  For now, go watch something not comic book related.  I am.  Dracula’s Daughter.

Day 2, of course, was Friday.  I woke up not feeling so great.  I ate decently the night before, and slept like the dead on the futon.  It wasn’t the most comfortable night’s sleep, but my body really didn’t care.  All I know is that I laid down next to Lenora and was asleep, and then I woke up feeling bleh.  Throat was a little sore, stomach was a little upset…  It might have been sleeping next to the open window.

Let me tell you something about San Diego weather.  In the afternoon, it can get pretty warm.  However, when the sun goes down, it can get downright cool.  Definitely jacket weather.  I woke to an overcast day after having a cool breeze blow on me all night (Lenora sleeps with the fan on, so it wasn’t that much different), and my body told me that getting up wasn’t going to be fun.

I did it anyway, and after doing my morning ritual, I put on my costume.  It was the first time Lenora saw me in it, and she liked it a lot.  I loved it.  Then I took off the mask, finished my preparations, and we went to the convention center, and parked at the same place.  (We parked there all four days.  It’s not that far from the convention center itself, and the rates were extremely reasonable.)

Now, I’m near sighted, and I don’t wear contacts.  I put my fingers in my eyes often enough getting eyelashes out, so putting lenses in my eyes would be too much.  Without my glasses, my sight goes down to about 75%.  With the mask, because of the reflective film, we’ll call it 70%.  However, it got a little stuffy, and the lenses of the mask started to fog up, and my sight eventually got down to about 30% or so.  Lenora was leading me around, and I did a lot of waving, or stopping to be photographed.  The pictures are on my Facebook page.  Go take a gander!

Anyway, before we left for the center, I was feeling much better, and it just got better as the day progressed.  After walking the floor for a couple of hours, I changed back into my civvies.  There was a small scare when I couldn’t find my glasses, but that turned out well.

I was slighly annoyed when Lenora left, but she had some things to do in order to meet some obligations for Saturday.  Why was I annoyed?  Because we bought tickets for her to go to the convention, not spend her time traipsing around San Diego.  It’s almost a waste of money.  But I understood (barely), and she went, leaving me to wander the convention floor and go to panels by myself.

While on the convention floor, I stopped by Man of Action studios, the home of Joe Kelley and Steven T. Seagle–who were on the only panel I attended the day before.  I had a chance to introduce myself to Steven, and tell him that I really appreciated what he said in the panel, and told him something about the columns I write over at Project Fanboy.  He said he’d be interested in taking a look, so I wrote the site down on the backs of one of my cards.    I hope he stops by, and even better, signs up and makes some comments.  Then I walked around some more before heading upstairs for the Radical panel.

Oh, let me get this out of the way, while I’m at it.  These are the stars I saw with my own two peepers, over the four days: Edward James Olmos, Adam Baldwin, Gene Simmons, Tommy “Tiny” Lister (also known as Zeus), Jon Favreau, Kevin Greivoux, Rhea Perlman, Danny DeVito…and that’s really about it.  All that comes to mind, anyway.  I’m not one that’s star struck.  They’re people with recognized talent, that’s all.  Possibly cool to talk to, but I’m not going to gush over them.  Hell, if I’m not going to gush over Prince if I ever met him, I’m not going to gush over them.  So, no, I didn’t take any pictures of them, and I sure as hell didn’t take any pictures with them.  I wanted to get a picture of Stan on Saturday, but I wasn’t able to.  We’ll talk about that tomorrow.

Anyway, at the Radical panel, I found out that Nick Simmons (son of Gene) actually has some talent!  He wrote AND drew his own comic!  I found that to be astounding.  I don’t expect the children of stars to have any developed talent, because they rarely need to develop it.  I was pleasantly surprised, though.  After that, though, I skipped the Boom! panel in order to go to Cup O’ Joe.  I figured I had to make at least one Marvel panel.  And I was very happy when I did.

Near the end of the panel, when Joe said that Marvel now has MarvelMan, I nearly shit myself.  The news was HUGE to me.  So huge that I said WHOA!  Literally.  And the guys sitting beside me?  They had no clue as to what the big deal was.  Makes me think of how far I’ve come as a creator, and how far I’ve still to go in order to truly appreciate what has come before me.

That was it for me when it came to panels.  I tried to make it to the Impact University panel, but it was clear on the other side of the complex.  Not only that, but there was a HUGE line for something else that was waiting (no, really, it was HUGE!  It snaked from inside and down the hall, to outside against the building, and probably down some stairs.  It was horrible!), and when they started to let them in to whatever panel, they had to cut off the access of people trying to cross through the line.  So, no, I didn’t make it to the panel, and by that time, I was pretty damned tired and hungry.  Lenora came to pick me up, and we left.

I will say one thing, though.  I saw Rob Liefeld in person for the first time.  While I didn’t necessarily want to piss on him, I DID have the urge to ask him why he hasn’t felt a need to improve his art any over 15 or so years.  Everyone should want to get better, and it’s no longer the 90’s where you can put out crap and have people lap it up.  However, it was a story that would probably never be told, so I just left it alone.  I mean, you know the artwork has to be bad when my wife, who doesn’t read comics, comments on how bad the anatomy and storytelling are.

Oh, and I picked up a book, too.  Andy Schmidt’s The Insider’s Guide To Creating Comics and Graphic Novels.  I haven’t finished it yet, but that’s what I’ll be reading over the next few days.  I’ll give my thoughts on it later.

And that was Day 2!

Woke up feeling froggy on Saturday.  I was ready to take on the world.

Saturday was the only day that Lenora didn’t have a ticket.  So, after getting ready for the day, she dropped me off near the convention center and went on to the San Diego Zoo.

My plan on Saturday was to walk the floor for a while, and then head upstairs for the Marv Wolfman writing seminar, as well as an Adventures in Voice Acting seminar.  I’m all about stretching my wings and seeing what else I could possibly be interested in.

So, I walked around the floor.  I finally got a chance to meet up with some Digital Webbing alum, which was nice.  Finally got to meet 4-9 Studios (and bought something), as well as Ray Dillon.  I didn’t get a chance to meet Renae, and for that, I was saddened.  She’s pregnant, and was at the con drawing all day on Friday, and was feeling tired.  However, she was due back sometime during the show.  Ray told me to stop back by later to see if she was there.  I told him I would, and that I would also be at his wedding on Sunday.

I also had a chance to meet a world champion, Olympic gold medal winning martial artist.  I stopped and talked to him for a little bit, and bought something.  Yes, I also bought something from Ray.  I met Kevin Grevioux while talking with Master O’Niel, and after walking around a little bit more, it was time to go upstairs for my panels.

I’d heard that the Marv Wolfman panel was a popular one, so I went up early in order to get a decent seat.  I sat outside the room, and there were a few artist panels that were going on in the same room.  An artist had the bad luck to sit next to me, and I took a look at his portfolio.

His name is Jackson, but everyone calls him Jack.  He’s 19, still going to school for art, and I think he’s hireable NOW.  He’s from the UK, so he had the lovely accent going on.  Only a few anatomy issues, a couple of storytelling issues, but the art I saw was from him not working with a script.  A decent writer and/or a decent editor would help him knock out the storytelling issues with little problem.  Of course, I gave him my card.  Think I’m crazy?

Oh, while downstairs, before I met Ray in Artist’s Alley, I met another guy named Alex.  He has a nice painting style that I think would work very well as a cover artist for Group.  Not to take anything away from Sara, but I’m always thinking.  We’ll see if anything comes of it.

Anyway, back upstairs.  In order to get a good seat, I went to the panel before the Marv Wolfman panel.  It was something about a master series of art, and the guy brought 160 slides for a 50 minute presentation.  We got through less than half, but the artwork he showed was brilliant!  Not just his, but we’re talking about past masters.  Made me realize just how much I still have yet to learn.  There are days when I feel like a fraud calling myself an editor.  Really.

So, that panel ended, and I moved up a little for the Wolfman panel.

It was something of a disaster, from my point of view.

First, while he seems to be a nice guy, Mr. Wolfman is NOT a public speaker.  He’s not comfortable behind a microphone, being the sole focus of people’s attention.  He kept moving the mic back and forth, didn’t really know what to do with his hands, and sounded nervous as hell.  At least he wasn’t visibly sweating.

Anyway, the main thrust of his talk was about characterization in comics.  Of course, he used his career and the characters he wrote as examples, mainly the Teen Titans.   I was able to glean a few things off of him, but overall, I thought it was a waste of my time.  As most of these things do, it tried to devolve into ‘how do I break in’, but to his credit, Mr. Wolfman was able to keep it mostly on track.  And then it was over.

I stayed in the chair.  Adventures in Voice Acting was one hour away, and there was another artist panel that was coming in.  I figured why not?  I may be able to see some more artwork, give my card out to more artists, and maybe glean some more info for my fraudulent editor gig.

Then one of the ladies working the con started putting up place cards.  I saw names that I recognized, but there was one name that stood out (that I could make out): CB Cebulski.  Yes, I got a little excited.  And then the panel moderator walked in, and I recognized him, but had trouble placing his name for a moment.  (I’m good with faces but horrible with names at times–and then, sometimes, it goes in reverse, I’m good with names but horrible with faces, but that doesn’t happen often.)  When I then placed the name, it was Andy Schmidt, who wrote a book I bought the day before.  (Yes, he had a place card as well, but I’m near sighted, and couldn’t read it from where I sat.)

This panel went up and down a little bit, talking about preparing a portfolio, but then how to break in, and then bringing it back to the portfolio.  It was kept mostly on track.  The basic thing they said was to make sure your portfolio was current, and to get it into an editor’s hands any way you knew how.

Now, Andy runs a seminar called Comics Experience.  It’s currently bicoastal, because he just moved to San Diego when he joined the IDW team.  So, San Diego and Brooklyn.  Nice, right?  Well, he also said that he would eventually be starting up a seminar on the web for distance learning, and that he’d give out cards to those who wanted them at the end of the panel.

Of course, I went up and got a card.  Not only that, but I also told told him that I bought his book yesterday, and planned on poring over it–as I handed him a copy of Bullet Time and my card.  He to send him an e-mail, telling him what I thought of it.  I said that I would–and I plan to.

I also gave a copy of Bullet Time to CB, as well as my card.  Yes, my heart was racing as I did, but in all, if either one of these turns into some sort of work, then I’d say that the entire convention was worth it.

Next up was Adventures in Voice Acting.  While interesting, while it gave me new information, it was a colossal waste of time.  Ever skip a rock over a lake?  This was the same thing: skimming over the process.  And yes, I understand this is the nature of these things, because they only have 50 minutes, but really, I’d like to have some meat on the bones of these panels.

After the panel, it was basically time to go.  I rushed downstairs to see if Renae was back.  The show would be closing for the day pretty soon, and it was either see her then, or see her on Sunday.  When I found them, it was only Ray, doing some work, with Renae not back yet.  I saw him, we exchanged a few words, and then I was off to the races.  I had to meet Lenora at the Hyatt, and I had to make it through a throng of people, as well as walk down the block past the Mariott.

Here is what I want you to take with you when it concerns panels: it’s a decent way to get your face seen, but if you’ve been in comics for a while, more than likely, panels such as these are going to be a waste of time.  It’s generally a bunch of people looking for the magic bullet of breaking in, who’re either really stupid, or really slow about “getting it.”  You break in by doing it.  There’s really few other ways of doing it today.  You get in by creating a comic.  This goes for every step of the process.  The more you do, the better off you’ll be, which will prepare you for your “big break.”  Otherwise, these panels are a joke.  You go, you listen, you exchange cards, get your face seen, and then put your nose back to the grindstone and continue to work.  Getting anything else, like “truth,” isn’t necessarily going to happen.  There are too many newbies with delusions of grandeur, who know nothing about anything, and who are feverishly trying to break in, for these panels to be anything more than an extremely skimpy overview of the process.  And the panelists?  They can only tell you how THEY got in, not how YOU can get in.

Does this mean I’ll be skipping the panels from now on?  I dunno.  It depends on if I have a booth with things to sell, or if there are interesting panels to go to.  I’ll tell you what, though: I’ll be hitting up artist panels more often from now on.  Do some portfolio reviews, get my card out there more, see if I can make some connections.

Anyway, that was Day 3.  We’ll talk about Day 4 tomorrow.

Woke up that morning pretty early.  Somewhere around 5 am.  No, I don’t know why.  Eventually, my stomach told me why.  No, I wasn’t a happy camper.  I can handle being sick in a hotel room.  Being sick in someone else’s house?  Not my idea of a good time.

After that ordeal, I decided to sleep in.  There were no “must see” panels for me.  I had thoughts of going to another voice acting panel, but after the disappointment of yesterday, I decided to skip it.  I thought about going to the Dan DiDio panel, and then see what happened from there.  I also wanted to go see Ray & Renae get married.

Lenora and I finally went to the convention center, right in time to see the Dan DiDio panel.  I didn’t feel like actually going in, but I was supposed to see one of the guys I edit while there, John Lees.  He was going to be dressed as the Green Lantern.  So, we went and gazed at the line, looking for someone obviously dressed…and didn’t see him.  So, instead, we went down to the convention center floor.

Something of a madhouse, but Lenora was able to navigate it well.  She even finally got into the spirit of it, looking around and wanting to buy things.  It was a nice time-killer until the wedding.

The wedding.  I went to find Ray at his table, but neither he nor Renae were there.  Getting ready to be married, so I left to go find the place.

Basically, I was unsuccessful in finding the place they were to be married.  Lenora found what would have been a great place to be married outside the convention center, but there was no one there.  Fine.  We didn’t wait, although we should have, because that was the exact place they got married!  I was only a little pissed at myself for missing it, but it was too late to do anything about it.  Since we couldn’t find where they were getting married, and I hate being late for things, we left.  That was the convention.

While there, I was backdoored into taking our stepson back with us.  That pissed me off.  This was on Sunday, and Lenora didn’t really talk to me about it.

Now, Lenora told Angie to be ready to go by 5 pm.  Then she told her that we’d be there a little later.  I told Angie before we left that if she wasn’t ready to go when it was time to leave, she’d get left.  I had no qualms about doing it, either.  Well, when we pulled up, she wasn’t there.  She let Alycia go somewhere with her grandmother (baby’s daddy’s mother), and she was late coming back.  No, I didn’t care one iota.  We were there, she wasn’t, and we should have left.

Lenora asked for a reprieve.  I said 10 minutes.  If she wasn’t there in ten minutes, we were going to pull off.  If necessary, I was going to pull off and leave Lenora there, too.  Coldhearted, but I like to think that I mean what I say.  Be there, or be left.  No, Lenora wasn’t happy, either.  She wasn’t happy with me, even though I was just doing what I already said I was going to do.

Angie finally got there–with literally one minute to spare.  She got her stuff together, and we were off.  Or so we thought.  We were on the road for about an hour, maybe less, when the traffic slowed to a stop.  Border patrol was doing a 100% check, and the checkpoint was roughly three miles away.  We were stuck in traffic for about an hour, and when we got up to the checkpoint itself…there was no one there!  Yep.  Stupid.

We got back home safe and sound, a little tired, but good.

And that’s the entire trip, There & Back Again!