The black “headpieces” that the Adrasteans have also helped serve to identify individuals, although looking back, I probably should have came up with more of a design sense for them.

I’m also not sure why so many of them tend towards short and slightly pudgy.

In the begining MegMan did not have much in the way of story, Sketch had to solve alot of problems on his own.   This lead to some cool concepts that we can be build on in the future. I really enjoyed the concept that all the crystals had speakers. It gave MegMan the organic feeling we were trying to achive.

MegMan was not supposed to be a serious comic. This lead into problems when, The actual artists formally know as MegMan took over the writing of MegMan. His inability write a thoughtful story that built on what was already created, lead to a disjointed storyline that did not make any sense to both Sketch and I.

We are now relaunching the story and taking a more serious approach. Starting from the begining. Unfortunately this requires us to drop 38  episodes because they just do not work.

Okay, so the font changed, and hopefully for the better. I’ll get around to changing the font in the banner, too.

And I didn’t goof- the moon’s supposed to be visible in both frames.

In other news, CottonFluff Hollow missed the deadline for the Blank Label Webcomic Telethon for Hurricane Katrina survivors, but I did do a comic for it. (deadline for charity, go figure. I’m sure there’s an administrative/technical reason or something)

I participated in another webcomic telethon, but I can’t really mention it here. Visit Graphitegolem.com, and read the News section for more.

Thanks,

-P

Present-day thoughts: Panel 4 needed work. I remember showing it to some other folk, and getting feedback on it that the perspective should have been more dramatic- the lamp should have been closer, instead of floating in midair like that. I never had the time to go back and fix it, and, well, I still don’t.

But I’m aware that it kind of sucks, and that’s the important thing.

I got to the con a little ahead of time, and capitalized on my Artist’s (read as: Exhibitor’s) badge to get into the Exhibit Hall a little earlier than the General Public, and talk to some publishers, as well as track down those booths that I hadn’t been able to find in the mad press of Thursday. I met with a fair amount of success while doing this, and suddenly the gates opened, and the con was in full swing again. Friday was the only day that I had any actual gaming planned, my friends had made plans to play a round of True Dungeon, but I had even worked that into my schedule for Maximum Exposure.

My Cunning Plan for spending several hours at True Dungeon was to leave my portfolio at Wizards of the Coast, since they had instituted some new portfolio review procedures. Based on the emphasis on speedy turnaround (they either were going to call you in or not) leaving my portfolio with them to Yay or Nay during the several hours that I wouldn’t be actively using it seemed like the correct play. As my friend George put it, ‘If they’re handing out lotto tickets, you might as well take one.’

However, it turned out that there was a fairly sizable stack of portfolios ahead of mine when I handed mine off. While I don’t know how much farther they got through them in the time it was there, I ended up going back for it on Saturday, unreviewed, because being without it was preventing me from accomplishing my overall objective. I wasn’t thrilled about this snag, but it was the lesser of two evils.

On the upside, I met E. Foley of geeksdreamgirl.com en route to retrieving my portfolio, and got to ask her about her website. I had spied her from afar, and had been confused by her T-shirt, which bore the site’s mascot and the phrase ‘Are you Single’ We exchanged cards and talked about the joys of T-shirt marketing.

Anyhow, following some less-than-stellar True Dungeon capers, Melissa and I hung around for the Artist’s Reception, rubbed elbows and engaged in a bit of scrimmage for cheese.

It was good cheese, which explained the long line that formed for it.

We then caught up with our other friends, and loitered at the speakeasy, where a chance encounter with John Arcadian of Silvervine Games led to another job lead. I’d spoken with John sometime last year about doing some work on his upcoming book, but some personal issues got in the way, and we’d fallen out of touch. He was still excited about working together, so we talked about doing something in the future.

Finally, we rounded out the evening with a (very) late-night round of World of Darkness, which somehow we all managed to survive.

Armed with my matted prints, I got up, showered, shaved, put on my self-promotional tshirt and loaded my business card holder, and then I was off to the show.

Because of my mad leet Artist

nor this crowd...

nor this one, nor the mob inside the convention center.

Weaving my way through the crowds, I snagged my Artist’s Badge, and slipped into the Exhibit Hall, making my way towards the Artist’s area at the rear.

The Freedom of Movement that the Artist Badge provided also let me catch a shot of this guy.

Everything went fine… until I ran out of Velcro. The Velcro I’d bought was 15 sets of dots, 1 fluffy and 1 set of hooks, which at first glace would be enough for the 10 images I had to hang. BUT, in truth, it took 2 sets (2 hooks) to hang each piece, and ideally would have been 3, to prevent them from jutting out at the bottom. In a bit of a panic, I almost ended up fighting my way back through the eager crowd of VIGs, but was saved from having to do that by Joe Slucher and his Amazing Roll of Velcro. Joe had already hung all his work, and had plenty of Velcro to spare, for which I was I was probably not outwardly grateful enough, but seriously, he saved the day.

With my artwork hung (and since in my infinite, infinite wisdom, I forgot to take a picture of it, I guess you’ll just have to believe me), I spent a little time meeting and greeting people I knew in the Art Show, and observing those whom I didn’t.

Before... No, wait, just Before. Sorry.

I actually ended up spending a lot of time explaining that I only had panels in the Show, not a table, as many of the people who heard I was showing in the Art Show assumed the best of me. I was flattered that everyone thought enough of me to believe that I’d have had a table, but, things were what they were, so I splained like Ricky was about to go Babaloo upside my head. And as it was, without the table, I was free to wander the floor with my partner in Gen Con-related crime, Melissa Dowell.

Over the last few months, we had come up with A Plan of sorts, and while I waited for her flight to come in, I scouted the Hall, and figured out where our targets were, and showed my portfolio to some other people who for one reason or another (mostly lack of time for researching fully) had not made it onto our list in the process. Every so often, I stopped back at my display and refilled the business card holders. Each time that I returned, there was a fair amount of people looking at my work and smiling, or in one or two cases chuckling, so that boosted my spirits.

Without giving the complete play-by-play (which I don’t think I’m capable of doing anyway), Thursday passed in a blur of walking into booths, asking politely about freelancing with various companies, showing my portfolio, introducing myself and Melissa to people, and handing out cards. Other events of note include walking into the Wattsalpoag Games booth and sitting down to a rousing (and decisive) round of Claim It! with Mike Raabe, the Art Director there, and meeting the dancers of the Different Drummer Belly Dancing troupe, and being reassured that belly dancing guys were, in fact, sexy. I was intrigued, but the timing just didn’t work out over the course of the weekend.

Finally, the day came to a close and the adrenaline wore off. After a bite at the Steak n’ Shake near the convention center, we caught up with some friends, hung out at the speakeasy at Union Station for a while, then called it a night.

The best four days in blog posts.

For those of you either too young or too old to remember Pokemon, its central human protagonist, Ash Ketchum, leaves his comfortable home to embark on a mystical journey filled with friendly monsters, intense training, and lots of overland travel, all leading to his ultimate goal- becoming a Pokemon Master, a worthy career choice if there ever was one in that particular universe.

When you caught the original 150, you got a really sweet dental package.

In the anime, Viridian City is Ash’s first stop on his journey, hence the title of this post. My journey to Gen Con was similar, except I don’t have any Pokeballs, and I’m not trying to get anyone to learn special attacks. Okay, so it’s not the best of metaphors, (I originally came up with it while half-asleep en route to the airport, and it sort of stuck in my head,) but I made a long (albeit significantly less perilous) journey in the interests of advancing my career, which up until this point has also featured imaginary monsters, too.

“I’m on the road to Viridian City
Meet my friends along the way (I’m on the road!)
I’m on the road to Viridian City
I got a badge and the power to play“
-From “The Road to Viridian City,” a track on “2BA Master”

Leg 1: Subway to Grand Central Station
Aside from a crowded 4 train platform, there was little to report. It was typical New York City rush hour subway congestion. I left on time, and arrived at Grand Central Station with time to spare.

Leg 2: Metro-North to White Plains
I picked up a lemon poppy seed muffin at Junior’s, and ate it on the train. The train went express, so there was not much opportunity to take photos of the scenery as it raced past. The train out to White Plains was surprisingly crowded for a 9AM-ish train out of Manhattan, but nowhere near the density of the subway. There was little to do but sit and start typing this, but before I knew it, I was at White Plains.

Leg 3: Bus from Metro-North Station to Airport
While waiting for the bus, I ended up meting a man named Cyrus, who told me about how he is working to establish a chapter of Water Keepers in his locale of South Carolina. We talked about the trials and tribulations of building a non-profit presence, the horrors of over-development, and the evils of Large Corporations while we rode the bus, then went our separate ways upon reaching the airport.

Leg 4: White Plains to Detroit
After paying $1.50 for a candy bar, (and refusing to pay $9 for a sandwich) I got on the plane. There was a little delay with the takeoff, then a fair amount of turbulence from heavy cloud cover that the pilots skillfully navigated through and above, but I managed to doze off while reading my way through Digital Character Design and Painting, by Don Seegmiller.

To my credit, I managed to wake up just in time for juice and peanuts, as well as catching the eye of the fellow next to me, one John Velonis, who asked if I were an artist, and conversation ensued. He told me of the games that he had designed (like “Venus Needs Men!” which sounds like a fun time) and was in the process of designing, and I told him of the work that I’d done. Noticing his “Gamer For Life” shirt, explained that I was going to the con to meet and greet publishers and so on, and that I had a space in the Art Show. We talked of the games that we played, and he mentioned that he would be helping out at the Z-Man Games booth, and I said that I would stop by and demo with him. I did go looking for him, but we were apparently not meant to demo, as I kept missing him.

Leg 5: Detroit to Indianapolis:
While walking up to John to explain that my flight was “the later flight to Indiana,” I found myself introduced to Rone Barton of Atomic Array, RPG Countdown, and Open Design Podcast, along with another fellow whose name I can’t remember for the life of me, but he was an adventure writer. We talked for awhile, and as fate would have it, he was in the process of collecting artists for representation. I gave him my card. The four of us talked for awhile until it was time for them to board, and then I busied myself with finding my plane’s gate.

En route to the gate, I stopped in at the Online Cafe, and bought an imposing plate of nachos, along with some wireless access to while away the layover.

Nachos: $10, Internet: $7. Not a bad deal.

I also fielded some calls, most notably some mildly frantic calls from Jason Thompson of King of RPGs fame. Nothing major, but there was a definite sense of urgency.

Long story short: Through seven degrees of separation, I ended up being his go-to guy for postcard distribution at Gen Con. The only problem was that our mutual 7th-degree friend contacted me while I was about 20,000 feet in the air, and unable to receive calls, much less packages. Between the time difference and the last-minuteness of it all, it was pretty tight.

After this initial confusion was cleared up, Jason and I got things straightened out, and he rush-ordered a stack of postcards to the address I was staying at to arrive on Friday, so I could put them out on Saturday.

I hung around the airport until it was time to board, and arrived in Indy without further incident. My host picked me up without a hitch, and we went to the local art and craft stores in search of mats, so I could hang my artwork in the Art Show.

Despite the density of stores, there was little selection- or inventory of what I needed. It took trips to three separate stores to acquire a total of ten mats, and they didn’t even all match because they were different brands. The colors were close enough, so I did not complain. I picked up some Velcro dots as well, and we went home. We had a light dinner, and I spent the night listening to Three Days Grace and gluing my prints to mats, with a fair amount of success. Finally, I toddled off to bed.

It seems that the Little Debbie people got wind of my previous assessment of their expanded snack sizes, for a few months back, I received a gift of a box of new yellow cakes with butter creme icing. While this was not the appeasement that it sounds like, (the gift was from my mother) it’s good to know that someone out there is listening, or at the very least thinking along the same lines that I am.

Little Debbie Yellow Cakes. Not exactly the answer to my prayers, but I'll take it.

At any rate, compared to their leviathan cousins, the yellow cakes in question (which claim to possess not only ‘Fresh Taste’, but ‘Right Size’! as well,) the 100 Calorie Cakes are tiny, and I have the photographic evidence to prove it:

Framing this image was like trying to put the Hulk, Juggernaut, and a pygmy kitten all in the same frame.

It’s also interesting to note that since my last critique of the Little Debbie line of cakes, the prices of the larger-sized cakes have jumped again, now retailing at $.75 apiece, when less than a year ago they were $.25. However, the Oatmeal Creme Pie seems to have lost its second layer, for which I am actually quite grateful. Seriously, that was way too much to be justifiably called a single serving.

It may be shorter, but the Oatmeal Creme Pie is still bigger than life.

Getting back to the cakes of the day, the 100 Calorie Yellow Cakes were rather tasty, if small. The little cakes are small even compared to the older ‘small cakes‘ that Debbie has been making for so long, and those come twin-wrapped in a box of eight (or ten in some cases).

They are almost delicate, and not as sweet as the fare that Little Debbie usually provides. Because of this, (and probably also because of the programming that has me trained to bite unmercifully into anything that comes wrapped in cellophane) I found myself tearing through them without even realizing it.

They fit in the palm of your hand, even out of the wrapping.

Whether this is the result of clever marketing or purely accidental still remains to be seen. Nevertheless, these confections might go best with coffee or tea, at the end of a meal, as opposed to a standalone snack- they are too small and light to satisfy in cases of actual peckishness, but could easily fill the need for a sweet taste on the heels of something heavier.

On the whole, I approve of these cakes, although mostly for their intent. These non-monolithic cakes manage to be 100 calories without artificial sweeteners (as far as I can tell, anyway,) and still taste good, and even fill a niche in the world of snackery that their predecessors had long since ignored.

That is to say that they’re almost grown-up cakes when compared to the zanier (and more child-oriented) high-calorie cakes that had come before them, by the packaging alone, nevermind the smaller size and calorie count.

Say what you will about "second childhoods," these are some mighty fine cakes.

So, good job, Little Debbie. Keep on keeping on, and I can’t wait to see what else you shake out of your petticoats.

Not exactly "wafer thin," but you get the idea. That also happens to be my least favorite Monty Python sketch.

If you have been keeping up with the Sapo Entertainment Blog you would have caught my rant about turning over a new leaf. That new leaf includes the making updates on time and post comics on time. All that said check out my new blog post on this summers movie line up or lack there of.

We do have several announcements to make:

First is we will be starting two new comics the first one starting in July is called His and Hers, and a comic called Clandestine 470 that will make its appearance sometime before the end of summer.

Second we will be restarting the MegMan comic from the first issue and will appear every other Saturday starting either this Saturday or next Saturday. We will keep you posted.

If you want to stay on top of whats happening with Sapo Entertainment you can check us out on Twitter , Facebook or become a fan on our Facebook fan page.

Thanks
Sapo

I guess all I am saying is that this summer movies are bordering on the side of lame. The summer blockbuster fun started well in May (which does not really count since it is not summer yet) with two movies I enjoyed Startrek and Terminator Salvation I enjoyed both movie because they were well written and the acting was top notch. Since it is June I figured it would be too late to do a review. So that ship has sailed. Now June is coming to an end with the only “blockbuster” this month has been Transformers I do not have to go see this movie to tell you it is lame. It is directed by Michael Bay he does not believe in telling a story or movies with a plot. In this movie there will be lots of running lots of chasing and lots of unrealistic explosions.

What do I have to look forward too.?

Well according to the yahoo summer guide for July and August:

JULY

Public Enemies- Looks like a good movie to watch and it has Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in it.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince- I am not a fan of Harry Potter but so far I have enjoyed the movies.

AUGUST

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra – Even though my lame meter is going off on this one, I have to say Ray Parks as snake eyes is a great choice and I will give this movie a chance.

Then there is District 9, this movie looks hot, the website is hot and fun to play with. There is not much about the story out there yet. It does however have this Starship Troopers / Cloverfield vibe to it.

That is what Hollywood has to offer this summer. How can I remain positive when in my mind there is only one movie I even want to see this summer. Lets all go see District 9 coming out August 14, 2009.