Category Archives: Events

by | May 1, 2014 · 1:01 pm

Free Comic Book Day

This Saturday is a magical day. It is a day that is better than Christmas, my birthday and some other great day all rolled into one. Ok, so I might be exaggerating things just a bit, but this Saturday will still be pretty awesome. You may be asking yourself what makes it so awesome and let me tell you, it’s Free Comic Book Day.

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For the past twelve years, the first Saturday in May has been Free Comic Book Day.  FCBD was started to take advantage of the opening of big comic movies, but the annual event has become something much more. While not every retailer participates in the festivities, most independent comic book stores join in. Many stores make a huge deal out of the day, having sales, giveaways and parties. Comic artists and writers have also gotten involved by participating in signings at stores across the country. Fans have been known to line up outside their local store for hours before the store opens, just to get ahold of the books they want. It’s a great event for comic fans to get out, meet other comic fans, and really celebrate comics.

Free Comic Book Day is meant to be a thank you to the millions of comic fans out there and nothing says thank you quite like free books. The comic publishers produce books specifically to be given away on FCBD, typically featuring either blockbuster movies or the latest event comic. Of course there are books of all kinds, especially those for younger readers. One of FCBD’s stated goals is to encourage young readers to pick up comics. When we talked to Peter Newcomb of Borderless on Random Thought Generator, Pete stressed how important comics were in improving his ability to read and that he wants to share that with kids. Pete is not alone in his beliefs, and FCBD is proof of that. With almost twenty books that are family friendly this year, it’s the perfect opportunity for kids to get into comics and to read more in general.

If you’re interested in checking out FCBD head on over to freecomicbookday.com and use the store locator to find a participating store near you.

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by | April 21, 2014 · 7:11 pm

ECCC: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

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Although it’s been a couple of weeks since I attended (blame Game of Thrones), it’s time to present Emerald City Comicon: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

The Good

Well the most obvious good thing about this convention is Seattle itself. This place is a geek mecca. With Microsoft and Boeing just down the road, this is a city that embraces its geekyness. The downtown area reminded me a lot of Manhattan, only cleaner.

I was surprised by the size of the convention. I assumed it would be a mid-sized convention, like Phoenix or Baltimore, but it was about the same size as NYCC was a few years ago. As far as the types of guests and exhibitors were concerned, there was a nice mix. Marvel, DC, Image and Dark Horse all had some presence there, though neither Marvel nor DC had a booth. There were lots of small press and web-comic people, which is really fitting given Seattle’s image. I stopped by the booths of two of my favorite web-comic creators, Danielle Corsetto of Girls With Slingshots and Kris Straub of Starslip. It’s always nice to see people like them at these shows.

Speaking of seeing people, I was able to attend both Marvel Q&A panels. Speaking from experience, Q&A panels can go very badly, very quickly, but I was pleased that both of these panels went smoothly and had interesting content.

  • I was very happy to see Peter David fully recovered from his stroke and happily plugging All-New X-Factor and Spiderman 2099, as well as providing a humorous and historical perspective in the panel. Apparently, fans of Spiderwoman will be in for a treat later this year.
  • A new Runaways series seems to also be in the works, as soon as the right creative team can be found.
  • C.B. Cebulski also gave a few lucky fans the chance to read Original Sin #0 and #1 (in photocopied form). The chosen ones reported that both issues were pretty awesome, so I’m looking forward to reading them.

ECCC had the largest number of volunteers I’ve ever seen at a convention.  I could not turn around without seeing a green shirted “minion” doing something. From escorting the special guests to manning information booths and even directing the flow of traffic, they were absolutely everywhere. Minions were also responsible for enforcing a zero tolerance policy on harassment of cosplayers. More conventions need to take this proactive approach.  Harassment should not be tolerated.

Another great thing about the convention: there were some amazing cosplayers running around all three days. I was only able to get pictures of a few of them, but take a look below for some of my favorites.

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The Bad

ECCC was a smash hit. This is overall a great thing. The only downside lies in the fact that the show was a bigger hit than the show organizers were expecting. Line management was an issue at times, though the minions did their best to maintain order. ECCC employed a novel concept in which they limited lines for popular artists and writers by having a minion close them down for a period of time. This was likely due to space concerns, but it seemed to function pretty well.

Another issue that resulted from attendance was that there was limited space in some of the panels. While this is often the case at major conventions, I was surprised at the small size of many panel rooms. Even panels that one would expect to attract a sizeable audience were located in relatively small rooms. One panel I attempted to go to was standing room only a full thirty minutes before the panel started. Needless to say, I did not stick around for that one.

The Ugly

I honestly can’t think of anything truly ugly. The closest I can come to an ugly is pretty much un-fixable: the layout of the venue. The convention was spread over four floors of two buildings that were only connected via a skyway on the fourth floor. Not all the areas in the center are easily accessible from all other areas so I really had to plan my route in order to get from one point to another. While I wasn’t thrilled that the gaming area was in the hotel across the street, there was just no room for it otherwise, and the space it ended up in actually worked out pretty well.

While I don’t plan to do so any time soon, Emerald City Comicon is definitely on my list of return destinations. Seattle is a great city and they put on a fantastic event.

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by | March 20, 2014 · 8:22 pm

Geek’s Night of Comedy

Geek's Night of Comedy

I have found that one thing nearly everyone can agree on is that laughter is a good thing.  Just about every sub-sect of society has their own brand of comedy, and geeks are no different. Last night’s Geek’s Night of Comedy in Virginia Beach was an enjoyable celebration of all that geek humor has to offer.  The show grew out of a post-performance conversation between three local comics, Sid Bridge, Derek Williams, and Tim Loulies.  All three identify themselves as geeks and were lamenting the fact that although they love geek humor, it was difficult to use it in their acts, which were designed to appeal to a much broader audience.  Instead of wallowing in their frustration, the three founders decided to strike out and start a comedy show focused on geek material. Using their personal and business contacts they were able to set up the first Geek’s Night show at the Virginia Beach Funny Bone. The first show was a surprise hit and by the third show, they were selling out the venue.

Last night was the seventh Geek’s Night show. I went and enjoyed myself completely. All of the acts were good, but a few still stand out in my mind a day later. I always find Derek Williams’ humor very relatable—probably because I also regularly attend conventions.  Host and co-founder Tim Loulies has some very amusing material regarding the zombie apocalypse and weight loss.  Although Joseph De Paul and I have talked at length about “angry bus farts” in movie trailers, I’d yet to hear his routine and it left me in tears. Also his magic melts my brain.  Sid Bridge has some impressive bass skills, though I’m still trying to pry his theme song out of my brain.

The night’s closing performer was James Rodatus, who has become quite special to the Geek’s Night show.  Recently James was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and as a result, the Geek’s Night has mobilized to raise money for ALS research. The Geek’s Night show has always been involved with a charity, originally joining with the 501st Legion to raise money for childhood Diabetes, but when Sid, Tim and Derek, learned about James’ diagnosis they immediately shifted gears towards various ALS charities.  James’ performance was both funny and touching.  He discussed various parts of his treatment in ways that made them seem far less serious than they truly are.  By the end of the night $720 was raised for Emory University’s ALS Center.

The very talented James Rodatus

The very talented James Rodatus

The Geek’s Night of Comedy has a bright future and not just in the Hampton Roads region. There are upcoming performances scheduled in both Richmond, VA, and Orlando, FL.  In addition to taking their show to other comedy clubs, Geek’s Night of Comedy has been hitting the convention scene.  When I asked Sid what, if anything, made convention shows different than the standard Geek’s Night show he replied that because the crowd is in their element, the normally shy and socially awkward geeks were far more willing to relax, making for a more enjoyable show.

These guys are absolutely worth checking out, so be sure to keep an eye out at your local comedy club and upcoming conventions.  I would also like to extend a special thanks to Sid Bridge and Joseph De Paul. Both performers were gracious enough to give me a few minutes of their time for some brain picking and it was greatly appreciated.

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by | January 21, 2014 · 9:44 pm

MarsCon: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

There are few things more fun than spending a weekend at a local geek event.  That is just what Therefore I Geek did this past weekend at MarsCon in Williamsburg, VA.  Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly about this convention:

The Good

There was a lot of good at MarsCon. Being a local event makes it much more manageable and relaxed than other, larger events such as NYCC.

One of the first things we did was check out the gaming area and pretty quickly got pulled into a game called Quickfire.  Quickfire is a universal tabletop miniature game, meaning that it doesn’t matter what miniature game pieces the players use. The simple rules can get a game going for any number of players in no time. As players go through the game, there are progressively more difficult environmental challenges that appear. There are two major drawback to the game:  the need for a GM-esqe person and the high risk of the game dissolving into complete chaos. These issues were only minor, though, and the overall game play was enjoyable.

This was an epic game table, the kind I'd only dreamed of.

This was an epic game table, the kind I’ve only dreamed of.

MarsCon also had several good panels, which in my experience is a rarity at local conventions.  On Sunday morning I attended a panel on editors and their changing role at someone’s (*cough*Tracy*cough*) urging and it was a fantastic panel. Of the four panelists, two were editors, one was a writer, and one did both.  Will McIntosh, Carrie Ryan, Edmund Schubert and Laura Haywood-Cory, along with a moderator Michael Pederson, who also happened to be an editor, were intimately familiar with the subject they were discussing and it showed.   This is the kind of panel I want to attend all the time. It was engaging, informative and stacked with experts.

Sunday afternoon I went to “Cult Film: The Atomic 50’s: When Supernatural Horror Went Scientific”, a panel on the scientific turn that B movies took in the 1950’s, which was also amazing. There was so much useful information in this panel. While I am uncertain about the presenter’s credentials, he was incredibly knowledgeable and was so passionate that it was easy to get caught up in his excitement. This was also one of the few panels in which the audience participation was value added. Many of them had seen the movies in question and were able to jump in when the presenter forgot a character or actor, but then quieted down when he started speaking again.

[Tracy:  While I sent Andrew off to learn about how much respect and reverence he should have for his editor, I went to a panel called “Beyond the Strong Female Protagonist:  Writing Women who are more than ‘Kickass.”  I really enjoy this type of discussion anyway, so I was excited to get into it.  The panelists were all writers and were led by Jim Hines, author of the Magic Ex Libris series.  I enjoyed the conversation and appreciated that the panelists kept order in the room—even shutting down a particularly opinionated fan who attempted to hijack the panel several times.]

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(from left) Meriah Crawford, Jim Hines, Alethea Kontis, L. Jagi Lamplighter, and John C. Wright

Of course any event with Mikey Mason is always a blast. Mikey gave us a nice mix of his better known material, plus a couple of songs from his most recent album. If his Facebook page is to be believed, and I think it is, then he wrote a whole new album while he was at MarsCon!

Mikey Mason

Mikey Mason

Aside from his duties as entertainer, Mikey was both the best auctioneer and gave the best “Vanna White” impression while working the charity auction for the Heritage Humane Society of Williamsburg.  In the end they managed to break last year’s total on just two items. I wish you all could have seen the look on the face of the liason to the  Humane Society. He kept getting more and more excited as the auction bids grew.  By the end, he looked absolutely stunned. (T:  Can confirm.  It was adorable!)

The Bad

No convention is perfect and MarsCon was no exception.  Mikey’s concert had an hour of scheduled setup time but it was still forty-five minutes late starting due to “technical difficulties”. We can all understand some minor glitches—lord knows I’ve seen them at NYCC—but a delay of this length due to problems with fundamental things like lighting and sound is not acceptable. I was surprised to see a venue as experienced as this one having issues like this, especially with an artist like Mikey who has a very simple, straightforward setup.  Speaking from experience, the rig should have been set up before hand and then just moved into place.

Also, I’ve never been particularly thrilled with events held in hotels. Typically they don’t have large rooms that can serve as a proper exhibit halls. Dealer rooms have to be squeezed into small rooms and tend to spill out into the hallways which leads to traffic flow problems. While that wasn’t an overwhelming issue in the Fort Magruder Hotel & Conference Center, another hundred or so additional people in attendance might have made it much more of a problem. The positive side of the hotel is that it had proper spaces for panels, which other conventions (such as the VA Comicon) do not have.

The Ugly

I’ve mentioned that the panels I went to on Sunday were amazing.  Saturday panels were, unfortunately, the complete opposite.  In a panel about the “Dark Side of Disney,” panelists started off by asking the audience what the panel was about. It was immediately obvious that the panelists were almost completely unprepared for the topic about which they were supposed to be speaking. One panelist had no specific knowledge on the topic outside of a couple of Google searches and a discussion with her friends.   She spent most of her time trying to convince the audience and other panelists that there was a prevalence of mental illnesses in Disney films. I’d love to know what made her think that a Google search provided adequate expertise to diagnose and discuss mental illness.  At one point another panelist actually cut her off because she obviously didn’t understand what she was talking about.  Needless to say, we bailed out of this particular panel pretty quickly

In a later panel on cosplay, the panelists were significantly better informed, the least experienced having done it for seventeen years, but they were unable to keep the panel on track. I have no problem with audience interaction during a panel.  Especially at an event as small as this it’s a great chance to have a more intimate experience with the panelists.  Having said that, the panelists are the experts.  Attendees want to hear what they have to say, not opinions from the other audience members. This panel would have benefited greatly from a strong moderator with firm control of the room. A good moderator should ask some basic questions, get the panelists discussing the topic and then towards the end take some questions from the audience.

In the end we had a great weekend and I’ve got some great ideas for new content, so keep your eyes open for it. MarsCon will definitely be making an appearance on my 2015 calendar.

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