ConVergence 2010 Con Report
Jul. 7th, 2010 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skjamI don't know if anyone outside my immediate family still reads these, but just in case, here's a slightly late look at my Fourth of July weekend.
This year's theme was villains of all sorts, and to fit with that, the usual mascot character, Connie the robot, was replaced by the slightly evil Connie Mark Two. Christopher Jones did a bang-up job of "Mark Two-ing" various villains for the program cover.
My room was ready early by an hour, a nice change (I had intended just to ask if I could stay an extra night for the same rate, and the answer to that was yes.)
So, panels! "Heroes: The Rise and Fall of a Cult Classic" dissected the late superbeing show and where it went horribly horribly wrong. As you might expect, there was vigorous disagreement on this--one person even admitted to liking the Blessed With Suck Twins.
"DC Universe Animated Films"--Pretty much everyone at the panel liked them, with a few caveats for small errors in judgement. Expect to see more stuff with Batman in, as that's what sells.
The opening ceremonies had the Mark Time players (plus Wally Wingert (third time as Guest of Honor?) and Chuck McCann in "Parade of Villainy", followed by the ceremonies themselves, ruled over by the tyrannical Mark Two.
"Current Popular Manga" was the first panel I was actually a panelist for. We mostly stuck to items legally in print in the US (still a fairly high percentage), but did mention a couple that are online in legal translations for the people who feel antsy about scanslations. My fellow panelists were thrilled to see that "Afterschool Charisma" (about a school for clones of famous people) was now out. One of them does the Green Avenger webcomic, check it out.
Then it was on to "Villains of Anime and Manga", with Anna Waltz doing her (dub version) Zoicite impression. Good stuff! We could probably have gone another hour just naming people's favorites.
The special musical guest was Voltaire, and I was able to get an autographed copy of "the Devil's Bris", for the "When You're Evil" track. He told a number of amusing stories in addition to playing his hits--alas, he had to skip the rest of the con for a gig in L.A.
First panel Friday morning was "Disney Villains"--I'd let a Maleficent cosplayer know about it the night before, and at the panel, we had some banter about her being peeved about not being *invited* to the panel. Lots of fun discussion, including several people admitting that the scariest of Disney villains to them was Man from "Bambi."
"Without a Scorecard: The Villains of Marvel Comics" was in Krushenkos', and was what it sounds like, with an emphasis on the way some Marvel villains are often good guys when the mood strikes them.
Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) complimented my Minnesota t-shirt, actually one of three I wore at the convention. (My brother had given them to me for my birthday, identical except for color, so I wore them on consecutive days--don't know if anyone caught on.)
"Villains from the Adam West Batman Series" with Wally Wingert, who has gotten Adam West to dish out info on the old series when they work together. Some great stuff, too bad it's still not legally available on DVD.
"Bring Me Up to Speed" was a panel where I and a fellow comics enthusiast gave quick rundowns on what's been happening in DC and Marvel lately. The phrase "that was cool, but makes no sense" came up a lot. As did "that makes no sense" by itself.
"Not In My Game!" was a panel about what GMs won't allow in their RPG sessions. An emphasis was placed on GM/player communication. (My personal pet peeve: Characters with no names and no faces that they'll admit to.)
"Macbeth: the Video Game Remix" was a comedy sketch presenting the Scottish play as it might be done in a World of Warcraft style game. "The Bloody Hands Curse? AWWWESOME!"
Saturday started with the "Old Time Radio" panel. We had the A/V room for this one, but someone had futzed with the wiring, so by the time you could hear the CD meant to fill time before the panel began, it was time to start the panel. I did my radio announcer schtick again--sadly, it was a very lightly attended panel. Only at the end did we start getting audience members too young to have heard some of these series before.
"Gunsmoke and Bloodshed: Dark Heroes of the Pulps" had a special guest star. Turns out the fellow selling Shadow reprints in Artists' Alley was in fact Anthony Tollin, publisher of said reprints, who worked at DC Comics for twenty years (including on two versions of the Shadow comic book) and was one of the concom at the first Minicon. Lots of great stories there, and he'll be back next year. By the by, this month is the 80th anniversary of the first appearance of the Shadow on radio. We managed to squeeze in a few mentions of other pulps as well.
"Geronimo! The Eleventh Doctor, Year One": Gushing about the most recent season, with a few nitpicks.
I watched the Masquerade in my room, but my sleep deficit caught up with me at some point--though I do recall Darth Gumby and Sadako being fun.
Sunday, "Top Ten Comics", stuff you really should read before you die. Very idiosyncratic choices.
"The Last Airbender"--see the TV series, not the movie.
"Anime Detour: What are They Doing Over There?" About what you'd expect from an anime convention. Next year's theme is "All Good Things!" (Please note: Exclamation point, not ellipses.) Anna Waltz came as Hetalia's America circa 1776 in honor of the day.
The Closing Ceremonies started with a skit called "Second Self" which turned out to be a spoof of James Cameron's "Avatar" as a early silent film, complete with the social mores of the time.
Then there was a film of Connie taking back the convention from Mark Two, nicely done. I liked that during the big hero-villain showdown, while most of the characters were throwing punches, Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty challenged each other at chess.
Next year's theme is early SF and retro SF. Could be fun.
For the first time ever, I was staying late, so went to the Dead Dog movie at Cinema Rex. The most recent "Sherlock Holmes" with Robert Downey, Jr. There were a bunch of previews, the one I liked the most was "Robogeisha." While the movie was fun, I had to stay scooted down during the entire thing, and was exhausted at the end, so went straight to bed instead of checking out the Dead Dog party.
Checking out Monday morning was a bit longer process than I would have liked--only one person was on the desk.
Other stuff: I enjoyed as always getting to meet and chat with the friends I only see at these events. The folks at the Nine Mile Grill remembered me from Anime Detour, when I was the only customer who took advantage of the all-you-can-eat buffet. Better attendance this time. Got a bunch of birthday and Christmas shopping done. Actually got to play some Magic the Gathering--whupped solidly both times.
Had a good time, hope for a repeat next year!
This year's theme was villains of all sorts, and to fit with that, the usual mascot character, Connie the robot, was replaced by the slightly evil Connie Mark Two. Christopher Jones did a bang-up job of "Mark Two-ing" various villains for the program cover.
My room was ready early by an hour, a nice change (I had intended just to ask if I could stay an extra night for the same rate, and the answer to that was yes.)
So, panels! "Heroes: The Rise and Fall of a Cult Classic" dissected the late superbeing show and where it went horribly horribly wrong. As you might expect, there was vigorous disagreement on this--one person even admitted to liking the Blessed With Suck Twins.
"DC Universe Animated Films"--Pretty much everyone at the panel liked them, with a few caveats for small errors in judgement. Expect to see more stuff with Batman in, as that's what sells.
The opening ceremonies had the Mark Time players (plus Wally Wingert (third time as Guest of Honor?) and Chuck McCann in "Parade of Villainy", followed by the ceremonies themselves, ruled over by the tyrannical Mark Two.
"Current Popular Manga" was the first panel I was actually a panelist for. We mostly stuck to items legally in print in the US (still a fairly high percentage), but did mention a couple that are online in legal translations for the people who feel antsy about scanslations. My fellow panelists were thrilled to see that "Afterschool Charisma" (about a school for clones of famous people) was now out. One of them does the Green Avenger webcomic, check it out.
Then it was on to "Villains of Anime and Manga", with Anna Waltz doing her (dub version) Zoicite impression. Good stuff! We could probably have gone another hour just naming people's favorites.
The special musical guest was Voltaire, and I was able to get an autographed copy of "the Devil's Bris", for the "When You're Evil" track. He told a number of amusing stories in addition to playing his hits--alas, he had to skip the rest of the con for a gig in L.A.
First panel Friday morning was "Disney Villains"--I'd let a Maleficent cosplayer know about it the night before, and at the panel, we had some banter about her being peeved about not being *invited* to the panel. Lots of fun discussion, including several people admitting that the scariest of Disney villains to them was Man from "Bambi."
"Without a Scorecard: The Villains of Marvel Comics" was in Krushenkos', and was what it sounds like, with an emphasis on the way some Marvel villains are often good guys when the mood strikes them.
Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) complimented my Minnesota t-shirt, actually one of three I wore at the convention. (My brother had given them to me for my birthday, identical except for color, so I wore them on consecutive days--don't know if anyone caught on.)
"Villains from the Adam West Batman Series" with Wally Wingert, who has gotten Adam West to dish out info on the old series when they work together. Some great stuff, too bad it's still not legally available on DVD.
"Bring Me Up to Speed" was a panel where I and a fellow comics enthusiast gave quick rundowns on what's been happening in DC and Marvel lately. The phrase "that was cool, but makes no sense" came up a lot. As did "that makes no sense" by itself.
"Not In My Game!" was a panel about what GMs won't allow in their RPG sessions. An emphasis was placed on GM/player communication. (My personal pet peeve: Characters with no names and no faces that they'll admit to.)
"Macbeth: the Video Game Remix" was a comedy sketch presenting the Scottish play as it might be done in a World of Warcraft style game. "The Bloody Hands Curse? AWWWESOME!"
Saturday started with the "Old Time Radio" panel. We had the A/V room for this one, but someone had futzed with the wiring, so by the time you could hear the CD meant to fill time before the panel began, it was time to start the panel. I did my radio announcer schtick again--sadly, it was a very lightly attended panel. Only at the end did we start getting audience members too young to have heard some of these series before.
"Gunsmoke and Bloodshed: Dark Heroes of the Pulps" had a special guest star. Turns out the fellow selling Shadow reprints in Artists' Alley was in fact Anthony Tollin, publisher of said reprints, who worked at DC Comics for twenty years (including on two versions of the Shadow comic book) and was one of the concom at the first Minicon. Lots of great stories there, and he'll be back next year. By the by, this month is the 80th anniversary of the first appearance of the Shadow on radio. We managed to squeeze in a few mentions of other pulps as well.
"Geronimo! The Eleventh Doctor, Year One": Gushing about the most recent season, with a few nitpicks.
I watched the Masquerade in my room, but my sleep deficit caught up with me at some point--though I do recall Darth Gumby and Sadako being fun.
Sunday, "Top Ten Comics", stuff you really should read before you die. Very idiosyncratic choices.
"The Last Airbender"--see the TV series, not the movie.
"Anime Detour: What are They Doing Over There?" About what you'd expect from an anime convention. Next year's theme is "All Good Things!" (Please note: Exclamation point, not ellipses.) Anna Waltz came as Hetalia's America circa 1776 in honor of the day.
The Closing Ceremonies started with a skit called "Second Self" which turned out to be a spoof of James Cameron's "Avatar" as a early silent film, complete with the social mores of the time.
Then there was a film of Connie taking back the convention from Mark Two, nicely done. I liked that during the big hero-villain showdown, while most of the characters were throwing punches, Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty challenged each other at chess.
Next year's theme is early SF and retro SF. Could be fun.
For the first time ever, I was staying late, so went to the Dead Dog movie at Cinema Rex. The most recent "Sherlock Holmes" with Robert Downey, Jr. There were a bunch of previews, the one I liked the most was "Robogeisha." While the movie was fun, I had to stay scooted down during the entire thing, and was exhausted at the end, so went straight to bed instead of checking out the Dead Dog party.
Checking out Monday morning was a bit longer process than I would have liked--only one person was on the desk.
Other stuff: I enjoyed as always getting to meet and chat with the friends I only see at these events. The folks at the Nine Mile Grill remembered me from Anime Detour, when I was the only customer who took advantage of the all-you-can-eat buffet. Better attendance this time. Got a bunch of birthday and Christmas shopping done. Actually got to play some Magic the Gathering--whupped solidly both times.
Had a good time, hope for a repeat next year!
