Going to throw these all in one post for now and split them up later so that nothing here gets prematurely scrolled away 
PENNY ARCADE EXPO EAST 2010
The last week in March was the East Coast's first PAX ever and Nadir, some friends, and I gathered our dice and slogged over to Boston, fueled by disgusting energy drinks and raging boners. This made for interesting bus rides and absurd sleeping arrangements. I now have the utmost respect for any woman who has ever put up with sharing a bed with me after the experience was described to me as 'sleeping next to a bear-shaped tornado'.
I will not name names. This was totally Bromosexual.
Being an a novice to conventions myself, I had no idea what to expect, really no idea. NO IDEA. Upon finally getting into the Expo via a serpentine of like-minded semi-costumed gamers, my infantile expectations were utterly shattered. The Hynes Convention Center is HUGE. Big enough for an expo floor, an auditorium for concerts and larger panels, and riddled with smaller rooms in which tables and chairs were set up to accommodate every game from Warhammer to Dungeons and Dragons Clue (REALLY!).
Then there was Will Wheaton's keynote address in which he dove into his past as a gamer and geek and then like some boyish oracle, foretold the experience we were about to have and how it would change our lives forever. He spoke of how great it is that the gaming community has come together and overcome opponents who would seek to label us as violent deviants and how now, thanks to the internet, the lone kid with no friends clutching a binder full of character sheets is all but unheard of. He related his experiences playing games from his very first D&D set to games like Dragon Age that are becoming, for all intents and purposes, as much of a narrative vehicle as a feature film, if not moreso because they put you in charge of the plot. Speaking from experience, Dragon Age was a whirlwind of greatness. Which is much like a bear-shaped tornado, but with less hair.
Will's sage advice before releasing us unto the expo floor?
"Don't be dicks."
Preaching to the choir, Will, because this was the friendliest, fun loving group of thousands and thousands of people I have ever shared a cramped space with (and I ride the subway every day). Only at PAX will you look down from a balcony to an audience lighting up with a sea of Nintendo DS's between shows as people hopped on picto chat. Only at PAX could you embrace a random stranger who was lying in wait for 20 minutes in order to pounce on you …and THEN …win a T-shirt. Stupendous! Social networking at its very basic.
Some highlights?
- The Behemoth's new game, Battle Block Theater, wherein you compete in varied smash brothers-like gladiatorial stages for the amusement of an audience of cats.
- Red Dead Redemption, where a member of our party just had to see if he could kill a horse and subsequently freaked out the Rockstar employee showcasing the game to us "I've seen a lot of weird stuff but I've never seen anybody run back [away from the mission] and kill their own horse"
- The pile of free t-shirts I snagged! At one point on Sunday I was wearing eight.
- MC Frontalot. Holy crap. Sure I was half asleep by the time he came on, but I bought his album anyway and am happy to have him join my list of awesome, dapper, bald musicians.
- I KNOW I'm forgetting a few. Hopefully Nadir will remind me when the photos start rolling in. Stay tuned!
The costume count was tame compared to Comic Book conventions, but we did manage to capture some gems. I'm sure more will follow as my buddies unload their cameras. Enjoy!
Auxiliary Magazine April/May Issue
Here by the skin of my teeth! The sleepless nights are totally worth it!
Finally, Stuffed and Unstrung by the Henson Company
I had heard snippets about this Improv Puppet show featuring Brian Henson (son of late, legendary, Jim) geared towards an adult audience (albeit less adult than Avenue Q) but I truly had no idea what I was missing! Audrey snagged two tickets, we went to the early Saturday showing and promptly laughed our asses off! Not only was it comedically brilliant, but technically too. It was really neat to be able to see the puppeteers scramble around stage, and the craftsmanship of the puppets themselves shows that the Force still runs strong in the Henson family. Oh, and the Barry the Usher bit was a masterpiece of multi-layered video-looping goodness. I may just be easily impressed, but c'mon, if you saw it, you laughed.
Being an improv show, results may vary, but I think our funniest skit was the one where they invite an audience member to puppet-up and join in. What was funny about our guy is that he couldn't hold his puppet up high enough, point him in the right direction, match his mouth to his voice, or bob him as he walked! So the whole time Henson behind the crab puppet was yelling "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" "HE'S SLIDING ACROSS THE FLOOR!" "STAND UP!" "HE'S SPEAKING TO US THROUGH TELEPATHY!" The sketch was outright BEDLAM.
BEDLAM!
Incidentally, the prospect of being dragged on stage to take part in the show terrified Audrey, and caused me to quickly scribble up this comic which details the aftermath of getting pulled up on stage and molested by puppets.
It was called the Angry Wizard.
Mana Potion and Vodka *HURL*
How awesome is that painting he's standing under?!
George Hrab and MC Frontalot
The story? An employee of Tritton, a headphone manufacturer, wandered the expo floor giving out stickers with numbers on them (Our group ended up with 640-643). On the other side of the expo floor, another Tritton employee was also giving out stickers with numbers. If you could find your SOUL MATE, your numerical twin, you won a t-shirt and a chance to win more in a drawing later that day. That's the setup. In order to increase our chances, our group called out our numbers as folks walked by, hoping to catch our doppelgangers in passing. Alas, we had no luck and got into the Rockstar booth where the aforementioned horse murder took place. After all that was said and done, our party left the booth and were immediately beset upon by strangers.
"Are you 640?!" Said their Leader
Stunned, I cried out, "YES! I AM HE"
"ME TOO! And here's 641, 642, and I have 643 on the phone!!"
We embraced in glee. Apparently he had heard from another stranger that the 600's were in line for the Rockstar booth, so they scuirried over only to find that 670 was at the front of line, wherein they deduced that we must have been inside, and so they waited for us.
Emotions were so high, that this guy panicked a little when I stepped aside (and out of his line of sight) to fix my belt, which had burst, unable to contain my joy beneath.
Categories: Art, Computers, Humor, Life, SCIENCE!!, Webcomic, teh intarwebs
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Eddie found himself next on my list of subjects. I opted to use a softer brush to bring out how pretty and regal he is. The man practically glows in the greased lens of his majestic life. YAWN. Though I do think I hit the mark. A bit more stylized than I'd like, but he really does have saucer eyes.
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