Guh, it’s almost the end of a brutal Monday. I wish it was still Saturday night.

Because I went to 32-Bit Genocide, a video game music festival held annually in Baltimore! It was a blast! And to think it’s in this blogger’s hometown too! Cover bands like Year 200X stole the show for me personally, with heavy anthems of Journey to Silius, Lifeforce, the NES version of Ducktales (you read that correct, DUCKTALES.) and a Contra medley to finish it off. Cheap Dinosaurs was a one man digital melee, ripping the sound samples from a Gameboy cartridge to mix beats on the fly in a drum-and-bass-y style. Very, very cool performance, and about the most unique.

Other acts like The Megas, Ultraball & This Place Is Haunted brought more of the kind of gamer-meets-indy-rocker vibe that makes these shows so interesting. During those times, I was in the gallery hall to sample works by 2-D artists and craftmakers. The music acts got to graffiti the facing wall, while pretty much everyone with a working shoulder and chunk of chalk did their best. I got in the act too, dropping plenty of signature shooting game fanart. Oh yeah; Ironing bead art to the stars. You too, could have owned your very own Skull Castle.

Gotta say though, while not my cup of tea, The Protomen (one of the headline bands of the evening) impressed the heck out of me. They played hits from Queen, Kenny Loggins, a nice shift from the game-centric sound. Moreover, their stage presence, the way they handled rowdy crowds — by joining in the heady chaos(!), dealing with bum equipment; the Protomen just had a level of class that was really impressive, and one of the real highlights of the night.

In all, I had a great time — it helps that my raiding party consisted of webcomic artists, game industry heads and Mr. Magfest himself. Speaking of which, Magfest strikes at the start of 2009, so I’ll be covering that too! It’s not everyday one can plug into some Mike Tyson’s Punch Out or throw on Lifeforce (Konami Code & all) while the crowd is jumping to to a cover of The Legend of Zelda.

By all means, follow the links, find a show and enjoy!

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Greetings, Cylons!

Wow.  It’s been awfully quiet around here in Spwugland.

*looks to the left*

*looks to the right*

Hmmm.  I suppose I wouldn’t feel good about myself if I just left you guys in a lurch on a Thursday, sitting about and twiddling thumbs, or whatever you have available to twiddle.

Be nice.

Well, I can’t offer much this week, but the least I can do is leave you something so that you aren’t bored.  The reason for my lack of time and space (dude, I’m a cosmic being!) is that I am currently getting ready for a convention this weekend.  In fact, it’s one of the cons that I really look forward to every year:

 
Horrorfind Weekend in Adelphi, Maryland.

 
You guessed it (always a bright one, you are), Horrorfind is a horror-themed convention,  and it is a blast.  It’s like going to visit Hallowe’en a couple of months before he comes to visit you!  It’s such a magical place - with beer carts being pushed around all weekend long so that you may never thirst, horror flicks playing non-stop on movie screens outside and in, celebrities from your favorite horror flicks and shows, and a dealers’ room loaded with cool horror novelties, films and decorations.

And this year will be even cooler!  Remember that movie shoot I posted about a couple of months ago?  The one where I dressed up as a giant smurf zombie?

That’s right – it premieres this weekend at the convention!  I finally get to see my efforts on the big… screen… in front of all those…

*ulp*

Okay, I think I need to lie down for a minute.  In the meantime, I leave you with this:

Tune in next week, as I post something that may or may not resemble an attempt at a con report.

The Don ain’t afraid of no ghost.  He is, however, afraid of having vegetables thrown at him.

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Ever been within inches of a passing semi truck on a busy freeway, whipping past at 70 mph? Even in your car, you get thrown around like a leaf? Yeah, that was SDCC for the remainder of the weekend.

While I’d love to share pics, I’m still on borrowed time — my flight back home departs TODAY, thus I can write to you all, but I have roughly 500 pictures to sort, weed out and organize into a functional blog. In the meantime, let me tell you all — California rolled out the red carpet, and I had THE BEST — excuse me, *ahem* THE BEST time at a convention since the Blizzard of 2003 during Katsucon. That’s no small feat.

This was geek Mecca. Direct your prayers of Dr. Horrible and new episodes of Eureka just south of the setting sun, folks. While no show is perfect, and Murphy’s Laws prevail, I will say that the positives of the experience far, FAR outweigh the negatives. In other words, don’t feel bad. Everyone else is broke too.

So, in the meantime (while I’m 30,000 in the air for several hours) here’s my take on:  FIVE THINGS I LEARNED FROM SDCC.

(1): No one in their right mind should ever move an event or convention from San Diego. It’s PRIME real estate. I’m not the man behind the wheel, so there’s no telling what the future holds — but I will say that San Diego embraced the convention with open arms, and there was PLENTY to do and see beyond the convention walls. Go to lunch at the Tin Fish restaurant. Get around on the trolleys. Check out the best damned reuben ever at The Field.  Speaking of fields, the Padres play at Petco Park right up the street (say what you like about the Padres.)  Even the train station is a photo op waiting to happen!

(2): Your Mileage May Vary.  And oh, did I rack up a few.  Now, you can actually stop and get a breather throughout a good portion of the con, you just have to be… creative about it.  And not have any hangups about sitting on cold floors, corners of huge displays or just around the corner of an artist table.

(3): You have to be extra special, determined or crazy (or maybe a heady combination of the three) to actually get the Rare Collectable Merchandise Given Out Only At The Con Wherein You Must Stand In Line For Several Hours For The CHANCE To Get It.

(4): Besides, there are scores of people hired just to hand out free flyers.  Save the earth, collect them all!  I bet you could fill a phone book with all the mini posters, cards, flyers, and extra bits.

(5): Some personal tips to share with you all:

-Bring a camera, and break a bank book on batteries.

-When you’re done packing, open your bags again, take out half the stuff you packed.  You’re not going to need it.

-Say “yes” to whatever absurd means it takes to get there, short of risk to person or possessions.  This place is worth it.

-Water.

-Plan ahead.  There is for even the regular attendees, four whole days worth of events to attend and people to see, things to buy (or have a conniption over whether TO buy) and while you CAN do it all in a day, if you’re around for the whole thing, space it out.  Get some rest.  Eat hearty.  Because TONIGHT WE DINE IN — *ahem*

I’ll be back with photos, folks!  Sorry for the delay, but right now it’s time for me to say goodbye to perpetually sunny San Diego!

(Oh yeah, and there was an earthquake yesterday.  Most bizarre damned thing I’ve ever experienced.)

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Otherwise known as the first day of the convention!

Hey readers, coming to you live from after the convention!  It’s 2am, Thursday morning of SDCC, and ALREADY it looks to be a phenomenal event.  The best of comics, animation, illustration, video games and more are front & center in sunny San Diego for — and I’m really avoiding hyperbole here — an epic, auspicious event for all of geekdom.

[0] San Diego itself deserves mention for being an absolutely BEAUTIFUL piece of real estate.  I’ve been to many, many conventions; this one is loooong on looks.   Also — and bear in mind this was the exception, not the rule — most of the registration lines were very quick and despite the sheer scale of it, for a pre-registered guest, the wait never exceeded an hour’s time.  Most of the convention center staff; much less the staff for SDCC itself seemed pretty open and receptive.  If there was a place to be, they’d point it out.  If there was somewhere someone wasn’t authorized to go to, it was handled quickly and fairly.  Kudos to San Diego for making the show a true EVENT.

[1] Did you know, I have an entry in the Street Fighter Tribute artbook by Udon Comics & Capcom?  Please ignore the shameless self-promotion, and pay attention to an encyclopedic, 320 page monster of an artbook, with nearly EVERY notable artist in the world today — from Udon’s inner circle, to most online artists, to even the likes of Jorge Gutierrez (El Tigre!)  Simply marvelous!

[2] It’s telling that the video game creators man one of the main entries to the convention floor.  Capcom, Square/Enix, Konami, Activision, Sony, Microsoft, all within spitting distance of each other, and it isn’t until you’ve plowed through the first five or so minutes of people that you reach the television and animation venues.  Just an interesting note — by all means, there are enough people to really, REALLY fill in  the space.

[3] There is no number 3.

[4] This will be a day-to-day update affair.   I’m VERY excited to upload and post pictures for you all to see!  This is more or less one of the great geek Mecca of the world, so it’s not just one minor day’s post worth of material.   I’ll be back tomorrow night with more on SDCC!  If there’s any questions you all want to ask, I’m all ears!

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San Diego Comic Con is a week from today, and DOODI’MSOEXCITED!  Got a lineup of artists to meet, apparently Seth Green stalks the halls in a Spidey costume… I’m sure there will be some big announcements, and the hallways will be chock-a-block with cool folks.  I also get a copy of the Street Fighter Tribute artbook that I submitted to!

Next week, I’ll give you the pregame show and maybe a few words from San Diego, as it’ll be the first time I’ve ever visited.    Look for me next week, on Wednesday (seriously!)

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Greetings, Wonder Hamsters!

I’ve been a big fan of “Weird Al” Yankovic (not Yankovich, thank you)  since his first major chart hit – “Eat It” – started making the rounds when I was eight years old.  I was a trailer park kid, so I wasn’t able to get any of his albums in stores.  Nope.  But, I had plenty of friends who made me copies of his releases on tape.  That’s right - I was playing it illegal waaay before NAPSTER.  I did what I wanted!  I robbed and pillaged!  I pretended real life problems and video game problems were synonymous!  And I ruled the world!!!  MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

*ahem*

Sorry about that.  I guess the spirit of the Al is infecting me a little.

Anyway, to make a long story short (too late), I’ve been a fan since I was eight.  Last night I had my first opportunity to see him live in concert with my wife and a couple of friends.

In a word – WOW.

To say I went to a concert is an understatement that makes calling a HUMVEE a gas-hog an accurate assumption.  When you go see “Weird Al” perform, what you attend is a multimedia experience.

For two and a half hours, we were subjected to his Royal Weirdness on stage performing a lot of his hits (most of them from his latest album, Straight Outta Lynwood).  During that time, this man – who is pushing 50 – exuded an energy and limberness I’ve never seen in a human being before.  Incredible!  There were a lot of costume changes, but this is where the “multimedia experience” comes into play.  During his costume changes (sometimes they came after each song) a three-screen display would show clips from several of his “AL TV” specials, as well as clips from movies, cartoons, and awards shows that he has been featured in.  With all of this bombarding your senses, there was not a dull moment.

And the performances for each song were mind-blasting!  As I said before, he had all this maniacal energy not typical of a 48 year-old man.  He never wavered, never faltered.  Even when wearing layers that would have dropped a lesser performer from heat exhaustion, Mr. Alfred Matthew Yankovic brought the crazy.

My favorite performance was when Al came out to do “The Saga Begins”.  Why?  Ask the Star Wars geek within me, as he was screeching the entire time when a small squad of Stormtroopers came out with Darth Vader leading them to center stage.  Then, the coily-coiffed one and his band came out in Jedi robes to perform the song (with the exception of keyboardist Rubén Valtierra, who was dressed as the Emperor).  At that point my inner geek fainted, and I had to slap him around to get him out of his stupor.  Geek side revived, I was able to enjoy the rest of the song.

The rest of the concert was nothing short of exuberant.  All five of us walked out of there last night hopped-up on all of the raw energy that was flying around that venue.  I’ve been to plenty of concerts in the past few years, but I have never been to anything like that before.  I left The National (in Richmond, Virginia) invigorated, giddy, and it felt good.  It was like a roller coaster – intense, fast, and exhilarating.  And it was over too quickly.

Next time he’s playing nearby, I’m going for another ride.

The Don dares to be stupid, much to his wife’s embarrassment.

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Waugh!  Yesterday was Wednesday wasn’t it?!  Don’t you hate it when one day transposes itself over another?

Anyways, quite a few things going on worth mention:

 -The Demon Mages, Issue #2 is on the threshold of completion.  Took a little extra time, but significantly less OT than before.  Look for that in and around the time of…

 -SAN DIEGO COMIC CON!  I’ll be happy to give you readers the extended post-con coverage (August 2nd.  Let’s be fair; jet-lag) , but in the meantime, a few lead-up articles will get passed around, starting next week.  There’s not much to say here, except that packing for ten days in two bags will be… interesting.

-Almost directly afterwards is Otakon 2008.  This blogger lives moments away from it, so like the event horizon of a black hole, it seems many individuals may be drawn into it’s vortex.  Convention roundup on that one as well will be posted, come August 13th. 

-Pixiv.net & Nico-Nico Douga are neat!  Even if your Japanese is lackluster, it’s easy navigation & content abounds!  I’m there most every day!  Google searches readily turn up non-native registration instructions, so there’s little chance of getting lost.

-BONESAW IS REA-DY!!!  Tough as heck with a keyboard, a little imprecise, but still an impressive game and I chuckled at most of the humor.  A cool homebrewed time waster.

-In the spirit of our nation, I watched Paul “John Adams” Giamatti in probably my most favorite role I’ve seen him play — as the whip smart, buck-nasty Mr. Hertz in Shoot ‘Em Up.  Funny to me to see commercials for his HBO special, and super-impose Mr. Hertz’s cellphone ringing.  Or maybe an extended gunfight with Ben Franklin. 

And now, some new art!  Both done by hand, with markers & pens — the second from back on June 13-15th for the Anime-Mid-Atlantic weekend.

That’s all for now!  See ya next week!

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Well hello, random passers-by!

Here we are at installment number three, and so far I show no signs of slowing down or changing my gait.

*pant, huff, huff, pant*

Hang on, let me catch my breath… Okay! As promised, I’m changing this week’s segment of OotD up a bit. Nothing related to Spider-Man, no sir. This week, it’s zombies! You know, zombies? The living dead? Reanimated corpses come to devour your flesh and/or your brains?

Yeah… you know zombies. Otherwise, why would you even be here? You didn’t actually believe there would be punch and pie, did you?

So today I’m talking about zombies. And not just random zombies, mind you. Nope. This week I’m going to tell you a little tale about how I was a zombie for a day.

First, a little back story: A few years ago a friend of mine – we’ll call him Dan -and I went to our first Horrorfind horror convention in Baltimore. While we were there we watched this horror/comedy film made by an independent film company based out of Charlottesville, Virginia called Darkstone Entertainment. The film in question – Skeleton Key (no, not the one starring Kate Hudson).

Johnny Johnson of Darkstone Entertainment, minutes before his pants were slain by poisonous guppies.

I have to admit, my first reaction was “What the hell am I watching?” It was a low-budget, direct-to-video, horror film. It looked very amateurish. We sat there as we were bombarded with strange and insane imagery, and walked away thoroughly confused.

Then we found out that Johnny and his cohorts were there at the con in person. Dan was the first to approach and converse with Mr. Johnson. I followed suit, and over time began to realize just what mad geniuses these guys are. They are well aware of the kind of films they make, and make no apologies. The genius is that they have a great sense of humor about themselves, and it’s apparent in the films they make.

Over time, Dan and I have become acquaintances of Johnny and company. Every year we talk to them for awhile at their table during Horrorfind. Every year we talk bravado about how we definitely want to participate in some of their films. And every year we do the exact opposite.

Until this past Sunday.

It was Dan that made the initial jump. He’d been in contact with Johnny for awhile, much to my unawares. He had finally coordinated an opportunity to be a zombie in Darkstone Entertainment’s newest installment of the Skeleton Key series. And being the friend that he is, he brought me along for the ride…

First off, the obligatory disclaimer – I am not responsible for any blindness, madness, loss of mental facilities, or eye gouging that may occur upon viewing the pictures you are about to witness. That said, my humble apologies for what I’m about to subject you to.

One lesson to be learned when filming a movie of any sort – when the call sheet (that’s that neat piece of paper telling you what cast and crew are to report that day at what time and for how long) says you will be filming from 11 AM to 5 PM, that really means that make-up, prep and travel time will take 5 hours, while the actual filming will take all of 30 minutes. Better bring a book to read or whatever portable game system is fashionable this week. Or you could actually talk to the other poor folk who are suffering this with you. Insensitive jerk.

So there I was, knee-deep in local insurgents… oops. I mean Dan, our friend Megan, and I had arrived reasonably on time and rushed upstairs to the offices of Darkstone Entertainment.

And waited.

Even after getting shot several times, I still managed to snag that jerk’s camera.

The next several hours were spent quoting different facets of pop culture, picking the brain of the head honcho (see what I did there?), and each of us taking a turn going through the make-up process:

Mariah’s plan to fool Gargamel with giant Smurfs seemed like a foolproof plan…

The process was not quick. First, we each had to have all of our exposed areas airbrushed with a blue, water-soluble mixture. This took anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour. This, of course, depended on how naked you were. Then we had to dry, which took a couple of minutes. The results left me feeling a little blue:

Using magic to turn up the thermostat when it’s freezing does not work. Even when angry.

After the first process was complete, we were then bombarded with black highlights to give us that spooooky, zombie look.

“Why blue,” you ask? You know, that’s a good question. I have no frelling clue. I never even bothered to ask. Yeah, I’m not very good at this. I do know that it’s the color Johnny Johnson uses for all three films, so there’s that.

And there’s this:

Blue Man Group, Wyoming chapter.

After make-up was complete, and the “guts” to be used for the day’s filming had been mixed together, we were on our way to the shooting location. It was a fun shoot. The clouds above were threatening to dump upon us, but they backed off when I threatened them with threats. Our scene was shot rather quickly, and before we knew it, it was time to pack up and go home. And to wash off all that make-up that took hours to apply.

Overall, it was a fun experience. I look forward to this August, when the film premieres at the next Horrorfind convention. And I may even get another chance to get more screen time. The movie shoot runs through May, and I’ve been invited back to go through the whole experience again. I just might. I’ve been bitten by the “bug”, and now I’ve got the fever… or maybe that’s the infection.

Brains?

The Don just died in your arms tonight. Must have been something he ate.

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“In the year of 2423, After Dominion Calendar…

 The Nation of Koltenia celebrates 20 years of peace, after a costly and tragic civil war.

But on the anniversary of the nation, four wild sorceresses gained possession of a mysterious relic.  Now a surly basilisk, an arrogant gorgon, a nerdy succubus and a spunky dark elf are all that stand between the ambition of the ‘Magician’s Nation’, and the recapture of the “Babel Star.”

 Whether to destroy, save or conquer a nation, they are “THE DEMON MAGES!”

It’s done!  By yours truly, the comic book debuted on March 28th of this year!  It’s a 32 pager, the first of a six issue miniseries.  It’s a labor of love and I’m too excited to not share the news!  Spread the word!  Issue 2 is already in production as well, that is slated for June.

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Sorry for the late post, folks.  Yesterday was an EXTREMELY fun and productive day, meeting with longtime favorite artists and some of my best friends, IRL and on the net.  This geek has found the ability to network and communicate is ESSENTIAL for success in artistry and in life in general!  Here’s to a great day in artistic geekdom!

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