Read about events at another con that infuriated me.
I attended the Phoenix Comicon, May 26th to the 29th. After the event Sunday evening, I went to a restaurant called ZPizza downtown a few blocks away. A nice cool breeze was blowing, so we just relaxed on their comfortable sofas in their patio area. It was a nice way to end four days of busy excitement at the con.
So I rode the light rail all the way to its east end, boarded a bus to the main cross streets where I live, and walked about a half mile the rest of the way home. I got home around 8pm. I had a lot on my mind, and I'd had the discussion on what it means to be a geek and/or nerd with several of my friends. So, I turned on my webcam and started recording.
I work in downtown Phoenix, so when I got off work on Thursday around 4:30pm, I walked a couple blocks to the Phoenix Convention Center. I went around the exhibit hall and even helped my friend, Greg Ham, run his booth. I got to know him when I worked at a great company last year called Pearson, and I started talking to him because I found he had some Perler Bead pixel art and cool toys on his desk. Check out his website and artwork!
So Friday morning, I packed my bag and took the train to the convention center. My friend Kevin paid for the two of us to stay at the Hyatt across the street from the convention center, so I left my bags there and began the rest of my time at the con. I had tons of fun, and they had so many great artists and celebrities at the convention. I saw Wil Wheaton, Bruce Boxleitner, Billy Dee Williams, Stan Lee, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Ernie Hudson, and Bill Atherton there! I got to meet Bruce Boxleitner and Bill Atherton in person, and I had Bruce sign my 20th Anniversary Tron DVD.
There were many great comic book artists and authors there, too. I stalked Michael Stackpole for a while, and he is a great writer. Serialized fiction may not be considered high literature, but it is a guilty pleasure of mine and he writes it very well. I loved his Star Wars: X-Wing novels and how he brought Rogue Squadron to life. I also had Tony Parker and Blond sign my comics of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", and they are the artist and colorist for that comic respectively. I love Blade Runner, and I finally got around to reading Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" last year.
Aside from that, there were other great panels, such as how to make customized Lego and action figure toys, Sci Fi Jeapordy (that game was super fun and I was helping my team get most of the Tron questions), and SF Tube Talk, which discussed upcoming SF TV shows. Which reminds me of one quote from Bruce Boxleitner about the lack of SF shows on TV that involve space. Everything is about zombies and vampires and nothing really involves space ships anymore, now that Battlestar Galactica is gone. He said that we need to be looking to the horizon, not looking at our feet. I agree, and I hope all this Twilight fad crap will fade away eventually.
The worst panels were the anime panels. I was really disappointed with not only how unprofessional and uncoordinated (and downright annoying) those panels were, but I was shocked with how obnoxious, loud, and rude the anime fan crowd was. I mean, going from the Star Trek panel to a panel on Japanese Internet memes was like going to sit at the kid's table. Many in the audience, especially this one annoying girl behind us, kept talking and chiming in and trying to outdo each other as to who was really knowledgeable about the subject matters. I felt like telling that girl behind us to either shut up, get on the stage, or get out of the room. It was one facepalm after another. My friend Lou had gone to Anime Expo for ten years straight, and he said that that con was more of the same. It just got worse and worse each year. It didn't use to be so bad, he said, but once anime's popularity exploded and all these English dub-only crowd took over, it got more and more annoying. The annoying anime fans and the lack of decent panel content reinforced the fact that I do not want to ever go to an anime convention. I remember looking at the ads for the first few years of Anime Expo, when special guests were Kenichi Sonoda, Haruhiko Mikimoto, Akemi Takeda, and Mari Iijima, I really wanted to go. But now it's mostly just English voice actors and those who work in the domestic anime video industry. Boring!
But aside from that, Phoenix Comicon was a blast. I compiled a bunch of video of my time there. Check it out:
Read about events at another con that infuriated me.
Go back to the "Greg's Life" Table of Contents
"You have the bridge, Number One. I have to go number two."
email: stevethefishdotnet -atsign- gmail -dot- com