Albert The Alien

SATURDAY:
Morning came too soon, as it always seems to do, and I headed downstairs to the show. I grabbed a breakfast sandwich at the Expoteria, and went to go set up my table for the longest (and largest) day of the con.

And the sales did come in, and come in strong. Traffic on the floor picked up quite a bit around noon, and kept going strong throughout most of the afternoon. There were lulls in traffic – I assume during celebrity panels – but I had a lot of visitors to the table, returning fans, new friends, and cosplayers in colorful and inventive outfits.

I was interviewed by the Daily Hearald

Hanging out with long-time fan Jeff in front of my booth, before we started acting goofy…

…which Steve Horton did not like

Posing with Ashley, in her amazing Iron Man cosplay

Got a visit from the Channel Awesome crew, including Tamara!

Steve was asking for this!

Around 5pm, I headed to the panel room, along with Dean Haspiel, Ali Cantarella, and Gene Ha, to give a panel about Writing for Comics. Dean and Gene, both historically artists, had a unique perspective moving to the writing / art duties for their latest projects. Ali had done all of the writing and art work for her book, The Hasty Pastry, but was transitioning into more of an illustrator role for other projects now and talked about her experience. Another group of creators with unique and innovative approaches to their craft, and stories to share. The attendance at the panel was standing room only, the most full I’ve seen a non-celebrity panel at a Wizard show. Lots of great questions from the audience, as well. A good time was had by all.

We returned to our tables for the final hours of the floor, and then went to freshen up before heading out for dinner. We were joined by Dean Haspiel, Danny Fingerough, Clint Hobart, Lauren, and a handful of others. Dean wanted Mexican food, so we headed over to the area behind the movie theater to grab some dinner. However, every place back there had 2+ hour waits for tables (assuming they were taking walk-ins at all). So we had to walk the half mile back to the Hyatt to eat there. Dinner was good, but expensive, and we followed it up with drinks at the Hyatt bar again (joined by more creator friends).

Hanging out with the crew at the Hyatt bar at night

After closing the bar, we said our goodnights but Lauren and I weren’t ready to end the day just yet. We decided to walk around down in the basement of the hotel, which had all of the lights out and all of the door open or unlocked. We toured the hallways that staff uses to get around, riding on luggage carriers and trying to balance on stacked chairs (kids, don’t do this at home). However, it was so quiet down there that there was only so much fun to be had, and we quickly decided to call it a night.