Spike’s Adventures at Phoenix Comicon 2012 5

by Spike3007 • Conventions • Tags: , , , , ,

So I went to Phoenix Comicon 2012 this past Memorial Day weekend. Here’s a breakdown of what happened.

I made a mask using 30cm by 30cm laminated panels attached to a foam board box via Velcro. That way I can change my “skin” whenever I feel like it. It was a good prototype but I already have some better ideas for next time.

Minecraft mask panels.

Thumbs up for America.

I made it to Phoenix at some point on Friday afternoon. I don’t remember the exact time, but I know it was a couple hours later than I originally told my friend I’d be there. We rode the Lightrail to the convention center and man this place was busy.

We wandered the floor for a while looking at the people in costumes, the comic artists, and vendors selling all sorts of nerdy goodness.

At one point we walked outside and tried to come back in through the same doors which unfortunately were locked. Some guy dressed as the Count from Sesame Street opened the door and said “One open door ha ha ha.” made my day haha.

We then sat in on a panel for Webcomics 101. They went over a lot of great information that we will be trying to implement some of here on Digisama. The panelists were the creators of the following webcomics: Stale Bacon, Super Siblings, Company Man Comic, and Ema Cartoon. Check them out.

We decided to make our way to the Steam Punk Ball. Sounded like it would be something interesting, right? Well we walked outside and saw people lined up along the streets and something just didn’t feel right. Next thing you know we saw signs reading “Caution infected area” and realized that a Zombie Walk was about to take place. I tried to get a couple pictures but I was not used to my new camera’s setting yet. I’ve never seen a Zombie walk before so I might not be aware of what exactly is supposed to be exciting about them, but to me it seemed like the  “Survivors” would yell and hype up as if they were going to fight, then the Zombies would yell and scream like a moment in Left 4 Dead when the hoard was alerted. The hype, the tension, the excitement would build until… they all walked forward and did it again… We left in search for the Renaissance Hotel where the Steam Punk Ball was taking place.

I think there was a Minecraft zombie in this crowd.

We had a really difficult time finding the hotel. We finally found it as the sun was going down. We followed a crowd of people entering the hotel and wound up going down some stairs before realizing we were heading twords a Yaoi/Yuri Cafe. We quickly turned around and found our way to the room where the Steam Punk ball was taking place. We made it to the ball shortly after it had ended. Good news is we found out about a Dr. Who party that was taking place later that evening.

I swear that hotel was built after the movie “Cube” because we had an insanely hard time finding our way back to the main lobby. We met up with security, who guess what? Was also lost. A random group asked us if we knew where the burlesque was, (I’m still kicking myself for not following them) I told them the basement even though I honestly had no idea. Hope they found it alright. :P

We finally found the lobby and grabbed some extremely overpriced drinks. Well, I guess they were reasonably priced for it being a hotel lobby during an event like this. We chatted about various video games killing time waiting for this party.

About 20 minutes before the Dr. Who party we walked around the building only to find a massive line wrapped around the building. Not wanting to wait in line we attempted to get in from the inside entrance only to be blocked by security. We wandered about the hotel for a bit before running into another group who was headed to the party, turns out they were riding on press passes (remind me to apply for those next year). We managed to get in by following our new “friends” into the party. I snapped a couple pictures, but not being a massive Dr. Who fan made me feel really out of place. Out of fear of mispronouncing “Dalek” I decided to leave.

We wandered about the hotel searching for a room party or something. Well, the first floor we tried we happened to meet a rather creepy Jedi stating there was a party in the room he was sitting next to. Yes, he was sitting in the hallway (must have been the life of the party eh?). He informed us that costumes were encouraged, which we did not have on us. He then told us about what was apparently a Sith party happening Saturday. We left rather quickly in search of more adventure.

Outside of the hotel we met a what I’m told was a cosplay of Rose from Dr. Who. Stupid me didn’t grab a photo, mostly because she was being photographed by a professional and I felt like I wouldn’t be able to do justice with my puny camera. You can check the guys stuff out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/almostfocused/

We decided to check out the other Hotel (the Hyatt) and found a High School of the Dead rave taking place. We ventured into what was again unfamiliar territory, to find another party where we didn’t really understand what was going on. It seemed like people were having a blast, and maybe being familiar with the subject matter we would have also.

The highlight of my night was getting random compliments about my Nyan Navi t-shirt. Here’s where I got it, awesome website with daily shirt designs. http://riptapparel.com/

Alas the night was over, but I was already ready for Saturday.

Not a ton happened on Saturday in relation to the crazy night Friday was. On the way to the convention some older couple kept asking us about Spock. We sat in on a Video Game and Anime Confessions panel, which was needless to say a lot of fun. We also tried to sit in on a Delicious Creepypasta panel, but the chairs were full and i guess where we decided to stand was right next to the light control. The lights kept coming back on and we kept getting blamed, sorry guys but we didn’t touch the thing. We left the panel mostly because of that.

I kept getting lots of random comments on my mask. Mostly “Hey, it’s Mudkip!” “Hey Mudkip! You’re awesome!” the closes one was a kid saying “Look a robot!” To be fair, after cutting the eyes out from my Minecraft skin, I really did look like a Mudkip.

The thing I was looking forward to all day was the Mega Ran concert. Which, by the way, was as awesome as expected. He followed Snubby J in a pretty awesome way. The first song Mega Ran did included Snubby J. A quick search on YouTube shows someone caught the collab http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Kjef8TOkE, careful though the audio isn’t great.

That concluded the night. Sunday was mostly just some last minute stuff. I met up with Josh Green (the guy I hung out with last year), who draws for Evil Robo now! Congrats man.

The very last thing I did in Phoenix was sit in on a Post Apocalypse Survival panel. This seemed like it could either be really good or really bad. Well it was okay actually. It was run by this group called The End of Days who are very much like the SCA
 only more like Road Warrior instead of the Lord of the Rings. Normally not entirely my thing, but when they mentioned golf carts armed with paintball guns, they had my attention.

I can’t wait for next year, the dates are already set for next year so keep an eye out for registration. Hope to see you there.

http://www.phoenixcomicon.com/