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Li's Connecticon 2005 Convention Report

Precon

I knew going into the con that it would be a little different than usual. I had gone to a con without my partner Akiko before, but this would be my first time doing an art table solo. Even though we are both artists and I do the primary line art for our comic, Akiko is usually the one who draws the commissions when we are at conventions. But Akiko had a prior engagement and would not be at the con for the first two days, and so it would be only me that would be manning our usual art table.

My Connecticon experience began on Thursday with a full day of work and a several hour drive. It wasn't too difficult to find the convention center (the roads were well-marked) but the roads also looked blocked off so it was a bit nerve-wracking as I wondered if the road was open or not. My problems continued as I got myself a tad bit lost in the parking garage, trying to figure out how to get out of the damn thing and where the convention center was. At last I made my way to the front doors and found the con set up.

Like the previous Ctcons, I was there early to help set up Comicopia in the Dealer's Room. We had a lot of volunteers helping, so we pretty quickly got the boxes out of the truck and the books onto the bookshelves. We called it a night around 11:30.

Friday

I woke early and got to the con around 9 so I could help finish setting up Comicopia. Since we had gotten so much done the night before, it only took us about an hour to get the big stuff done, and the rest was just tweaking things around which Matt and his assistant could do in the 2 hours before the Dealer's Room opened.

I decided to actually go get my badge and then set up my own table. The line for (pre)registration was long and slow moving. Ok, so it is no where near as long as the Otakon lines, it did take a while to get through, but fortunately there were enough people to chat with around me that I wasn't too bored.

With badge in hand, I went back to the Dealer's Room. Due to various reasons, I didn't have a table in the Artist Alley. However, since Piano Squall wasn't going to be there at all that day, Matt (con-chair) said it would be find if I used his table. Radbu Productions also didn't have a table, and I said it was fine if he split the table with me. He was eventually able to get his own table.

After I set up, I wandered around the rest of the room to visit with other friends. Most of the artists and webcomics were tucked in the back, so it was pretty easy to find everyone grouped together. I said hi to everyone I hung out with at Anime Boston (Mookie of Dominic Deegan,Hawk, Ananth, and Katy of Applegeeks, Dave Lister (still not of the Red Dwarf, but of Paradox Lost), and Brian (of Instant Classic), and Aido (Of Fallen)). Then I chatted for a bit with others I met the year before, like Tim from Ctrl-Alt-Del, NovaBlade Studios, Shawn of Staccato, and Anson and Mark from Daze in the Haze (and yes, I did steal their Cthulu for a while. I had too--it's tradition!). I visited with a couple of the very talented artists who had tables next to mine last year, and stopped over to see my cousin already hard at work making his chain mail items.

The Dealer's Room opened, and before too long I was already hard at work drawing commissions for people. I spent the afternoon at the table drawing and selling prints. I saw several people whom I met the year before and/or at Anime Boston, and got to chat with many new people as well. Some of the cool people I talked with included the other sexy librarian Sarah and her husband Chris, "Ginji" and "Natsumi" (my fellow GetBackers cosplayers), and Eric and Kevin.

After the Dealer's Room closed up, I followed Eric and Kevin to Sarah's panel on mythology in anime, which was a really fascinating topic.

When the panel ended I decided I was exhausted and it was time to head home to get some sleep.

Saturday

Morning came much too early, but before long I was back at the con center. I wasn't quite certain where my art table would be, so I didn't set up. The glue gun Akiko and I carry with us got more use as I helped Shawn repair his Viewtiful Joe cosplay. While I was helping him, I was approached by Sketch (of Anime Boston fame) whom I didn't recognize at first. (He looks different not in cosplay!). We chatted for a while before I bumped into Michael of Piano Squall, who only just arrived. Michael had no problems with me sharing a table with him, but I figured I would set up after going to the Piano Squall concert.

The concert was a bit slow to start, but was incredible as always. Michael added to the show this year with video clips that played along with his piano. I was delighted to hear my favorite songs played (Magus theme from Crono Trigger, Terra's Theme from FF6, One Winged Angel from FF7, and even Brother's Theme from FullMetal Alchemist.). Of course, Michael got another standing ovation.

I knew Michael would take a while to get back to the Dealer's Room, so I spread my stuff out while it was just me still. I hadn't even gotten fully set up before I got my first commission for the day. I was kept pretty busy for much of the afternoon. The one I was most proud of was a chibi portrait of a lovely young lady in a Cirque de Soliel cosplay--she was the one in the big, flowing golden dress.

Michael finally made his way to the table around 4, and I amused myself by playing his cd on my ipod, and waited to see how long it would take him to realize. It took him a couple moments before he realized it was his playing that he was hearing, as he eventually recognized an element to the piece that was unique to his composition.

We only shared the table for half an hour before I packed up so I could get ready for the Masquerade rehearsal. Michael also closed up shop since he was tired and wasn't a big fan of waiting around in the Dealer's Room anyway. I dropped the con bag off in my car and then went off to the rehearsal. Along the way, I met up with my friend from high school.

Things were slow to start, but once it got going, went by pretty quickly and easily. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do the wonderful skit that Akiko and I made up for Animazement, since Akiko wouldn't be there. I did have another skit idea though, and was quite excited for the performance. My skit needed an 'assistant' but my first fangirl could not do it as she also intended to do a skit. Fortunately, I had a 'back-up' fangirl as my high school friend agreed to go on stage with me.

Continuing with the Shakespearian theme that Akiko and I started last year with our Saiyuki Shakespearian skit, I once again modified a monologue: "Shakespeare's Dangers of Cosplay." Janel was a fabulous fangirl, and totally stole the scene for the first half of my skit. The audience seemed quite entertained by her performance. After she glomped me and stole my hat, exiting the stage, I launched into a modified version of Viola's "Disguise thou art a wickedness" monologue from Twelve Night. My version: "Crossplay thou art a wickedness". I didn't mess up at all, and I think it went over well. I was quite pleased with how it came together, though alas, I was not a winner this year either.

There were several really well done skits and a ton of great costumes. Half way through the show, Michael came on stage again for another quick Piano Squall performance. Since the piano wasn't on stage at first, Michael entertained us by singing perfectly the "Nations" song from Animaniacs. It was incredibly impressive.

Afterwards, I ran into Sketch again. He, his friend 'Dark Vash", Janel and I spent a while talking before we decided it was time to call it a night.

Sunday

Akiko showed up sometime quite early in the morning, with absolutely no sleep. "Sleep is for the weak!" I proclaimed as dragged her off to the convention center even earlier for our panels.

The first panel we had was the "Tea Ceremony" which was to be reprised from last year's. Alas, things didn't seem to want to work as planned. My cat decided the night before decided that my tea whisk was a good chew toy. I forgot the hot water bottle so I had to get a cup of hot water from Starbucks. It wasn't that things were going badly... just more chaotic than I intended. Last year, I ran through the ceremony once, and then repeated it with explanations. The chaos this year meant that I just couldn't go through the ceremony like I had the year before, therefore, I just did the ceremony once, explaining as I went. I tried to keep in stride throughout the whole morning, and I think that I succeeded in entertaining people and hopefully teaching them a little, which is really the important part. We had a really good turn out and overall I was pleased with it. Maybe next year I can do it a bit smoother though...

Immediately after the Tea Ceremony, Akiko and I moved next door to our next panel: Costumes. Neither Akiko or I claim to be experts on costumes in the slightest. Originally, we agreed to do a panel on making kimono, since we had made the summer kimono that we were wearing. The topic of the panel eventually expanded until, by the time the con began, it was general 'costuming'.

We talked about our own costumes and experiences in the hopes that we might help others that were starting out as well. We didn't have as many people for this panel, but again, I think it went pretty well.

Akiko and then threw all our stuff into the car and then I went to the cosplay chess rehearsal while Akiko went around to visit people in the Dealer's Room.

The game was run by the guy who played Gaara from the Anime Boston chess game, and he was helped by Ada (the wonderful girl who ran just about all the cosplay events at AB). This time, I wasn't going to be a piece, but a special attack. Sarah (who was the Mille piece), Ginji, and I evilly plotted our 'event,' even dragging Han into our plans. Mille didn't get to attack until after the game during the 'battle royale' part, but since we got to do our event then, it was fine. It happened pretty fast, so I don't know how much of it was clear, but the plan was this:

Mille would have 'lost' her gun, and when she went to attack, realize that she didn't have it. She would hire Ginji to "get back" it. I, on the other hand, had been hired by Han (the king of the opposite side) to keep the gun away. Ginji came up to me, took one look at me, screamed and ran away. I chased him, but he reached the gun and returned it. Again, it happened really fast, but it had been a lot of fun.

As for the game itself... I loved that we got to rehearse the special attacks before the game took place. It was really great to have some sense of each other's moves before it started. It was a lot of fun, tho the pieces didn't adlib very much in between moves. One of the chess players was more interested in making the game fun and silly, and the other was more interested in actually playing, so the white side very quickly came to dominate the game.

Note worthy aspects of the game: the king and queen on the white side were Yuki and Shuichi from Gravitation. (Shuichi was the queen. That was just pure genius, Ada.) Chi's special attack was the same as the one from AB, and still just as funny. (She got a big-ass gun to attack with.) Captain Jack Sparrow has killer alcohol breath. Yaoi is deadly. And Mookie makes a great MC.

After the game ended, Akiko and I went back to the Dealer's Room to chat with people until the con ended.

I drove Akiko to her parent's house, and then started my long drive home, which became even longer when I got caught in two traffic jams. (There was a horrible car accident, and when I got passed that, no more than 5 miles down the road, I was caught in an even longer traffic jam caused by road repair.) My trip took an extra hour and a half. Ugh.

Conclusion

The con was a great deal of fun, and it was absolutely fantastic seeing everyone and I had a great time talking with people.