Chimaeracon Report: Day 2
I was told that the convention would open at 10:00am. I was wide awake at 8:00am. I enjoyed ate breakfast in the hotel, and hoofed it over to the mall by 8:45. Sure enough, there were people already there, setting up their games, and getting ready for a busy day. It was a busy day. In summary... I did lots of commissions, and lots of free sketches. I met lots of fans, some of whom drove as much as eight hours to come to the convention in order to see me. That's always flattering. My booth was right next to the command post for the San Antonio Express News. Their Geekspeak blogger Chris Quinn spent the day blogging the event. You ought to check out his blogs from the event. I did a caricature of him which I hope he'll post somewhere -- like I said in the previous post, my camera battery won't take a charge anymore, so I have no photo-record of any of the stuff I did. Well... except for this piece. When I went to bed Friday night I had a pun come to me. I scribbled the pun on a piece of paper, and brought it to life on Saturday. This one wasn't for sale. It was for ME. 
One of the con organizers brought me a copy of the article that ran in the San Antonio Express-News. I was very, very pleased. You can read it here, but the online version lacks the charm of the printed one. The printed one had a very nice picture of me, and a picture of Schlock, too. Yeah, that's right... I got my picture in the paper before I even showed up in town. I guess it was about 3:00pm when it hit: my mid-con depression. I was at my table, nobody was there, my only panel was finished, my hand hurt, I'd only made about $75 so far, and I wondered "why am I here?" Fortunately, this has happened before. It seems to ALWAYS happen -- even at conventions when I'm busy the whole time. The only way out is through. I finished coloring Arthur Pandragon, ate some lunch, and by about 3:30 I was back on my "A" game. At around 7:00pm I emceed the costume contest. It was a small gathering, with the audience only outnumbering the contestants by 4:1 or so. I introduced the judges (Kari and Lisa from Black Rabbit Games, and David Wong from Brick by Brick studios), introduced myself, and then called the contestents through the curtain one by one. We had costumes from Half-Life, Star Wars, Transformers, and an anime I've never heard of. The judges deliberated while I told a real groaner of a pun I came up with on Friday (not the Arther Pandragon one... a different pun. I shan't write it down here, though.) The winner was "Perceptor," a Transformer whose costume was fashioned from cardboard boxes, dinner-plates, velcro, and lots of paint. Stuart, the guy who built the costume, was running the booth directly across from mine, and his girlfriend was the one wearing it. After the costume contest I figured I'd head back to my table and make some money on commissions. Unfortunately, the dealer's area was now closed... what was I supposed to do with myself for the rest of the evening? Maybe... maybe I could find a cool game to play.