Only 6 Months To Go...

Well, that's the current convention season done and dusted.

As with Chchgeddon, I spent way more time than I probably should've with the comic guests, especially Mike and Laura Allred who were super cool. Mike deciding to do sketches (which he doesn't really do anymore) made my friggin week- majorly stoked to get one done, plus it was fun watching him do the others. (see previous post for pics)

I also splashed out on a Madman page:


Even though it took a freaking HOUR waiting in line, meeting Steve Blum and getting a couple of Guyver dvd covers signed was cool. It's my favourite anime, and as it turned out was the first voice job he got, so I think both of us were chuffed to relive the Guyver memories (he was Guyver 3).

There were some nice new stalls to look at this time too, the volume of dealers was a vast improvement on recent years.

Media guest wise, they were a bit hit-or-miss for me. The Star Trek panel with Dominic Keating, John Billingsley and Rene Auberjonois was interesting, the only low point being the inevitable "can I have a hug" question from the audience (such people need to be beaten).
Maybe it's just me, but John Billingsley and Bonita Friedericy together on stage wasn't as amusing as they seemed to think it was, but then I haven't watched them on anything so had nothing invested in it.
James Kyson Lee from Heroes was actually much better then I expected. I'm kind of cold on Heroes these days, but he was interesting enough.
Marion Ramsey (Police Academy) didn't bring anything to the table and was pretty much a waste of space. I didn't see her first panel in Christchurch, but the other 3 times she was on stage, she sang 3 Tina Turner songs. Quite why she thought we wanted to hear that I don't know, although she seemed to get a decent crowd reaction.
Michael Winslow had pretty much the same material as Auckland last year, but he's still cool enough that it wasn't a big deal.
Chaske Spencer (Twilight) didn't draw as big of a crowd as I expected. Considering he was the only guest on the Friday, he spent much of the afternoon at the signing table doing nothing. Maybe it got better for him the other 2 days. His panel showed why it's not so great being in something that attracts a young audience- I only saw a bit of it, but the questions were all painful to hear...

So that was that. I'm not totally sold on Wellington being a big enough event to support a 3 day show. It was kinda cool having the Friday to hit the stalls and buy stuff, and then worry about the guests on the other 2 days, but it's certainly not essential.

Onwards to Auckland in Oct/Nov!