I am back from Pittsburgh Comicon and man, did I have one hell of a weekend! I'm going to break this down by days just to attempt to keep this nice and tidy. Also it should be noted that my brother, Corey, helped me out this weekend. So here we go.
THURSDAY September 10, 2009 - Con Day #0 (Set-up)
Thursday morning I got up at 8am to check the UPS status of my book order. They still had not arrived and were headed to my old address. But the folks over at Ka-Blam! were amazing as ever and helped me get the package stopped at the hub so Corey and I could pick it up in the morning. But UPS said they couldn't guarantee that they could stop it. So, needless to say I was pretty damn stressed out.
Everything worked out, though. We got up, showered, got dressed, and grabbed some grub before heading to UPS to grab the books. After hitting up UPS, we stopped to Tops for some junk food for the road, cigarettes, and gas. We then ran home quickly to bag the 50 or so loose comics we just picked up.
We hit the road at about 11:45am. It took us about 4 hours on the road to get to Monroeville. The ride was more or less uneventful. We got to the Days Inn and things went to pot. It turns out I didn't have enough room on my credit card and I had to pay for our room with cash leaving me a whopping $40.00 in cash. Fuck.
We headed up to our room and unpacked a bit then just lounged about for about an hour. We then headed over to the Monroeville Convention Center for set-up. I think it took us all of an hour if that. Afterward, we decided to head over to the Monroeville Mall where George Romero filmed the classic Dawn of the Dead. It was literally across the street from the convention center. We wandered about and we actually found a tiny little store called Time and Space that was pretty much geek heaven. It had collectibles, toys, DVD's, comics, and a whole zombie section (of course)!
We then grabbed some dinner in the food court, stopped at a liquor store to grab some Sailor Jerry's then headed back to the hotel to relax and watch the Steelers' game.
FRIDAY September 11, 2009 - Con Day #1
Friday we woke up at 7:45am and got ourselves ready. We headed down the hotel lobby for our free breakfast. The food available consisted of bagels, doughnut holes, cereal, some fruit, coffee and juice. No protein to be found anywhere much to our disappointment (we pretty much ate bagels, doughnuts, and fruit every morning...ugh.)
We hit up the con and got situated right away. The first thing I notice is that we are stationed directly across from Danielle Corsetto. Now let me tell you a little something about Danielle. I am absolutely in love with her work. I have been a fan for a little over a year now and I read Girls with Slingshots every morning before I go to work. And I'm not going to lie, I definitely have a bit of a geek crush on her. So, of course, I'm bugging out a little bit.
The next thing I notice is a big banner down the aisle reading "Digital Pimp Comics!" Now, don't get me wrong, I knew Joe Dunn was going to be there, but I didn't expect the guy to be in the same damn aisle as us. Joe and I have been "internet friends" for probably about two years and I've been a fan of his for about four years but I'd never met the guy in person. He was kind enough to contribute both the introduction and a pin-up to the Red Eye TPB that came out back in May, so I was stoked to finally meet him in person. Joe was there with Digital Pimp writer Phil Chan (Matriculated, Another Video Game Web Comic).
So Friday was hands-down the slowest and least profitable (but not by much). So Joe, Phil, Corey, and I spent a good portion of our nine hour day wandering back between the Zombie Ink and Digital Pimp tables conversing and shooting the shit. We decided that after the show that we should get together for some beers around 9pm.
The show let out at 7pm and we were fucking starved (though this is the only con I can remember where they actually GAVE us food and drinks for lunch, which was totally awesome), so Corey and I hit up some cheap Wendy's before heading back to the hotel to change and chill out a bit.
We headed down to the bar (which was literally behind our hotel) at 9:00pm and waited for Joe and Phil. They ended up running late having dinner with some friends, so Corey and I had a few drinks (9 between the two of us) until Joe and Phil came to pick us up and go to the Mariott to meet some their friends and for more drinks. So I decide to hit the bourbon (Corey was kind enough to pay for the evening). I could have kissed that bartender the way she was making the drinks... just like I like 'em heavy on the bourbon light on the coke. Heh. We actually ended up running into three guys who were from Buffalo... one easily distinguishable by his Bills jersey... they were in town for the con as well but as fans. After lots of nonsense and hilarity Joe and Phil were ready to call it a night so we headed back to our hotel.
Corey decided that he wasn't done drinking yet and I decided to tag along for what I swore would be only one beer. Well, one turned into five and a round of snakebites. Shit. I stumbled back to the hotel at about 2am and hit the hay. Corey rolled in sometime after 4am after finding a hotel party four rooms down from us. Ah, I love my brother.
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