Tag Archives: conventions

Project Nerd Prints

Posted by Steve on May 19, 2014 No comments

I have attended a lot of conventions. One of the things I love to check out is the Artist Alley. This is where the various comic/fantasy/painter artists hang out and have tables and do sketches. You can walk by and visit with them, browse their artwork and even have them do a sketch for you.

From an photography artist, this made me a little jealous. I love the idea of sitting in a booth or table and doing on the spot artwork for people, or having elaborate mat-boards for people to browse through. But as we all have learned, I am still in the early stages of drawing, and I don’t really have some printed artwork that I can display…….

or do I?

I went through some of my older photos and noticed a theme. I have a lot of nerdy prints that I have taken over the years. Some of these would look cool hung up in a study or in your geeky nerd cave. So I have decided to compile them all into one place, and then offer them up “Project Nerd Prints”.

If I am at a convention I will try and have some of these printed out and available, as well as having the ability to do on the spot portraits. This is coupled with my working on sketching.

If you think of something that would be a good Nerd Print, please pass the suggestion on and I will see what I can do. Please feel free to browse the full gallery over at Flickr and some of the selected works below.

Collecting Autographs

Posted by Steve on July 23, 2012 1 comment

Jewel Got Photobombed!

One of my favorite hobbies takes place while at conventions, but doesn’t involve costumes, friends, or drinking. (because, what else is there at conventions?) I love seeing the guest list for conventions because it means I may have the chance to meet someone who is responsible for creating some of my favorite shows/books/movies. To much extent, this is one of the main reasons for attending for me, and one of the first things I do at a convention! There is just something about going up to a guest, shaking their hand (or giving the Iron Guard), and thanking them for what they do. On that rare occasion, you even have enough time to sit and talk with them about their craft, or hobbies, or even just what they think about the conventions.

To remember the visit I will usually grab one of the 8×10’s they have and have them sign it. Not to monetize it, but to have that memory. It’s always personalized (if they can, some of them have their reasons), and I consider it as my contribution to them for the time they spent with me. Sometimes the memory and time is great, and sometimes it’s not, but it is always a memory I will have.

Me dressed at Matty Roth from DMZ with Felicia.

I recently decided to grab shots of all of my current autographs. Most of them are down in the “Man-Cave” but some are still yet to be framed and mounted. Some interesting ones are the set of four autographs from Felicia Day, and the four from Jewel Staite. We learned that four is the magic number, when it comes to that line between fandom and stalking. I love both Jewel and Felicia for what they do and who they are, but I don’t want to be that guy who is always in their line every convention. That’s just creepy. So we go for four autographs and call it at that. It’s enough that, by the end of it, they tend to recognize you enough to smile and wave, but not overly enough to be weird-ed out by your presence.

Below are just a few of my favorites, you can find the rest in a gallery here on my site.

Meeting Wil was indeed…Awesome

EJO was inspiring to meet in person

Jewel played the 501st’s game of “Droid Hunt” and had a blast.

Two of my favorite actors from Warehouse 13!!

The PAX Post (Finally)

Posted by Steve on March 25, 2011 No comments

I figure I should write down my thoughts about PAXEast, it’s just been a little busy as of late to get around to doing it. I guess that’s the big problem as of late is that I just need to make the time to do these things. (And I should stop making posts that complain about not having the time to make posts). But I digress. Just over a week ago Andrew and I got to attend the Penny Arcade Expo East in lovely Boston MA. I have been yearning to attend a PAX event ever since they started. Last year was the first east coast event and I wasn’t able to go, but forced myself to take the time this year. for those who don’t know, PAX is a gaming convention. Kind of like E3 meets Gencon. Something that draws a lot of the big names and companies get to show off their wares, but it’s run by fans and gamers for other fans and gamers. This year, PAXEAST was the largest PAX event ever with upwards around 70,000 attendees. The downside to this was lines everywhere, but I’ll get to that.

We started the trip a little early, the convention started on Friday but I wanted to get the chance to explore Boston, so we arrived on Thursday. Our hotel was the Midtown Hotel on Harrington, which is not really Mid-Town at all. It was a nice enough hotel, but I would have rather had something closer. We new Thursday was going to be a walking day so we started off early and headed to our first stop, Cheers. It wasn’t until a friend reminded me about Cheers being there that I added it to the list. (and he got a shot glass out of it.) After lunch we went on the Freedom trail and hit almost everything. I have a great gallery of the Boston side of the trip on my site here. I’ll save you the step by step, but some highlights were the Northend of Boston, which I found to be amazing. That area of the city has such history. I could spend a week there just touring things and taking pictures. That night we decided to eat in the Northend. We wanted to try a good Italian place but instead, I think we found the worst one there. I normally wouldn’t out a place but La Famiglia Spagnuolo had to be one of the worst places I have ever eaten. The sauce on the dish I had tasted like it was straight from a can, and not a good can. Seriously, avoid it. Sadly we didn’t get a chance the rest of the trip to go back for a decent Northend dinner. All totalled we walked about 15 miles on Thursday. And this was all before the Con!!

Friday through Sunday was all PAXEast. Some highlights were:

Meeting the infamous Major Nelson, Stepto, E, and Lollipop. We are huge fans of the Podcast and everyone knows how much of an Xbox fan-boy I am, so this was a big one for me. I even got Lollipop to do the Robot at the live Podcast panel. (Thanks again Laura!)
Seeing all the amazing demo’s on the expo floor, including Star Wars Old Republic, Duke Nukem, Portal 2, L.A. Noir, etc. etc. etc.
Spending time with Andrew in the table top game room playing just about anything we could get our hands on. We bought Munchkin Zombies and just popped down a sign that said “come play with us!” and within Minutes we had a full table. I loved that about PAX, just random people saying “I would love to play that!”
Andrew got to meet Steve Jackson (of Steve Jackson Games) while playing Ninja Burger!
I got to meet many of the Developers and Writers for Portal 2 and have them sign my iPad which will be making it’s way to a new good home soon.
The PAXEast concert was, of course, epic. We saw Johnathan Coulton, VGO, and Paul and Storm. This led into the DST switch where we were robbed of an hour of PAX. Went to bed that night at 4am! (worth it!)
Playing in an Arcade room with 80s music blasting took me back to when I was 12 years old and my sister took me to the free play night she won access to from the local radio station.
We tried to learn at least 1 to 2 new games per day of the convention. We got Zombie Dice, Ninja Burger, Munchkin Zombies, MTG cards, and a few other smallish games. We even saw a couple playing rock paper scissors. (in trek costumes!!)

Over all I was just constantly amazed with how friendly everyone was and how awesome it was to be there and surrounded by others who enjoyed games the way I do. If you love games, I highly suggest PAX! Either one! You can view my PAX pictures in my gallery here.