ComicsonComics.com

Unless you're Blaise or GXB -- and saw it live -- you might want to check out the podcast I did for ComicsonComics.com:

http://www.comicsoncomics.com/?p=130

The high quality version is available on itunes.

I think it turned out well...

CON-ODYSSEY: CopperCon - Monday, September 1, 2008

CON-ODYSSEY: CopperCon - Monday, September 1, 2008
12:45am - Said goodbye to Lanny and headed down to my room to watch some TV and read.

4am - Went to sleep.

6:45am - Wake up call.

7:15am - Had the complimentary hotel breakfast, which I had never gotten up early enough to get. It was good. Had a cheese, tomato, mushroom omelette. Plus scrambled eggs, bacon, raisin bran, cheerios, corn flakes, oatmeal, potatos, etc. Sat with Mara, Jennifer, Patrick, David and conchair Gary. When breakfast was over, I said goodbye to Mara, Jennifer and Patrick.

8:15am - Shane and Caitlin took David and I to the airport. We said goodbye to Shane and Caitlin, checked in and then I said goodbye to David.

10:05am - Got on the plane.

11:35am - Arrived at LAX. No car waiting for me. Called. Called again. Finally, the car showed up.

12:30pm - Made it home.

And thus ends my 2008 Con-Odyssey. I'm done for the year with conventions. Had a great time at all of them. But I'm ready to stick to home base -- at least until WonderCon in February. ;)

CON-ODYSSEY: CopperCon - Sunday, August 31, 2008

CON-ODYSSEY: CopperCon - Sunday, August 31, 2008
2am - I went back to my room and read a bit.

3am - Went to sleep.

10:30am - Wake up.

12pm - Held a Spidey panel. Usually Q&A's easily fill the time, but the turn-out wasn't great, so I need to start preparing more.

1pm - Sat in on David Hedgecock's panel on producing a comic book. Lots of good info. Not a lot I didn't know, but still learned something new.

2pm - Shane took David and I upstairs to meet the constaff.

2:30pm - David, Jennifer, Greg, Lanny, Patrick, Mara and I went to Qdobe, where I had a steak taco salad.

3:45pm - We said goodbye to Greg Bishansky and then headed for Chase Stadium.

5:05pm - Marty & Lexy Lund bought us all tickets to the Dodgers-Diamondback game. It was me, David, Patrick, Jennifer, Mara, Lanny, Marty, Lexy and three of their friends: Kevin, Corey and Shasta. I had a kosher dog, water and a cheeseburger. Great game. Dodgers slayed the D-backs 8 to 1. After the game, we said goodbye to Marty, Lexy and their friends.

9:30pm - David, Lanny, Jennifer, Patrick, Mara and I went to the hotel restaurant for dessert. I had deep-fried cheesecake and chocolate ice cream (which may explain why I started a diet as soon as I got back to Los Angeles).

10:30pm - We closed down the restaurant and headed up to Jen, Patrick and Mara's room to hang out.

MORE TO COME...

ComicsonComics.com

Last night, I did a podcast for ComicsonComics.com. Greg Bishansky and Blaze came out to see the show. Don't know if what we did made a good podcast, but we had a good time. Check it out.

CON-ODYSSEY: CopperCon - Saturday, August 30, 2008

CON-ODYSSEY: CopperCon - Saturday, August 30, 2008
12am - Back in Jennifer, Patrick and Mara's room with GXB and myself, we decided to watch WANTED on hotel pay-per-view. It was goofy fun, I thought.

2am - Went back to my room after the movie and read for awhile.

4am - Went to bed.

11:30am - Woke up.

12:30pm - Went down to the Dealer's Room to set up for David and my signing.

1pm - Re-set up for our signing. They changed locations on us Signed and sold a few comics and scripts.

2pm - Went to In N' Out for a Double-Double, Fries and Strawberry Shake with GXB, Jen, Patrick and Mara.

Throughout my hotel stay, I had housekeeping challenges. Because I was sleeping so late, I guess (being on the second floor) I was missing housekeeping's first pass, and they weren't automatically coming back for a second pass. The first day, I let it go. But I'm in a hotel, and I wanted my room made up. So I called the front desk, and the woman there accused me of never taking my DO NOT DISTURB sign off the door. I assured her that I had taken it down both yesterday and today, but that housekeeping had never come back. And she said AGAIN, "because if you leave that sign up there..." etc. etc. Coupled with the trick the hotel had tried to pull the day before, I got fairly ticked, that she was basically either not listening and/or accusing me of lying. Seriously, the proper response would have been simply, "I'll send housekeeping right away." That's what I was asking for. The hotel was very nice, but I was really NOT impressed with the front desk staff at all. (They also gave David a really dirty disgusting room initially. I won't go into what he put up with the first night - cuz it's just too gross.)

3pm - David and I had yet another Gargoyles panel. Struggling somewhat to fill the time. I've got to start BRINGING stuff.

4:30pm - Lanny, Jen, Patrick, Greg and Mara and I hung out in Jen, Patrick and Mara's room.

5:30pm - David and I met down in the bar to talk some business. More on this at a later date.

6:15pm - David and I went to the con's "Green Room" to begin judging the costume contest.

7:30pm - Masquerade. We gave out all the standard awards, but I had one discretionary award, so I gave Cutest Couple to a guy and a gal who were both dressed as "L" from Death Note but -- as far as I know -- didn't know each other. Hey, it worked for Tony and Andrea. You never know.

9:40pm - Greg, Jen, Patrick, Mara, David, Lanny and myself went to Chile's. I had Nachos, a root beer, fries, apples and Memphis dry rub baby back ribs.

11:30pm - I called Beth, and then headed up to Jen's room.

MORE TO COME...

CON-ODYSSEY: CopperCon - Friday, August 29, 2008

CON-ODYSSEY: CopperCon - Friday, August 29, 2008
12:30am - Gave up trying to read by the light of my cellphone and went to bed.

2:30am - The power came back on.

9:30am - Creaturecomics.com partner Marty Lund called.

11:30am - Automated wake-up call.

1pm - Guests' Luncheon. I had salad, roll, water, London Broil, veggies and the fruit off the top of the parfait. Other than the parfait (which just isn't my thing), the food was great. I sat with Shane, Caitlin, other members of the constaff including the ConChair and special guest MaryJanice Davidson.

3pm - I brought the Spider-Man pilot script down for the charity auction. Then hung out with Mara Cordova, Patrick and Jen. We went to Coldstone's where I had a "Banana Split Decision" without bananas (because they were out).

5:30pm - Marty and Lexy arrived.

6pm - There was supposed to be a fan-guest mixer in the bar, but it really was more of a constaff-guest mixer. I had some club soda and bar snacks (thanks to Jen and David). I sat with David and MaryJanice and her husband, writer Anthony Alongi.

7:30pm - I headed upstairs to alert Edmund Tsabard that he might be needed for a panel later that night.

8pm - Did a panel on the Animation Process from Development through Post-Production.

9pm - That was followed by a panel on Gargoyles Sexuality. I left briefly to avoid Edmund, who was there to talk about BlueMugProductions.com and "Last Tengu in Paris". The guy's a jerk, but I'd recommend the work being done by Mara, Robby and Jennifer. Sign up for updates at the website.

10pm - With panels done for the night, we headed off for dinner. It was a big group (Marty, Lexy, Lanny, David, Mara, Jen, Greg Bishansky, Patrick and myself). We saw amazing lightning en route. The restaurant (another loud we're-a-nightclub-at-this-hour place) had great tapas, including tomato bread, cauliflower, pear, duck, potatos, skirt steak, etc. Lanny treated us, I think cuz he felt bad about the volume. Which was really unnecessary, but VERY nice of him.

MORE TO COME...

CON-ODYSSEY: CopperCon - Thursday, August 28, 2008

CON-ODYSSEY: CopperCon - Thursday, August 28, 2008
The hotel was playing some unfriendly games. I was semi-awakened by a phone call from the hotel staff asking if I knew where to find "Mr. Sweeney", a member of "my party". I should have taken them to task, but I was too sleepy, so I just mumbled that I didn't know any "Mr. Sweeney".

I was then awakened again by a call from the hotel staff telling me that my room and taxes were not paid for. This is a pretty serious thing to tell a guest of the con. And in near-immediate hindsight, I realized it was a ploy on the part of the hotel to try to use me to force the hand of the Convention Staff to pay them for my room (and other guest rooms) in advance as opposed to at the end of the convention (which is typical). Anyway, this statement woke me up pretty quickly. The guy tried to tell me that the hotel needed my credit card number by 1pm. I had been prepared to go downstairs that morning to give them my credit card number for extras like in-room movies and room service, but not for room and tax which is supposed to be covered by the con. I made it clear that if the hotel insisted on this, I would simply check out. I could hear the guy back-pedaling on the phone, as he realized that his ploy might backfire. He'd lose out on five nights of registration, including the one night I had already spent there. He tried to fumfer, telling me I should talk to "Mark" on the constaff to get it straightened out. I told him I didn't know any "Mark" and that this wasn't an issue I was going to "deal" with at all. If the hotel wanted me to leave, I'd leave.

Of course, there was an element of bluff on my part as well. I didn't really want to leave. So I called my guest liason Shane, who told me not to worry about it. Half-an-hour later he called me back and said it was dealt with. But I determined that I wouldn't give my credit card to the hotel for ANYthing including room service. I'd pay cash for those charges at the end of my stay. And I also determined not to have any charges at the end of my stay. It was somewhat petty, but I didn't want to give any money to this hotel.

12:30pm - Jennifer L. Anderson and Patrick Toman (chairpersons of the Gathering 2009) arrived and we hung out for a bit.

1pm - David Hedgecock joined us, and we went to IHOP for lunch. I had the International Passport Breakfast with Eggs overeasy, bacon, sausage, hash browns, Swedish Pancakes and Tomato Juice.

4pm - Jen, Patrick and I went to see Pineapple Express. Not a great movie, but I have to admit I laughed a lot. So I'd give it a thumbs up.

6pm - Dinner at the Macaroni Grill with Jen, Patrick, David and Lanny Fields (multiple Gathering attendee). I had a Caesar Salad, coke and lasagna.

8pm - David and I had our first Gargoyles panel. Middling attendance, but we had fun.

9:30pm - Returned to my room.

11:30pm - A pretty impressive storm with impressive lightning displays, 100mph winds and HAIL! I was watching television, when the entire hotel blacked out. I watched the storm for awhile and then tried to read by the light of my cellphone...

MORE TO COME...

ComicsonComics.com

FYI - Here's a blurb:

ComicsonComics.com, the innovative live show/video podcast which brings stand-up comedians and comic book creators together, returns to Meltdown Comics Wednesday September 10 [2008]! Host Robbie Peron welcomes the legendary creator of Gargoyles and supervising producer of the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series, Greg Weisman as he matches wits with comedians Tim Babb, Erik Lundy and Eddie Pence in a round-table discussion of the latest comic book news!

Meltdown Comics is located at 7522 W. Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. The taping starts at 8pm, so show up early to grab a good seat!

Previous episodes with Christos Gage, David Gerrold, Wendy Pini, Geoff Johns and Brian Lynch can be seen online here:

http://www.comicsoncomics.com/?cat=11

Higher quality versions can also be downloaded from iTunes (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=278094320 ).

CON-ODYSSEY: CopperCon - Wednesday, August 27, 2008

CON-ODYSSEY: CopperCon - Wednesday, August 27, 2008
3:30am - I finally went to bed.

5:30am - I got up after my little nap. Showered, packed, ate banana cake, salami, lemon water for breakfast.

7am - The car picked me up to take me to LAX. I had Tuesday and Wednesday's L.A. Times with me, and read them.

9:40am - Borded the plane. After take off, I started to read Walter Mosely's Blonde Faith, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. Slept.

11am - Landed. In baggage claim, I met up with Shane Bryner (CopperCon Guest Liason) and David Hedgecock. Caitlin, another con staffer, was waiting for us out in the car. They took us to lunch, feeding me grilled cheese and tomato soup.

1pm - We went to Drawn To Comics for our first signing. Not much there for us to sign, but we had fun.

4pm - We went to Samurai Comics for our second signing, which wasn't scheduled to start until 5pm.

5pm - Same basic deal.

7pm - We departed for the hotel, checked in, unpacked.

8pm - Shane, Caitlin, David and I went out to dinner at a restaurant called Shogun. I had a coke, edamame, mixed tempura, a California roll, miso soup, salad. Then we went back to the hotel. Where I literally fell asleep doing my ten minutes of neck traction exercises. That means my head was hanging backwards off the edge of the bed for nearly an hour.

11pm - So I went to bed...

MORE TO COME...

IT WAS TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY...

IT WAS TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY...

On September 4th, 1988, I went on a first date with this amazing woman. We went to an apartment warming party for my friend Mike Ryan. My car -- actually my sister's car -- had it's horn literally hanging from the bottom of the engine by a wire, so I had to ask her out AND ask her to drive. (Who knew she'd like that?) At the party -- where she knew no one and I knew everyone -- she fit right in. My friend Cameron had just purchased a new camcorder and was practicing with it. Years later, he would give me a copy of the tape -- a tape of our first date -- full of fades and truck ins and other first-timer camera tricks. After the party, we dropped me off at my place, and I invited her upstairs. We talked for hours and hours. I did EVERYTHING they tell you not to do, including talking about multiple past relationships. And yet somehow as morning came, she still liked me.

Beth and I have been together for twenty years now, and... thank God... she still still likes me. After two apartments, we're on our second house, our third cat and our fourth and fifth dog. Plus, you know, the two amazing, amazing kids.

We have many anniversaries in my date book. Engagement. Finding out she was pregnant with Erin. Finding out she was pregnant with Benny. Our wedding, of course.

But this is still my favorite anniversary. This is where it all began.

I love you, Beth. Happy Anniversary.