G2005 - Saturday, July 30

G2005 - Saturday, July 30

10:30am. Aborted Mug. I showed up. So did Carol. But no one else... :(

Oh, well. Gave me a chance to have breakfast with Carol and Dave Schwartz -- again at Guadelajara's. (Tomato juice, scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns, pancakes.) I'm afraid I didn't really have the opportunity to sample many of the Palace's restaurant options. Didn't even make it to the Buffet. But I always love breakfast food.

12:00pm. Next up, Dave and I (Thom was a no-show) took on the Development and Production Panel, discussing the entire process of creating and producing an animated series from start to finish. That was fun. Just hanging with Dave is fun. He's a great guy. I hope a bunch of you got a chance to get to know him.

1:30pm. Voice Acting Panel with Thom. I think this went very well. I'm using the same materials I've been using for years, and I should probably get some new ones... but (a) it's hard to find the time and (b) these materials really do a great job at illustrating the basic (very basic) points that Thom and I want to emphasize in the panel. But people must be getting sick of them. Well, we'll see about next year. Anyway, we had some good readers. It was fun, and a nice preamble to...

3:00pm. Auditions. The first set. As is traditional, Thom and Jen and I handled auditions while Cat (Kat?) and ... and... ARGH... I'm blanking out on another name... worked the door. We got some very good people. We were to have more auditions the next day, but Day One gave me confidence that we'd be able to cast the show.

4:30pm. Next up was the SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS, CREATURE COMICS.COM panel with myself, Dan Vado and Marty Lund. Dan showed his slide show, which included glimpses of all his upcoming Disney Licensced Books: TRON, HAUNTED MANSION, WONDERLAND and, of course, GARGOYLES. For that all we have to show is one gorgeous NEW piece of pro-art depicting Goliath and Elisa. Illustrated by CCC Art Director Greg Guler and colored by the folks at SLG, the piece really kicks some ass! We talked about the upcoming GARGOYLES comic. A lot is still up in the air, but we're all now fully committed to getting this book out in the first half of 2006 -- i.e. sometime between January and June. I know that's a pretty big window, but we'll keep you posted as we begin to nail things down.

Dan was very favorably impressed by the Garg fandom and plans to make SLG a BIG presence at next year's Gathering 2006 in Los Angeles.

6:00pm. We all wanted to grab some dinner, but the wait at Macaroni Grill was like FOREVER. And I had a poker tournament to play in at 7:30pm, and many of the girls were planning to take off to throw Laurean her bachelorette party. So we (me, Adam, Lexy, Tony, Andrea, Patrick, Anna, Si, Marty, Jen, Karine and Kyt) wound up eating at McDonalds (#2 meal and a peach pie).

Si, Lexy, Jen, Cindy, Kyt, Andrea, Trishana and Karine took off for the aforementioned party. And the MEN headed for the Poker Tourney.

7:30pm. Charity Poker Tournament. Competing were myself, Marty, Tony, Eric, Adam, Chris and Thom. All for great charities. (Mine was Daphneyland, a Basset Hound Rescue Organization in Acton, California -- where we got our two new dogs, Abraham and Sami.)

I had NEVER played Texas Hold'em before, but Kathy bought me a book: "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Poker". It was somewhat helpful... though it did make me feel like: "If this is the Idiot's Guide, I need the Moron's Guide." But I did pretty well. We had a pro dealer named Matt. Heavy chips. Good times.

I busted Tony out first. That shocked him, I think. Marty then got killed by Thom, who went out next. I think I slammed him when he thought he had won with two aces in the hole, but I had something like three of a kind or two pair or a full house or something.

Adam then bit the dust, and it was down to myself, Gore and Chris. Chris had been playing slow and easy, letting us all take each other out. But by the time we were down to three, Gore was nearly busted, and I had a decent pot, but Chris had almost all the play money. It finally came down to one hand where both Gore and Chris went all in. I knew I could fold and stay in the game for longer, but I felt it would just be a game of attrition at that point. If Chris took Gore out, I wouldn't have the resources to fight him. So I gambled on a weak hand... and lost. (Though I did beat Gore, to come in second.)

Anyway, I did pretty well and had a great time. It was fun to play with other people's money. I'd do that again anytime!!

9:30pm. I led a HUGE crowd to the Station's Ice Cream Store. Don't remember all who were there, but I know it included myself, Thom, Tony, Lanny, Marina, Ryan, Patrick, Norcumi, Carol and Dave. I had a Banana Royale.

Then we stopped by the Arcade, but that doesn't really jazz me. I asked what else we could do. (I usually run out of ideas after food.) Someone suggested swimming... so we made our way to the pool.

10:00pm. Took a quick couple of dips in the main pool, but we mostly hung out in the jacuzzi: me, Lanny, Adam, Scott, Carter, Thom, Seth, Eric, Tony, Marty and Marina -- the one brave girl willing to hang with ten dopey guys. Marina, whom I remember as a KID from G1997 is a real sweetie. *But man does she make me feel old!*

12:00am. Called it a night, when the guard kicked us out of the pool.

2:30am. Turned out the lights and went to sleep.

More coming soon...