Tuesday, Jan 25, 2000
After spending the previous weeks in frantic preparation for the con, I finished things up
enough to travel to the home of Todd Starr, master of travel planning, in Columbus. After arriving, I made use of my time by re-packing my suitcases and watching the DVD of
the movie 'Mystery Men'. When the movie was finished, Todd and I retired to get what
little shuteye we could for the day of travel ahead.
Wednesday, Jan 26, 2000
After about 3 hours of sleep, It was time to get up and get ready to go to the airport. The
taxi we called was late, but it didn't affect us too badly, and we made our flights without
a hitch (for the most part). Traveling west across the time zones made the morning last
much longer than normal, and we had roughly 2 1/2 breakfasts along the way. Once we
arrived at San Francisco airport, We tracked down Japanese artists Ken Singshow and
EMR, and stumbled across Marcus Fox and Dave Isreal, also with our group, at the
shuttle bus to the San Mateo Marriott. Once at the hotel, our rooms were not quite
ready, so we checked our bags into storage, because we had to go back to the airport
to pick up the third ambassador from Japan, Den, AKA Karabiner. Back at the hotel, I
picked up some boxes of merchandise I had UPS'ed to myself, and we met Jay Naylor,
artist of the finest kitty rumps. Jay also stayed in our hotel room, at least occasionally.
Once we actually got in the room, our Japanese friends rested, (being from a farther
time zone and all) while the rest of us explored the area to find a semi-nearby Dennys
for dinner. Once we got back, Ken, Den, and EMR were ready to eat, so the group went
back to the Denny's again. I decided to stay behind and rest for a while. When everyone
got back in one place, we talked and joked for a while, I traded some toys with Ken (I
got a great Japanese Transformer which turns into an Ankylosaurus, and gave Optimus
Primal, who becomes a gorilla, in return - not my first choice.) Finally, everyone settled
down to their respective hotel rooms for some sleep.
Friday, Jan 28, 2000
This marks the first real day of the con, as far as any real activity is concerned. After
waking up, I find a note shoved under the door telling me Max Black Rabbit is here (the
time written on the note tells me I was awake when he dropped it off) Our group heads
off for breakfast to our new discovery, the 'Family Broiler' restaurant, which would
prove a reliable source for inexpensive eats throughout the con. Back at the hotel, its a
mild rush for Todd and I to get all our stuff to our dealer's tables and set things up. We
didn't make it into the main dealer room, instead residing in the 'dealer annex', a small
room along the main hallway reserved for overflow dealers. I was selling my usual stuff,
with a few new additions such as a portfolio of Sabrina Online character pinups, and
thanks to Martin Dudman and United Publications, I also had several copies of Sabrina
Online: Year 2 and a few Amy and Sabrina figurines as well (The figures were sculpted
by Richard Hernandez, not me. I had to field that question a lot) Sales were pretty good
on the first day, and from what I could tell, the annex had a more relaxed atmosphere
than the main room. I had good neighbors as well. One couple was selling
dragon-related sculpture and such, and to my right was Pokemon and Digimon merchandise galore. I bought a small plush Vulpix (not the KFC one) and an octopus toy
that reminds me of a blob named Slimy I draw sometimes. Todd's table had the new
comic he wrote, 'Wild Frontier' (Published thru Shanda Fantasy Arts), in addition to art
by Mitch, and prints and art CDs by the Japanese crew. One special thing of note, just
because it's not something you usually see at a furry con, was the clocks Ken was selling, with his Andorozons on the face. After the room closed, we went back to the Broiler
for some dinner, and returned to the hotel to draw, drink, and decompress. Todd also
spent time learning how best to curse in Japanese, and testing the fluency of Den, Ken
and EMR. EMR was found to know the least English, so he was taught the universal approval sign: a thumbs-up combined with a nasal grunt-like 'Hhvvvvnff' Our room was visited a few times, by welcome folk like Max Blackrabbit and new friend Darkkitten (not
Darke Katt - we must be clear on that) and some not as welcome, So we developed a
system for a quick approval or disapproval, so the person in the doorway could be let in
or destroyed, respectively. Unfortunately for me, Max was pretty busy at this con, so I
didn't get to visit (and get lotsa drawings of Zig Zag, heh) as much as I'd like. I did at
least get a chance to draw one more piece for the infamous 'Bible of Zig Zag', which will
become the next Ark of the Covenant (and melt the faces of those who look at it) Also
staying in our rooms (now at peak capacity) were Bryan Wang, Mark Sterling, and professional pencil jockey Tom Narey. Far too late (if it weren't a convention), we crashed
for the night, in crowded rooms.
Saturday, Jan 29, 2000
It's practically becoming a routine. Get up, go to the Broiler for breakfast, come back, go
to the dealer annex. I was kept pretty busy, but I managed to get in a few drawings for
customers, friends, and fellow artists. There wasn't much to speak of during this day to
set it apart (for me, anyway), save for a few fursuiters who wandered through the annex.
The standouts were a great mascot-style crab and swordfish that blustered through
(VERY talkative too, unusual for someone in costume). Todd videotaped them and
asked them to say 'I am Spartacus' for the camera, which got reactions making one believe they were almost ready to trash the place, along with a caricatured Godzilla, who
was attracted to a smaller replica of himself. Once again, track down some dinner (Mr.
Pizza Man, I believe) and drawing an socializing in the room, as it should be. Max
stopped by for a bit, and Jay wedged himself into an uncomfortable corner in order to
better focus himself for drawing. (I think). When the pizza arrived, Todd greeted the deliveryman wearing fake teeth and glasses, and speaking like Hank Hill after ten hits of
vodka. Unfortunately, the pizza guy didn't want to say 'I am Spartacus'.
Sunday, Jan 30, 2000
Here's where the true fun begins. The time spent in the dealer annex was pretty standard. I got to resolve some money issues with United Publications and Bronzebear Media. As the room was closing up, Mark and Bryan were leaving, so we packed some
stuff to send with them, as we'd be staying at their place for the next few days. I did
fairly well sales-wise at this convention, but not spectacularly compared to Confurence. I
can't help but wonder what might be different if I made it into the main dealer room. I
suppose I can find out next year, because I registered in advance this time. As things
closed up, we planned to go out, get something to eat, and sightsee through San Francisco a bit. Mitch and Amy decided they couldn't risk leaving if they wanted to catch
their flight, which turned out to be an extremely smart move. The public train seemed a
good way to go for us - if it weren't Sunday. The hotel shuttle took us to the nearest train
stop in time to see the train pass by. Checking the time, we discovered it would be
nearly two hours until our next train passed through, and it was a very cold evening (not
Ohio cold, but enough to make me zip up my coat) We occupied ourselves by strolling
around on the tracks and putting down coins to be flattened. Ken drew a lovely picture
of an unhappy, shivering Mrs. Brisby. After finally catching the train and a bus, we got
into downtown San Francisco at nearly midnight. We found an all-night restaurant in
Chinatown (the food was good, but my hot and sour soup was almost unbearably hot
and sour) and started wandering. As bad as it may have sounded, it was actually a fun
an unique experience, sight-seeing through an almost deserted city on our way to the
Golden Gate. We weren't too sure exactly how to get back to the hotel, but we were
lucky enough to stumble across a taxi offering to jam in five passengers. The driver had
several dirty jokes for us along the way - too bad some of our Japanese friends couldn't
appreciate them at the same level as Todd and me (I think). When we finally got back,
there was little to do but pack things up for our flight out tomorrow.
Our flight to San Diego went off with no problems. The only drawback was that Todd, Ken, Den, EMR, and I did not all have seats near each other. Upon arriving, Mark Sterling picked us up with only one car (Bryan was stuck at work), not enough to handle the luggage of five people, as well as those five people. Todd rented a car, a cool red Mustang convertible, which would become nearly indispensable during our stay. The downside to the Mustang was that it was ill-equipped for hauling cargo or a lot of passengers, but this is California, and it's all about style.
Todd and I had a little too much stuff for the airlines, so we both sent a couple heavy boxes each home via UPS. To give you an idea how heavy, it took a little over $100 to send my stuff home.
We went to the 'world famous' San Diego zoo, and found a few too many of the animals we really wanted to see were off exhibit for one reason or another. On the upside, we did manage to coax a notoriously shy arctic fox out of hiding by jingling a keychain. Some of us tried sketching the animals, including myself. My sketches were thoroughly outclassed by Den's. Maybe it's because I was so worn out from walking all over the place - yeah, that's it.
We all got to watch Mark play Monster Rancher on the Playstation - a lot.
We had a great variety of eats while in San Diego, from steak to pizza, to Japanese cuisine (tempura and sashimi for me), to tempura at home, to dim sum style Chinese food, to McDonalds and mall food courts. Much of that good food made me appreciate the cheap crap even more.
I looked high and low for a Beast Machines Cheetor toy I had promised Ken, but struck out royally. Ironically, I would find that toy instantly after returning home. At a Toys R Us, I found a cool Japanese 'Wing Gundam Zero' robot model kit. Looks pretty cool built up, too.
Speaking of shopping, we went to a few malls, many of which are outdoor, visiting the Warner Bros. Store, and a few knife shops.
Todd decided he wanted a 'personal furry' character, in the form of a coyote, and I got the opportunity to play police sketch artist, as Todd suggested change after change to get the character design just right. Ken and EMR also drew the new character, based on my sketches, and I took some of the improvement they made and re-incorporated them into the design. This coyote (which bears no resemblance to a certain road-runner-chaser) is named Myles, Myles O. Coyote. Feel free to put any joke you want right here.
I brought a Palm 3x handheld computer with me on this trip. The batteries were running low, so I changed them, I'm not exactly sure why, but the memory in the unit got wiped shortly afterward, losing all of the notes I took during the vacation. Luckily, I had the foresight to make a backup on my Amiga at home before I left, so I was able to quickly restore the important things, like the Galaxian game.
Friday morning, Den had to leave. Todd and I drove him to the airport in the butt end of the morning. It was nice seeing him off, and getting the chance to talk, without a ready translator, with the exception of the little Sony device Den carried. When we got back from the airport, we dropped off to sleep for a few more good hours.
We went to the San Diego Wild Animal Reserve, which was another zoo, with a bit more focus on being a functional ecosystem onto itself. We finally managed to find some cheetahs to look at (we had promised EMR), and took a monorail ride through the preserve. It was fun to first see African rhinos, lions, and gazelles, then next a California mule deer that took a bus in for the good grazing.
Sunday, Feb 6, 2000 (Nightmare Day)
It was the day to leave, so Todd and I had to get up early, in a repeat performance of
when we took Den to the airport. Our flight left around 7AM. By the time we got the
Mustang back to the rental place, and took the shuttle to the airport, we arrived just ever
so slightly too late for our flight out (to San Francisco). Luckily, (we thought) there was
another flight leaving around 9. There was a lot of fog around the San Francisco airport,
so incoming flights were being delayed again and again, and we got to sit around and
listen to some vocally pissed-off standby flyers who got more vocal as the plane filled
up. The flight finally took off sometime after ten. In an ironic twist of fate, we shared the
flight with Ken and EMR, who had the later flight. What was originally to be a long stopover in San Fran suddenly became nothing. Once we got to San Fran Airport, we parted
company with our Japanese friends, raced to get our bags, and crossed the entire damn
airport to check in for our connecting flight - - too late - - again. We weren't anywhere
near as lucky as we were in San Diego, as there was not another flight leaving an hour
or two later. The options included spending the night in San Francisco, spending the
night in Houston, or flying overnight. I wasn't all that keen on the first two options (in retrospect, they might have been the better ideas), so we set ourselves up for a flight leaving around 11 PM - which meant Todd and I had nearly ten hours to kill at the airport.
We couldn't check our big heavy suitcases right away, as the airline would not accept
them more than 4 hours before the flight, so we had to drag them around with us like
boat anchors. We managed to get all the bags past security, into the airport proper, and
found a bar that also offered some eats. We both bought ourselves some soft and hard
drinks and sat down to wait it out. I took the opportunity (if you can call it that) to draw
and take notes. Todd and I talked and joked a lot, mainly because there was nothing
else to do. Todd gave me several good suggestions for how I could totally revamp my
entire business, which would've been perfect if I had any interest in listening to that in
my current state of mind (fried). We discussed our characters, and drew some hand turkeys (didn't you ever trace your hand at Thanksgiving?) Star Wars came on the television in the bar, which we were starting to enjoy, but that wasn't sports coverage, so
someone working at the bar changed the station. We took that as our cue to leave, as
we had been there for hours, and we could finally check in our luggage. Freed from our
(larger) burden, we leisurely made our way to the gate, got a little something to eat, and
killed a few more hours waiting for our plane. We were getting rather tired, as the conversations were getting more and more stupid and inane. Our flight left without problems (for once) and we were off to Cleveland. There wasn't much of anything to eat during the long flight, except peanuts. I'm pretty sure I managed to get some sleep during
the flight. Either that, or the in-flight movie's plot really jumped around a lot. At the
Cleveland airport, it was another hour plus wait for a commuter turboprop back to Columbus. By contrast, our fatigue was really starting to wear hard on Todd and myself, so
we barely spoke at all while waiting for the plane, getting a little sleep. On the upside,
we were back in our home time zone, and it was now...
Monday, Feb 7, 2000
Almost 10AM. The turboprop fooled us by taxiing very quietly, but the deafening buzz of
the engines showed itself as the plane took off. The flight to Columbus was short. Mirroring the beginning of this whole trip, we took a taxi back to Todd's apartment. I had
planned to spend more time at Todd's place before returning to my own home, but I had
also planned to be back Sunday evening instead of Monday at 11AM. I didn't trust myself to drive home, so I crashed (near-literally) on the fold-out couch for a few precious
hours, waking up again around 2PM. I took Todd to an auto dealership so he could pick
up his truck, which wasn't ready yet, so he got a loaner car instead. We parted ways at
that point, and I made the slow and lazy drive back home to Dayton. Once I got home, I
crashed with fatigue so hard, it took nearly three days to return to actual functional consciousness.
Summary
Overall, I enjoyed this convention and the subsequent vacation activities, though not for
quite the same reasons as other cons like Anthrocon or Mephit. It was a very expensive
trip overall, which sales from the convention covered, but not leaving much ex cess.
Combine this with some of the nasty surprises to come after the convention, and it all
works out to be a humongous mixed blessing for me. The true highpoint of this whole
trip was hanging out in the presence of, and trading drawings with Ken, EMR, and Den.
I figure there's a lot to learn from them, more if I could speak more Japanese than the
word 'hentai'. See ya folks, the next report will most likely be Anthrocon 2000.
Eric W. Schwartz, unofficial ambassador to Japan