BWAH! Hey alls, I'm ba-ack! Even though technically the con is still going on at the moment, I had to return early because I had work this morning, which is where I am now. D: Sadness, and I was having so much fun!

Aaaaand LAUNCH lengthy descriptions of events, thoughts and squeeage in three...two...


This was the first time I'd ever been to the Gathering of the Gargoyles, but sharamordinae insisted I go along this time, so I finally gave in...and I'm glad I did! I've only ever been to AX and SDCC, where there's thousands upon thousands of people all packed into multiple buildings, so going to a small con with only a couple hundred people was actually quite a new experience! Everyone seemed to know anybody else, and if you were new, you were immediately welcomed aboard! It was a very friendly, open, devil-may-care feeling. I rather liked that small-con feel...I think I'm going to try and go to Anime LA next January. X3

What was even more amazing was the fan-to-pro ratio at that con. For how small it was, there were a TON of people there who worked on the show! And pretty much all of them were exceedingly friendly and willing to just chat with fans. (More on that later!) And a bunch of the people who worked on Gargoyles also worked on Duck Tails, Talespin, Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck...all the Disney Afternoon shows, so I was going OMG CHILDHOOD SQUEEGASM practically the entire time. XD

Jeanie picked me up with her friend Sarah, and there was a horrible accident on the 101 so we had to take the 118 to get there. Turns out the con was in Valencia, not Los Angeles proper like I thought. But we managed to get there in the afternoon and set up Jeanie's table in the Dealer's Hall (which consisted of a grand total of eight booths...SO small and easy to get around!) and after scrambling around getting out hotel room set up we barely made it to the opening ceremonies. The music vido contest was held there, which had some both sad and really hilarious entries! It's the 10th anniversary of the con, so there was much celebratory-ness at the opening ceremony. Greg Weisman, the creator of the show, came up and did most of the talking himself...including showing off the original reel pitches for the show, and for the proposed spinoffs that never got made. What I thought was really neat was they showed the partially-storyboarded episode of the never-ever-aired-and-never-will-be-because-the-show-died-on-arrival Team Atlantis/Gargoyles crossover. And apparently, they still have blank spots of the storyboard left to fill in, and fans can request to add parts! XD I am so all over that, assuming I can get ahold of the person in charge. (Yay storyboard stuff to add to portfolio...)

Hung out in peoples' rooms and splurged on pizza late into the night (I swear, I had pizza five times in a row last week...) before completely crashing. Because Saturday we woke up to extreme busy-ness! We tried to find cheap breakfast, but nothing was really open around the hotel so we ended up going to McDonalds and Starbucks for cheap pretend-breakfast food. :P But then, it was back to the con, where I first hung up my two pieces in the art show! There was lots of OMG really good art there! :O *needs to go friend some people on dA* and I thought it was adorably cute how Greg Weisman's kids had some art posted up there. XD Also, the adult section just made me sporfle and lawl. ZOMGWTF Brooklyn/Xanatos/Fox threesome! Artists usually hung out by the art show to draw as well, so I did that for a short smidgeon of time.

Mostly for Saturday, though, I helped Jeanie and co. out at her booth, which was basically giving away all kinds of free Gargoyles junk. (Send me the info for that comic book cover already, girl! ;P) I also went to three mug-a-guests, two of which were portfolio reviews! I really didn't need to be so worried...the portfolio reviews were extremely loose and informal, and most of what Frank Paur and Bob Kline gave was praise. (I'd imagine that the ones at Comic Con are significantly different?...) so I didn't get exactly much new information. However, I did exchange emails and cards with professionals, so hopefully I can pry them for a job please please information later. ;) But it was really fun getting to hear them talk about working on the Disney Afternoon shows and how they came up with characters/ideas. I got sense of extreme nostalgia from them...back in MY day our cartoons weren't CRAP!... but that's not surprising.

Did you know that Baloo and the essential premise for Talespin was originally supposed to be Launchpad's character...that Launchpad was a deliveryman for Scrooge McDuck that shipped all kinds of crazy things crazy places? But then Baloo got that role in his own series! XD (YAY TALESPIN LOVE)

Slave Labor Graphics had a booth up right next to Jeanie's where they were selling all of the Disney comics coming out now. I ended up buying them all... :X I actually bought three copies of Gargoyles and three copies of Tron; the other two of both I intend to send to friends. X3 David Hedgecock, the penciller for Gargoyles (and letterer on a few of the other books) was there, so I got everything signed and I chatted with him on occasion. Also got a sketch of Bronx from him! *<3's Bronx* I ALSO got all of my copies of the Gargoyles comic signed by, like, practically everyone on the cast except Greg Weisman 'cause I could never catch him sitting still long enough ARRGH, including the original writer, story editor, producers, and the voice actors for Goliath (Keith David), Angela (Brigitte Bako), and Lexington (Thom Adcox)! I know who I'm giving one of those signed copies too, but I'm not sure who to for the other... X3

Voice actors! OMG! Keith David was like a huge teddy bear that could kill you. His family was adorable even though he kept hanging on the shoulders of that one artist chick for some reason I barely saw Crispin Freeman on occasion...he wasn't actually in Gargoyles, but he's done the English voices for Practically Every Hot Male Badass Anime Character Ever, and he just came to the con because he likes to hang around the fans. :D I never got to see Jeff Bennett! (I FANGIRL BROOKLYN SO BAD) Although mostly, Thom Adcox is the FUNNIEST. PERSON. EVAR. If you've ever heard Lexington's voice...Thom has the exact same voice in real life. He's completely flaming, especially with him attempting to hump Crispin Freeman, but he's just SILLY and loves being around people and joking with fans. He hung with us by the pool on Saturday night, and then on Sunday he was the special guest at our table! XD He was just impossible to shut up and ADORABLY CUTE.

OMG CRISPIN FREEMAN IS TOTALLY GAY FOR THOM ADCOX AND SARAH HAS PHOTGRAPHIC PROOF :DDDD

On Saturday I went to the annual radio play, where fans try out for voice acting a script that Greg's just pulled out of his ass his old files. This time they did 'The Mirror,' which is totally one of my all-time favorite episodes (PUCK = MORE AWESOME THAN YOU). Keith and Thom actually did the voices for Goliath and Lex, and then Crispin Freeman did the voice of Hudson, which was kind of hilarious because it was mostly Alucard trying to talk in a Scottish accent. XD

Finding dinner was kind of a pain in the ass. People wanted to go out to some fancy Italian restaurant, but when we got there the greeter-person took one look at us and decided on "no." She asked if we had reservations (which we didn't), and then said it'd be a 30-40 minute wait. I was starving and didn't want to wait, so after a bunch of confusion, Jeanie and her friend David and I went to Johnny Rockets instead. I wouldn't have thought too much of the restaurant giving us hell (since some of the people in our group were being loud, annoying bastards and I wanted them to STFU) if it hadn't happened AGAIN the next morning at breakfast. We didn't want to go driving again, so we went down to eat at the hotel breakfast area. We were five obviously-young-and-geeky congoers in less-than-rich clothing. So they said "there's no tables available, but you can sit out on the patio if you want." Bullshit. I saw at least one or two booths available. Yeah, I can understand a hotel not wanting their fancy dining area to reek of geek, but it still pissed me off that we were treated as "lesser-class" just because we didn't dress and act like rich snoots. We ate out on the patio anyway and the food was really good, but it didn't raise points for that Hyatt in my book that we were treated so poorly.

ANYWAY. (Speaking of!) The night before that was the blue mug-a-guest, which meant that was the time for all the DIRTY QUESTIONS YAY. But seriously, I thought it was totally awesome that Greg Weisman was so IN LOVE with his show, and so open with his fans, that he actually wanted people to ask sex-related questions about his character. He was like a geeky fanboy that was talking about all the finer nuances of sex and physiology with his new species, except his species actually went ON THE AIR for 65 episodes and got t-shirts, lunchpails and action figures like anything else commercial. He had so many details worked out for his world and still had tons of stories to share.

But mostly, the blue mug was for silliness. XD Not nearly as many dirty questions as I thought (it kinda dissolved into Gargoyle physiology and funeral traditions) but there were some really hilarious moments, such as Greg ranting about idiot TV executives by standing up on a chair and yelling ARE YOU LISTENING TO THE WORDS COMING OUT OF YOUR MOUTH?!! Also, funniest exchange of the night:

Fan (to Crispin): Crispin, can you do Elisa Maza's voice?
Crispin: Ehh, I don't think I have the pipies for it. *turns to Keith David (Goliath)* Can you do Eliza?
Keith: Only if she asked me to. :D

And there was much more discussion until we got kicked out on the con suite...so people moved downstairs, where more rich snoots said they would call the cops on the group because we were annoying him. What the crap ever. And Greg practically had to kick the guy in the face to shut him up just so he could say "GIVE ME ONE MINUTE TO DISPERSE THEM OKAY OKAY!" But it was such funness!

Sunday I did the other portfolio review with Bob Kline and poked around more panels and the art room. That was when I managed to get most of my autographs...but in the process I missed the panel on erotic writing! D: But at least I made it to the erotic drawing panel...so now I want to go draw more pr0n YAAAY XD I actually went to the panel on W.I.T.C.H., which I hadn't seen but sounded interesting since it was based off of an Italian comic book. Kinda seems to run along the same lines as Avatar in that American-anime-style thing. Although I left my purse there, but the con staff was so nice and helpful that they picked it up for me and had the hotel front desk keep it for me! Yaaay con staff! :D

For the highlight of the evening, I went to the voice actors banquet, where Thom was at our table yaaaay! The food was AMAZING...totally worth the $65 cost, plus we got free DVDs of Season Two! :D

Also, I hereby shall pimp: GO OUT AND BUY PART ONE OF SEASON TWO OF GARGOYLES. The more copies are sold, the more likely Disney will release the second half! Even if you've never heard of the show before, go out and give it a try! It's such a wonderfully complex show with great characters and themes you'll never really see in Disney shows. (Not today, anyway.) And come on, Shakespeare's Puck is a character! How awesome is that? GO BUY IT!
*end pimpage*

Most of the staff came up and talked about what they were currently working on, which was very interesting to hear. After the banquet was the Masquerade! It was short and sweet, and had some great stuff! Jeanie's Gene Simmons gargoyle made me laaaawl, and I still can't get over the guy with the hydrolic (sp?) wings. (They MOVED ON THEIR OWN OMG) Also, there was this one guy who made this HUGE costume of the Egyptian god Set that seriously looked like a professional costume worn at Disneyland. I guess he does furry costumes for commissions? I had NO idea people put that much time and effort into furry costumes...that took talent! :O

Greg handed out awards to the cosplayers (which was pretty much everyone since the con's so small) and then there was more party-age! But alas, since I had to come back for work this morning, I had to leave in the evening. Jeanie was kind enough to drive me back home! *major hugs for her and her awesomeness*

All in all, the con was a TON of fun, and it was great just getting to rub shoulders with professionals in such a relaxed setting. Ooh, and my KH Gargoyles pic got 3rd place in the CG fanworks category in the art show! *superdance* The con'll be in Tennessee next year, but I'm still thinking about making the trip out there because it was so much fun. X3


And now I just need the time to recover before AX in FOUR FRICKIN' DAYS OMG *EXPLODES*

Operator status: I'm the only one here, so it's busy! D:

Drawing: I feel motivated to sketch and draw! especially smut yay! Although craps, I still need to run out and print off the Lunargyros pages so I can shove them in Tim's face be ready for AX!

Writing: THIS. *collapse* Oh, and fanfic, natch! Think I've finally got some things figured out...