The Long Con

Team Manticore attended the Central PA Comic Con two weeks ago, and then we went to another convention this past weekend.  

The first went really well.  We made connections, sold some stuff...  

The second one was just a series of mini-terrors wrapped in terrible luck.

There was blood.

Confused cat.

So, let me start by going back to that first con.  

Like I said, we were pretty successful, and we even sold the last of the Shuffle comics! 

This was super exciting to me, because I had the chance to sign some stuff and feel like... I drew that thing that I drew.

There were a lot of awesome costumes, and it was great to see such diversity.  

Also, like eighty Black Widows.  

That is NOT a complaint.  

I made some cats while we were sitting there, because they were selling faster than I thought they would.  

...Some came out a little wrong.

So, now we know what it looks like when a large head is put on a small body...

Like a UFO cat. 

Oops.  

In any case, people were pretty happy about the up-cycled comics and "dead records", because we're making things that are otherwise going to be thrown out into something new.  

Here's another shot of the tiny kitties: 

We also sold a surprising number of teeth, and got some neat suggestions for Walking Dead inspired jewelry.  

Good times.  Good times.

The head-crab, sadly, did not find a new home that day.

Go home, Head-Crab.  You're drunk. 

The second con...  

You know what?  

Here: 

Before even setting foot instead the building, I set knee inside of asphalt.  

See, it was the second day of Spring, so I slipped on some ice, because New York. 

It hurt like a bitch, but once I could stand at all, I realized that nothing was broken.

That was enough for me.

And honestly, I was more concerned about my hand than anything else.

So, I'm limping along...  

Kinda walking bow-legged...

And I feel this cold trickling down my leg.

I figure, "It can't be blood.  That would be warm."  

The other problem was that I was wearing these pants:

(Post fall, hence the hole and caked-on dirt)

So I couldn't actually tell the real blood from the fake blood, because why would there be real blood when all I did was fall down wHAT??? SHUT UP I'M FINE.

At this point, I became a giant baby. 

Rob ran around for first-aid stuff...

Thankfully, a week later, THIS works just fine:

  
I was FAR more concerned with cleaning off the extra blood, than actually tending to the wound itself. 

It was pretty bad.  Approximately this:

A week later, it looks more like this:

The fact is that while kids will skin their knees, that's really just a scrape.  
I actually, literally, SKINNED my fucking knee.  SKINNED IT.  
TOOK THE SKIN OFF OF A CHUNK OF MYSELF LIKE MY KNEE WAS SOMETHING OUT OF HELLRAISER.

...and it hurt.

...and Rob got really frustrated by the fact that I was semi-in shock and just would not stop talking about my knee.

Putting up with each other is half of love.

Going to work, I refused to bring my cane.  
I have one.  
My father gave it to me.
It has served me well.

I don't know why I decided that I didn't need it... Cause... I did.

So, fine.  
We didn't really sell anything, due to the timing of the con.

We got REALLY bored.  

I made a bunny out of stuffing.  

Dusty the dust bunny. 

Here is Rob's creation photobombing. 

Dusty's butt.

We are classy folks.

OH! 

I got to have another injury before we left!

Yaaaaaaaay...

See, the needle broke.

BROKE in half. 

Yep.  

Fine.

The end.

Adventures in Fashion: Makin' a Thing

None of this is sewn together yet.  It's just pinned, but you can see what the Hell it's going to be. 

The idea is that I'll wear it with a white or black top of... some kind.  Starts under the boob and then goes down.  That's it.  That's all it's gonna be.

Albany Games Fest!

The first day of the convention went rather well.  

Housemate and I made him a mask, as seen here: 

Obviously, I took this before he painted it. 

Though he didn't get a chance to do a cosplay contest.  

Still, there were events, stuff got sold, we met some new people, and we talked to some old friends... Well, I did, anyway.  

Rob made us turkey sandwiches for lunch and everything.  

There were games of both video and board varieties, and there were prizes to be won. 

Or, as one announcer stated, 

While this was a very busy con for those actively participating in the events, it was not so busy for the venders.  
This meant that we had some spare time. 

During this boredom lull in the convention, I found ways to entertain myself. 

I made more stuff,

I drew stuff,

I went over my to-do list, 

I drank too much water and had to go to the strange bathroom that doesn't make any sense to me...

You know what, let's take a moment to talk about that bathroom.  
I was told the men's toilet area was not this way. 

First off, I understand why that mirror would be so low.  If someone were to be in a wheelchair, that would be really useful. 

However, why were all the other mirrors segregated to another room?

  

And why did this other room require one solitary chair and trash-bin??

All that being said, it was a really nice, clean bathroom.  A+

*ahem*  

Now, while there wasn't a regular cosplay contest, there was the "Iron Cosplay" that involved using only newspaper and tape in a short amount of time to make a costume.  

My favorite was the narwhal, 

Followed closely by Cthulhu.  

Letsee...  
I started texting my friend at one point...

I braided my hair a few million times...

I complained about the cold a lot...

Oh, I also totally accidentally stabbed myself with this pencil: 

I still have a red dent in my wrist. 

I took pictures, but I won't post any here.  
I'm fine, by the way. 

EDIT: Almost a month later, and I still have a scar. 

What else did I do? 

Well, I spent a lot of time coming up with randomly terrible scenarios about everything for no particular reason...  

And I spent some time watching Rob play a videogame on his tablet...

When people were actively at the table, I kept my eye out for any wandering children. 

I also worried too much about my prices being too high or too low at any given time. 

To give you an idea of what our table looked like from our end, here are some photos!  (Are they still called that, if taken with a phone?  Phone-tos.) 

 

So many chairs.  This was before they were all filled with gamers. 

Earrings!  

More earrings...

So many earrings.  

A bowl of stuffed cats.  

Random spider.  

There were actually a lot of other things, but I got tired of taking pictures after a while.  

I even drew a thing for a sign for a thing!  

Day two went pretty smoothly, since we already knew how we were going to be set up.  

They had the "Iron Cosplay" again, this time with the best little girl ever. 

 Rob said if we ever entered such a contest, he would dress me as the shoe from Monopoly.  

It started as a mocking sort of plead from me not to ever do this: 

 And then it became weirdly dire in my head:

Eventually, tiredness took over.

And some really intense back pain.  

Around this time, I started making little stories in my head about the cats...

I wasn't the only one feeling the burn of it, so we left a little early.  Still, it was a fun, productive day.  

I highly recommend the Albany Games Fest at UAlbany next year!