Life to you is a dashing, bold
adventure!
April 24, 2007
Wow! Another news update and it's only been a week!
First off, Scott Hinze of Fanboy
Radio has contacted me about possibly doing an interview tomorrow
(dunno when it will air) so, if all goes well, I'll be on Fanboy
Radio... sometime. I met the Fanboy Folks at CAPE in 2005 and they were
all really cool. This could be fun.
Second: RWW Stuff. The order of the Better
Consumer shirts has been placed. That means no more pre-order sale.
Sorry. But here's the good news: tonight and tomorrow I'm working on
an order form for people who want to order prints that'll save money on
shipping (i.e. up to five prints in one envelope). Woot! Also, the
email address for all RWW Store questions and problems is now rippystore@gmail.com. Don't send
them to choochoobear@gmail.com antmore as that's a SURE way for me to
not see them, as has been a problem in the past. Most store stuff
tomorrow.
Third: the current storyline was written by Mr. Eric Burns of Websnark. He's one of the few people
I trust with my characters for anything canonical. I've opened the
possibility of writing to the cast members as well - so far only one
taker. Here's hoping.
Fourth, PenguiCon. I didn't make it clea on Saturday's Filler it wasn't PenguiCon I was
referencing. That was stuff said to me at various cons and reader meets
since 2002. Nothing of the kind happened at PenguiCon.
There are a LOT of cons I recommend to people. Dexcon in East
Brunswick, New Jersey, is amazing if you want almost five full days of
gaming. AnimeFest in Dallas is
run by great people and the two times I've gone, I've walked away having
enjoyed myself. Vassar's No
Such Convention was great, too - it just needed to be longer. I
loved JapanTown Anime Faire, but then I stole a member of the con's staff and
enslaved him as my con rep. I feed him jelly beans.
PenguiCon goes in this list. It's a wonderful convention run by great
people. I don't think I've EVER been to a con that came off as being so
drama free (or maybe they just hid it well). I didn't come across a
single person who said they felt they had a bad time - a rarity for the
best cons. It's a smaller con, just under 1,000 participants. I'm torn
between wanting that number to rise so they become more successful and
wanting it to stay small and personal.
The guests were great. Eric Millikin of Fetus-X, Ferret, the writer of Home on the Strange, Rob
Balder of Partially Clips
and ErfWorld
(whose lovely wife brought Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper for me - thank
you!), the adorable Megan Gedris of Yu+Me, the great Steve Jackson, and many more. Hell,
Tom Smith
performed a song he wrote about S*P in his concert (and if you've never
heard Tom Smith, go to his site now and listen - he even makes a new
song every week). I spent a lot of time hanging around Howard Tayler
of Schlock Mercenary who
is competing with Bill Holbrook
for title of "Nicest Person in Webcomics." And I FINALLY got to
meet Michael Z.
Williamson after a few years of correspondence. These are ALL people who, if
you get a chance to meet, you should.
And best of all, Eric
Raymond
validated my opinion that the five to six people who email me every
month to bitch about the fact I use GIF instead of PNG file format are
not just annoying but flatly wrong. And if you tout the glory of PNG
and don't know who Eric Raymond is... wow. > Apparently I got
what Eric
Raymond and someone else said wrong. What Mr. Raymond said was about
the patent over GIF. Apologies to him.
I can't imagine not going back to PenguiCon next year, barring financial
mishaps or life getting in the way. It was amazing. I hope, if you're
into cons, you get a chance to go sometime. To everyone who stopped by,
said hi, got a sketch, or more - thanks. To everyone I'm forgetting to
mention - sorry. I'm still scattered.
Oh - and Jeremiah, the reader who COULD have come but flaked out? Yeah.
I'm watchin' for you, bucko. -R
