Post by Xpress Success on Mar 30, 2008 5:04:11 GMT -5
OK guys, so I haven't been around this weekend... at all. The reason for this is simple: Supanova finally staged their inaugural foray into the Melbourne market. They brought along a decent group of guests covering a diverse branch of different genres and mediums, with the main drawcards being John Rhys-Davies (WELSH BROTHERHOOD! Anyone who doesn't know who he is... they fail at life. Yes you. / wrists kthx) and the lovely Jewel Staite from Firefly, Stargate: Atlantis, etc.
That said, my main priorities were other folks on the list: namely Spike Spencer (voice actor that's dubbed such roles as Shinji in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Little Boy from Spriggan and Papillon from Buso Renkin), Michael Winslow (the pioneer of beat-boxing, the human sound FX machine: as seen in such films as Spaceballs and the Police Academy series) and Jennifer Fallon, a local sci-fi/fantasy author that has recently been working on books for the Stargate: SG-1 franchise in addition to her own series.
The Friday night premiere was good, with a decent introduction to the expo and a premiere screening of the new Stargate: SG-1 movie. All in all a decent evening, besides the paranoid security that reeked of butthurt as we were going in for the Ark of Truth screening. Basically, they patted us down and checked all bags in order to ensure no phones, cameras or MP3 players came in. Why? Because there was a new trailer for the coming X Files movie being shown. What a fucking waste. A few vague snippets accompanied by some shitty throwaway lines, and then a release date that was tentative at best. Wow... the studio and distribution company can't afford for secrets that valuable to be leaked onto the intertubes. Gimme a fucking break... the lulz from that shitty trailer almost detracted from a quality movie and a decent night.
Saturday? Well... let's not talk too much about it. I ended up missing 2 panels I wanted to catch due to an epic wait in the queue for autographs. For $60 I got glossy photographs of Rhys-Davies and Staite, signed by the stars themselves, and proceeded to run the gauntlet of stalls. Let's just say that by the end of the day, I was hardly able to carry my haul, and I left the Showgrounds about 435 dollars poorer. I caught good panels from Staite and Marianne De Pierres, not to mention a lulzworthy but entertaining Cosplay Contest, but felt like I hadn't made the most of my day. Oh well, shit happens I guess.
On Sunday morning, I woke up a little later (given I had a full weekend pass, I could jump the queue and get almost instant entry) and didn't hurry to get ready and head to the Showgrounds. First panel off the rank for me was an Anime panel featuring Spike Spencer, Monica Rial (very prolific and well-liked voice actress, she also adapts scripts for the English dubs) and Colleen Clinkenbeard (another major player in the voice acting scene, plus a director and script-writer). Some good little yarns from all three, plus plenty of lulz in the Q&A portion, it was good. Later in the day I got my Tsubasa DVD signed by Monica & Colleen (very nice people), bought Spike's book & CD, got both products autographed plus posed for a photo with him. Top people and very professional. We want more people like that coming to our cons. After the trio left the seminar theater, Jennifer Fallon came in to host her panel, which focused mainly on writing for the Stargate franchise. She was more than happy to impart advice upon all who requested it, and gave me a whole different angle on certain aspects of writing, as Marianne De Pierres had on the Saturday.
Then I sprinted to the main hall to secure a good seat as my main man was about to do a panel... that's right, Michael Winslow was in the building. This guy is so fucking awesome, he has Chuck Norris, God, Jubei Kibagami and Alucard cowering in their corners. He ran the whole gamut, playing guitar riffs, bass-lines, violin sequences, trumpet & trombone plus a whole lot of other shit. Whenever the staffer would walk around with the microphone for Q&A, Winslow would provide the soundtrack (loud footsteps) plus a loud brake screech when he would stop. His stories were funny, his celebrity impersonations were gold (his little Sylvester Stallone ditty had everyone in tears from laughter, especially as he enacted an Italian restaurant scene, complete with music, opera [yes... he sang some opera!] and tommy-gun fire) and his heckling of a couple of random people walking past outside was epic lulz. He was very helpful to those who asked questions about getting into the scene, he admitted that he'd like to dabble in voice acting (he had been talking to Spike Spencer) and his re-enactment of a Star Wars scene was an epic conclusion. The scene played with nothing but the music, and he did the rest. That's right, everything from the clunking of Luke's feet on the ladder rungs as he climbed, from the TIE Fighters flying over the Millennium Falcon to the fire-fight which ensued. His dubbed dialogue was lulz as well. Yeah, I babbled on a bit about this panel, but it was fucking awesome. The main hall's seating allocation was exhausted, plus there were more than a hundred people skirting the walls, such was their desire to get in on it. And it was so worth it... he said that he hadn't attended many cons before, but after the fun he had and the massive standing ovation he got at the conclusion of his panel, I think he might want to consider being a more regular fixture on the circuit in future. Anyone who hasn't checked out any of his work, or gets a chance to catch him at a con... FUCKING DO IT.
Winslow totally won the day, but the next panel wasn't too bad either. I slinked back to the seminar theater to sit in on Spike Spencer's panel about con-related stories. The stories are on his CD, and they provide some big laughs. Highlight? His tale about the anime convention being held at the same hotel on the same day as a Baptist convention. As one could expect, epic lulz ensue in the story... Spike said that it was a second-hand tale, but Michael Winslow admitted to being at said con, confirming the story was fully legit. So yeah, it wasn't just hilarious but it was true to boot.
I went and got my autographs, etc. from Colleen, Spike and Monica after Spike's panel concluded, before going to the main hall to catch the end of John Rhys-Davies' panel. He was a consummate pro, really good with his Q&A, very grounded and he had a lot of time for the fans. After his panel he spent a good twenty minutes outside that hall signing autographs and posing for photos with fans. Hats off to the man of Indiana Jones, LotR and Sliders, etc. fame... had a lot of love for the fans, and they loved him. I was in that hall for Jewel Staite's panel on Stargate: Atlantis, etc. However, it mainly turned into Firefly appreciation and lulzworthy stories that I'm sure her husband, fellow cast members, etc. would be embarassed by. That said, she offset their shame by admitting she was a freak for New Kids On The Block as a kid (she had shit like a Joey pillow, bed quilt, etc. in addition to all their albums). After Jewel finished up, I was so disappointed that the place was left near empty for David Harris' panel. Not only was there discussion of The Warriors, a classic movie that still bears significance to our society, but he was a very interesting guy. Gave a great account of what life used to be like in New York, and how it compares to life there now. He'll be selling off the individual components from his Cochise outfit as well, in addition to his group tours of NYC (for $450, he'll show a small group of boppers around). The turnout for his panel was unfortunate, but it was worth sticking around for.
With that done, I managed to get a photo taken with Greg Horn (well-known and respected comic artist) and C.B. Cebulski (a top-notch comic writer). They were very cool as well. I'm not a massive fan of Marvel Comics, etc. any more, but both of them shared my love for Vertigo titles, especially Preacher and 100 Bullets. C.B. went nuts when I told him how I was a huge fan of the Preacher series, after all... it is made of pure win and God.
Wow, I've rambled on much more than I ever intended to. To sum it all up: my weekend was good, but also emptied my wallet out pretty badly. Now I'm looking forward to Manifest and the Armageddon Expo later this year, plus next year's edition of Supanova. Hopefully their second Melbourne offering can be even better!
That said, my main priorities were other folks on the list: namely Spike Spencer (voice actor that's dubbed such roles as Shinji in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Little Boy from Spriggan and Papillon from Buso Renkin), Michael Winslow (the pioneer of beat-boxing, the human sound FX machine: as seen in such films as Spaceballs and the Police Academy series) and Jennifer Fallon, a local sci-fi/fantasy author that has recently been working on books for the Stargate: SG-1 franchise in addition to her own series.
The Friday night premiere was good, with a decent introduction to the expo and a premiere screening of the new Stargate: SG-1 movie. All in all a decent evening, besides the paranoid security that reeked of butthurt as we were going in for the Ark of Truth screening. Basically, they patted us down and checked all bags in order to ensure no phones, cameras or MP3 players came in. Why? Because there was a new trailer for the coming X Files movie being shown. What a fucking waste. A few vague snippets accompanied by some shitty throwaway lines, and then a release date that was tentative at best. Wow... the studio and distribution company can't afford for secrets that valuable to be leaked onto the intertubes. Gimme a fucking break... the lulz from that shitty trailer almost detracted from a quality movie and a decent night.
Saturday? Well... let's not talk too much about it. I ended up missing 2 panels I wanted to catch due to an epic wait in the queue for autographs. For $60 I got glossy photographs of Rhys-Davies and Staite, signed by the stars themselves, and proceeded to run the gauntlet of stalls. Let's just say that by the end of the day, I was hardly able to carry my haul, and I left the Showgrounds about 435 dollars poorer. I caught good panels from Staite and Marianne De Pierres, not to mention a lulzworthy but entertaining Cosplay Contest, but felt like I hadn't made the most of my day. Oh well, shit happens I guess.
On Sunday morning, I woke up a little later (given I had a full weekend pass, I could jump the queue and get almost instant entry) and didn't hurry to get ready and head to the Showgrounds. First panel off the rank for me was an Anime panel featuring Spike Spencer, Monica Rial (very prolific and well-liked voice actress, she also adapts scripts for the English dubs) and Colleen Clinkenbeard (another major player in the voice acting scene, plus a director and script-writer). Some good little yarns from all three, plus plenty of lulz in the Q&A portion, it was good. Later in the day I got my Tsubasa DVD signed by Monica & Colleen (very nice people), bought Spike's book & CD, got both products autographed plus posed for a photo with him. Top people and very professional. We want more people like that coming to our cons. After the trio left the seminar theater, Jennifer Fallon came in to host her panel, which focused mainly on writing for the Stargate franchise. She was more than happy to impart advice upon all who requested it, and gave me a whole different angle on certain aspects of writing, as Marianne De Pierres had on the Saturday.
Then I sprinted to the main hall to secure a good seat as my main man was about to do a panel... that's right, Michael Winslow was in the building. This guy is so fucking awesome, he has Chuck Norris, God, Jubei Kibagami and Alucard cowering in their corners. He ran the whole gamut, playing guitar riffs, bass-lines, violin sequences, trumpet & trombone plus a whole lot of other shit. Whenever the staffer would walk around with the microphone for Q&A, Winslow would provide the soundtrack (loud footsteps) plus a loud brake screech when he would stop. His stories were funny, his celebrity impersonations were gold (his little Sylvester Stallone ditty had everyone in tears from laughter, especially as he enacted an Italian restaurant scene, complete with music, opera [yes... he sang some opera!] and tommy-gun fire) and his heckling of a couple of random people walking past outside was epic lulz. He was very helpful to those who asked questions about getting into the scene, he admitted that he'd like to dabble in voice acting (he had been talking to Spike Spencer) and his re-enactment of a Star Wars scene was an epic conclusion. The scene played with nothing but the music, and he did the rest. That's right, everything from the clunking of Luke's feet on the ladder rungs as he climbed, from the TIE Fighters flying over the Millennium Falcon to the fire-fight which ensued. His dubbed dialogue was lulz as well. Yeah, I babbled on a bit about this panel, but it was fucking awesome. The main hall's seating allocation was exhausted, plus there were more than a hundred people skirting the walls, such was their desire to get in on it. And it was so worth it... he said that he hadn't attended many cons before, but after the fun he had and the massive standing ovation he got at the conclusion of his panel, I think he might want to consider being a more regular fixture on the circuit in future. Anyone who hasn't checked out any of his work, or gets a chance to catch him at a con... FUCKING DO IT.
Winslow totally won the day, but the next panel wasn't too bad either. I slinked back to the seminar theater to sit in on Spike Spencer's panel about con-related stories. The stories are on his CD, and they provide some big laughs. Highlight? His tale about the anime convention being held at the same hotel on the same day as a Baptist convention. As one could expect, epic lulz ensue in the story... Spike said that it was a second-hand tale, but Michael Winslow admitted to being at said con, confirming the story was fully legit. So yeah, it wasn't just hilarious but it was true to boot.
I went and got my autographs, etc. from Colleen, Spike and Monica after Spike's panel concluded, before going to the main hall to catch the end of John Rhys-Davies' panel. He was a consummate pro, really good with his Q&A, very grounded and he had a lot of time for the fans. After his panel he spent a good twenty minutes outside that hall signing autographs and posing for photos with fans. Hats off to the man of Indiana Jones, LotR and Sliders, etc. fame... had a lot of love for the fans, and they loved him. I was in that hall for Jewel Staite's panel on Stargate: Atlantis, etc. However, it mainly turned into Firefly appreciation and lulzworthy stories that I'm sure her husband, fellow cast members, etc. would be embarassed by. That said, she offset their shame by admitting she was a freak for New Kids On The Block as a kid (she had shit like a Joey pillow, bed quilt, etc. in addition to all their albums). After Jewel finished up, I was so disappointed that the place was left near empty for David Harris' panel. Not only was there discussion of The Warriors, a classic movie that still bears significance to our society, but he was a very interesting guy. Gave a great account of what life used to be like in New York, and how it compares to life there now. He'll be selling off the individual components from his Cochise outfit as well, in addition to his group tours of NYC (for $450, he'll show a small group of boppers around). The turnout for his panel was unfortunate, but it was worth sticking around for.
With that done, I managed to get a photo taken with Greg Horn (well-known and respected comic artist) and C.B. Cebulski (a top-notch comic writer). They were very cool as well. I'm not a massive fan of Marvel Comics, etc. any more, but both of them shared my love for Vertigo titles, especially Preacher and 100 Bullets. C.B. went nuts when I told him how I was a huge fan of the Preacher series, after all... it is made of pure win and God.
Wow, I've rambled on much more than I ever intended to. To sum it all up: my weekend was good, but also emptied my wallet out pretty badly. Now I'm looking forward to Manifest and the Armageddon Expo later this year, plus next year's edition of Supanova. Hopefully their second Melbourne offering can be even better!
