FanX 2021, Saturday (Mark, using Glo's Blogger account)
It’s hard to talk about a comic con and convey exactly how
cool and fun it is, except to just bring people along to the next one and let
them experience it for themselves. I think I felt that the first time I went to
SLC, and I think Allison felt that before she went to the Chicago Comic and
Entertainment Expo the March before COVID, but as soon as you go, you see just
how cool it can be. Especially for someone like me who generally hides their nerdiness
in favor of professionalism and to keep my business face on, it’s always crazy
gratifying to just let that go for a weekend and realize that I’m actually
probably on the more chill side of things(:
This one felt special though. I don’t like throwing that
phrase around lightly, and that’s not to say that past comic cons haven’t been
really awesome, but this one felt especially fun. We were staying with the
Mechams, who are AWESOME hosts in every sense of the word, Hannah and Glo were
both there and had freed up their schedules entirely to go, and I feel like on
top of the usual awesomeness of the con, we also have already worked out
everything logistically for this con, so we don’t have to stress out about any
of it, and we can just have fun!
Of all the days particularly, Saturday is always especially
fun, for a number of reasons. It’s the weekend, so there’s usually the most
people there, and it’s also the day they do the Cosplay Contest, so you have all
the entrants on the show floor with their costumes on. With the greater influx
of people too, there are usually the best panels (or at least the ones with the
most general interest), and it all makes for a really exciting energy.
First things first: I did not actually wear or bring a costume
to the con, as my flight did not have checked baggage included, and my horn was
already taking up my second carry on… However, Glo and Hannah more than made up
for my lack of costume, with a full Scarlet Witch (the version from
Wandavision) costume for Hannah, and an Ellie costume from Last of Us for Glo,
complete with temporary arm tattoo. Basically all day it was groups of people
coming up and asking them for pictures, whether it was just general people who
liked the outfits, or similarly costumed people. And mind you, people
recognizing you and wanting to get a picture with you are two completely separate
things. You can put a ton of work into a costume, and look great, but that
doesn’t necessarily mean people will come up and ask to get a picture with you,
so the number of requests Hannah and Glo were getting was impressive.
One specific instance that was cool, and also pretty funny:
we’re in the line for bag check before you go in, and mind you, the Ellie
costume for Glo is pretty subtle – just jeans, a grey T-Shirt, a jean shirt
thrown over that, a backpack, and hair pulled back into a semi-Nephite warrior
ponytail. The only REALLY distinctive mark is the tattoo of a fern and a moth
on the right arm, wearing Converse and carrying weapons (but that’s a bit of a
hassle, so Glo didn’t bring any of those). We were honestly wondering if anybody
would recognize her. But we’re standing in line, waiting to get our bags
checked, and we hear “Woah, Mom, look it’s Ellie!” We turn around, and there’s
this 9-year old-or-so kid who TOTALLY recognized Glo’s costume, and wanted to
take a picture with her(: We took pictures, and if you look close, you can see
he’s holding an Ellie plushie (not sure what the rest of his outfit is). Either
way, super cute and funny moment.
Because of the more exciting panel schedule for Saturday, we
had planned out pretty carefully which panels we would attend. In quic order,
we went to one about foam crafting costumes, an animation panel where they
actually drew out and animated a character right there, a panel about 3D
printing and programming your own Star Wars droid (left that about half an hour
in once we realized we didn’t understand anything the panel was talking about
anymore), and a Brandon Sanderson panel. That last one is always a classic to
go to, cause I feel like not a lot of people talk about Brandon Sanderson enough,
and it can feel sometimes like you’re the only one reading his stuff. It’s almost
like being a fan of his books is a deep secret that people keep to themselves,
and only talk about it if someone else mentions him, and so it’s always a shock
to show up to the panel 15 minutes ahead of time, and it’s already packed full
and people are lined up outside for people who leave. Fortunately Hannah had
left the animation panel early to save us a seat, so we snuck in the side door
and were comfortably seated before the rest of the riffraff came in(: And that’s
not to mention, I think Brandon Sanderson has a great formula for the panel, where
he spends 30 minutes talking through a Q&A session, and then 30 minutes
reading the first chapter or so of a new book that’s coming out. After so many
panels of just the people on stage talking, and not a lot of fan interaction, I
feel like he has a really good balance set up where he can talk, the audience
can ask things they’re interested in, and then there’s a shared experience amongst
the audience of appreciating a new book coming out. It’s crazy to think that a
few years ago, when Hannah went there, she just walked up to his table to get a
book signed, and not he has to have a ticketing system for book signings cause
he’s signing books long after the con vendor floor has closed.
A big highlight for me that day was picking up an art
commission I had requested the day before. At comic con, a huge draw for me and
Glo and Hannah is that there’s an entire Artists Alley section of the con
floor, where artists can bring prints or sketches or whatever they have, and
sell pieces to con attendees. There are usually hundreds of them, so you just
talk through the aisles looking for cool stuff. In my experience though,
commissioning an artist to draw or paint something for you takes some time, and
commissioning it and having the artist finish it during the timeframe of a con
is actually pretty rare. Not only are the artists selling their stuff and
manning their booths all day, but at night there are usually networking events
for vendors where they can meet other artists (ugh, I know that networking in
business is absolutely necessary, but it just always feels so gross and slimey…).
So not only are they working from like 9AM – 7PM selliung their stuff, but then
they’re networking from 8-11PM or whatever. It’s an intense life.
While we were walking through Artists Alley though the day
before, there was a lady I had seen that had a really cool folksy monster drawing
style (lots and lots of skulls, ravens, wendigos, that type of thing) with ink
and watercolors, and whereas most pieces were usually some version of a
finished and polished product, I felt like hers were more sketches, and more
gestural in style than defined. Don’t know how everybody else feels, but I
think gestural pieces are much more interesting, because they somewhat leave it
up to the observer to fill in the blanks of the image, while giving you a lot
of raw visual information. Anyways, I loved the style, and I really liked the
subject matter she had in her portfolio, so I asked if I could commission her
for something, and she not only quoted me a pretty reasonable price for a commission,
BUT she also said she could probably have it finished by the end of the con. So
I gave her the idea I was thinking, and just a little context for the subject
matter, and then left her to do her thing.
Honestly, I had thought about purchasing some commissions
from well known artists before, but the price was usually pretty prohibitive. That’s
not to say that you don’t get your bang for your buck with these artists, but
they were just usually out of my price range. On the commissions page though, One
of the things that the comic art curators had said before that I thought was
really interesting was that you should give the artist an idea of what you
want, but keep it pretty high level, and let them fill in all of the details themselves.
They say that if you like the artist, and like their style, you should give
them just what they need to know to have an idea, and then leave the rest up to
them.
I tried to stick with that mindset as I was describing what
I wanted with this particular artist, but once I left her table, I started
getting a little scared that the piece would come out completely different than
what I actually wanted. It’s a scary thing paying a bunch of money upfront, and
then just trusting your initial impression of their work and their artistic
vision. The one consolation was that as I was talking to her about what I wanted,
there was a moment during my description when she just said “I have an idea”, and
that got me really excited. I didn’t ask her what the idea was, but just
knowing that something about my idea got her excited and thinking about gave me
some confidence.
Going up to the artist and asking for a commission is one
thing, but going up to the artist after they’ve finished and picking the piece
up felt even more nerve-wracking. Kind of like how you feel when you get your mission
call, you want to be excited no matter where you go, but you also can’t stop
yourself from having some kind of expectation. I was kinda hoping the artist
didn’t finish it until after the con, cause I didn’t want to have a
disaapointing reaction if I didn’t like it, but sure enough, I got a text from
her around 11 that it was done. So off to the table it was.
As a note too, the direction I had given her was that I
wanted a drawing of the Ravenqueen, who is a goddess in the D&D deity
pantheon. The funny thing about her is that while she’s generally regarded as a
goddess of death and memory, she’s pretty elusive about her exact focus, so it
was hard to give the artist much to go on. Much like a raven though, the
Ravenqueen is just obsessed with collecting things, and specifically things of
the past, whether they’re spirits that have died, particularly poignant
memories, or powerful sorrows, and storing them in her castle in a shadow
dimension, so I gave her that as additional thematic direction, and then asked
her to draw it in a sketch-like gestural format. Given that the artist already
had lots of pieces with crows and birds and all with a creepy theme, and she
liked to stick in her other stuff to a more loose style, I felt like it was a
project that matched her skills really well.
So to the table we went, and as soon as she saw me, she
brought it out (actually there was some other exhibitor standing there talking
to her for forever, so we just waited until he left), but once that was done
she brought it out! And much again like a mission call, it was totally not what
I was expecting, but also WAY cooler than what I thought I would get! She had
cleared it beforehand that she could include skulls, which I was like of course,
but having the raven’s skull mask so central, with the feather-like clothing, the
raven on her shoulder, and the different shades of grey showing the depth of
the picture with the trees in the background and the closer-up details being in
a darker ink, I think just creates the coolest look. And the coolest thing was
seeing how excited she was to give it to me! Of course I can’t speak for her
directly, but it seemed like a piece that she was excited to give to me, and I
was super excited to get it, so it worked out really well! I might still stick
in the near future to more cost-effective commissions for now, but I think this
will be just one of many commissions to come(:
Oh also, funny story about when we were picking up the commissions: we’re standing there at the artists booth, waiting for this other exhibitor that’s talking to her to leave, and behind us, we hear someone start talking to someone else just standing there, say that they saw them elsewhere in the con, that they thought they were nice looking, and ask for their number to go out sometime! And the other person gave them their number! At first, I thought the whole situation was crazy cause I’ve never actually seen someone do that just in normal life, but honestly I couldn’t help but be happy for whoever they were, cause that’s how people should ask each other out. Just a straightforward compliment and invitation to go out sometime, and none of this messing around or being too scared or whatever, or doing everything over the phone. Oh, and the other crazy thing, was both people in this interaction were girls. Yep, looks like gay people have more guts than all those losers in Utah who don’t know how to talk to Hannah or Glo or any girl like normal and ask them out.
After the whirlwind of the day, what's the best way to rest than going to the temple?! Personally I haven't been to an endowment session except for before COVID, so it was kind of a crazy experience. Here though, I'll digress a little and let Glo tell the story of BEFORE the temple:
Glo: As we were driving to the Jordan River Temple, south of Salt Lake, I checked my email. To my horror, I saw the emails Mommy had sent me a week ago, containing names to take to the temple. Immediately my brain began working on where we could print them out before the session in under an hour. My mind them flashed back to a few weeks ago when Mommy and I printed out a fake temple recommend at the hotel lobby business center. We searched the nearest hotel that was in the direction of the temple and sped off.
Because Hannah was still in her scarlet witch costume, we thought it best if she waited in the car while Mark and I went in to the hotel and covertly printed out the temple name cards. We thought it was a stroke of luck when no one was manning the front desk, since it made it more believable that we were staying at the hotel and just using the printers. Well, Satan wasn't gonna make it that easy. After walking down to the end of both sides of the first floor, we couldn't find any door marked business/print center. Then as we walked back into the lobby, we saw COMPUTER AND PRINTING on the wall opposite the lobby desk. Much to our confusion though, we saw neither computer or printer. At that point, we had to make a decision - make a run for it, it hope the front desk person believed that we were staying at the hotel. We rolled the dice and decided to ask for the front desk's help. Honestly, this man was so helpful. (Mark's comment: it was music to my ears that he said it was his first week working there, cause he's probably less suspicious of people like us than a seasoned front staff member would be). The printers, as it turns out, were behind the front desk, and you needed to use a front desk computer to print anything. At first we tried emailing the temple names (didn't work on the phone - surprise surprise the church doesn't have good online resources), and when that didn't turn out, we decided to get even closer to the situation by getting behind the desk and printing from there. Alas, the printers were NOT working. At this point, the front desk guy asks the innocent question, "What room are you staying in? I'll just let you know when everything is printed out." Mark, the conniving master mind, turned to me, and came up with the quick response of, "Hmmmm, I don't know, do YOU remember?" His eyes communicated the panic he was feeling. Spinning the truth and a lie together I responded with, "Hmmmm, I don't remember exactly, I think 100 something. We actually have an appointment at 8 though so we are kind of in a hurry and can't wait too long for the printers to start working." Surprisingly, the front desk worker seemed to buy it! I then followed up that statement with a question on where we might be able to print something, and he suggested another hotel nearby. We walked out of the building, untimely unsuccessful, but still proud of our overall performance in the name of the temple cards :) (Mark's comment: At this point though, I knew we had a figment of truth around which we could spin the lie into a more convincing statement - namely that we had tried to print at another hotel, and their printers didn't work, so they had directed us to print it at this other hotel!)
We then drove to the closest hotel, some fancy chain owned by Marriot. We thought we might meet some opposition, but when we explained at the front desk that we were "staying" at the Fairfield across the street and couldn't get the printers to work there, she simple pointed us towards the print center and warned us that the printers was sometimes finicky. Proud of our second half lie, we approached the print center hopeful, got the family cards ready, pressed print, and waited for the sound of the printer turning on. THE FAMILY NAME CARDS WERE PRINTING! We could barely thank the lady at the front desk and exit the front doors before bursting into cackles as we savored our success. Then, we made a quick stop at Maverick (sort of like Sheetz but not as good) for some tasty lunchable-like dinner, and headed to the temple, family names in hand.
Now back to Mark's account:
But unfortaunetly, Satan still had one more card to pull: granted, we weren't late to the temple, but when we walked in at 7:50 for our 8 o'clocl session, the workers there put up a little bit of a fight that we wouldn't be able to make the session on time. Last I checked though, 10 minutes was plenty of time to change into our clothes as long as we didn't dally (which after we actually got into the changing rooms we didn't). Gah but their delay almost DID make us late to the session....>:<. Whatever, we got there, and the session started right after.
Honestly, what is there to say about the temple other than it was work, and also so restful at the same time! Having not been to the temple for a while due to aforementioned issue (ahem COVID), it was really nice to hear the endowment words again, and to see that I could still remember everything throughout the session. PLus it's always fun going there with family, and having family names.
And then it was back to the Mechams for a restful night of talking and laughing. The Mechams are so great, it makes me even more excited for more comic cons in the future.
Okay, I think that's it for now. Now to make a sick dark-wood frame for my commission(:
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