On the Road: "Pie Are Square?"...

We met Michael Whitehouse last winter at Boskone, and he talked to us about the convention he runs in Western Massachusetts, Pi-Con.

We arranged to purchase table space in their "Artists' Alley", and I was invited to be a panelist.

We departed late Friday morning, endured some brutal traffic jams on I-495 and the Mass Pike and arrived in Springfield in the early evening. We set up our table, got to meet some of our fellow artists, and grabbed a bite to eat. The evening got off to a promising start as we sold some comics right off the bat. At around 8:00, Judy Y. (who lives in Springfield) showed up. She was there to see the main entertainment for Friday: A concert by Voltaire.

I'll describe Voltaire as hardcore filk. Dressed in goth finery, he plays guitar and sings dark-themed songs (including an adorable and slightly twisted lullabye called "Goodnight Demonslayer"), and raunchy parodies (the chorus of his song about Lt. Data goes "He's fully functional… And anatomically correct!"). Very entertaining.

So how does one follow that up? The Rocky Horror Picture Show! As presented by Springfield's Come Again Players. Gynn and I ended up being stand-in virgins. We’d actually both seen Rocky before (although it had been years), but they couldn't find anyone else in the audience who were willing to admit to being virgins, and well, far be it from us to turn down a chance to make idiots out of ourselves on stage.

Here we are, marked in classic Scarlet Letter fashion for all to see.

Hilarity involving "white person dance moves" ensued.

That's Gynn on stage in the middle with all the hair, and me to her left.

Gynn ended up working the Dandelion Studios table for most of Saturday. Here she is with the lovely banner she made featuring 3 the cat and Darlene the giant spider.

Saturday I was scheduled for three panels. The first, "Small Press Comic Publishing" was attended by myself, one other panelist (Mike Luoma, who writes Panthea Obscura and does Point FM Radio), and one audience member. Not much of a panel, but the three of us had a very nice conversation.

My other two panels were later in the day, and I managed to play in a small Magic booster draft tournament in between. I got second place out of four players and came away with some decent cards. Complete tournament report is here, for those interested.

My second panel actually had an audience. It was "The Future of Comics", and it was myself and three major webcomic guys (Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content, Randall Munroe of XKCD, and Ferret of Home on the Strange). We had some good discussion, mostly focussed on the business of webcomics. My final panel was "Cliches That Should Be Banned" with literary agent Michael Kabongo (of Onyxhawke Agency) and writer/longtime comic fan Kip Williams. This one turned out very good with plenty of back-and-forth with the audience and a recurring digression about ninjas.

Sunday I manned the table all morning. Here's a closeup of some of our wares:

We departed early in the afternoon and managed to make time to do a bit of hiking at the Purgatory Chasm State Reservation in Sutton MA on our way home. The pictures I took there got their own photoessay. You can read it here.

Considering the small size of the con, our sales were excellent, and we made some nice contacts. This was my first time as a panelist and I enjoyed it. We expect to be back for 3-Pi Con next summer.