I Vomit Rainbows

I’m back from New York ComiCon! The con was really fun but exhausting. Got to see lots of friends, which made me super happy. I showed up super sick (and was kinda under the weather and feeling terrible all week). I shot a really fantastic Z-Trip and Tom Morello concert, and the next night shot the DC Comics party. The best part of that was that it was the largest number of DC comics writers and artists in one place that I’ve ever captured. I’m starting to see my photography like Pokemon. Gotta get them all! Hung out with my anime friends after that; ate Ippudo Ramen and chilled at the New Yorker hotel. Sat was super fun. Rich gave me like half a suitcase full of british candy, mostly jelly babies!!!! Ate at Five Guys Burgers, hit an MTV party, hung out at a bar, found Tendency and Justin and chilled at Duke’s, then ended up at Artichoke Pizza where Zane came to visit us! Sunday I was broken but I shot Adventure Time and got to meet the guy who makes The Oatmeal. I hung out with his mom. Then I ate ramen at the airport and one of the CBR reporters ended up sitting next to me and chatting on the way home on our plane!

I’m finally getting around to writing a bit about DefCon 19. The craziest part was that I won in the fake beard category of the 1st DefCon Beard Competition while wearing a Nyan cat costume. Redbeard had asked me to enter about a week beforehand on irc, so I threw this together with bits of wire (hooray Apex salvage yard!) and el-wire (thanks Tim and Phear!). It was heavy and pokey, but a lot of fun. I highly recommend this contest for people looking for things to participate in at DefCon next year. The contest itself had over 70 contestants and had categories like partial beards and full natural beards, with Redbeard MCing the entire affair.

Quick overview: Telecommuted from a castle that Wednesday and went to the Recursion BlackHat party at the Atomic Testing Museum. Super fun, got to explore the exhibits. Then they hosted an afterparty at one of my favorite places in Las Vegas, the Pinball Hall of Fame. Worked from the castle again, partied at the Recursion suite some more, then had an afterparty at my suite at the Rio. Friday was Queercon, where I did a painting of Nyan Cat. Poser bought it. Then we went to a party at Gold Coast (blanking on which this was.) It had a circular rotating bed with amazing views of Vegas. Saturday was the beard contest, Facebook party, then we partied at Fort Dugan again. Nous and the ninja girls made lots of really amazing jello shots and mini-cupcakes. DJ Bolivia and Tprophet DJed (here’s a mix). Sunday we hung out at closing ceremonies (Barkode got a standing ovation!), saw the Scavenger Hunt shirts I designed, Gaylord indian food, Hofbrauhaus and Rumor, then we drove home. Hooray defcon! My favorite part is always the people; most of the ninjas came out for this, even people we hadn’t seen in years. Plus most of our Antarctica crew made it out, too. Can’t wait for DefCon 20 PS we are all old.

oh and please note that my trophy was a bearded lady. so awesome.

RAVER NYAN CAT (with beard!) and Redbeard

Scavenger Hunt shirt with Duck Hunt telco theme

Click here for pics!!

1- Rio has room sales all the time. Don’t get screwed by last-minute rate hikes. We grabbed a Masquerade suite at 50% off, and got an extra room at $35 a night. I think we only reserved 3-4 months in advance. These rooms are not refundable, but you can easily add a friend to your room via phone if you don’t think you’ll use it.

2- Room service is actually reasonable, and Pizza Hut is part of the menu. Instead of standing in an unreasonably long line for Burger King, sit in your air conditioned room, watch a talk, and wait 45 minutes for your pizza with some friends over like you would at home.

3- Make friends with a Nevada resident or acquire a Nevada ID. This year, Rio was doing major discounts for anyone who lived in their state at all their bars. I don’t know if this will be in effect at DefCon 20, but it was convenient

4- While expensive, Gaylord Indian Food is actually pretty good and a nice break from the casino environment. Order the mango lassi! It comes in a spittoon.

5- Contests are a great way to make new friends and stay entertained. There seems to now be a contest for every possible skillset. Go play!

6- The pinball museum is still one of my favorite Las Vegas attractions. This year, it seemed like they added a lot of vintage arcade machines. The gumball machine section has little tiny ninjas. The Tron pinball machine is new and fun; the oldschool arcade version is super hard.

7- Drink water! There are chilled water coolers all over DefCon. I should have been doing this all week.

8- Los Tacos is delicious and worth a drive off-strip and better than most tacos in Los Angeles.

9- Atomic Energy Museum is worth checking out. They have really interesting displays and lots of cool relics of the era.

10- Apparently if you keep buying drinks, you can work from your laptop at the bar over the video poker if you need to.

This year was my favorite ComiCon in a very, very long time!! I haven’t done a con writeup in years, but wanted to remember why I liked this year so much! Here’s what happened:

Tuesday

Arrived late-night to Jordie and Jim’s pimp Hillcrest pad. They’re old friends from the Dumbrella messageboard. They have awesome cats.

Wednesday

Breakfast with Rich Johnston. Met lots of his friends, including Neal Adams. Ate a delicious pecan pancake. Me and Rich like to trade candy and this year we were doing old fashioned candies (and he gave me Jelly Babies!).  He’s British and I live in LA, so I think I get the better end of this deal. But I loaded up on tons of treats from Rocketfizz Burbank before coming out.

After foods, I went back to Jordie’s to do a work project for NBC Universal that was kinda driving me crazy. On the way to ComiCon around 4ish I got hit by a car. The dude driving it was a Turkish student who’d bought a shiny BMW yesterday but it wasn’t insured yet. His friends were translating for him and they really didn’t want me to call the cops or my insurance. I let one of them ride with me to a mechanic friend of theirs, and they were haggling over prices, which made me really nervous. The mechanic was practically in Mexico, in a really really really sketchy part of town off Caeser Chavez blvd. I called Tenlow and he told me to call my insurance, so I did. (edit: Turns out it was $900 in damage. The kids had offered $200-300 to settle it on the spot. Super glad I didn’t take them up on it)

I ran around back behind the Mariott to the CBR Yacht. My role at ComiCon is mostly to take pictures of stuff for Comic Book Resources, which is one of the best and oldest pop culture sites on the internet. We have a boat that TV interviews take place at. This year Remy kicked ass at getting me access to a bunch of press rooms and junkets, and Jonah got me a spot to shoot a movie premiere. I grabbed my press pass from there and said hi to everyone, and ran into the convention center for Preview Night. Before ComiCon officially opens, on Wednesday you can go in for a few hours and buy stuff in the exhibit hall. I had to go to the Dark Horse booth for a surprise announcement:  Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine was going to be doing books with them. I got pics of him and then ran back to the boat for the CBR mixer, a private party where all the reporters could meet each other.

After hanging out there I went to Tr!ckster, which was an event across the street from the convention center. My friend Kyle (aka DJ Headshot), was spinning. I found Jane Dope and Jim Mahfood and some other friends and hung out. I also ate some sushi from Sushi on a Roll, which is a mobile sushi caterer. I was really impressed with their chef; he’s one of the most innovative food guys I’ve talked to in a while. Tr!ckster was great because it felt like it had some of the best parts of ComiCon in a space with plenty of room, beautiful artwork, available seating, booze, music, and my favorite people. There was life drawing set up, and some fantastic live art coming out of that. I was gonna take off and get some sleep, but I ended staying there most of the night cuz DJ Headshot was playing really good music and I couldn’t leave

Thursday

Thursday I woke up at 6:30 and checked into my hotel at the Sheraton Symphony Hall (thanks Pat Loika!). I took a cab to the Hilton Bayfront for a Twilight press junket. That event was NUTS. There was a crazy line for all the press who showed up, and when I got into the room, I grabbed a spot against a wall. It even had a catered continental breakfast, which is unusual for press rooms at ComiCon. I put on our 400mm lens because I was still pretty far back, and got some okay pictures of minor Twilight characters. When the event was rolling past two hours I had to take off and shoot Chris Evans at the Marvel booth. I got there before he came out, but it was already packed so I took some shots from the signing area with the telephoto lens. They had the signings starting up, and I made friends with the guy who made the Captain America iphone cases (he gave me one!) and he got the Marvel event staff to let me into the press area in the front. I got a shot of Elena from Top Cow posing with Chris Evans.

Lately I’ve been really into Game of Thrones, so next I ran over to the Avatar booth and got to meet and shoot George RR Martin. Yay! After that I shot stuff for Burn Notice, Napolean Dynamite, Arkham City, and Voltron. Then I shot Stitched press stuff (short movie by Garth Ennis), but had the chance to do some unique shots so stuck around there for a while. I didn’t notice that by then I’d killed all of my flash’s AA batteries, and by the time I made it to Simone Bianchi’s gallery opening at the Chuck Jones Gallery, it wasn’t firing off. The guy who manages the gallery was SUPER NICE and hooked me up with 8 more batteries, so I shot that event and helped drink their free tequila. And damphyr from DeviantART met me there! I had to jet from that and get back into the convention center to cover a surprise Torchwood cast appearance at their screening, which was SUPER fun to shoot. They were all hyper and hugging each other, and my shots from that are fantastic. My plan after that was to hit the CBLDF party, but it was ending about when I was able to leave. I was gonna do the Comikaze/Stan Lee event, but I needed to go by the Adult Swim party and pick up Kyle (DJ Headshot). I ended up going in and when I walked in, KID KOALA was spinning in a KOALA SUIT!!!! So of course I couldn’t leave. Plus I kept getting free drinks. That was a super fun party. Stephanie Sheh and Michael Sinterniklaas came by and then we all went to a pizza place.

Friday

I again woke up way too early. I shot a bunch of stuff, but the coolest ones were Sparticus and Torchwood. Those were both outside in the sunlight. I also got to shoot Warehouse 13, which was awesome cuz I LOVE Artie and Claudia so much.  After I was done with everything and offloaded my photos, I met up with Dave, Jules (Count Ninjula), and Rob Phelps at Tr!ckster. They all had just driven down from LA because Jules was DJing. It was super fun! The best part was when Kevin Altieri and his friend came up just as Count Ninjula was playing a song he made using Cartman singing “Pokerface” by Lady Gaga, and they were dancing with me for a while. After that, we met up with Jacen Burrows and David Marks at the Mariott. We took off to visit a grocery store after that, and I didn’t realize I’d left my camera bag at Mariott, so I ran back to get it (3 blocks!). There was a cargo train in the way that took forever and ever and ever (15mins?) to pass, and I finally got my camera. The bar staff had kept it safe. Those guys are awesome!!! After that, we still needed to eat some dinner and it was getting close to 2a, and we stumbled across a pizza place that was fully themed to Adventure Time, the cartoon. Win!

I’m extremely allergic to mosquitos and there were some on the marina, so by today I was reacting very badly to them. Super uncomfortable. Got a bite on my leg that was doing horrible for the next few days.

Saturday

Up early again! Grabbed my camera stuff from the boat, and shot the Terra Nova press room. Ran by the South Park thing offsite and that was pretty rad; I liked the food truck lot. I ate a lobster roll from chop-soo-ey. I wanted to try to get an ideal spot for the Cup ‘o Joe panel that Marvel does, so I actually went back in and hung out in line for an hour, but people I knew kept walking by and wanting pictures taken so I wasn’t bored. At Cup o’ Joe, Joe Quesada  got “arrested” by a SHIELD team for playing unauthorized footage from a short being included on the Thor DVD, and when the lead cop took his glasses off, it was the main star of that – Clark Gregg. The short’s called “The Consultant.” I went back down to Marvel to shoot the signing, and got permission to shoot from the stage, and got some fantastic shots. After that, I grabbed a cab and headed to the Civic Center theater, where they were doing red carpet arrivals for Cowboys and Aliens. This was a proper Hollywood premiere that felt like it was picked up from Hollywood blvd and plunked down into San Diego. I didn’t see many comic book press people there; it felt like it was a lot of paparazzi and major networks. Super fun though. Harrison Ford was there. The best part was that I was down on the end (last group to shoot) with someone from a local TV crew and another photographer, and when Harrison Ford walked over (with someone.. I have to check my photos to see who), all the other photographers pretty much smashed into our area to shoot them. The security guard started yelling at them to stay in their spots, and he knew them by name and said they’d get in trouble, and it was really cool that he stood up for us.

I felt really really ouchy after the event, so when I returned to the boat to offload my photos (I filled my hard drive twice and had to delete stuff to make room), I took a bunch of painkillers and had to chill out for a few hours. Tons of fun hanging out with the CBR crew that was around. Went back out to the Hyatt and met up with some deviantART friends who were sponsoring Artist’s Alley at the con. I felt bad about not making it to Tr!ckster, but I honestly didn’t think I could walk that far. My friend Heather ran down and was like “YOU HAVE TO COME UPSTAIRS!” .. it turns out that all the celebs who couldn’t get into the SyFy/EW party made their own event on that floor and anyone could pop in and hang out. It was called SlamCon. I had a really nice time up there hanging out with old and new friends. Saw Emmet, Tara and Yuri, Tony Lee, and a bunch of other people. Met publishers from 2000AD. At the end of the night, Jan and Bill from Hurricane dropped me off at my hotel, which was super awesome.

While I was at SlamCon, Dave texted me about a shooting in LA.. under our window. His computer’s on that wall under it, pretty much. But he was ok, and our neighbors seemed to be as well.

Sunday

Checked out of the hotel room (I never got to party with my hotelmates!). I took the shuttle to the con, and got to shoot Matt Smith and Karen Gillan from DOCTOR WHO!!!!!!! I’d been looking forward to this all week, and it was incredible. After that, I shot a bunch of people from different cartoons. Got more updates about the shooting back home.. nobody got hit but it sounded pretty bad and scary. I decided to try to get back home faster, so I drove for about four hours (stopping for taquitos near Encinitas). Was pretty delirious towards the end, but made it back safe and sound! Pictures will come soon, and they’ll be up on CBR! I’ll post links to them from this blog.

I will be shooting WonderCon in SF this weekend for Comic Book Resources. Have an interesting project, event, booth, or costume? Email me and I’ll meet up with you! I’ll also be out celebrating my friends Chris and Erin’s birthdays, and checking out some robot bartenders. Can’t wait! I miss hanging out in the bay area!

Toorcon 12 was a couple weeks ago. It’s a hacker convention held in San Diego, at the convention center. For me, it’s always surreal because I’m accustomed to the convention center to be overstuffed with sweaty comic book people. I like Toorcon because it’s a lot mellower, and a bunch of my friends are there. For the past few years, I’ve been doing artwork for Toorcon. The illustration above was the program cover. I did it in Illustrator and Photoshop, and it took about a week.

The lineart was also used as a shirt design, which was printed in a variety of colors. I loved seeing people wear it!

My favorite part of Toorcon was hanging out in the Altitude Sky Lounge with my ninja crew, overlooking the city as the sun set. Watching people get around security packaging as part of a contest was pretty rad too.

I have lots of Japan stories still (my blog posts didn’t really make it to the best part). I’ll be posting more stuff from that trip over the next week or two.

We have a couple spots open on our Antarctica trip if you know anyone who’d like to join us on our once-in-a-lifetime adventure. It’s mostly hackers going, and will be a great opportunity for photographers. They’re limiting tourism to the continent soon. The trip is November 19-30, 2010 and departs from the tip of South America. More info here.

Also, I’m trying to raise money for the trip. I’m making handmade postcards that will be sent from Antarctica. Want one? B/W cards for a $10 donation, and colored ones for $25. Paypal penguinpalace@gmail.com

If you prefer a premade postcard, adopt one our our penguins here.

ComiCon pics are all up on CBR! One of the things I do is run around pop culture events and take pics of comic creators, cosplayers, and celebrities for the biggest and best comic book website around, Comic Book Resources. These shots were done while I had a sprained ankle, a badass camera that I was unfamiliar with, and about 16 hours of sleep over the course of 4-5 days. If you ever have the chance to climb Mt Fuji, don’t do it right before ComiCon. Bad idea.

Thur: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=27666

Fri: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=27743

Sat: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=27804

Sun: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=27831

Scott Pilgrim Shoot! http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=27432

I think this is the only shot of me at SDCC this year. It’s me and my friend Cesar, at the Hyatt bar. While SDCC was pretty rough, I still had fun cuz a ton of my friends are in that industry. I stayed at Belmont Park with  Dekker and Julia, and got to know their friends as well. We attempted to partyhop a lot, but my fondest memories are going to the Hyatt and running into about a zillion people that I knew. And I got to eat lots of Mexican food, which San Diego does an awesome job at. Shooting the Scott Pilgrim press line was really, really fun.

Saturday night I couldn’t really handle ComiCon anymore, and Junk had talked me into ditching industry events to come out to XBS and Methal’s wedding reception. Plus Dave was going to be there. So I went and it was fantastic.