Well, ConnectiCon was a lot of fun, though next year I think I’ll do things a little differently. It is one thing to figure a 5 hour round-trip isn’t that big a deal. But when you add in the little things such as lack-of-sleep, running late because you can’t find your receipt, and getting lost on the road… well, I think next year I’ll pony up the extra money and get a room at the hotel. I unfortunately missed several webcomic-related panels at the start of Saturday, as well as the Webcartoonist Auction, and I’ve been kicking myself over it since.

As I stated over in the forums, Jennie Breedan of The Devil’s Panties was twenty shades of coolness, and tolerated my several visits to her booth. I swear, the girl puts out a “weird dialog” field that affects those around her, as I ended up blurting out a classic DP bit that would be perfectly at home in her comic. Fortunately, she was too tired to take advantage of it, so I probably escaped… this time.

Likewise, R.K. Milholland was much calmer and politer than his comic led me to expect. He gladly signed the autographs page in my ConnectiCon program book (indeed, I managed to get autographs of just about every webcartoonist there, including a couple who weren’t officially there – when I get it scanned into the system I’ll be sure to upload it to Tangents and share it with you all). I only caught one panel that he was on (concerning webcomic business planning), where he gave some excellent advice for new comics.

To be honest, I didn’t spend a lot of time pestering people in the Dealer’s Room. Well, other than to get autographs. But it was rather noisy in there and I have troubles hearing when the background noise is enough to deafen an elephant. Or when there’s much of any background noise, for that matter. But in the artist’s colony along the edges of the convention, that was a different story. I ran into Dirk I. Tiede of Paradign Shift fame and ended up talking his ear off. Being the perfect gentleman he is, he didn’t even get annoyed at me, and thanked me for the reviews I’ve written of his comic. The same was true of Brion Foulke of Flipside who was Dirk’s neighbor and who accidentally let slip a few details of Bernadette and Maytag’s relationship. But don’t worry, Brion. Your secrets are safe. For now.

One of the biggest surprises though was when I met Naomi Craig and Alyssa Follonsbee, the artistic pair who put out the comic Prime of Ambition. This is a comic that is beyond professional quality of comics. 99% of the comics put out by DC and Marvel can’t touch this. And that may be hedging it on the conservative side. Each update consists of 60+ hours of work from both artists (with Follansbee doing work on some truly beautiful backgrounds and wildlife, dragons, and so forth… and these dragons have scales, in each panel. Most cartoonists just draw the dragons with scales small enough that you don’t see them, unless it’s a one-shot picture. Meanwhile, Craig handles the character art, color, and a lot of the background information for the comic itself).

I honestly can say I’ve not seen many comic as well drawn as this. The flash art of Alpha-Shade comes to mind as one… and the more recent work of Jamie Robertson’s Clan of the Cats as well. But the print works of Marvel Comics and DC Comics? They can’t hold a candle to this level of artistry.

There are so many people I could mention meeting (such as Matt Sowers, writer for Code Name: Hunter, who was there on an unofficial basis, and Garth Graham of Comedity). Unfortunately, the lack of sleep and caffeine caught up to me and it’s starting to become a bit of a blur.

ConnectiCon was professionally run, with con members visiting each panel to check on the panels, and chasing down people to run the panels in some cases. Of course, the fans are the true heart of it. I filled the memory card of my digital camera with 150 pictures, and only touched upon the vast selection of cosplay and more. As things continued through the weekend, fangirls and fanboys alike started carrying little signs asking for hugs and the like, which led to the picture to the side. Pretty much everyone I saw seemed to be enjoying themselves. Even with the exhaustion and aching legs, it was well worth going to.

This week Tangents is going to do something different. I ran into a lot of comics at the convention… so this week we’re going to try and review a few of them. While I doubt I’ll get to every comic at ConnectiCon, I hope to touch upon some that caught my interest. This may include reviews of print compilations (as I bought or was given several print collections as I wandered the Con) as well as reviews of the comics themselves.