KingCobra_582 writes...

Gathering 2006 Report, Part 1.
Thursday, June 22nd, 2006

PRE-GATHERING

David and I boarded our plane to Los Angeles from Port Columbus. I'd never flown before, and even though I more or less got used to it, the height and the ascent themselves still bothered me.

It was a layover, so we landed in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, finally taking off for Los Angeles at 10:40 am, arriving at LAX at 1:00 PM. We hopped a bud to Advantage Rent-A-Car and picked up our rental before driving to a Hotel 6 in Sylmar, where we checked in and relaxed the rest of the night.

Friday, June 23rd, 2006

THE GATHERING, DAY 1

We arrived at the Hyatt in Valencia (after what would have been a 15 minute drive turned into us getting all turned around temporarily) at 11:30 AM, and I met Greg Weisman face-to-face at the registration desk. Very cool, meeting the guy who created the Gargs universe in the 1st place in person. Forgive the fanboyism. :P. Now if I can meet Keith, Jeff, and Thom, things would be just as (if not more) great.

12:00 PM

1st event was "Creating A Compelling Character" with Christine Morgan, Ellen, and Spacebabie. In the middle of discussing Villian redemption, Christine somehow made the mention of if "Anton Servarius' mind in the body of a Gargoyle stripper". LOL. David raised the point that the Trio had named themselves somewhat abruptly after arriving in 1994 Manhattan, and Christine agreed, but responded that they had probably heard those names while they were out exploring the city (i.e. Awakening Part III) and those names had just stuck.

Greg W. popped in for a surprise visit, which was kick-ass. One guy (you'll see more on him later. Quite a interesting fellow, this Darklord.) brough up Homoculi (from Fullmetal Alchemist) and also started asking questions about Naraku (from Inuyasha). I was intrigued. Who knew that Naraku, upon translation, meant 'Hell'?

1:00 PM.

Next came Character Design And Drawing. The Inuyasha/FMA guy was there as well, and asked about Villian Drawing, David whispered in my ear, very quietly, "Here comes Naraku again," which cracked me up. David took a picture of Karnie A.K.A. Kythara, (and other pictures, of other people, of course, though not all at once, but all of them are coming soon on my website.) while I left for a few minutes to check out the Dealers Room (cause I couldn't avoid buying that Gargs comic ANY LONGER.). I also ended up getting A Trio white T-shirt, ($20) The Phoenix Gate Anthology from G2004 AND the Grimorum Arcanorum Anthology from this year's con, ($15 each) before sitting down and talking with Greg W. I probably went a little overboard mentioning autographs on the Gargs S1 DVD though. Chalk it up to fanboyism. I really don't know what I was thinking. *sighs*

I was disappointed that Jeff wouldn't be there, but some of the others would be. Thom was due "any minute now", Keith was due to arrive tomorrow, and Brigette was set for Sunday, with Bill Fagerbakke possibly making a cameo Monday. I started feeling a little TOO straight-forward and awakward at that point, so I sheepishly said I'd be back later and quickly shuffled off, embarrassed that I'd stopped at all. I returned to the CCD&D panel, where Darklord (a.k.a. Anime Guy, as I thought of him at the time, since I hadn't gotten a look at his name tag yet.) was asking questions about Sesshomaru (from Inuyasha, if you didn't know) and Transformers.

Jen "CrazyDemona" Anderson appeared in the doorway for a brief second, and I mean BRIEF. Once everyone started applauding, she vanished before anyone could even blink. 1 guy nearby, not sure who, commented about how we had "scared her off".

2:00 PM

Left at the start of "My First Con" cause Nature called. On my way back from the Men's Room, I was stopped by a businessman (there was some kind of business meeting also going on at the same time, at the same hotel) sitting in a chair who wanted to know more about our Con, so I explained to him about Gargoyles as best as I could, and noticed another fan walking towards us (who, looking back on it, I now know to be Greg Bishansky.) and called him over. I gave him the 411 and Greg took over for me, telling the guy about Gargoyles, while I returned to the panel. I was happy. I'd brought my boyfriend into the fandom a few months back by showing him the DVDs, and it was nice to be able to help another potential fan see the light. :D. On my way back to the panel, I met Michael Reaves (another familiar face. I'd seen the S2 DVD documentary) and, after introductions and a hand shake, continued on upon our own business down seperate directions. Finally made it back to "My First Con" in time to catch a mild discussion about Thom. It was the "Thom's Pants" thing and the Thom/Crispin rivalry thing that (from what I've read of past Con Reports) had happened at the last L.A. con.

There was also a Q&A about Margot and Brendan Yale, and whether it was or was not them that had been smashed in City Of Stone, and the answer? "No, that was her... evil twin... sister... Fargo..." LOL!!

I myself asked about the S2, Vol 2 DVD and was told it would be addressed at the Opening Ceremonies at 5. I'm a patient guy when I have to be. I can wait.

3:00 PM

Noth much happened here. Just David and I having an hour to kill and deciding to spend it at the Town Center Mall for a late lunch. He had a Pepperoni Pizza from Sbarro's, and I had fries from Charley's Grilled Subs. We poked around the mall a bit cause I'm kind of a mallrat, before we headed back to the Hyatt.

4:00 PM

After returning from the mall, David took a seat in the couch in the lobby while I moseyed on over to the Dealer's Room to get my new Grimorum Anthology autographed. I also met Crispin Freeman there and it was the same as with Michael Reaves. Introduction, and a hand shake. Lucky guy, though. What do I have to do to get that tall? :P I commented how I liked his performance in the English Dub of "X". But for some reason, I was thinking he did the MOVIE, not the TV series "X-1999". My bad. I'm usually more knowledgeable (sp?) about stuff like this, being a film geek and all. Dang.

Checked out the Art Room next. Saw some very nice pieces there. I especially enjoyed the "Gummy Bear Trio" (as I think of it) computerization by Jade Griffin. Overheard Anime Guy/Darklord asking a few people up front if Lex was gay because Thom was, and, also, if Thom even was. We all said "no" in regards to Lex and "we don't know" about Thom. I admit that I'd wondered the same thing myself before, but I also thought that it wasn't the appropiate time or place for Darklord to bring it up. He apologized, though.

5:00 PM - 8:00 PM

The crowd was getting pretty massive as we waited to get into Opening Ceremonies. Makes me want to run a con myself, then David and I wouldn't need to stand in line. Unfortunately, I lack the finances, the resources, and, above all, the know-how for such a venture.

While we waited, David and I got into a Gargoyles/Inuyasha discussion with Darklord (where I FINALLY saw his nametag) It got a little repetitive, but I drowned it out and let my mind wander onto other things. Like when we'd be able to actually GET INSIDE.

Finally got in, and took our seats, and it was cool. Greg Weisman showed the original Pilot Pitch (which I had already seen on the S2 DVD), as well as Music Videos (I really liked Hemorrhage (In My Hand)), plus the pitches for The New Olympians and Dark Ages spinoffs which I would've loved to have seen actually made. There was also the Bad Guys reel which I'd heard about but had never actually seen until that moment. All I can say about it is WOW!! What a kick-ass reel! And, of course, there was the unfinished-and-thus-unreleased Atlantis episode "The Last" which was interesting. There was a lot of grunting involved (it was a lot of storyboards overlapped with the VAs' lines), but I'm not even gonna go into the thoughts in my head. :P

Afterwards, I noticed Thom Adcox across the room, and, before I had time to think about it, found myself getting a picture taken with him (David, you little shutterbug.) which he was all too happy to do. Then Thom offered to take one with David, and I snapped the picture. Then we chatted with him a little bit, and I asked him about the "Hernandez" which, in the back of my mind, I'd always sort of wondered about, and he said it came from his father. Also, I'd never known that he'd been born in Detroit, Michigan. Then he had to run off to eat. They say you learn something new every day. I certainly did that day.

8:00 PM

Next up? After Thom left for dinner, along with most of the guests, we remnants stayed in the room and sat down for a session of MGT3K. Of all the things I'd looked forward to, this was one of the things I enjoyed doing the most. This years' seemed to be Dracon-related, with episodes "Deadly Force", "The Silver Falcon", and "Protection". I had fun with it, spitting out one-liners ("They stole my last Pop Tart!") not all of which were funny enough, but I digress. It's harder then I'd thought to come up with really good riffs everytime.

David and I started getting tired (though I wouldn't admit that I was) at that point, so we said our goodbyes and left for the night to drive back to our hotel in Sylmar. I wanted to check out the Art Room for any possible new submissions, but it was locked already, so that was a bust.

That's all for Day 1. Days 2 and 3 coming soon.