Horror and doughnuts

Mmmm doughnuts.

My buddies Dean and Annie were at my birthday party.

“Tree Giant” or something. I did 2 cards for Magic the Gathering for Wizards of the Coast a long time ago. No one contacted me about buying the art until a few years ago. I don’t know what the asking price for the art is now. My friend said I sold it for way less than I should have. I really liked this piece so whoever owns it now I hope it’s because they like it.

Dean and Annie were talking shop about conventions because Dean was going to be at Long Island Convention of Horror (LICH). They both thought Toxie would do well especially because Lloyd Kaufman the creator himself would be there. I asked in, Dean had a room I could crash with, he was driving, and there would be some cool people there. There were a lot of really nice folks who came to enjoy all things horror and I was sitting in between Dean Haspiel and Larry Hama!

Illustration for White Wolf

The attendance was low and, according to everyone around me, so were sales. There were a lot of moving parts to the convention and it had ambitious goals but there were things that didn’t work very well. Patrick, the guy who was making sure everything worked seemed to be a one man show. I saw him running all over the place putting fires out as they occurred. He seemed like he was just recovering from getting his ass kicked in a fight every time I saw him. I think a lot of the problems would have been avoided if he had a capable assistant?

Illustration for White Wolf.

Thinking about what my favorite parts of the convention? Hanging out with new people, new stories, new art, new ideas. Dean told me an idea he had while we drove to the con. There was a lot of jokes throughout with almost everyone. So many funny people! Friday was catching up and show and tell. Saturday was recovering from Friday and tabling from 11 am to 8 and being awake enough to talk to total strangers visiting the table all day. Saturday night was two rock and roll ensembles whose music I would call “punk”. The first band was a trio that hadn’t been playing very long together but were fun. The 2nd band was more polished although I would put in the “punk Doom metal” category. They were loud and I was pretty drunk by then. We were staying in the hotel the con and the band were in so we simply stagger-walked back to our room. A television on the way back said America had killed the leader of Iran, Dean flipped the TV on to watch Golden Girls back in the room and I fell asleep glad to be drunk and completely in awe of reality.

Illustration for White Wolf