[Groop] big apple con sunday mini report

[lia bulaong]

Thanks to Larry for the cancelled panel warning! I checked my email and
went back to sleep, and ended up sleeping in later and going to the con
at 3-ish.

I recognized Mark right away and said hi, but Sergio was missing—I'd of
course managed to arrive during his hour-long bathroom break! While he
was gone I was sorely tempted to draw a mustache on my face and sit at
the table, but I had a short chat with Mark instead, he's very nice and
very funny and it was great to finally get to meet him. (I didn't get to
say hi to Carolyn because she was talking to friends and also I felt
kind of weird about coming up and being all, "Hi! You don't know me from
Adam but I read about you all the time on the Groo mailing list/Groo
Grams/News from ME" but she's as lovely as Mark always says she is.) I
felt really bad for totally forgetting about the con approaching because
it would've been really nice to schedule some sort of Groop dinner or
lunch or whatever while he and Sergio were in town. Oh well, next time!

Sergio arrived in about 20 minutes and is just as charming as I remember
him being from the first time I met him—which is to say, the ne plus
ultra of charming for lifeforms that are not puppies, kittens or
selected other baby animals. He gave me my hat (thanks, Gary!) and
signed two books I bought, plus gave me a button from Dark Horse, the
Groo 25th Anniversary pin. Mark gave me another one: a sketch of Groo
with the Manhattan skyline behind me, I guess it was special to the con?
I would've gotten one for you, Gary, but he gave me the last one! I hung
around for over an hour chatting with Sergio in between people coming up
to meet and greet him, and to have stuff signed, and took some photos of
fans with him to email them later on.

Sergio had to leave at 4:30 straight for the airport in order to make
his flight, and I saw that there were vendors and artists starting to
pack up, so after he was gone I said bye to Mark and went upstairs to
check things out. I ended up walking around for another hour and a half
taking photos of the con. One of the great things about being a girl is
that you can go up to people and tell them you think they look awesome
and would they mind letting you take their picture, and they don't think
you're a creep, so I got the change to take some really great portraits!
I took a whole lot of photos and have no time to sort through them right
now, so it'll probably be next week until I can upload them on Flickr,
I'll be sure to send the Groop the url then.

Lia

















bonus for scrolling down this far: a blurry photo of me with Sergio,
taken with my cameraphone:
http://flickr.com/photos/lia/2044035289/