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<P>Hi Folks!</P>
<P>Here is the last installment of my Con report. (Yay!) </P>
<P>As far as getting stuff folks had ordered from Sergio & Stan and getting
the Programs and the Guides, that all turned out to be relatively easy,*
although the programs were a little involved and I had to wait until Sunday.
Plus the darned things are heavy!! (I'm getting old!) And then there was Myron's
stuff… </P>
<P>Myron, you will recall, was the victim of an evil dirty bad nasty boss who
made him cancel his trip to the Con. Myron sent me his Reg. confirmation and I
figured it wouldn't be a big deal to get his Con Package of Program, Guide, and
promotional crap. It took a little talking, but I was able to get the package
and then Myron e-mailed me and asked what about the statue. Statue? What statue?
Myron had paid extra to get a statue. </P>
<P>So I go to the Program Office and they tell me to go to the Fulfillment
Office in rm. 29A. 29A? I didn't know the numbers went that high. Well, it turns
out that rm. 29A is an indeterminable distance from the Program office,
somewhere in the 4th dimension. You couldn't possibly walk that far and still be
in the Convention center. I went down a hall, across the pavilion, over the
river and through the woods, and down this looooooong corridor. Then, just
before I crossed the border into Tijuana, there was room 29A. (I could have
peeked around a corner at that point, but I was afraid what might be there.)
After a few silly questions, the woman in the Fulfillment room gave me the
statue and I left the room…fulfilled! I caught a bullet train and was back at
Sergio's table in two shakes. (Myron, I'm just kidding. It was really no big
deal.) </P>
<P>Well, the Con ended and we helped Sergio get all his stuff put packed away
and while we were doing that Stan came buy with the first 9 pages of Hell on
Earth and Sergio told me to take a look. It was fascinating to see where Sergio
needed to do actual pencils and where he just needed to put a squiggle or
nothing at all. He later explained that crowd scenes and parts of battle scenes
require virtually no pencils. He inks them essentially free hand. But some parts
of a particular panel need to be penciled pretty tight (by Sergio standards
anyway), such as two people shaking hands or Rufferto biting someone on the
butt, to make sure everything lines up right and fits in the confines of the
panel. It was very interesting. </P>
<P>Finally, we had to say good bye to Sergio and it was very sad to think that I
will not see him for another year. He is too cool for words. A couple minutes
later it was time to say goodbye to George and that was sad too. The Long
Suffering Mrs. G. & I were very tired and a little ragged around the edges,
but we had had a great time. </P>
<P>Of course, I couldn't get through the Con without at least one Grooism. As
you know, the CBLDF membership card for 2007 has a cool Groo drawing on it. I
keep mine in my little wallet in the little window where I normally keep my
driver's license. When we got to airport I forgot to put my driver's license
back in front of the CBLDF card. So when they asked to see my ID at the security
check, I flashed them the Groo drawing instead of my ID. Oops! Surprisingly, I
was not immediately subjected to a strip search. </P>
<P>I'm sure I will remember other cool things, but you've suffered enough.
Take care all -Gary G. </P>
<P>* This has turned out not to be the case afterall. Details later.
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