Hey guys, back from San Diego. =] It's been a week since all the madness went down and I'm still feeling a bit numb/sore. XD It was very much worth the pain though.
Once again I was able to catch up with my old friends 
, 
and finally got to meet 
in the flesh! As you can imagine, there was much to catch up on, but we tried our best to plan out the next four days while desperately trying to get enough sleep each night. That was the main struggle, but I think we managed for the most part. 
At the con, we made it a point to experience many of the parts we missed last year, namely the many panels and side events happening alongside the massive sea of stuff on the main floor. Among them, there was a demonstration of advanced 3d techniques for comics and 2d media (which I will be sure to try out very soon), a panel held by DA's very own 
, whom I discovered also attended UC Berkeley, my alma mater (Go Bears!), a very insightful talk about character design by the great and talented Neville Page, and a very entertaining panel on voice acting with Fred Tatasciore and Steve Blum!
On the floor, there was no shortage of surprises. I could go on for paragraphs explaining but I think I'll just let the pictures take care of most of that: flic.kr/s/aHsjASyPuf
Here's a few highlights;
Visited the Wacom booth and took their shiny new Cintiqs and inklings for a spin. I got to talk to our company's Wacom sales rep about their plans for more advanced slate/tablet PCs in the future. No definite answer but they certainly like the idea of a professional grade machine. Think an ipad, but with the pressure sensitivity and accuracy of an intuos. Certainly will be looking forward to that! =] 
Caught up with my coworker John Giang who was making a killing with his new prints.
Ran into freaking Neil deGrasse Tyson!! He was apparently making his first visit to comic-con and participated in the Space Ship Smackdown event. Great to see a proper astrophysicist having a bit of fun that way. =] 
Dropped by Archie's booth to catch up with 
, who was signing and promoting the new Sonic-Megaman crossover series. Also briefly ran into her at Sonic Boom, but more on that shortly. Visited Jason Brubaker to see what's happening with his graphic novel reMind. A kickstarter for book 2 will be up soon, and I'll be sure to lend my support. =]
Finally, we were able to make it into the cosplay masquerade ball where we saw some great skits gearing for first place. We skipped out early near the end to avoid the crowds and found the New York Jedi doing a show on the balcony. We got to test our moves afterward and I had the chance to teach them a thing or two as well! I had gone through the trouble of checking in my lightsabers to cosplay with and this event made it all worth it. Definitely the highlight of the con for me! =] 
Now along with SDCC, EqualsN alerted us to the fact that Sonic Boom was happening nearby. It wasn't originally in our plans to attend but since the tickets were still available, we jumped at the opportunity. They had special guests from Sega and Sonic Team; Crush 40 and CashCash performed live and there was a Q&A and trivia contest with Steve Lycett (SUMO Digital) and Takashi Izuka (Sonic Team), who I later managed to grab a signature from. =]
Also in the spirit of Comic con, there was a costume contest! There was a lot of creative work up on stage, and the crowd, as well as the special guests looked and sounded genuinely impressed. Congrats to everyone who participated, especially 
who was sporting the Mecha Sonic suit! I just wish we had more time to chat with you before you got whisked away! XD
You can check out my recording of it here:
Near the end, we also got a chance to meet some new faces from DA drawing upstairs. had a chance to dust off his Sonic fanartist skills and drew for 
in the company of 
, 
and several other artists. We haven't done anything Sonic related in many many years, so it certainly was a nostalgic moment. Indeed the whole night was quite nostalgic and markedly sentimental. I joined DA as a Sonic fanartist. I met Airlight, EqualsN, Cytochrom, and countless others through the Sonic art community and we've managed to grow together for nearly a decade now. To finally come together and celebrate the original source of our friendship was quite a treat! =]
Anyway, that's about it from me. There's a possibility that I might head back down to LA for Siggraph in a couple of weeks but I'm not cleared for it just yet. I'll keep you posted if I do make it. Hopefully I'll be fully recovered by then.
