Artist Ignition—Tomorrow! Plus a Geek Gathering report

   For all of you in the Central Florida area, get on over to Longwood between 12noon and 8pm tomorrow. Come during halftime of your favorite college game if you have to, but come. It’s going to be geeky rockin! There’ll be artists, cosplay and writers…and a Mario Kart tournament. The event is hosted by the really cool comic shop, Acme Superstore, who will be running sales on merchandise all during the event. That alone is reason enough to come, right?

Last weekend’s Geek Gathering was a big hit. I was both amazed and a little surprised to see so many geeks come out to support the two day show (which I didn’t realize was a two day show until just a few weeks beforehand, d’oh!). I kid you not, there moments when it was all a person could do to get through the aisles.

Barry, Leia, and me

I had the opportunity to make some new writer pals in Barry Reese, Amanda Porter, Leia Barrett Durham (who was named after Princess Leia AND I discovered is the main squeeze of writer Martin Powell, with whom I used to work!) and a cool artist who calls himself Float—but I can’t find the cards he gave me so I can’t remember his real name nor can I point you anywhere. Barry, Leia and I did a panel together (see the pic in which Leia is mentally charging those in attendance to go buy our books!) which was a lot of fun.

Zombie Mike Koske and me

On Friday I got to enjoy a very nice meal in downtown Florence with con organizers John and Cori Alsbrooks along with Zombie Mike Koske, who was also an incredibly nice guy. I don’t know a whole lot of actors, but he’s definitely one of the coolest (those of you up on things will remember I edited one a long time ago…and that was quite the challenge!). I haven’t watched a lot of The Walking Dead, but hanging out with Koske a little means I’ve got to go watch some and look for him now!

John and Cori Alsbrooks and their crew did an outstanding job. You wouldn’t have known this to have only been their second show! I know, right? This show featured everything geek shows in the south need: comics, actors, games, cosplay and a nice dealers room!

Me and Chris Roberts

I also got to see and hang out for a fraction of time my old pal Chris Roberts (see the pic!). It hardly seems believable that it had been ten years since I’d seen him. He hadn’t changed a bit…still as geeky and cool as ever. And still stuck on all that vinyl stuff (for those wondering, Chris is the lucky man who bought my old vinyl collection—every bit of it!).

I also ran into local filmmakers Corey Hannah and Jim Torres. We touched on an old project that I’m going to dusk off ASAP. More to come on that later.

So, come on out tomorrow to IGNITION at Acme Comics in Longwood…we’ll take our own pictures! Bring some books…better yet, bring a wad of cash and buy some art and some comics! Autographs are free…well, from me they are!