An Art Nouveau egg? It will all make sense shortly... Ok, so first off if you can tell be where I liberally borrowed the title of this blog from and you come down to the store and do so, I'll give ya something. Something likely worthless, but generally entertaining and just in case it hasn't completely sank in yet, FREE! Now on to old business. I had posted a while back about wanting to blog regularly, but was foiled by illness and a bad computer power supply. The illness was minor, but annoying and the power supply vexing yet more or less easily fixed (word to www.newegg.com, economical and convenient if you need computer replacement stuff... just don't forget where all those wires connect!). The blog I was working on around that time had to do with going to Gen Con up in Indianapolis... so here are few excerpts that I feel are still of useful or entertaining value, at least to those of us proud enough (you may substitute "proud" with shameless, desperate, or noodle headed if you like) to get our geek on.
In regards to Gen Con, what it is- "For the uninitiated Gen Con is the world's largest gaming convention. Board games, role playing games, card games, miniatures games, video games, old games, new games, classic games, completely made up on the spot games, "werewolf" games (duck duck goose for geeks, sorta), puzzle games, puzzling games, train games, kid games, penguin games, war games, building games, small games, big games, and games from all four corners of the earth..."
My expert definition of "gaming"- "Gaming (the act of consciously and willfully setting aside time, money, and emotional stability to engage in the manly or womanly art of outwitting, out maneuvering, and out "look, my dice are hot tonighting" others at a an imaginative diversion of simulated circumstances and often random chance)...
On the natives- "Like the pirates and princesses from the darkly exotic sea ports of Kush from Howard's Conan or the weird alien menagerie of Mos Eisley spaceport (quick aside... Gen Con is wondrous and exotic and lots of fun, but it can also be described as a hive of scum and villainy. Sometimes this is not bad, other times people suck, but mostly not. Those who have attended will know what I mean and the rest will have to find out for themselves one day) the denizens of Gen Con are interesting..."
If you have not attended Gen Con before and are interested/terrified and wish to attend/avoid next year's show, check out this link http://www.gencon.com/ for news and information about Gen Con 2012.
Next, I want to once again virtually shout out a hearty "yahoo!" for the wonderful Water Street Bridge (http://www.jonbaade.com/tmp/wsb/) a self described "Garage Celtic. Pseudo-Slavic. Electro-Magically Acoustic" band who were the nicest picking,strumming, thumping, singing, ear pleasingest bunch of genuine folks I have ever the pleasure of meeting. I tip my hat to them and so should you. Check 'em out at the link above.
Also, while at Gen Con I had the pleasure of talking to artist John Tyler Christopher (http://www.johntylerchristopher.com/). John has a very distinctive style (and great middle name) that for my money really hits the mark. My eye sees a little Adam Hughes, mixed with some Alphonse Mucha (Czech Art Nouveau painter and kick @$$ turn of last century illustrator) and all the rest is John. His layout and design sense strike you immediately ... he deftly brings all the elements of a piece together with the surrounding "decoration" as intriguing to the eye as the focal point. I really like an artist who maintains that thick, fluid black outline then punchs up the interior with all they've got. Furthermore, John was just plain ol' nice and genuine. Meeting the guys and gals from W.S.B. and John is one of the great pleasures of going to a thang like Gen Con. In talking to John I learned how much he enjoys the opportunity to work in comics (check out his amazing Iron Man piece below) and how much he really wants fans getting into stores and checking things out. I couldn't agree more! We talked about how meeting face to face, sharing stories and laughs, and being a part of something is what makes the in-store experience so important. Other things we talked about I am sworn to secrecy on, but who knows, maybe one day John might be around to tell you in person...
So what have we learned... Newegg.com is useful, Gen Con is fun, Water Street Bridge and John Tyler Christopher are swell folks and very talented, and I can has blog posting. What's up next? Me thinks commentary on some comics I've read, including several DC title's "last" issues before the NEW 52. Cheers!
