toothycat.net - phoenix feathers

h o m e | s t r i p | w i k i | s t o r e | m o r e

Phoenix Feathers is updated on Tuesday and Friday

Minamicon 10 is over. It was a wonderful con :) and thanks so much to everyone who actually worked to make it all happen for the rest of us, and everyone who bought stuff from the Sweatdrop table.

We arrived on Friday evening armed with bucketloads of Sweatdrop stuff which we laboriously carted into the hotel and then up to our room before lugging the lot back downstairs and into the locked storage area kindly provided by the committee, who believed we were part of Sweatdrop despite not having any dealer's badges (thanks Babbit!). There was free food and cake (which was sweet almost to the point of being toxic) because it was the tenth anniversary of Minamicon - the UK's longest-running con! We ended up drawing in the bar, which was good fun.

On Saturday morning we missed both Gokusen and King of Bandits Jing and went straight to organise the Sweatdrop dealer's table (after more fussing due to our not having dealer's badges - thanks again Babbit!). We spent the day in the dealer's room selling comics and drawing stuff with the rest of the Sweatdrop crew (and covertly reading our stock when no-one was around). The fridge magnets we printed went down very well at 10p a shot (no-one even looked at them at 20p ;_;) and we sold out of Telephone Icecream mangas. The stands I made wobbled, but as long as the people looking at the plushies next door to us didn't try to dump their previously-bought merchandise all over said wobbly stands, it didn't matter. A couple of people came along and bought Looking for the Sun - thank you so much, you made my day :) I'm so so sorry about the misprint on number 3, which went out as the second issue 02 >.<
Saturday evening was the evening of the masquerade, and for the first time in my life the masquerade room was pretty much ready on time - we filed in only ten minutes late as opposed to the more normal hour late. The costumes were really good, both in the masquerade and on the floor. I particularly liked the girls from Grandia, which I've never heard of, just for their spectacular hairstyles, and the younger fans who dressed as Sakura, Syaoran and a full-size Kero-chan (scary!), but they were all very good. For us, though, the best bit was after the masquerade, when the judges were out debating who should win and which categories to make up this year. To amuse us while we waited, they put on the winning AMV from this year's competition. It was ours. And we got to see a whole roomful of people laughing at our falling bishies set to It's Raining Men by the Weather Girls, and then we were called to the front for bows and prizes (we got a nekobus on wheels and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust on DVD). That was utterly, utterly wonderful. Part of me so wants to make another but the other part of me says no, it won't ever be as good.
Then we spent the evening drawing in the bar again :)

Sunday was also spent in the dealer's room, although we took a couple of hours out to watch Paranoia Agent, which is a very strange anime that reminded me very much of Boogiepop Phantom. We also saw the other AMVs, although a couple of them skipped by accident and weren't recovered. There were some really very good ones - I liked the one set to the opening theme of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, with clips from Nadesico, and I loved the one with clips from Saishu Heiki Kanojo to 'I don't want to miss a thing', by Aerosmith. We must get back to watching that. Emma and Bex both drew me sketches of Saryth (Looking for the Sun character), which I will put up as soon as they're scanned. Thanks so much! Leaving was very sad - I wanted another day. But later on, we went back to the bar and sat with the few people left who were staying until Monday, and I planned out the next Looking for the Sun, and drew four pages of it, which was very satisfying.

It was a wonderful, wonderful weekend, not nearly long enough, and I'm very much looking forward to Amecon (at which I suspect we will also spend the time in the dealer's room) and Wildercon. The video program was not particularly inspiring (we'd seen the good stuff), but in a way I'm glad of that, since I was happy in the dealer's room for most of the time.

- Sun Kitten, 16th March '04

a r c h i v e s

Wiki Discussion