FIRST Opttacon - 2018

The show floor - and me earning printing cash

from K-Blam.com - where you want to go for

high-quality POD comics floppies at only about

$1 more than 1980's prices.

What a great show! Held in a convention hall in a beautiful park in Sequim, Washington.

Even though I've been going to entertainment conventions for decades, I never really looked in on the gaming track. Gamers were always quietly concentrating in their own room, I was working my table in the Artists Alley, and Never The Twain. 

I had no idea what fun, happy people gamers were (and smaller bad swab groups like those that caused Gamergate didn't make me eager to know them. Another black mark against those schmucks).

The hall was packed!

What an eye-opening. The gamers were totally welcoming to Roberta Gregory and me, the only comics people at the show. Two of them eagerly listened to how to turn their game into a comic book while avoiding pitfalls and keeping the costs down. Of course I recommended Ka-Blam.com for printing!

I even played a game called Conspire - originally attracted to it because all the players were wearing homemade tinfoil hats. Did we ever have fun! We were the noisiest game in the room because it's a very simple roll-playing game. We started with "Who broke the coffee shop blender?" and ended up involving a stolen meth shipment and the FBI. We were laughing so hard!

(For those of you begging me for years to make a Desert Peach game - just plug the characters into Conspire. You will not be disappointed. I would love to hear from you, and see photos and videos of you playing the Desert Peach Conspire. I wonder if anyone would like me to run one at any of the shows?)

Horses who wanted carrots.

I learned that only the figure-makers in gaming seemed to be able to do horses well. NEXT year - if we're very lucky and all parties are pro-active - there MAY be an actual horse at a horse-drawing class. There are hints the horse will arrive carrying a cosplayer. We shall see!

Congratulations to Port Angeles's own AnimeKat and Jeff Tingelstad for organizing and filling up a bang-up first year gaming convention. 

As a comics person, I advise us all to get in on the action. Roberta made most of the sales, but I was there to connect our two nerd worlds. And I think I was quite successful. 

View across the fields.

So be on the lookout for next year, and all our nerdcons on the Olympic Peninsula, including the Forks Raincon and my own Clallam Bay Comicon.

Roberta and I stayed at a very cool AirBnB just west of Sequim. It's a horse-and-dog rescue farm! And all the animals are spoiled and happy. As usual, the rest of this report is a photo essay. Just to give you a taste!

Roberta on a stroll from the house.

 

Park grounds - viewing pavilion

 

Park pool

Park pool

 

2018 RainCon - A Great First Show

What a great first convention! Forks, Washington, is definitely on the comicon circuit now. Evan Sveum of Home Slice Pizza and Comics - how fitting - did a wonderful job on his new RainCon.

As usual, I have my posting of me wearing my Ka-Blam Tshirt, with my very first RainCon customer. If you need quality Print-On-Demand that will let retailers buy at nearly-'80's prices, it's the place to go. And readers can do the same at their store front at Indyplanet.

And here are many more Raincon photos!

Fascinating Archeology lecture.

I wanted to listen to the lecture, but there were so many interested people I had to pay attention to, at my table. Friday was definitely rocking.

Yummy Italian sodas.

The Italian sodas were on sale at the table to raise funds for the LaPush Hallowe'en haunted house. The milk in the sodas came in handy for a calcium boost, and they added sugar-free options.

I've heard the haunted house is in its third year, and will scare the teeth out of your head. The monsters practice all year - and are very professional. No, I don't want to go. No, I will not miss it. I hate and love haunted houses dearly. 

All sorts of gaming going on - and the full-on tournaments started after the nightly movies, and ran until 1:00 am, Friday and Saturday.

Gaming!

I don't game myself, but I used to do gaming illustrations, especially for Steve Jackson, and have some fun stories, including my "Pirates of the Caribbean stole my dialog!" story, involving Steve's Lego Pirates games at a long-ago Miscon. Oddly enough, Alice Ryan, who ran the great Steampunk table, says that was her very first con! Serendipity.

Of course we had cosplay. Did I get good photos of the contest? No, I was helping judge it. Look around Facebook for Raincon photos. Quite the good turnout for a very first convention.

Trek fans!

Friday evening, the movie was Rocketeer, which I missed to head back to Clallam Bay to get some sleep. Since my sleep was choppy, and I had to end up napping in a back storage room on Saturday anyway, I might as well have stayed.

Saturday, the movie was Guardians of the Galaxy. I'd never seen it big screen, and caught the moment when Chris Pratt's ship flew up on a column of water - and ran into the camera lens. Too funny.

Ended up eating too much pizza, including Home Slice Pizza - especially their darn wonderful chicken-and-artichoke - and Mexican ice cream from the shop down the block. 

Ready for midnight gaming.

Helped a scared local kid to come out as a nerd and a furry: "Wear what you want; nobody's going to point or make fun of you." Alice Ryan's steampunk table provided his first pair of ears and tail. By the end of the show, he was running around with his little fake fox tail, perfectly at home. It was great. Welcome to our family.

And everybody else, too - because tables are selling for 2019, already. If you're on the way to the beach, drop in for an hour or so. We'd all love to see you.

Guardians of the Galaxy!