Megacon

This past weekend marked the (nearly) seventh straight year I've attended MegaCon in Orlando....I missed the one in 2004 due to that pesky little place known as Iraq.  Granted, it's not nearly as celebrity-filled and huge as ComicCon in San Diego or Dragon Con in Atlanta, but it has it's crazy-filled moments.  Well, that and it's only an hours drive from the house.

This year I finally got to meet several of deviantART's favorite and rising stars.

Chad Porter (operative274) is just as animated and down right chatty in person as his online persona would lead you to believe.  His wife...damned if I can recall her name...couldn't help but to show me her vampire teeth (and no, that's not a euphemism).  The very un-vampire-like lisp they created was an added bonus.  He was also gracious enough to sign one of my favorite commission pieces of his from several years ago...which was actually my desktop for the longest time.  Yep, nothing goes better with cheesecake that a little zombie action.

Yes, that's a hula doll standing next to it. 

As an added bonus, I also got to meet Lady Dark Star....model, fellow Floridian, and reoccurring toon persona for the likes of Chad, Salis Zee (shibarura-prime), and Adam Hughs.  Very sweet young lady.  Hindsight being 20/20, maybe I should have asked her what her real name is.  Chad was actually sketching a new (and hopefully upcoming) drawing of her when I walked up to his table....something with squirrels as I recall (again, no euphemism intended).

Jared Hodges (Quasimanga on DA) actually lives right down the road from where I work, so I'm rather surprised that we hadn't run into one another before.  He and I chatted for a few minutes....nice guy....big brain.  I'd like to say that I picked up a piece of his artwork, but instead I grabbed a copy of his Draw Furries.  Not that I have any inclination towards drawing furry characters....I just like the artwork and the step-by-step process it follows.

I met Chandra Free (SpookyChan), also a resident of the Orlando area, several years ago.  Well, "met" isn't exactly the correct term....I quite literally ran into her with a shopping cart late one night in a local grocery store.  I recall her being extremely apologetic (and extremely red-headed) even though the incident was completely my fault.  When I walked up to her table at MegaCon on Friday she looked up at me and asked, "Shopping cart?"  Yep, guilty as charged.

I'm not really into the celebrity guests all that much....actually having to pay for an autograph or photo-op may be the highlight of some fan-boy's or fan-girl's life, but in my opinion it really cheapens the whole experience.  God knows, I see and talk to enough celebrities at work as it is....and without the fandom and/or paparazzi persona they put up.  I did however, talk to a seemingly odd duck for a comic book convention.  You of course have the usual Wars and Trek stars....and then there's Jerry "The King" Lawler.  Yes, the professional wrestler who feuded with (and fought) Andy Kaufman back in the day.  In reality I didn't know he was going to be there....and he actually recognized me first.  He flew into where I work a couple of years ago and had a little transportation fiasco...his limo broke down in our parking lot.  Long story short, I ended up driving him to his hotel.  We chatted about living near Memphis, Tennessee back in the early '80s...he fought at the now-defunct Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis and lived in South Haven, Mississippi...most of my family is from the that part of the Magnolia State.