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Rhode Island Comic Con with Jenna and Matt · Multiple Nerdgasm

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welcome to a multiple nerdgasm specials episode about Rhode Island Comic-Con woo
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we are your hosts Jenna and Matt hello we spent the weekend at Rhode Island
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ComicCon it was a three-day event held in the Rhode Island Convention Center
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and the Dunkin Donuts Center both buildings are right next to each other
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connected by a skybridge we did have some problems with that but we'll get to
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that later um for now let's just talk about what we saw at the con itself yeah
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overall I had a really good time yeah so did I there were some good guests there
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yeah a lot of big names this particular one uh Stan leye notably everyone wanted
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to get stuff signed by Stan yeah this is his last New England appearance I
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believe yeah so I think people traveled quite a long way to see him in some
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cases um Jeffrey Dean Morgan was there signing he's from The Walking Dead and
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at the moment he's a huge star and I think he he was one of the biggest
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problems with lines and people waiting for autograph yeah yeah exactly gal gdau
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was there uh the new Wonder Woman yeah um Alice Cooper was there signing
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autographs yeah uh and this was in the big room it's a basketball court right
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yeah yeah so to lay it out uh the Dunkin Donuts Center is a basketball court um
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so it's that Stadium style seating down in the center of that was where all
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those Stars Stanley and Jeffrey Dean Morgan uh where they were signing and
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taking photos around that just outside
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the stadium part were some small artists little tables yeah uh same with upstairs
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the whole ring upstairs was filled with artists tables yeah and then in the
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other room of the Rhode Island Convention Center that's where some of
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the other celebrities were um I guess the ones that didn't make the cut well
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they had a lot of them they did yeah they did I guess it must have been tough
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to decide who went where really I guess it whoever they thought the longest
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lines were going to be four right so there were two rows of um celebrities
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and wrestlers and then the rest of the convention center was filled with comic
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book artists uh some big names actually yeah and then kind of Market stalls like
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you see it other conventions yeah and like yeah comic books like old
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Collectibles comic books uh statues Pub vinyls lots of Pub vinyls oh so many
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yeah um a problem I have with this type of convention um this one didn't really
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have many panels it only had a few per day I think it had a gaming room but it
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wasn't really publicized at all I I wasn't sure where it was until I think
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it was upstairs at the convention center but a problem I have with these types of
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conventions is that you spend a lot of money to get in and then there's not
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really much in there for free there's a lot to look at but if you want anything
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um if you want to do any experiences if you want to meet anybody it all costs
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money yeah yeah I think some of the guests are very generous with their time
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and uh if you say if you want to get something signed they will talk to you
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and they will take a photo with you uh but not all of them in particular the
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big names uh and again it's not always their fault I think often there're with
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some agency or there's companies that organize these they organize the
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celebrities for these events and they act on behalf of the celebrity and they
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will step in and and kind of demand money off people when they when they if
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you want to talk to them or get something signed and then get a photo
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like it's all got to be paid for that's right some of the celebrities were happy
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to talk to you without yes without you buying anything um in the smaller well
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the bigger room but the smaller celebrity area yeah um where stars like
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Shannon Elizabeth um Tara Reed Mina Saar uh Brent Spiner had a longer line there
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and um the Green Power Ranger I don't remember his name but he's a huge star
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yeah his line was never empty yeah I know I was well I mean I never watched
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power range as much so I was a little surprised by that I mean he was the best
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one sure but still Amy Joe Johnson was there too the pink Power Ranger but I I
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don't know I don't know he he had photos all day he had people like a full line
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all day yeah ion zering was there from shark NATO and Beverly Hills 9210 a lot
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of wrestlers we talked to Billy Gun oh yeah wrestler Billy Gun he was lovely
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couple of the guys from Sons of anak were there yeah I've never watched that
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show I haven't either some voice actors yeah uh some people actually Troy Baker
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was supposed to be there but unfortunately he had to cancel but um
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it's unfortunate a lot of people canceled this year um our friend bought
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a ticket only because Troy Baker was going to be there she was very
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disappointed to find out that he had canceled just a few days before it I
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mean it happens a lot especially with the with the ones in Australia uh it
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used to happen a lot I guess it must just be the same here like if a schedu
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and conflicts yeah if work comes up they've got to take the work so that's
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understandable yeah and a lot of comic artists uh with there we we we'll get to
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them because we actually interviewed a few and and had some stuff signed by
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others yep yeah many of them were very generous and and kind and hung out with
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us a bit so it was yeah was really good yeah so we met James Oar that was pretty
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exciting for me except he was not talkative at all no I think he's a very
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shy quite kind of person yeah he he signed my copy of the crow graphic novel
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but he was not really willing to talk yeah well I guess he he's probably
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I think he's one of those celebrities that's not he's not a sociable celebrity
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because he's not he's just not a socialable person like I I've seen
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people say that he's kind of a jerk and I don't think that's true I think he's
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just he's just not a very social guy right that's fine but then if you're
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going to be in an environment like this I think you have to make an effort sure
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yeah but he wasn't rude he was just very matter of fact no and he was very busy
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talking to another artist next to him and didn't want to be interrupted yeah
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but yeah he he said hello what what would you like I will sign that yes have
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a nice day you also he's I mean I think out of everybody he's one of the ones I
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was most nervous about yeah because he was a little bit cold and because I love
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the crow so much yeah yeah it's odd too because in those situations I think when
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when the celebrities is very uh friendly it kind of it puts you at
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ease but if if they're guarded which I can understand why they might be guarded
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too because we're we have press badges uh and at sometimes I had a microphone
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and I did ask a few celebrities if I could record them and I do think that
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probably puts us in a different position with them than say somebody who came up
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and was just kind of like like a straightforward fan like like a couple
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times when we asked a celebrity or or said could we could we record the
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interview and they said oh no then things got a bit all quit afterwards
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yeah but again that's not their fault I mean but we didn't even try with him no
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no no I know I'm just saying that if with him I was just a straight fan I
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know but with the Press Badges and stuff maybe he that maybe put him off I don't
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know one of the big names we uh we got to talk to and who was super friendly
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was Roy Thomas who uh he worked for Marvel for a very long time he actually
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took over as editor-in chief after Stanley left from that position he he's
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written for so many Comics like Doctor Strange uh which is very topical and he
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worked on the Star Wars adaptations yeah the original ones yep yeah uh like
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Spider-Man uh he's probably touched um every oh yeah Conan the Barbarian he
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brought that to America I think yep he actually started out um well I don't
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know if started out he actually originally worked for DC Comics right um
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for only eight days I read kind of a sad story about it where um he had done some
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work for Stanley in the past and then uh took a job with DC um I don't know if
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it's supposed to be long-term or not but then his boss was not a very kind man
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and he after just a few days wrote a letter to Stanley just like he said he
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was very upset in his hotel room as a 24 year-old I believe uh wrote a letter to
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Stanley not asking for a job but just saying hey I really love your work I'm
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such a big admirer of you and Stanley asked him in for a test yeah test right
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yeah wow see that's awesome yeah and and he was so friendly oh he's such a nice
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guy he did give us uh he did give us an interview which which we'll play now um
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it is we talked about Doctor Strange specifically just because that was uh
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that's what's kind of going on today with the film coming out and he had some
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interesting trivia for us all here with Roy Thomas and I had a rumor that you
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didn't only invent the sanctum centurum you lived in the sanctum cantorum in a
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manner of speaking uh yeah uh I I had a my friend Gary Friedrich who wrote
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Marvel Comics too um in late 65 we moved
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into an apartment on Greenwich Village's uh bleer Street 177a there was a 177 and
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a we the door at 177a it no longer exists now they're both like 177 yeah
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right but at that time it was 177a and we lived there upstairs second floor
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over some weird place for about 6 months until our it was supposed to be rent we
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found out it was rent controlled our landlord wanted us to pay more money
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than the rent control so he threatened to kill us and we had all kinds of
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trouble so we finally decided yeah well you know we C the cops on him and
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was nice but we decided maybe it was better if we you know we got Anonymous
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pH calls about how they were going to find our bodies in a trash can make sure
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I I bought I actually bought a gun I'd never shot my life and a police lock on
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the door I was ready to shoot if anybody had to come in but anyway So eventually
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um we decided maybe it's best to leave in the middle of the night but in the
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meantime a little bill ever also at that same time staying with us off and on was
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Bill Everett the creator of the Submariner who was drawing Doctor
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Strange at that time he was the first artist after Steve ditco so he was
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drawing Doctor Strange while living there and his first the first panel he
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ever Drew showed Doctor Strange walking along our street it doesn't show that
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number but it's it looks a lot like Renville looked outside our door in
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those days and uh so about three or four years later in one of the last issue or
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so of that series of Doctor Strange for it died around 19 number 180 something
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or other I needed to have an address for Doctor Strange cuz he was going to get a
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telegram right and so on the thing I put
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177a bleer Street which is our address obviously Doctor Strange's Mansion was
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not going to fit in and ever since that that's been his
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the address that Mansion it was supposed to be on or near bleer street right but
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more near it than on it I put it on it and uh just gave it that number and it's
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always been on it I used to think I always thought Bill had done it and then
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years later I realized no I had done it yeah and and I and now I now they put
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that in the in the movie I guess yeah have seen the film what you think I
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haven't seen it but I just learned from Jeff isherwood who worked on some issues
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of Doctor Strange with me in the 90s that not only am I in this little the
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credit of a dozen or two people at the end besides of course Stan and Steve who
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deserve get the line and share of the credit but that along with you know uh a
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few several other people including Jeff ferwood and others uh there's a credit
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for me a credit for my my wife Dan because her name was on these stories
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too and a credit for my first wife Jean
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because because uh she I I think because she had done a comic with with me
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working a little but it was mostly her in the 1970s called Night Nurse a very obscure
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comic it only lasted about five or six issues yeah instead of which was sort of
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half romance half adventure and we made up a hospital for it called Metro
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General they may maybe they use that as the name of the hospital or something so
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they decided to say they gave her and the artist a credit for that so both my
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wives and I together again for the first time in this credit you know and so
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forth I hope they pay her pay her too you know that's awesome thank you so
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much sure thank you but I I'm hoping it be a good movie this the scenes I've
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seen the the uh the trailers I've seen online that people send me and things
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just look great yeah the the the special effects and stuff are really really
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looking forward to seeing it more than the average uh Marvel movie yeah even if
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I didn't have my name on it I didn't and I didn't think I would I was just
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looking forward to seeing the funny thing is back in the 60s the only Marvel
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series I didn't read before I came to work for Stan was Doctor Strange because
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I couldn't relate to the magic stuff but I always like's art so here so a couple
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years later I end up writing Doctor Strange even with dco for a little while
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but anyway thank you very much yeah anyway thank you so much I'm glad that
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the movie's turned out okay it's taking a few hundred million dollars I guess
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it'll be all right they'll make another one yeah thank you thank you he was one
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of the few guys who didn't ask for anything to sign our Comics yeah um and
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he was totally willing to talk to us so that whole interview he told us all
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right I've got a few people online um I'll answer a couple of questions but
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that's all I can do and then he just didn't stop yeah he was he's just very I
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think he's excited to be there he's one of those people that I think just really
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loves what he does and in interacting with the people who who read the comics
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and stuff yeah he's really friendly yep so yeah if you get the chance to to chat
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with him at a convention like definitely approach him he's very very friendly
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yeah uh another guy if you see him Tim estelas he designed our badges our um
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press badges at this Con he was so nice we talked to him forever he does uh a
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lot of he's an artist so he does a lot of comic art uh with characters you know
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and he works for kids at Hasbro Children's Hospital um he goes in and
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draws for kids to their requests yeah uh he told us a funny story actually where
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one of the kids uh requested a Frozen character but zombie and he asked her
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mom and she said yep that's fine and he had to go back and tell his managers um
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you might be getting some complaints from the hospital um and they they're
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probably going to question why I'm drawing zombies for these kids y yep and
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he did uh they got some calls from some of the nurses and they told them it's
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fine you had permission to do it yeah yeah but he's a really lovely guy and
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he's uh he's got some great ideas and opinions around working with physical
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mediums versus digital because everything's kind of uh people moving
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towards digital these days and he has some strong feelings about that and uh
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and very interesting point of view yeah I think actually he um mentioned that he
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would like to come on the podcast at some point and talk about that yeah um
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well he suggested that we discuss that but I don't think we know enough to um I
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think it might be better if we have him on and we'll ask him questions that's
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right he's a great guy and yeah hope can touch with him and and have him on um we
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also met Rob leafield um who is a creator of Deadpool yeah he's very uh
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controversial in the comic book World you've probably seen articles in the
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past uh discussing the uh the anatomical impossibilities of some of his
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characters yeah his art style is a little bit funny um like big muscles
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that well it's funny don't belong there it's also iconic like people mock it but
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like he like he He Turned like a whole comic series around in the 90s he he he
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worked at Marvel and he was put on uh New Mutants and he basically like that
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was their like their lowest selling comic and he took it from that to to
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being like one of their top top sellers and so he was put in charge of the whole
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project and from there he went on to do again yeah Deadpool xfactor like all of
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these things he's very very very successful yeah we were lucky to catch
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him actually he was on his way out the door so unfortunately we weren't able to
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interview him yeah he just didn't have time to talk to us at that point but we
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did get a copy of Deadpool signed yes so and he was very nice yeah we were lucky
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enough to catch Alan Bellman and his adorable wife oh man I will put some
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photos up um on the Instagram of all of the people that we spoke to and
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interviewed but this is my favorite photo because every time we uh so we
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were there for 3 days like I said and every day that we walked by his wife was
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like full costume but kind of made out of just dresses and knee socks and
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hoodies like she and for context Alan Bellman is 94 years old and his wife is
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is similarly aged and the first day she dressed as Wonder Woman with a Wonder
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Woman dress knee socks that looked like boots um a little Tiara yeah and a
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hoodie a Wonder Woman hoodie tied at the neck to look like a cake
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they are the cutest couple yeah 94 and Alan belman worked for timely Comics
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which is actually uh it is Marvel Comics but that's what it was called before
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stanlee came along but Alan Bellman uh was one of the original artists during
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the war working on Captain America uh Human Torch and all those characters
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before Marvel even existed he he was he was working on those comics and so he's
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like he's a true original as far as Marvel Comics go and so yeah it was
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really lovely to meet him and he's so nice yeah like he he's doing some more
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conventions in 2017 I he's going to be down in Florida uh for a few like and
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yeah if you can catch him you should because he's just he's so nice and and
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really just one of The Originals we got a poster from him of Captain America
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punching Hitler yeah which is something he worked on back during the War I
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couldn't believe that that existed speaking of Hitler yeah do weird
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tangent yeah as we're walking around I mean they have a lot of collectible
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stuff at the at the event and and we encountered I think for Silver age
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Collectibles is the is the guy's company he had a bunch of stuff like a bunch of
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Star Trek figures and things old TV guides yeah a lot of really old very
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collectible stuff and uh like lots of interesting odd things and one of the
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things he had was an original from the
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1940s uh vinyl LP of Adolf Hitler's
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speeches mhm in German in German uh which was very illegal at the time I
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believe yep and right next to that he had a um probably about a 12 in figure
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greatest war criminals of all time Adolf Hitler action figure yeah a couple of
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days later when we came by uh I noticed they were gone and I asked him I said
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did somebody buy them yeah because they were like $300 they were very expensive
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they're pretty expensive uh and he said no apparently um people had complained
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and and he had to put them under the table and I I can see why but then on
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the other other hand see I I don't agree with them having to be hidden I I don't
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know why they would have to be hidden that's kind of I don't know why someone
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would buy them but I think they're they are interesting as historical kind of
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documents and I mean it's particular the the the vinyl in particular is right I
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mean it's historically significant as repulsive as all that may be again I can
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understand why someone may have complained and if the convention didn't
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want to deal with that I can see why they might have asked him to remove them
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but I don't know I agree with it overall that's right I think just because we had
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just gotten that picture of Hitler like that picture of Captain America punching
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Hitler that that was okay and that a figurine of a war criminal like the Box
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said war criminals yeah so I I don't know that just that struck me as odd
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yeah cross uh had a booth at the convention cross is a luxury Pen Company
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which uh you know what luxury pen is they it's basically that you buy one and
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you never really have to replace it because it's got a full lifetime
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warranty uh and they they're very like uh Hardy metal kind of constructed high
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quality pens and they've recently acquired from Disney the licenses for
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Star Wars and Marvel and they have new lines out which are the the Star Wars
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and and Disney lines and these pens are freaking awesome yeah they are they have
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fountain pens ballpoint um they have one that is like a really thin pen but three
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colors and pencil Le inside of it it's incredible and a stylus on the back it's
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called the tech 3 doth Vader special edition it also has a stylus on the back
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of it so you can use it with a tablet so it's it's got yeah red red ink Black Ink
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a a pencil and a freaking stylus on the end of it so it's amazing and I was
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lucky enough they were doing a giveaway and I won a bb-8 pen uh and it's I mean
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it it's a pen I can use literally forever like if if anything breaks on it
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I can go in and they'll just replace it they said the only thing that's not
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covered is if it gets lost but they're actually working on a chip so that even
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that will be covered yeah so they can find it which is creepy but cool yeah
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but yeah know these are great pens if you're into if you're into pens uh or
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you know you're looking for a gift for somebody uh go to check them out
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cross.com is where you can find them and again yeah they've got they've got a
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store opening in Providence here in Rhode Island if you're a local the only
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thing that I get wary of with things like this like it has a lifetime
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guarantee what if the company's not around in 10 years you know if it's a
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startup company and they say you have a lifetime guarant well that doesn't
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really mean anything to me well I think cross has been around for a very long
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time so I'm not sure if that's likely but I wanted that too because if I get
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this Star Wars pen right and I break it in 20 years and I go back in and they're
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like well we don't make those anymore right so I not going to get the same pen
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back unless they just have a warehouse full of these things so I don't know
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maybe if anyone from Cross is listening uh let us know how does how does that
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work you but they are beautiful pens though so I'm glad that met one one uh
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because he would have otherwise spent a lot of money on them oh yeah I wanted
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one real bad I still want that doth V I know I know the the triple pen I don't
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even know how to write with a fountain pen and I want one they were they were
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beautiful the the fountain pens are amazing actually there's a run of
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limited edition ones where they only did like I think they did 1,977 of them to
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celebrate the the like Star Wars 1977 uh and they're I mean they're like
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600 bucks but they're beautiful and they're actually like uh gold and and I
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think some of them have like gems and stuff in embedded in them as well like
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they really beautiful pens so yeah cross.com check them out y our friend
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Liz uh has a booth at all of the New England conventions she has a company
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called tracky Mo uh which is comic art backwards she makes all original things
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out of comic books she sells wall hangers pins and badges Zipp W light
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light switch covers y so wallets are her biggest thing and she will even
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specialize if you want to send her some art that you liked from a comic book she
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can make you a wallet out of that yeah um so have a look at her website uh
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tracky mo.com that's comic art backwards so trci M
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o.com and yeah she does special orders yeah they're all handmade they're really
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high quality and they're they're made from the actual pages so uh it's
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actually some of them I'm like astounded that she manages to make them look as
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awesome as they do because I'm like how do the pan how do you get the panels to
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line up like that I don't expect it to reveal her secret they're really cool
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we'll post a picture of that too on our Instagram we've got some of those I was
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also lucky enough to chat with Bill Diamond again yeah we
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spoke to him at Hartford ComicCon too he's a really really nice guy he's very
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talkative he's awesome we didn't have any recording equipment with us at
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Harford but this time we did and he was kind enough to grant us an interview
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Bill worked on Sesame Street the Muppets little little Shahara stage show The
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Dark Crystal he's a a puppeteer and uh puppet Constructor Constructor I guess
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he he makes all the he makes puppets and props and uh just really really cool
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wonderful stuff you would have seen his work on fragle Rock and and and stuff
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like that so yeah he was very generous with his time uh they had a booth set up
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with a lot of these um puppets in there yeah um they had a gremlin actually he
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worked on Gremlins too oh yeah that's true um and they had one of the skis yes
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from The Dark Crystal and the sword the original sword from the movie um they
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travel around with that yeah yeah it's cool it's cool to see them all up close
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yeah yeah and again he's very friendly so we sat down ask some a couple
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questions I'm here with Bill Diamond how you doing good how you doing very well I
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was want if you could tell us how did you get started well uh how did I get
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started well the first thing is I woke up in the morning that's an always a
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good start especially with coughing now get more done that way yeah I was in
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school I was interested in theater
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television art I majored in in uh
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TV but uh I was I was playing with uh
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puppetry and and stop motion I worked got a chance to know Ray Harry Howen MH
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yeah awesome uh did some stop motion but it was just too slow for me sure so I
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started experim of course I'm a Henson Pride I grew up with with uh Sesame
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Street but then little did I know I was going to wind up working on it for
24:14
Reeves telet tape at that time and through that I met Carol spinny and from
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there um I I got to know Johnny Hansen and then his father Jim yeah right
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that's awesome so that's how that started and then I was building my own
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company at that time and working in and out of what the hensons were doing at
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the time yeah and so ever since then I've been still working for the last 40
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sem odd years with uh all my own projects and my crew so you do the the
24:44
little chabahar stage show correct yeah I've been I built the puppet the um
24:49
after it went off Broadway it went back on tour and then I did the tour puppet
24:55
in 84 and then from then I did it and I still do it now um and then we built the
25:02
Revival in 2007 and the puppets are owned by us at the studio as well as all
25:07
the other characters the hundreds of characters we have and then we get a
25:11
chance to bring them out at these cons for people to really get a chance to see
25:14
them they're awesome how long does it take to to build something like the the
25:17
big ory 2 well a lot of people ask that I mean they go from a concept design to
25:22
what materials will be used uh it can go from a number of months to you know it
25:28
all depends on the production schedule we get yeah cool and what's the favorite
25:33
well your favorite po I know it's a ridiculous question because I can never
25:36
asked this question you know why because first of all all the characters behind
25:40
me and if you ask them they all think they're the favorite yep so I'm going to
25:44
get into trouble there because gorg goes right behind me so he's automatically
25:48
going to say it's him so it's him yeah yeah but well maybe it depends on if I
25:53
go over there or Gremlin May any characters listening it's you yeah
25:56
that's right right that's how you answer that get you out of trouble well thank
26:00
you so much and enjoy the rest of your time here I will thank you for coming by
26:06
cheers so it wasn't all like nerd comicy I guess there were some horror things as
26:11
well at this and uh the same company that runs this altered reality actually
26:14
runs teron in February which uh I believe we'll be going to so we'll be
26:18
covering that also and I I would guess that most of these people that we're
26:23
going to talk about next will be there MH Jason dble with monster Hau mhm makes
26:29
really adorable comic books yeah they're just a Hau yeah with some monsters and
26:36
each each book each monster has its own book yeah so he's got like the
26:40
Frankenstein Dracula well I don't know if he calls them the Frankenstein dra he
26:44
doesn't how you name them but they're monster characters and yeah each strip
26:47
is it's it's a hi cou but but it's still a joke like they're still funny uh and
26:52
three panels but they're high coup so it's very clever and the art is very
26:57
cute yeah I'm I mean I'm surprised he's managed to come up with as many as he
27:00
has because again they're very they're still funny uh and clever but he was he
27:05
was very cool uh Hew was a zombie yep which we have uh you can check him out
27:11
at Monster haiku.com uh we talked to Lawrence elig he made he
27:18
had um for sale at the con he had a bunch of horror busts um but we talked
27:22
to him for a little bit and he did tell us some amazing Stories like I wouldn't
27:26
ever have guessed yeah he he used to work um for Hasbro and Kenner and he
27:32
modeled like he clay modeled all of these toys yeah so like toys that you
27:37
would have had like if you're our age you've seen these toys yep and actually
27:42
all over the convention they're selling all these retro toys and he said like i'
27:46
I designed all those yeah like I in we're talking like the Star Wars figures
27:49
jurass Park Batman uh like all all all of the toys that you played with as a
27:54
kid like he he probably had a hand in something that you that you were with
27:58
and if you go to his website lawrence.com there's a section with toys
28:02
and he's got a photos of a bunch up there and and I was flicking through oh
28:05
man I remember that thing yeah like he made it yeah and he lives close so I
28:09
mean hopefully we'll be talking to him again yeah uh but yeah he's uh he's
28:13
currently doing uh horror bust that he's sculpting them himself he's got
28:16
characters like uh you know the classic Universal Monsters the hammer horror
28:20
monsters Hammer horr monsters Vincent Price uh he's got several HP Lovecraft
28:25
ones in different kind of styles Ed Al and Poe and they're really really good
28:30
MH like really beautiful and they're bronze cast bronze so they're they're
28:35
like serious serious sculptures like you could put this you know like a like like
28:40
a mo mozar bust on your piano but but you know Frankenstein so yeah definitely
28:45
check him out and uh and hopefully we'll we'll be in touch with him again yeah
28:49
because I'm I want some of them and we also talked to there was a a
28:55
collective of New England based horr writers that they had a booth there and
29:00
they were all really really friendly and awesome yeah they were right next to our
29:03
friend Liz's Booth MH so we spent a lot of time talking to them yeah uh we
29:08
obviously they they discovered that we were interested in horror and we have a
29:12
podcast so so we had a chat we spoke with Jason parent Rich felberg kathern
29:17
Grant David and Scott gowor yeah Jason parent actually gave us one of his books
29:22
to read yeah um it's only been a day yeah so we haven't had time yet I did
29:28
read the first couple of pages of one of the stories that he picked out for us
29:32
when we said that we were po fans yeah and um I mean so far it is it is very
29:36
similar to that but in a Modern English way yes that it captures the feel I
29:42
think so far that's why he had me read the first page and then I was like all right
29:47
fine yeah so they're really great and if you if you're interested in horror uh
29:51
they actually have kind of guide books to Massachusetts and I think there's a
29:56
Florida one as well uh horror based guide books so that it
30:00
tells you kind of the the history and horror of those States and I think
30:05
they're probably working on more those are by David and Scott godswood um you
30:08
can get more information about them at New England horror. org yeah I do want
30:12
to say a special thank you um we met a couple of guys over at one of the comic
30:18
book booths um yeah John Sano and John friends but they they gave us all of the
30:23
information about all of the comic book artists there yeah like all right you
30:27
should go to this guy here if like these are the books he worked on um they they
30:33
helped us out a huge amount so it was all shout out to them yeah it was quite
30:37
overwhelming uh to to try and figure keep track of Who's Who and and what we
30:42
could what we should ask everybody about and kind of what would be what would be
30:46
an interesting thing to talk to everybody about and they gave us he gave
30:48
us some really great tips on on things we could ask people about and and that
30:52
kind of stuff so big thanks to them um now I would like to talk about the
30:57
convention overall overall yes so we had some problems with the organization of
31:02
the Convention as a whole yeah not just us I think in fact I think we probably
31:06
had less problems than other people did where that's right on behalf of other
31:09
attendees we had problems that's right yep so as I said uh the convention was
31:14
held in two separate buildings and it was connected by a skybridge so the
31:19
first building that you entered into was the Dunkin Donuts Center which was the
31:23
basketball court style one and then to get into the next building you had to
31:27
take the skybridge and once you did that you couldn't come back you'd have to
31:32
leave and then wait in line yeah because come back in and go through security
31:36
again which was was annoying but fine on the Friday on the Saturday and Sunday
31:41
that was a real problem because it was a huge problem and because lizz's Booth um
31:46
was in the Dunkin Donuts Center every time that we would kind of we would go
31:50
to help out um cuz I I worked at her Booth a couple of times for her just to
31:55
cover for people yeah I would have to leave the con ition and then go back in
32:00
the main entrance yeah which is and go outside too but not only that you you
32:05
because we had press badges you got in other people didn't get back in because
32:09
the other issue and I understand why they would do this the building has a
32:13
capacity and they sell more tickets than the building can fit because they assume
32:16
people will be coming and going but when you're forcing people to leave in order
32:20
to get from one side to the other they're leaving but they're not really
32:22
leaving they're leing they didn't want to leave and so now they're stuck and
32:25
they can't get back yep so the convention Center has a capacity of
32:29
17,000 people and by making the skybridge one way they were able to sell
32:34
almost double the amount of tickets yeah because the Fire Marshall said that way
32:38
they could just H people through and out the other side which I'm sure that makes
32:43
sense business sense it doesn't it's not very nice right though so this was a
32:48
major problem with Rhode Island ComiCon two years ago where at about 11:00 in
32:53
the morning they reached capacity and even vendors and celebrities were not
32:57
allowed back in into the convention center for hours so people had abandoned
33:02
booths and celebrities weren't able to make it to their panels or signings
33:06
because they were stuck in the re-entry line outside in the cold rain yeah not
33:11
not good no and I think it wasn't until about 5:00 that the doors opened again
33:16
and the convention closes at 7 so I I know there was a huge huge problem with
33:20
this two years ago and they were making efforts to fix it but I don't think they
33:25
really have they haven't done a great job yeah um there were points where we
33:30
couldn't move like we were stuck in a stairwell because photo lines had backed
33:35
up so much that they were blocking the entry yeah I don't know whether they
33:37
just didn't allow for the number of people that were going to want to meet
33:42
certain celebrities because it was just overwhelming like
33:46
when if you went down that to that area you couldn't get out because the lines
33:50
were blocking the stairs and people people wouldn't move because they could
33:53
see what was happening like it was all kind of disorganized and they knew that
33:57
if they left or moved out of the way someone else was
34:00
just push in like it was just yeah it was not a good right and that's really
34:04
unfortunate for the people who had booths downstairs and were trying to
34:08
sell their their art and their goods because nobody could get to them yeah
34:12
exactly and it's not good for the celebrities either because I know for a
34:15
fact that galo's panel was a problem yeah actually hers was pushed back
34:20
people were complaining about that hers was supposed to start at 2:30 I believe
34:24
and then they put up a post um Rhode Island ComicCon on their Facebook page
34:27
put a post that it would be starting at 2:45 but even after 2:45 people were
34:31
still asking when is this going to begin and when she did finally get on stage
34:35
the panel was only about 20 minutes long because they didn't have any time right
34:38
because she had to go back and do all the other stuff again I don't I mean
34:42
that is also a problem with scheduling like with um Jason David Frank who I now
34:47
remember is the name of the Green Power Ranger um he was given a 10 minute
34:52
session for photo ops right but he was very popular he was super popular so he
34:57
had from 12 to 1210 were solo photo ops and then from 1210 to I think like 12:30
35:03
were photo ops with him and Amy Joe Johnson together 10 minutes is not
35:08
enough time no for anything that's maybe what like three photos yeah I know and
35:12
that I mean that just seems like that seems kind of obvious like I don't
35:16
understand if something runs a little bit late then that's it you just scrap
35:19
it h it just none of the scheduling really made sense to me there were a lot
35:24
of panels that were canceled last minute or like pulled to a different time last
35:27
minute yeah I Think It's tricky in in some ways because a lot of the people
35:31
working there were volunteers and I know it's it is difficult to coordinate
35:35
people who aren't you know they're not being paid so you've got to kind of
35:39
they're not going to be like on the ball the same way that somebody who's like
35:43
whose jobs on the line right we did speak to a volunteer security guard and
35:47
we found out that there were like three factions of security there right like
35:52
the Comic-Con security the center security and the actual police and none
35:57
of them had communicated with each other at all so it was kind of a mess and I
36:00
think that's like the theme of the whole convention that there was no
36:02
communication between anybody yeah it seems that way a lot of people
36:05
complained about the volunteers in the information booths because nobody was
36:09
nobody had any information yeah and they all very friendly either no and even I
36:14
found that problem when I the first day I went up and I said hey do you have a
36:17
list of the panels and she said oh no no no you can check on the website maybe
36:20
it's there yeah and I said do you have a map and she said oh no then how am I
36:27
supposed to if anything is going on you expect like 30,000 people to use your
36:31
website at once I don't know it it it sounds a bit nitpicky I guess at times
36:35
but but nobody seemed to have any information right um I found a couple of
36:42
Facebook complaints actually um let me read you just a couple of my
36:46
favorites from Karina gager said you guys suck thanks for taking my money and
36:51
being rude to me and Katie Daly said a volunteer said right in front of me she
36:57
would write rather commit suicide than help another
37:00
person well that's just that's just not on I think it's it's tough because they
37:05
volunteers and they they I think the organization made their job harder than
37:10
it was that puts them in a foul mood and they they getting paid so they don't
37:13
they've had enough as well so it's just not a good situation no but there was
37:17
such a such miscommunication between people that um some of the people who
37:21
bought special tickets like VIP tickets were left without things that they had
37:25
bought um they turned away some of the Stanley VIPs which I think is you can't
37:29
do that no they paid $400 to meet Stanley and to get a special bag that
37:35
came with um like a it came with a lanyard and a special Stanley toy right
37:40
um which were never given out and then when people complained about it it was
37:44
just removed from the website altogether like it just never existed see that's
37:48
just not on right uh I think also uh telling people that I mean
37:54
Stanley sold out very quickly right however it's not that they said it wasn't sold
37:59
out they just kind of withheld that information yeah I did find a couple of
38:03
posts where people said I need you to be specific can you tell me I like can you
38:08
tell me if he is still signing autographs I have like I do not want a
38:12
photo I just have something I once signed and they would respond with
38:16
Stanley is still is still available for photographs yeah they were still selling
38:20
photographs tickets but not autographs cuz the line was obnoxious but they
38:24
would never say that right that's that's what I'm saying it's just not I don't
38:27
think that's on and they were actually even deleting comments off first of all
38:30
they disabled posts to their Facebook page and then they were deleting
38:34
comments and I think they still are like negative comments um and comments of
38:40
people saying it's been sold out it's been sold out I saw somebody was anytime
38:44
somebody asked they would say it's sold out it's sold out it's sold out and they
38:46
would delete it every time yeah because they don't want they want people to come
38:49
and still come yeah I don't I don't agree with it at all I maybe we're
38:54
shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit by saying this but you know I I I
38:58
feel like it's it's yeah it's not on right right um people also had a problem
39:03
with the company that takes the photos uh Froggies to the point where there's
39:08
actually a Facebook page not using Froggies photos at conventions um
39:13
they've had serious problems in the past somebody uh at Dragon Con complained
39:18
that instead of sending the jpeg like they were supposed to they just put all
39:22
of the photos from the convention up on a flicker site which led to sites like
39:27
um BuzzFeed or Funny or Die collecting them and making fun of people and
39:32
posting them for everybody to see these like private photos yeah cuz I mean
39:36
there was a big thing with that years ago with the was one of the the scary
39:40
haunted house things that did that and then people you should know that that's
39:43
not you can't do that anymore like right but that I mean that's happened in the
39:48
past at this one they just kind of made a mess of everything um they lost photos
39:53
the printers backed up for hours paper they ran out of paper people weren't
39:57
able to collect their photos cuz you couldn't get to them right right and
40:01
then yeah there was such big masses of people that you couldn't get there and
40:06
they weren't taking any names or anything so they were just holding up a
40:08
photo and saying like uh you've got long brown hair and a blue shirt on yeah so
40:14
you had to like recognize your own characteristics to find your photo yeah
40:19
there were still people now commenting on the Facebook page that they never got
40:22
theirs and where can they yeah are they able to get it somewhere and I mean look
40:27
it sounds like we're being very negative but I mean we had a good time but then
40:31
again we again we had the ability to skip a lot of this stuff because of the
40:35
press passes and that so we're only we're talking about this because we
40:39
think people should know about it and I don't agree with the fact that they're
40:43
trying to hide it sort of and right particularly like if they've had these
40:46
problems in the past well and if they're just deleting all the comments from
40:50
Facebook that's that's not really acceptable like they need to address the
40:52
problem not just try and pretend it doesn't exist uh and I wonder if this
40:57
stuff is a symptom because we we had problems like this in Australia when the
41:00
conventions blew up because this whole thing comic book conventions and and
41:04
geek culture in general has really blown up in in the last like say five years I
41:11
think so it could just be you know it's grown beyond their ability to to handle
41:18
it without you know maybe addressing how they're doing things but this I mean
41:22
this is several years on that they've been having these problems and I think
41:24
it should have been addressed by now that's why I'm I'm I'm I'm not sorry
41:29
that we're saying right they I mean they either need to cap tickets which they
41:33
have done but they're capping it at too high of a volume yeah um they need to
41:36
cap them lower like Pax does or they need to find a bigger venue yeah yeah
41:42
exactly and one that you can freely walk through because I I'm not into this
41:48
start the like start out in this one building complete it and then you can't
41:53
come back in yeah with no notice that that's going to happen that's the other
41:56
like you didn't one told you you weren all back once you walked over the bridge
41:59
that's it just wouldn't let you back up security there yeah see it's just a lot
42:03
of little things like that that combined I think to to make it a not a great
42:06
experience for quite a lot of people that's right and then they would put
42:09
artists um that I I guess they didn't know were going to be bigger sellers
42:13
like comic artists yeah um in a small Lane oh yeah and then which created a
42:19
line which just backed up everything cuz nobody could get through yeah um the one
42:24
of the only places that you could get drinks right was a root beer stand right
42:28
in the middle yeah right in the middle of the convention center which had a
42:33
line of 100 people and blocked the entire room from moving couldn't move
42:36
anyway they've got to learn from from the mistakes but it just seems like
42:41
they're not so I mean we can't say definitely we the first time that's
42:47
right we this is the first time we've attended Rhode Island Comic Con but
42:50
speaking to other people who were there um in previous years uh some friends
42:56
who've gone in previous years some of the security guards it doesn't
43:00
seem like they haveed people who've had booths and attended as vendors and
43:05
artists in the past and won't anymore because of all because of these
43:09
issues yeah yeah so I think uh yeah I think overall it was fun and if you're
43:15
aware of these issues you can probably get around it but I think a lot of
43:18
people just had no idea what they were walking into Y and if you wanted to meet
43:22
Stanley galotto or any of those big celebrities you probably had a bad day
43:26
yeah and probably just waited in line from morning until after cling and
43:30
potentially got turned away that's right at the end which is I mean I I
43:35
understand sometimes it's it's not possible to fix it but I mean that's
43:40
really just not on you can't charge people that much money and especially
43:43
the VIPs and then just say oh sorry yeah yeah I I think that's the the biggest
43:47
crime and and and just to be clear as well I do not for an instant I saw
43:51
Stanley uh we met him at Sydney when he was in Sydney and I know for a fact that
43:55
he had he he would have stayed to sign everybody's if he possibly could and I
43:59
know that anybody who got turned away that there's no way that's Stanley's
44:01
fault because that guy is a machine yeah y he is the one of the kindest and
44:06
coolest people in in the industry so yeah I don't I don't think it his fault
44:11
for a second yep I guess we should also talk about the Afterparty we got invited
44:15
to the Afterparty on Saturday night we did we did well we did buy um altered
44:21
reality the company that was putting it on yes uh but then when we got to the
44:24
door the head of security had no record of us well he didn't have any record of
44:28
any of the media of any of the media that's right so um yeah I actually had
44:32
to email him my media list so that he could check people in at the door which
44:36
is just another miscommunication between everybody there and somebody actually
44:40
told me that that room capacity was only 250 people and they sold 500 tickets
44:46
just hoping that people wouldn't show up which I don't think is right either that
44:50
doesn't sound like something they would do yeah um I have to say the the Afterparty
44:56
is not really our seen no it it was I can see how it would have been a lot of
44:59
fun for people who who are into more Dancy music and stuff like that but I
45:03
mean the other thing is the the Celeb were supposed to be in attendance and
45:07
there was like there was nobody literally no section yeah it was empty
45:12
and I mean that's not the only reason we were there but that it's just another
45:16
thing where it's like it's not as advertised you know uh it was run by
45:21
tight crew and they they did a good job I mean it was '90s music but it was not
45:25
the '90s music that I like the setup was good the but I mean they did a good job
45:28
with yeah yeah they did a good job their DJ was good if you're into that kind of
45:33
thing yeah yeah no I have no issues with the with their side of things and they
45:36
were all dressed appropriately for the 90s which I I thought that was pretty
45:39
cool it just feels like the whole thing feels like something that was a very
45:43
small convention and it never adapted to accommodate like the the thousands and
45:50
thousands and thousands of people that that go to these things now and they
45:52
just don't have the capacity to handle it hopefully next year they've learned
45:57
from a few things yeah um and hopefully because they'll even after listening to
46:01
this they'll still invite us we'll have to buy tickets we are very
46:06
grateful to altered reality yeah we're very grateful and and like again we we
46:10
we had a great time uh we had a lot of fun and people we went with who who
46:14
didn't have press passes they still had a great time like it wasn't all terrible
46:19
it's just that I feel like the the complaints that people with complaints
46:24
aren't being handled very well no no and they are all valid complaints absolutely
46:29
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show