CONvergence Badge Art: #CVG2010

I’m counting down to CONvergence 2012 on July 5-8 this year, and sharing some highlights from past year’s badge art that I’ve done for the convention.

The CONvergence 2010 theme was Bring on the Bad Guys, a celebration of villains that saw Connie’s slightly evil sister Connie Mark 2 take over the convention. This was a goldmine for artwork ideas, and I tried to give a lot of the graphics a fascist, propaganda poster edge, while still having a fun, CONvergence flavor.

#CVG2010 – 5 & Under

#CVG2010 – Ages 6-12

#CVG2010 – Ages 13-17

Stewie from Family Guy seemed like the obvious choice for the 5 & Under Badge.

The evil alien kids from Village of the Damned made for a creepy badge for the 6-12 crowd.

And the teens got Red Mist from the newly released Kick Ass.

And a row of menacing Mark 2’s adorned the Adult Badge.

#CVG2010 – Exec Badge

#CVG2010 – Service Animal

Who else would be on the Exec Badge that year but Mark 2 herself?

And the Service Animal Badge that year saw the evil Mirror Universe version of Connie’s dog Sparky.

In 2010 we eliminated having separate badges for members of the Board of Directors, and we just got our own ConCom Badges. It was a good call. All hail Mark 2!

Mark 2 was overthrown by Closing Ceremony, of course, and all was right with the con once again. But Mark 2 plots her return to power from her new role in ConSuite. Who thought letter her near the food was a good idea?

If you’re coming to #CVG2012 be sure to look me up! I’ll be doing two signings and on a bunch of panels.

CONvergence Badge Art: #CVG2009 Guest of Honor Badges

It’s another 2-post day as I count down to CONvergence 2012 on July 5-8, sharing more art I’ve done for badges for the Guests of Honor of CONvergence 2009.

#CVG2009 – Brian Keene

#CVG2009 – Dwayne McDuffie

#CVG2009 – Frank Conniff

Brian Keene’s badge is a reference to his then-current Devil Slayer comic for Marvel.

The badge for the late, great Dwayne McDuffie features the comic book and animation versions of his character Static meeting face-to-face.

Frank Conniff’s badge, like all the badges for the Cinematic Titanic crew reflect the silhouette gimmick for their show, while the background image makes a joke referencing their earlier MST3K. I had to do something with Torgo. Please note the brand of pizza being delivered.

#CVG2009 – Joel Hodgson

#CVG2009 – Kelly McCullough

#CVG2009 – Mary Jo Pehl

Joel Hodgson’s badge not only references Gamera which was a staple in early MST3K episodes, but features one of the robots from Silent Running, which Joel credits as an inspiration for the MST3K structure.

I was delighted to hear that Kelly McCullough was giddy to have his Melchior character morphed with Connie for his badge, and the art is even featured currently on his website!

Mary Jo Pehl’s badge features an unfortunate camera angle on The Amazing Colossal Man (although he’s got his disfiguration from sequel, so technically it’s the Colossal Beast – #geek).

#CVG2009 – Patrick Rothfuss

#CVG2009 – Trace Beaulieu

Patrick Rothfus’s badge references a recent quote he had made about a certain Mr. Whedon.

And finally Trace Beaulieu had been at CONvergence before, so I had no issues with dressing Connie as Mr. B-Natural, from a famous MST3K bit.

If you’re coming to #CVG2012 be sure to look me up! I’ll be doing two signings and on a bunch of panels.

CONvergence Badge Art: #CVG2009

I’m counting down to CONvergence 2012 on July 5-8 this year, and sharing some highlights from past year’s badge art that I’ve done for the convention.

The CONvergence 2009 theme was Comedy – a celebration the funny side of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. This was more challenging art-wise than I would have imagined going in. When you’re usually trying to do a funny take on something series, it’s hard to then do a funny take on something that was already funny. The really funny thing that happened in 2009 was that our 1-time deal of CONvergence being a Thursday-Sunday 4-day event for our Year 10 convention in 2008 became permanent. You can never please everyone and certainly some folks preferred the 3-day model, but a TON of people really loved the extra day of con in 2008, and we made the counter-intuitive discovery that for a lot of volunteers four days was EASIER. We had a TON more at-the-con volunteers in 2008, and our Convention Committee was more relaxed. My theory – people find it easier to spare some of their time for volunteering when their hours at con seem like less of a premium. And for those working all weekend, more time between Move-In and Move-Out improves the ratio of hard work vs. time spent enjoying the convention.

#CVG2009 – 5 & Under Badge

#CVG2009 – Age 6-12

#CVG2009 – Age 13-17

PROOF that I’ve long been trying to feature the work of artists other than myself at CONvergence! This year the decision was made to further break out the age ranges for badging purposes, which resulted in an extra badge. The three youngest brackets this year featured artwork by Holly Spotts, which I then composited into the badge design. If the badges look a little blank, it’s because the CONvergence logo was being applied that year in the form of a hologram sticker as an anti-counterfitting measure.

Here’s the Adult Badge – featuring Connie in Groucho glasses. It was the best iconic image I could think of for CONvergence and comedy!

#CVG2009 – Exec Badge	#CVG2009 – Directors Badge
#CVG2009 – ConCom Badge

The Exec Badge features more artwork not by me – this one has artwork by Lou Frank, which I then incorporated into a badge design.
The ConCom Badge and Director Badges this year featured artwork by me, re-purposed from T-shirt art I had done.

#CVG2009 – Service Animal Badge

#CVG2009 – Finance Badge

#CVG2009 – Badger Patch

The Service Animal Badge started with Connie/dog art by Lou Frank, and I added the fire hydrant in making a badge design out of it.
I had drawn our mascots as the Addams Family and The Munsters for 2009 Publications, so tycoon Gomez with Morticia seemed like a nice choice for the Finance Badge.
And it’s not badge art per-se, but this year was the debut of our Badger Patch, an embroidered patch given to volunteers who spend time doing the vital job of manning badging stations at the convention.

#CVG2009 – Temp Thurs

#CVG2009 – Temp Friday

#CVG2009 – Temp Sat

#CVG2009 – Temp Sunday

And finally, the 2009 Temp Badges. We’d had some issues with the performers being issued Temp Badges returning them, so this year we had a variant for each day of the convention, so they would “expire” at the end of a day.
If you’re coming to #CVG2012 be sure to look me up! I’ll be doing two signings and on a bunch of panels.

CONvergence Badge Art: #2008 Guest Badges – 4 of 4

We’re counting down to CONvergence 2012 on July 5-8, with the last batch of badge art for the massive number of Guests of Honor of CONvergence 2008.

#CVG2008 – Wally Wingert

#CVG2008 – Marv Wolfman

#CVG2008 – Bridget Landry

Wally Wingert, with his obsession for the Adam West Batman again infecting his voiceover personas, this time his role as Jon Arbuckle on the new Garfield Show.

Marv Wolfman, who was only the writer when Dick Grayson got his first Nightwing costume in the pages of New Teen Titans.

And finally the badge for Jet Propulsion Laboratory rocket scientist Bridget Landry.

What’s that, you say? Bridget’s badge looks a little plain? She probably thought that, too when we first gave it to her, although she was too polite to say anything. But you see, we had a little surprise for her. When Bridget was first a Guest of Honor at CONvergence 2006, we learned that she was a cosplay maniac with a special love of original series Star Trek cosplay, appearing in several different spectacular costumes that weekend, all of her own creation. So what I did was I created this very simple badge for her featuring Connie, but then additional created several transparent overlays on lamination material, that featured paper-doll style costumes scaled and positioned to dress the Connie on her badge so she could cosplay WITH BRIDGET! These overlays were given to Bridget at the Guest of Honor Reception after she’d already gotten her badge and she was delighted!

The images below show the various cosplays provided on overlays to Bridget.

#CVG2008 – Bridget Red Shirt

#CVG2008 – Bridget Blue Shirt

#CVG2008 – Bridget Gold Shirt

The three divisional Starfleet Uniforms were pretty basic.

#CVG2008 – Bridget Rand

#CVG2008 – Bridget Medical

#CVG2008 – Bridget Mirror

These cosplay overlays were based on costumes I knew Bridget had: Yeoman Rand, Nurse Chapel, and Uhura’s Mirror Universe uniform.

And that’s finally the end of the #CVG2008 badges! On to #CVG2009!

If you’re coming to #CVG2012 be sure to look me up! I’ll be doing two signings and on a bunch of panels.

CONvergence Badge Art: #CVG2008 Guest Badges – 3 of 4

We’re counting down to CONvergence 2012 on July 5-8, sharing more art I’ve done for badges, specifically we’re still going through the badge art fro the massive number of Guests of Honor of CONvergence 2008.

#CVG2008 – Mercedes Lackey

#CVG2008 – Peter Mayhew

#CVG2008 – Andrew Probert

Another raptor image for Mercedes Lackey, making a matching set with the badge I did for her husband, Larry Dixon.

I’d thought of this image the first time Peter Mayhew was at CONvergence, but didn’t use it then because Peter didn’t know Connie yet. This time that wasn’t an issue.

The first time we’d had designer Andrew Probert as a guest I’d referenced his work for Star Trek: TNG and Airwolf. This time I referenced his role as designer of the Cylons for the original Battlestar Galactica!

#CVG2008 – David Weber

#CVG2008 – Len Wein

#CVG2008 – Greg Weisman

An Honor Harrington-esque spaceship for author David Weber.

I had fun dressing Connie in the original costume of Len Wein’s creation, Wolverine.

Spidey is about to get a surprise now that the sun has gone down on Greg Weisman’s badge, referencing his Spectacular Spider-man and Gargoyles animated TV series.

One more batch from #CVG2008 to come!!!

If you’re coming to #CVG2012 be sure to look me up! I’ll be doing two signings and on a bunch of panels.