CONvergence 2013 – Registration Badge & Souvenir Book Cover Art

This was the cover art for the CONvergence 2013 Souvenir Program Guide. Years ago I had drawn the CONvergence mascot Connie as all 10 of the Doctors from Doctor Who. Now as Matt Smith is preparing to leave the show, I still hadn’t had the occasion to add the 11th Doctor to that series. Clearly, this was the time! I arranged Connie as the Eleven Doctors into a clock face around the Seal of Rassilon, with Connie’s creator Professor Max in the #12 position. Will Professor Max be the 12th Doctor? Time will tell…

We had a new system for badges this year, with pre-printed plastic badges in a horizontal format, rather than laminating paper badges designed in a vertical format. The best outcome of this is that the badges now are friendly to the Badge Ribbon tradition popular at Gallifrey One and other conventions! Of course, this badge shape creates some interesting challenges for badge art. Here’s what I came up with for CONvergence 2013!

Connie as the Conductor from Thomas the Tank Engine

Connie as Harry Potter

Connie Mark 2 as Number Two from The Prisoner

Professor Max as Rose Tyler, Connie as… apparently SEVERAL of the Doctors, and Connie Mark 2 as a Cyberman

CONvergence 2013 – Guest of Honour Badge Art

I’m back home from CONvergence 2013, and what a weekend it was. (OK, I was back home a week ago, but since then I’ve been busy catching up on projects and cobbling together photos for this post!)

Without further delay, as promised, here are the CONvergence 2013 Guest of Honour Badges!

Every year I do original badge art for each of the convention’s Guests of Honor. It’s a rather labor-intensive tradition, but it makes a great early impression with guests that their time at CONvergence is going to be something unique and special, and honestly it’s the best icebreaker in the world for me to meet these great people. They almost always flip when they see their badges and are excited to meet the crazy artist who made them!

I went for her iconic hair and glasses for Charlie Jane Anders‘ badge. At the con her blonde locks had been dyed a spectacular pink. I knew going in there was a good chance I wasn’t going to match her at-con look. Ah, well…

For Caitlin Blackwood‘s badge I went for her iconic moment as Amelia Pond from Doctor Who. I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to Caitlin, but by all accounts she and her mom had a good time!

Paul Cornell has been good enough to visit CONvergence a number of times before, and rather than reference one of his writing projects again, I thought instead I’d highlight his now-traditional Cricket demo, with CONvergence mascot Connie and her sister robot Connie Mark 2 taking up the game.

I usually avoid using Connie on the badge of first-time Guests of Honor, but referencing the poster for screenwriter James Moran‘s film Severance was too good to pass up.

I got to interview John Picacio for his One-on-One panel. His badge is a reference to his cover art for the novel No Going Back.

And finally, when I realized that Melinda Snodgrass‘ breakthrough Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Measure of a Man” had introduced the Enterprise crew poker games and that she was one of the major contributors behind George R. R. Martin’s Wildcards series, the mash-up seemed rather obvious!

I’ll have the rest of my CONvergence report up in a bit!

CONvergence 2013 – The Key!

CVG 2013 Ad

CVG 2013 Ad – Key

1. Connie as Emma Peel from The Avengers
2. Professor Max as John Steed from The Avengers
3. Connie Mark 2 as Nathan from Misfits
4. That Smiley Planet Guy from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
5. God from Monty Python and the Holy Grail
6. The Liberator from Blake’s 7
7. Starbug from Red Dwarf
8. Harry Potter from… uh… Harry Potter
9. An alien walker from John Christopher’s Tripods
10. Thunderbird 1 from Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds
11. The TARDIS from Doctor Who
12. Graffiti from V for Vendetta
13. A Triffid from Day of the Triffids

Not numbered, but visible in the background: The London Eye, Big Ben, and a Double-Decker London bus.

I considered adding a reference to The Prisoner or Sherlock Holmes or James Bond… but I didn’t want to over-clutter it. There’s a whole year ahead to reference the works of H.G. Welles, Sapphire and Steel, 28 Days Later, Quatermass…

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

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.

#CVG2010 – Adult Badge

#CVG2010 – Exec Badge

#CVG2010 – Service Animal

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.

CAPTCHA

After going a couple of weeks without any kind of CAPTCHA filter on comments, the spam bots found me this morning BIG TIME. So while I hate them as much as you, a little CAPTCHA step is now required to leave a comment.

That said, I’d LOVE to see more comments that AREN’T all the spam I’ve been filtering through in recent days. This blog can be a place for conversation, and I’d like to think that some of what I’ve been posting here is worthy of some discussion. I’d love to hear from you!

Connie Mark 2 is Watching You