Posts tagged: Connie

CONvergence 2014 Guest of Honor Badges

Since co-founding the first CONvergence in 1999, I’ve drawn unique, custom badge art for every CONvergence Guest of Honor, every year. It’s time consuming, but I believe—both as a convention runner and as a frequent guest at conventions myself—that it creates a powerful first impression towards CONvergence being a unique convention experience.

I usually try to reference something from a given guest’s body of work in a clever way, as well as try to incorporate our mascot, Connie, on badges for Guests who have been to CONvergence before and are already familiar with the character. Here are the custom Guest of Honor badges I created this year for our CONvergence 2014 Guests.

CVG 2014 GoH Badge prev - Amy Berg

Amy Berg

One of Amy’s projects is the digital series, Caper, for Geek and Sundry. It seemed appropriate to highlight one of the superheroes from that show, so I drew the armored alter ego of The Machine.

CVG 2014 GoH Badge prev - Emma Bull

Emma Bull

Emma Bull is probably best known in the Twin Cities for her Minneapolis-based urban fantasy novel, War for the Oaks, so I wanted to visually reference that setting, including the novel’s protagonist, Eddi McCandry, and the shape-shifting phouka.

CVG 2014 GoH Badge prev - C Robert Cargill

C Robert Cargill

Cargill is a long-time friend of CONvergence as well as a personal friend of mine. Knowing his tastes, it was a no-brainer to suit him up as Ace Hunter from Megaforce, with Connie along for the ride on his jet-powered, flying motorcycle.

CVG 2014 GoH Badge prev - Sarah Clemens

Sarah Clemens

Much of Sarah’s work features the characters of Magnus the cat and Loki the Norwegian Speartail Dragon, so doing something with them seemed the obvious choice. I understood Magnus & Loki are known to be pair of troublemakers, and somehow a “Usual Suspects” motif emerged…

CVG 2014 GoH Badge prev - Matthew Ebel

Matthew Ebel

Musician Matt Ebel includes many references to robots, including GLaDOS from Portal. So I placed GLaDOS in front of a keyboard and added Matthew’s trademark beard. This was the design from this year that I most questioned how it would go over, but Matthew was delighted with it. Whew!

CVG 2014 GoH Badge prev - Scott Lynch

Scott Lynch

This was Scott’s first time as a CONvergence Guest of Honor but he’s been attending the convention for many years, so I had no problem casting Connie as the Gray King standing in front of Red Seas Under Red Skies from Scott’s Gentleman Bastard series of novels.

CONvergence 2014 welcomed several Guests of Honor with connections to Disney’s Gargoyles as part of our celebration of the Gargoyles 20th Anniversary. In light of this, I did a mash-up of a Gargoyles character with another thing a given Guest of Honor was known for. 
CVG 2014 GoH Badge prev - Greg Guler

Greg Guler

Greg was Lead Character Designer for Gargoyles and currently serves in the same capacity on Phineas and Ferb, so his badge featured a mash-up of Brooklyn and Phineas and Ferb’s Agent P.

CVG 2014 GoH Badge prev - Frank Paur

Frank Paur

Frank was the Supervising Producer on Gargoyles and in recent years has served as art director and director of many Marvel animation projects, including Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, so I drew Dr. Bruce Banner transforming into Gargoyles’ Broadway, in an homage to the cover of The Incredible Hulk #1.

CVG 2014 GoH Badge prev - Marina Sirtis

Marina Sirtis

Marina Sirtis was the voice of the villainous Demona on Gargoyles, which stood in stark contrast with her role as Counsellor Deanna Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation. So I couldn’t resist putting Demona in Troi’s uniform… With a phaser rifle thrown in for good measure.

CVG 2014 GoH Badge prev - Greg Weisman

Greg Weisman

I’ve been lucky enough call Greg a colleague and a friend for several years. The majority of our work together was on the Young Justice comic book for DC Comics, so dressing Goliath as Young Justice’s Nightwing seemed oddly appropriate. Whelmed, even.

So that wraps up all of the CONvergence 2014 badge art. If you didn’t see it yet, be sure to check out the CONvergence 2014 membership badge art as well! And if you’re interested in checking out more badge art from previous years, I’ve got most of it posted on my blog under the “Badge Art” tag – click here to check it out!

CONvergence 2013 wrap up

There are too many friends connected with and people to thank to list them all here, but I wanted to share some highlights I thought might be of interest.

CONvergence Opening Ceremony began with a live musical sketch called “Avenue Who,” which is basically what would happen if Avenue Q and Doctor Who made sweet, sweet love and had a baby.  It was written by Tim Wick, Chad Dutton and Gordon Smuder, with puppets built by Gordon Smuder.

The cast included:

Tim Wick as Purple Monster
Molly Glover as Pink Monster
Nick Glover as Leonard Nimoy
Windy Bowlsby as Mary Poppins
Courtney McLean as The TARDIS
Jeff Neppl as The Doctor
Christopher Jones as A Dalek
Laszlo Nemesi as Sherlock Holmes
Gordon Smuder as Dr. Watson
and last but not least…

Connie as herself! (With special thanks to Connie’s personal assistant Dawn Krosnowski)

I’ll be sharing video as soon as it becomes available, but until then you’ll have to settle for some photos! (My thanks to Peter Verrant from the CONvergence Photography Department for these!)

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Purple Monster (Tim Wick) and
Pink Monster (Molly Glover)

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Leonard Nimoy (Nick Glover)

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The Doctor (Jeff Neppl) offers Mary Poppins (Windy Bowlsby) a jellybaby

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Sherlock Holmes (Laszlo Nemesi) and Dr. Watson (Gordon Smuder)

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Did I mention that The Dalek (me) had a song?

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The TARDIS (Courtney McClean) spoke like a Minnesota mom.

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Connie with handler/personal assistant Dawn Krosnowski


One of the year’s Guests of Honor was Caitlin Blackwood who played young Amelia Pond on Doctor Who, and now at the age of 13 our first guest to be younger than the convention! Filmmaker Emily Hagins was 14 when she was first a CONvergence guest. Now 20, Emily was in attendance and in a completely unnecessary display of pop and circumstance, helped us crown Caitlin as our new Youngest CONvergence Guest of Honor.
Crowning Caitlin

Emily Hagins crowns Caitlin Blackwood as the new Youngest CONvergence Guest of Honor. Photo by Peter Verrant.


Opening Ceremony concluded with a special appearance by Inspector Spacetime as played by Travis Richey, who Hal Bichel and I had arranged to bring to CONvergence after having met him at the Gallifrey One convention. Hal and I are big fans of both Community and his Inspector Spacetime character’s unofficial spin-off Untitled Web Series about a Space Traveller who Also Travels Through Time, but after meeting Travis at Gally, we knew that he was really great with fans, good on a panel, and trying to build awareness of his Kickstarter campaign for Untitled Web Series season 2. It just seemed like Inspector Spacetime at CONvergence 2013: British Invasion HAD to happen.

It was a special treat for me to get to write a little scene for The Inspector in which he interacted with Connie and expressed his intention to visit the previous years of CONvergence he had missed (one of the advantages of being a time traveller) and that we was looking for an associate to join him in his adventure, preferably someone with experience as companion to a traveller in space and time. Of course he chose Caitlin Blackwood, and the two of them left the stage hand in hand, with the Inspector telling her that they were leaving immediately, “no waiting!”

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Travis Richey as Inspector Spacetime in the CONvergence 2013 Opening Ceremony,
Optic Pocketknife at the ready!
Photo by Peter Verrant

Susan Lundberg - Human Being & Inspector

Travis Richey with Community’s Greendale Human Being (in reality Hal Bichel, who helped bring Travis to CONvergence!)
Photo courtesy Susan Lundberg.

Photo Courtesy Dawn - Connie Dawn Inspector

Travis Richey backstage in the MainStage Green Room with Connie and Dawn Krosnowski.
Photo by Peter Verrant


Later in the weekend, Travis debuted the Untitled Web Series Season 2 Teaser Trailer as part of his Inspector Spacetime panel, which revealed that plans for Season 2 include Guest Star Robert Picardo from Star Trek: Voyager. You can see the trailer here and contribute to the Kickstarter. One of the contribution incentives is an Inspector Spacetime print by me, which will be revealed in the coming days!

I’d like to thank Travis for coming to CONvergence and being such a good sport about joining in our shenanigans, Hal Bichel for organizing the IndieGoGo campaign that helped us cover the cost of bringing Travis to the con, and of course everyone who contributed to the campaign!

Immediately after the Opening Ceremony was this year’s SMACKDOWN panel, which this year was S.U.P.E.R.S.P.Y. Smackdown. The competitors ranged from Jason Bourne and The Black Widow to Inspector Gadget and Danger Mouse, but eventually Emma Peel won the day! And yes, we had a James Bond lightning round that pitted Daniel Craig’s abs against Sean Connery’s accent. You know, this isn’t the most serious competition… Big thanks as always to co-conspirators Tim Wick who acted as Emcee, and Melissa Kaercher to handled created and operated our Video Scoreboard. Thanks also go to Romeo Azar who created our intro video!

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From Left to Right: Kelvin Hatle, Dawn Krosnowski, Joseph Scrimshaw, Jeremy Stomberg, Christopher Jones, Tim Uren, and Caroline Symcox.

Saturday at 2:00pm I had a signing at the Autograph Table alongside Travis Richey, and happily we both enjoyed a fairly steady stream of fans. Hopefully I’ll get a couple of signings scheduled for CONvergence 2014.

It’s never a convention without cosplayers. Given that I spend so much of CONvergence running around, you’d think I’d get tons of cosplay photos, but I’m actually not too quick on the draw with my camera phone and get far more photos when I’m at an Artists Alley table for the weekend (especially when I have help!). That said, I did manage to snag a photo with some Young Justice cosplayers as I was on my way in to Sunday’s Art: Impossible panel.

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Me with Red Arrow, Stealth Mode Kid Flash and Artemis cosplayers at CONvergence 2013. Photo by Tony Karna.

Art: Impossible is our new improv art panel, Emceed again by Tim Wick along with Dawn Krosnowski. (I just can’t seem to get away from those two!) I think the panel was pretty entertaining, with an assortment of artists creating art based on a multiple “challenges” of various lengths. Winners bidders from the previous evening’s art auction got first pick of original art produced during the 90-minute panel.

Finally on Sunday was Closing Ceremony which found Connie having a hard time with the idea that she had to wait an entire year for CONvergence to return. Inspector Spacetime appeared again and offered to take Connie directly to CONvergence 2014 so she wouldn’t have to wait. I’d like to think I added two entries on The Inspector’s roster of Time-and-Space-travelling associates: Caitlin Blackwood and Connie!

Closing Ceremony ended by previewing plans for CONvergence 2014, which features an Urban Fantasy theme and will spotlight the 20th Anniversary of Gargoyles with a roster of guests that includes Gargoyles show-runner Greg Weisman.

CVG 2014 Ad - prev

Promotional art for CONvergence 2014

I’m really looking forward to next year’s convention, and part of me wishes I could skip directly to July of 2014 with Connie. Then I remember how much I want to get done between now and then, and I’ll happily take all the weeks I can get!

Here are some quick links to my other CONvergence 2013 posts:
CONvergence 2013 – Guest of Honor Badge Art.
CONvergence 2013 – Registration Badge and Souvenir Book Cover Art
Posters I created for CONvergence’s Costumes are not Consent campaign.

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Christopher Jones, Dawn Krosnowski, and Connie

 

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!

CVG 2013 GoH Badge - Lou Anders prevCVG 2013 GoH Badge - Charlie Jane Anders prevCVG 2013 GoH Badge - Caitlin Blackwood prev


Here’s Lou Anders shown in the outfit he wore when accepting his Hugo Award. Lou seemed like a great guy and I was sorry I didn’t get more time to chat with him at the con.

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!

CVG 2013 GoH Badge - Bill Corbett prevCVG 2013 GoH Badge - Paul Cornell prevCVG 2013 GoH Badge - James Moran prev


I’d met Bill Corbett before, even getting to work with him on the Joseph Scrimshaw-produced Super Powered Revenge Christmas #1. While Bill’s ongoing gig these days is Rifftrax, for the sake of a familiar visual I put the silhouette of Crow T. Robot (who Bill voiced after Trace Beaulieu) from MST3K.

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.

CVG 2013 GoH Badge - Kevin Murphy prevCVG 2013 GoH Badge - John Picacio prevCVG 2013 GoH Badge - Melinda Snodgrass prev


I hadn’t met Kevin Murphy before, and sadly still really haven’t. We were both in the same room a couple of times, but that’s as good as it got. His badge is a companion piece to Bill Corbettt’s featuring the silhouette of MST3K‘s Tom Servo.

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!

 

Costumes are Not Consent at CONvergence 2013

I just got a nice shout-out from TheMarySue.com for the Costumes are Not Consent posters I made for this year’s CONvergence.

Here’s the complete set:

Costumes Not Consent 2013 - ConnieCostumes Not Consent - Prof 2013
PrintPrint


The characters are all mascot characters I created for CONvergence: Connie, the convention’s principle mascot, Professor Max, the scientist who invented her, and his misguided attempt to improve on perfection, the slightly-evil Connie Mark 2.

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Coming to Hal-Con – Nov 8-10 2013!

HAL-CON Logo

Just announced – I’ll be a Guest at Hal-con in Halifax, Nova Scotia this November 8-10! This will be my first visit to Canada ever and my first convention outside the USA! I couldn’t be more excited!

I’ve been intrigued by Hal-Con since they first got on my radar. Hal-con describes itself as the largest Sci-Fi/Comics/Gaming/Fantasy convention in Atlantic Canada, and they sound to me like something of a cousin-to-the-North of CONvergence, the convention I helped start here in Minnesota back in 1999. They’re a big, friendly fan-run convention, with programming and year-round community events that sound a lot like what I know from my years of involvement with CONvergence.

Hal-con even has their own Robot Mascot: Nelson who has his own origin-story video!


I think Nelson and CONvergence’s Connie may need to meet…

Retro Mascot

Hal-con’s Nelson

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Connie, Max Misfittle and Friends

Hal-Con also has a robust YouTube channel, with the slogan “not quite entirely unlike live coverage.” Check out the Superhero Workout.

I’ll have more information about my appearance at Hal-con as the dates get closer. In the mean time you can check out their website for more information about the convention.

By the way, my appearance at Hal-Con as a Guest came about because of a conversation that started because a fan asked the convention about having me there. If you want to see me at a convention near you, letting the convention organizers know is the best way to make it happen. Most conventions have a survey or other channels for input from fans/members/attendees. Let them know if you want to see me there!

You can check out all my planned convention appearances for the coming year on my Appearances Page!