Catching Up--Fallcon 2009

It's a week out from the Minnesota Fallcon and here's the report and pics.


Will G and I drove to Des Moines to meet up with Carter, who had rented a rather nice Ford Edge for the journey north. We'd been to Fallcon a few times earlier in the decade, but we'd been absent for the last four or so. We're stepping up our con presence now, and this seemed an obvious choice. Tables are free and they're exceedingly nice. Will Beard wasn't able to make it, so that gave us two entire tables to spread out our stuff.


Anyways, the journey was nice and smooth. New cars have the rather obvious addition of a stereo pin input jack for the sound system to facilitate mp3 players. I've been slowly rebuilding my 80s metal collection lately; I sold off most of my metal when I went through a serious jazz phase after starting my first radio gig, a weekly jazz show on KTXT in Lubbock, Texas. I was brought on to complement the serious jazz guy they got. This is my usual role in the world; I am there to do all the weird stuff. Anyways, I had my little player (a little Creative model because I despise being told what to do with my music) full of Borknagar and Agathodaimon and Candlemass and Bolt Thrower and if I keep ticking these off I'm gonna have to go headbang some. I also plugged in some sold new comedy albums from Louis CK and Dana Gould.

We made our usual stop at Owatonna, MN to go to the giant Cabela's store there. They've built up a lot of new stuff around that thing. Will was the most amazed; he'd never been. He got a stuffed wolverine. Seriously. I always buy a new cap (this time a wool ballcap that made my hand hot just carrying it) and something made me buy a skullcap-style insulated cap. This was a good thing.


We used my GPS (nicknamed Tina after Will and Kelli and my trip to visit Wizard World Chicago Comicon Banana Nut Crunch Whatever it's called now) and it steered us nicely to the Ramada on Industrial Ave. It's in the process of renovation so there are dodgy touches here and there (the pillows actually gave me a bit of a rash), but they're trying hard.


We were able to slip into the bar for a quick one and some food. They had a great Oatmeal Stout on tap (Lake Superior)--not to thick, but nice and dark. We were too late for the Friday load-in, but we're nimble and quick to set up. Next morning we headed to the Minnesota state fairgrounds and to the Grandstand there.


The last Fallcon we'd been to was in the Ag Building, which is a good deal smaller. There's a gigantic garage door at one end, and this was open for the bigger booths to move in. This is where the new cap turned out to be a great idea. Had it on the whole day. Coupled with the vest and trousers, I was either completing a gentleman thief look, or I'm the worst Little Steven impersonator ever. But I'm warm, and that's what counts.


We tried out Carter's idea of dividing the table up by creator, and this worked pretty well. I can pretty much cover a table with all the stuff I've written. That's pretty cool. SYPHILITIC COWBOYS got a lot of double and triple takes, but the big seller for me was ZOO FORCE: We Heart Libraries. The cover has the uncanny ability to draw in librarians with its awesomeness. Shades and Angels books did well, too; I even did some trade on FRAGMENTA 2. The economy being what it is, though, it's still pretty hard to get that cold dollar, the money from folks who haven't read any of our stuff before.

I nabbed a great New Gods Kalibak figure for my pal Lonnie; I always find him some ugly dude for his desk at these things. I got a Kirby-looking Superman fig for myself, along with a few movies. I'm a big fan of Sergio Martino, especially the movies ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN and AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK. So what do I find but QUEEN OF THE FISHMEN, a sequel to BOTH movies. It's a clever way to save dough on footage and props and isn't as bad as you think. The movie follows two kids who are hunting rats to fill their hungry bellies. They even witness some events of ATFONY before they set out for the island where the fishmen live. Crazy.

People were very nice, interested in all this newness. Just a couple tables down was Gerry Conway. On Sunday I worked up the nerve to say hi and give him a copy of NUMBERS. Even met Michael T Gilbert; I think I have to get a NEUTRO from him.

We were bordered on the left by a large dealer booth. This is one of the great things about FALLCON; they mix up the floorplan. There's no Artists Alley ghetto. Everything's mixed up nicely.


Saturday night we passed on the free steak dinner Fallcon had going. We had a Hawkeyes game to catch. So we ensconced ourselves in the hotel bar and persuaded the bartender to have one of the big screens show Iowa v Michigan. After a great game and a couple more Oatmeal Stouts, it was off to bed.

Sunday was much warmer, so I was able to leave the cap aside. I spent a little time hunting up a NEUTRO, to no avail (although Michael T Gilbert knew exactly what I was talking about--because he's Michael T Gilbert ferchrissakes).

I went around picking up some minis and such that were new to me, and ended up getting two issues of the Michelle Bachmann comic being produced by a group of folks who know the pain we feel when we see Rep Steve King (R-Iowa) has shot his mouth off again. It's a fun comic with the sweep and verve of an issue of WORLD WAR 3 ILLUSTRATED. It made me want to do a Steve King comic, when actually what we need is a Chuck Grassley comic. Seriously, Grassley is selling his soul and can't find a buyer.

Our Fallcon exclusive postcards disappeared fast. You have to see us at a con or you're just not gonna get one, folks! We're doing a new one for every con we go to now.

I took some video, but Blogger's video embedding plain stinks. Ah well.

In all, it was a great time, but there's that point on Sunday when we know we've had enough fun...


If we nab a table at New York Comicon in '10, it may be hard to come back next year, but you never know.