Jesus back flipping Christ.  This has been the most insane 48 hours of my life.

Before I go further into it though, I wanted to take a moment.  Yeah, we missed Friday’s update, and I’m not too happy about that.  Due to packing, printing stuff for the con, and other issues, doing a comic for Friday simply wasn’t feasible…at least at the level we wanted.  Here, at the end of the day, we’d much prefer quality over quantity.  We’ll make up for it though.

Anyway, back to the tale so far.

Suffice to say, we aren’t bright kids.

Connecticon Day 1 actually begins WELL BEFORE Connecticon began today…starting yesterday afternoon.  After a busy day of packing and picking up printed materials from Kinko’s, Mike, Nick and myself waited for Ross to get in to Baltimore from DC.  We of course spent the evening watching the E3 coverage on G4…as Ross’ arrival time kept moving back.  First 7:30…then 8:30…then 9:30 or so.

Why the delay?  Seems there was a ‘hazardous material’ left on the tracks in DC, and in turn, his train was delayed TWO HOURS to handle the  issue…which turned out to be pesticide, go figure.

Ross was with us by 10, wherein we headed to DuClaw for some food.  Unfortunately for us, DuClaw closed their kitchen for ‘meals’, so it was a giant appetizer extravaganza to pull us through for the evening.

Back at Nick’s by 11pm, it was PackingFest 2007, as time got closer to our 3am train ride…which meant our chances of sleeping for the evening were getting smaller and smaller.  In a move that would damn us, we decided it would be best to stay awake through our train ride, sleep on the train (it was a 5 hr trip, why not?), and then be ready to take on Connecticon (and/or possibly nap in our hotel room in CT).

By 2am, we were packed and ready to go, so in wanting to insure we had a cab ride in time, we called WELL in advance for our cab.  This of course meant he was there in 5 minutes, not the much later that we expected. Whoops.

This of course meant we were at Penn Station in Baltimore by 2:30.  Whoops x2.

And that meant we were there before the main lobby reopens at 3am.  Aw hell.

A boring but delrium filled half hour was killed as we waited for the Penn Station staff to reopen their doors.  By 3 we were in, and everyone but myself slept while waiting for the train to arrive at 3:55am.

A Motley Crew if there ever was one…

By 4am, we’re on the road to Connecticut!  But why the hell didn’t anyone tell us HOW FUCKING HARD IT IS TO GET SLEEP ON A FUCKING TRAIN.  If just due to the chairs bugging my back alone, I know I woke up basically every half hour or so.  Not the end of the world, as I was able to see NYC, The Jerz, and various other locals on our way up.

By 9am, we had made it into CT, and were ready and rarin’ to go.  Just hit our rooms, grab some showers/short naps, and take on all comers.  Unfortunately for us, this wasn’t in the books, as our ROOM WASN’T READY.  I know, hotels have to handle their shit, but come on…reservation for 7/13=reservation for 7/13, y’know?

Anywho…defeated, unwashed, and tired, we decided to hit the convention floor.  We and Ross both have some pretty swanky table setups, and it’s gotten some good buzz amongst the con goers so far.  We’ve also made good friends with our neighbors Blondie and Kevin from Caf-Fiends, who (as you’ll find out later),  have been indoctrinated pretty quickly into this webcomics craziness, with Connecticon being their FIRST CON!

The day grew long, as lack of sleep always makes it seem far longer than it actually is, and somehow, over the 37.5 hours we worked the con this afternoon, we managed to obtain lunch (kinda hard, given the Convention Center’s back-asswards food policies),  sell some merch, FINALLY get into our room by 3pm or so, all grab showers and change, and say hi to our friends in the world of webcomics who we haven’t seen since Katsucon.

Also during the course of this afternoon, Nick and I were interviewed for the Secret Identity Podcast, which was a rather fun experience, and I found myself on a panel I never thought I’d find myself on.  Japanese Pop v. American Music.

I know, you’re asking “How the HELL did this guy end up talking about that?”  Here’s the deal.

When I was coming back down to the table from grabbing my shower, Ross was in a panic of sorts.  He was assigned the J-Pop v. USA panel, due to his comic The Rockets featuring a storyline of the american superhero rock band The Rockets, battling the evil J-pop stars The Super Happy Death Robots.  In any case, he was told (and expected) that other people would be added to the panel to carry the load…i.e. people who actually knew the topic in full.  Unfortunately, this didn’t happen.

Being the media whore good friend that I am, I offered to assist, if only to add humor to the proceedings.  I don’t know how, but over the course of the panel (which we changed to more of a back and forth debate format with the audience), not only did Ross and I manage to grow the audience, but we also learned a good bit about the world of J-Pop.  Not necessarily my bag, but hey, we learned!  Go Team Us.

Having a victory such as that under our belt, we decided to grab dinner.

The rest of the night is an amazing blur of wonderful people, and great times.

We started with drinks and food at a local pub (which name’s escapes me now), which just initially was the crew from Caf-Fiends and us at DoS and Ross.  It later grew to include the gang from Hookie Dookie Panic, Blue & Blond, and Morlock Productions.

Hours past, and a $275 bill later…you guessed it, we hit ANOTHER bar.  This one with even MORE webcomics people! And the most evil thing I’ve ever seen.

More drinks and good times were had, increasing our crew to include the staff of Applegeeks, Staccato, and after what sounds like the road trip from hell, Jami and Rob from Erfworld.  By 11:30, Nick, Mike, and I decided to retire for the evening…and I started writing this post (Ross still has yet to return.  He should be fun in the morning!)

Tomorrow looks to be a very busy day, as not only do we have the Uber Webcomics Panel, but we also participate in the Webcomics Challenge, battling other webcomics in WiiSports Tennis, Guitar Hero II, and even Magic the Freakin’ Gathering.  More on all of that (with photos) tomorrow. I’ve gotta get to bed!