Greetings DoS readers.As I type this, I’m currently on Ross’ Mac. (ROSS’S EDIT: Ross Is Awesome.) It’s Sunday July 15th, at 7:37pm, and I’m currently waiting our 1.5 hour delayed train home to Baltimore from lovely New Haven, CT.

We’re fresh off of the last day of Connecticon 2007, and since I was unable to update last night (you’ll understand why soon), I’m here to give you the blow by blow (at least, what I remember) for Days 2 and 3.

Without further ado, let’s party up.

Day Two – July 14th

A stark contrast to the sleepless, busy day 1, day 2 started with more of a whimper than a bang. We woke up at 9 or so, grabbed some breakfast from Dunkin Donuts, and headed downstairs to the main events room for the Uber Webcomics Panel/Webcomics Auction.

This was one of the events that really made us decide to go to Connecticon. Unlike most anime or comic conventions, Connecticon puts a HUGE focus on their webcomics guests. The idea of this panel is, all 20 or so webcomics guests would be brought up on stage via alphabetical order (1 comic at a time), thrown a few questions by panel moderator/webcomics liason/all around awesome dude Larom, and then each comic would put an item up for auction (proceeds benefiting the CBLDF).

I should’ve known from the beginning (where we scrolled across stage in a webcomics type parade, I lost my shoe, which was then spiral tossed to me by Rob Balder, who I think was trying to win the Super Bowl at the time) that the panel was going to be interesting.

Coming Off the Stage. We Photograph GREAT!

To put a long story short, we ended up VERY low on time. What also got difficult was creating a unique item to put up for auction. Our original idea was (surprise, surprise) to feature the winner of the auction as a zombie in our comic, and give them a ZOMBelieve t-shirt, plus the swanky DoS v.2.0 Pin Set (soon to be available RIGHT HERE, at DeadofSummer.org). Unfortunately for us, the absolutely awesome (and ahead of us in the panel) dudes at Dr. McNinja had the same idea. How can we top that? How about giving the winner their own comic? Featuring them as not just a zombie…but a ZOMBIE NINJA! Evidently this was a good idea, as con goer Bill (sorry man, I missed your last name!) dropped $50 towards the cause. Swank.

Our Lucky(?) Winner

From there it was back to work the table for the day. As it’s been a long few days, it’s kind of melted into one very long idea, wherein more insanity was had with our new buddies at Caf-Fiends, Phil Kahn raised some crazy at our table, Jami Noguchi hung out for a bit, and we upped the podcast count to 2, as Ross and us at DoS filmed an interview for a future segment on Digital Strips. If it hits the web as it was taped, it’s quite the interview, complete with random con-attendee Steph walking in during the interview, and becoming part of the show. Steph, we at DoS apologize for any mental scarring that may have occurred.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the video game portion of the Webcomics Challenge.  Let’s just say…Mike and I were raped in Guitar Hero II and WiiTennis respectively. God damn.

After a long day at the table, it was….surprise surprise, back to the bar. City Steam was the choice of local, and it turns out we weren’t the only ones with the idea. The crew from Morlock Enterprises was already there, ditto Garth and his brother from Comedity, as well as Rob and Jami from Erfworld. What made it an interesting scene to come into though? Rob and Phil Kahn were in the midst of a drinking contest….who was winning? The photos say it all.

Phil Kahn - LOOKIN’ GOOD!

Not surprisingly, the night (and the tab) grew, as we talked webcomics, traditional comics, and all kinds of nerd minutia with the gang from Hookie Dookie Panic, as well as Steve from Dueling Analogs. All said, we shut down the bar at 1:30 with a $575 tab. As James Brown so wonderfully put it, “It’s not a webcomics gathering without a half a grand tab.”

The Webcomic Knights of the Round Table

Jami Noguchi, Amazed/Enthralled With Our Apple Crisp Dessert Pizza.

Heading back from the bar, I showed that despite being the sober one, I’m a clumsy motherfucker. In something that proved that the Aaron Sorkin trademark walk-and-talk doesn’t translate to real life, I fought a battle with a metal wet floor sign in the enterence and lost. 3 bleeding cuts on the leg is always a great way to end the night, I figure.

Day 3 – July 15th

“Dude, wake up, we have a panel in a half hour”. What a wonderful sentence to wake up to!

The panel in question was Alternative Webcomics, being done by myself, Nick, and Ross.  Scheduled for 9am on a Sunday morning, we were worried for 2 reasons…1. We were all unshowered/unawake…2. Who really goes to a panel at 9am?  Honestly, we ended up pretty surprised with the turn out, and had a nice back and forth going, discussing the various webcomics that we enjoy that get overlooked.

After that, it was off to the Erfworld panel, where Ross finally got to announce his spin-off comic, and Rob and Jami told their adoring fans all about what was going on with argueably one of the web’s best fantasy comics.  They’re really doing great work over there, and I anxiously look forward to when they release a collected edition.

Back to the table, we were completely STUNNED by a gift given to us by our new buddies at Caf-Fiends.  They started work on Saturday, but finished over night, on a wine bottle featuring art from the DoS Book 2 poster.  Honestly, I don’t think we’ve ever been so blown away by a gift. Blondie, Kevin, you guys are REALLY too awesome. Look forward to seeing you at Baltimore Comic Con!

Best Gift EVER.

By 5pm, the con was coming to a close…but our adventure was far from over.

Battling a hellacious storm to catch our cab…dealing with a bizarre cabbie (’See that guy? He high.’)…and traveling to New Haven, CT…that was just the beginning.

As we arrived in New Haven, we discovered our train was going to be an hour and a half late. What made it worse? Oh yeah, due to the delay, it was double capacity. Ugh. Luckily, we were still delusional enough to have a sense of humor about it.

Train Partaaaayyyy…Spring Breaaak….Wooooo!

It took far longer than expected, but by 1:30am Monday Morning, we were back home.  I can honestly say that was some of the craziest few days we’ve had in a while…worth every moment of travel. Maybe we’ll make it back, maybe not. We’ll see.

…but we get to do it all again on Thursday with Otakon. Boo-yah.

But before I go? TIME TO MELT SOME FACES.

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