My adventures at Supanova '11

What a weekend!

This year was quite different for me. I never made an official announcement on my blog, but I'm an intern at Gestalt Publishing, so this year I was on the booth for most of the con. It was lovely and tiring! But I'm getting ahead of myself now.

Friday
Friday was the preview night, I unfortunately didn't get to see any previews. I arrived at the station in the midst of a giant storm - lightning, thunder, crazy winds and a giant downpour. I spent about 20 minutes in the dubious shelter of a canvas overhang, waiting for it to calm down so I could get across to the building where the con was being held. I met one of the guys from Siren Visual and we had a nice chat while we waited for the weather to calm down. The poor dude hadn't eaten so I shared my Tiny Teddies with him. Eventually we decided to make a break for it, even though it was still raining. My umbrella made it to the doors before it broke in half. I got my staff badge from the front desk and wandered around Artist's Alley for a while. The stalls all looked wonderful. I wasn't there for very long before I decided I might as well head home and get changed into dry clothes. One of the Gestalt guys drove myself and one of the Perth-based artists home, which was lovely.

Saturday
There was some seriously awesome cosplay this year! It was actually easier for me to see stuff from the safety of the booth. Some of my favourites include:

• Deadpool
• Lady Deadpool
• Zatanna 
• Lots of HP 
• Robot Unicorn girl
• Lots of Firefly including some adorable Kaylees
• A few Dr. Horribles, including one bad Dr. Horrible in his red outfit!

Speaking of cosplay, Emily K. Smith promised to slap some sense into me if I ever had the inkling to dress as a generic sexy schoolgirl for anything. We then discussed various animals that it might be difficult to dress 'sexy' as. We decided it might be fun to see someone attempt a sexy rhino or giraffe.

Crowds were thick for most of the day. I attended Amy Acker's panel, but sadly missed out on the other sessions I would have liked - Sean Maher, David Gareth-Lloyd and Corin Nemec. I spent most of the day watching Emily draw things (and resolving never to try and draw things myself), and being slightly awed by Ben Templesmith and Tom Taylor. Also I was resisting the urge to tell Justin Randall to "hurry up!" I'm a huge Changing Ways fan (I'll put my review on this blog soon) and having him RIGHT THERE working on Book 2 was delightful and also agonising.

I was really happy when I got the chance to run over to the Monster + Robot Industries stall where I met Suzanne and Luke in person! I bought some comics which were promptly signed. The Sexy Virus had me in stitches so I ran back the next day to get the two-part sequel.

Whilst on the booth I saw Sean Maher wandering around the floor with his handler. I actually squeaked, which my boss thought was hilarious. "Run after him!" he said. "No, he's walking around! I'd feel awful if I interrupted his 'being normal' time," I said. That and I didn't have anything for him to sign...

Saturday night was of course the James Marsters concert, which my boyfriend graciously allowed himself to be dragged along to. It was brilliant. James is such a lovely guy and really knows how to charm an audience. He played a nice mix of songs from his solo albums, one Ghost of the Robot song, and some new tunes. I was really stoked when he said the band were getting back together and that there'd be a new album by the end of the year. I'll admit they're not the greatest songwriters but they have such a heartfelt energy about them. James also revealed some of the subtext of his songs - let me tell you, it was VERY INTERESTING!

Sunday
Having settled into the routine of booth-handling, Sunday was a bit more laid-back than Saturday. I have to thank Emily K. Smith again, for taking the booth so I could go to the James Marsters Q&A - it was amazing. I really hope that the next time I'm at a con with James I can get a photo or an autograph with him. All the chatter I overheard was praising his friendliness and the amazingly personal way he interacts with his fans. Unfortunately the lines for autograph/photo tickets for all the Supa-Stars was so bloody long, I didn't get the chance to even THINK about doing either. I got my Tides of Hope anthology signed by the cover artist though, and he thanked me for buying it :)

In the afternoon I wandered over to the Siren Visual stand, where I was given a copy of Perfect Blue "for the tiny teddies". Feeling much abashed I chased down Tom Taylor and got him to sign a copy of The Example for my new friend. That reminds me, I should review that. It's such a difficult comic to review, though! The concept sounds so simple but the comic itself is utterly mind-blowing. I think everyone should read it. Tom writes something different for each autograph, which I think is awesome.

During the afternoon the documentary crew blocked me off from the booth (the camera was set up in the only gap between them) so I went for a bit of a wander. It was slightly less crowded, which was nice. I visited the Comic Zone (my LCS) booth and picked up a.50c comic whilst chatting to my favourite staff member, Jay.

The Dymocks booth was over the other side of the room to ours, and Marianne de Pierres was unable to make it to Perth, so I didn't do my author stalking for the con. However, Emily's artistic talents landed me in the prescence of Bevan Mcguinness and Alison Goodman! They have both requested that she do some character artwork for them. I tried not to be too fannish, though I was feeling incredibly star-struck. God help me if Kylie Chan ever comes to Perth...

I had planned to maybe attend the Tom Felton session if we weren't too busy on the booth, however people starting queuing for Tom nearly three hours before his session. So when I went for a drinks/lunch run at 2pm, a poor volunteer was standing halfway down the floor with a sign that said "End of Tom Felton line". As in they weren't letting any more people line up because no more people would fit in the Q&A room. I saw some girls crying because they wouldn't be able to go in to see Tom. It was a bit crazy.

Supanova, though incredibly awesome, needs to rethink their choice of venue and do a bit better in organising fan interactions with their Supa Stars.

All in all, I had a fabulous time this year, though I wished I had been able to go to more things. I didn't actually realise how tired I was until I sat down on the train! Maybe next year I can wheedle a day off from my boss-man?

My weekend haul. And my dingy rug.