Comic Con (part 2) - The Creators & Voice Talent

Part of running the con involves talking to the Creators and Voice Talent and getting them to come to the convention to do signings and panels.

I had to book the rooms, make sure they had transportation, take care of any last minute schedule changes (and there were quite a few!), reimburse them for their expenses, and most importantly, make sure they were where they needed to be on time.

Also, the day before the convention opens, you have to make sure you break away from your booth construction for a ten minute window in each of the rooms you are going to have a panel in to make sure your media plays in their players. You give them a playlist of what's going to be shown when, etc. They don't keep any of the media (since they apparently had problems with it walking away before), so that's something else you have to make sure you have organized and in a safe place.

Here are a couple of pics from that first year:

Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy Panel

Maxwell Atoms, the creator of Billy and Mandy with Grey Delisle (Mandy), Vanessa Marshall (Irwin - on the end), C.H. Greenblat (writer, voice of Fred Fredburger, creator of Chowder), Ian Wassalick (Storyboards), and Alex Almaguer (Storyboards).

Bob Higgins moderating, Danny Antonuchi (Creator Ed, Edd, and Eddy), Julie and Tim Cahill (Creators My Gym Partner's A Monkey), Joe Murray (Creator Camp Lazlo), Mark O'Hare

The same panel. I think it's funny no one ever wants to sit in the front couple of rows.

That's also Mr. Warburton (Creator Kids Next Door) there on the very end.

The Foster's Panel

Craig McCracken (Creator), Lauren Faust (Writer), Keith Ferguson (Voice of Bloo), Grey Delise (Voice of Coco), Tom Kenny (Voice of Eduardo), Pringle (Flash Guru Supreme-O), and Khaki Jones (Original Series - Namesake of Jackie Kohnes)

If you want to know where I am during these panels, if you saw someone running around the outer ring of chairs like a mad woman, that was me!

This next paragraph is a brief description of what I did during the panels, so feel free to skip it if you'd like.

First order of business was to make sure that everyone had a name tag down on the front of the table so the audience knew who was who. Then, everyone needs some water. Then over to check on the clips. "Yes, that's the first one". Is everyone on stage? Great. Run to the side an take a quick picture. Go back and check to make sure the next clip is correct. "No, not that one. Yes, that one. Thanks!" Stop by the row of execs who always have some kind of question. Run to the moderator and give him some info while someone else is answering. Take a few more pictures. Run to the back of the room to hold up a sign that says there's 30 minutes left on the panel. Run and maneuver the tables at the exit area as a barrier to keep people from just reaching down and grabbing from the boxes of giveaways. Open the boxes and get start to get them ready. Intermittently run and and check the clips. Hold up a sign that says there's ten minutes left so it can be opened to questions from the audience. Finish opening the boxes and round up the volunteers who will help to distribute. Do the "wrap it up, last question" hand gesture. Last minute check that everything is in place. Do the "Out of Time" hand gesture, then run to head up the giveaway. Make sure everyone gets a freebie, and traffic keeps moving safely. Invariably, people will pool around the table. Finish herding out the attendees. Then, run to the stage and get working on the talent, fans and execs who are standing up there. Then, herd those people out so comic will let us come back next year, instead of being penalized that we're holding up the next panel. After everyone is out to the hallway, run back in, grab the clips, and hightail it back to the booth.

Of course, at the booth, you have signings. Usually, we did two signings per show. Here's

Maxwell Atoms (and Special Guest Vanessa Marshall) on day one:

And Maxwell by himself on day two (note that the line is wound around the booth).

Here's security giving Mark O'Hare a hard time:

Joe Murray is ecstatic that these young ladies are the last in line. Hand cramps hurt!

Danny A. with one of his characters behind him, and also on the table.

Everett in front of his custom backdrop. We designed the booth to have a changeable background, so anyone taking pictures of the talent would have the show in the background. After the con was over, each of these went to their respective shows, and were hung on the walls.


Tim Cahill, Tom Kenny, Julie Cahill and Maurice LaMarche

The signings were always crazy. We had a different giveaway for each show (as you can see from the pictures above), as well as a shirt for each show we gave away throughout the day.

The line actually wrapped back and forth within the booth (and was made by yours truly from various and sundry items from the home depot. We had TONS of compliments on it) The line then wound around the booth, and we eventually had to place someone at the end of the line to keep it from spilling over into the Alex Ross booth behind us. Sadly, I don't have any Juniper Lee / Judd Winick pics since it was the first show where we dealt with the crowds, and so he was a victim of the 'learning curve' so to speak. I also don't have any pics of Ben 10 since they only appeared on Sunday (Kids day), and my camera battery had given up the ghost.