Atlanta Georgia, Labor Day Weekend (Aug29th-Sept01)… it’s almost Dragon*con time! If you’ve ever thought about going to Dragon*Con I can’t recommend it enough. It is my favorite giant convention by leaps and bounds. And if you DO go, come by and say hi at my Artist Alley table. Gloria (“T-Mock” who is semi-assistanty at the moment) will be there, as will Cathe a friend from the utterly amazing Liberty Con (in Chattanooga) who promised a Sluggy-related costume or two, plus Alyssa from UberCon, and even rit if you want to yell at him about the forums. But don’t yell too loudly for I have been lead to believe that forums-high-magistrate Wile E and a few mods will be roaming around the area. I hope so! It will be good times!

Some Dragon*Con 2007 business:
Announcing the winner of last year’s SBG contest: Samantha M! Yay! Samantha and her friend will find themselves horribly massacred or something similar in the upcoming major Sluggy story. Second place went to Vok! Just in case Vok winning raises any eyebrows, Yes, I’ve known Vok for years, and in fact I know a few of the participants, but I give you my assurances and my word the winners were randomly selected.

So here are some details of this year’s Dragon*Con extravaganza:
First off I want to say I had such an amazing time at the last Dragon*Con that I booked for it again almost immediately, no question. However I think I’ll be paying my west-coast dues next year and doing Comic-Con instead, so catch me this year if you can!

No SBG contest this year at Dragon*Con!: I mean, it doesn’t feel right to put up as a prize another strip cameo until I do the current one. (It’s been a rough year for keeping on top of the pile, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.) But any girl willing to use her abs to promote the site is aces in my book, so I’ll SBG anyone no probs!

The Booth: When I know exactly where it is I’ll put a map or directions here! It may be under Pete Abrams or Sluggy Freelance, LLC. We’ll see! We’re hoping to be somewhere near Jennie’s table. For Jennie rocks. Remember this.

Cash Only at the Artist Alley Table: We’re trying to make taking credit cards at the Artist Alley Table possible but my guess is we have too many hurdles. So bring cash if you want to buy something, there should be ATM’s around. We’ll have books and plushies… (dammit, I’m not forgetting the Plush Bun-buns this time like I did earlier this month at Connecticon!) On Plushie Bun-buns: When you see how soft and squishy and how well-armed he is I know you’ll want one! ;)

There will be filler on the homefront!: The week of the 25th I’ll be running some kind of filler. It may change at the last minute, so I can’t describe it to you, but it’ll probably be the same high caliber material as we’ve been having on weekends of the Years of Yarncraft story. If everything goes well we’ll be back on track on the 1st of September even though I’ll still be technically at Dragon*Con. September 1st… that’ll be Monday….

Monday: Due to logistics I’m anticipating a 50% chance that we’ll roll out early on Monday. So PLEASE if you want me for anything hit me Friday-Sunday. For Monday you may find nothing at all. PLUS Monday is when I run around the dealers’ area scooping up some nifty Japanese import deals and discount pocky! And Tuesday, September 2nd, my brain will be a puddle of after-con happy-melt so who knows what will be on the site that day?

Connecticon 2008 Post Game Wrap-Up!

Connecticon was a fantastic experience, and almost perfect except for one thing, a webtoonist pissed me off. I should start by saying this con has a big webcomics following with an amazing webcomics guestlist, allowing me to meet some new guys and say hi to some old. But it also had a huge anime following and I saw more young anime cosplayers at this con than grown men in tiger-ears and tiger-tails at Anthrocon and THAT’S saying something. Put a mental thumbtack in the anime-thing for later.

In any case, yes, many joyous webtoonists! One of the many reasons I procrastinate and just don’t do con reports anymore is I’ll forget to mention someone important, so I’ll apologize ahead of time if I do! Another reason is having to expand the con report into a well scripted story of wonder making you, the reader, feel like you were there! So instead I’m gonna keep this short, sweet, and linky! Annnnnd… we’re off!

It was great to see WIGU-Jeff (Still love my original "I'm made of poison" shirt) and Diesel-Sweeties-Guy (and met cold-ridden Octopus-Pie Girl) 8-Bit-guy and CTRL-ALT-GUY-guy again (I really should stop naming people after their comics in my mind!) It was fantastic to see Yuko again PLUS I got to meet Applegeeks Anon and Hawk who were both helpful, cool and friendly with matched talent.

Brook from “A Girl and Her Fed” was awesome, Cirque and Dot were too damn cute, Jeff from Questionable Content was grumpy (he sat directly across from us and was tortured by the random music emanating from the Musical Sword Booth to our right. He was not the only one tortured.) and I had some extended conversations with manmarm sensation Aaron Diaz (free micro-hugs, bud!)

Had fun at that party with Radbu, Cirque, Tequilla Mockingbird (Thanks T-Mock for running my booth!) and Scott from Atomic Robo (who looks far too much like Fred G from Megatokyo)! I even more enjoyed fanny-pack fun with Dave from Chugworth whose comic crosses far too many lines for me to link! Dude! Lay off my forehead drawing! And it was nifty seeing Mookie again!

I should mention this about Jennie Breeden from the Devil’s Panties. Physical contact with Jennie may lead to another strip cameo. ‘Angry rub’. I will leave it at that.

Time to untack that anime-thing from the first paragraph. The webtoonsit who pissed me off? Me. I drove to this con, and on the way out left the bag of plush bun-buns in the garage. If ever there was a con to sell cute plush animals that are armed with a blade, even if you didn’t know a THING about Sluggy? Not only that, more people ASKED about the plush bun-buns than I sold at Dragon*Con and THAT’S (also) saying something. Although T-Mock got to enjoy watching me shrink farther and farther into my shell every time someone asked. I don’t blame her, being stuck next to the Musical Sword Booth all day brings out the mean in us all!

Larom took great care of me and Matt put on a really great and impressive convention, through which he appeared semi-zombified, but that’s to be expected. I think he ate some anime cat-girl’s brain and felt better. I will definitely be back! WITH Bun-buns. Maybe even anime-bun-buns! Mua-ha-haaaa!

Thanks to Lori for the photos of Holiday Bun-bun Girl! I didn't even get her name but she really made my day!

Lastly since I wasn't able to participate in the webcomics auction, I’m going to auction off a special piece of art in Connecticon’s name for charity. Look for the auctions after I get back from Dragon*Con!

Some of you may have noticed, we've updated the software on the Sluggy.net forums.

We are working on restoring the old 'look' to the forums, as our old templates don't work anymore.

Also, some of you reported problems with posting, which has been fixed. Feel free to toss me a line at bwmcadamsBUNBUNKILLSDUMBLEDORE@gmaMINUSHARRYPOTTERSPOILERSil.com if you have any problems.

The Oasis Contingent

Alliance on Ursin

website is www.tocguild.com

I couldn’t very well parody the MMORPG world without mentioning the official Sluggy Freelance World of Warcraft Guild, the Oasis Contingent! I promised a link and news story to Poni and Cea, what, 87 years ago or so? And sure enough I finally have! ;)

Anywho these are a great bunch of Alliance guys and I highly recommend them! A friendly casual guild that also happens to raid!
Here’s the official intro!
"The Oasis Contingent is a guild for the fans of the webcomic Sluggy Freelance, by Pete Abrams. We have been playing together on Ursin since mid-2005, and our current membership is a mixture of all levels, classes and races. Fellow Sluggites: whether you are completely new to World of Warcraft or an experienced player you are welcome here! Come create a character and play with us, or just roll up an alt and say hi.
Is it not nifty? Worship the guild!"

In closing I have to add... no promises, but, healthy baby and schedule permitting… I might hop back on Ursin to stomp around and get ganked a bit. Ahhhh memories! It’s hard to work on these strips without getting the itch again.

Go check out the new Sluggy Freelance Breakables Shop! Why do I call it “The Breakables Shop?” Because I got the OK from Kim who runs the official Sluggy Freelance Store to create this Café Press store for specifically those products Kim doesn’t want to deal with mainly because of the breakability-in-shipping factor, like mugs and stuff! This store may be a limited time thing, we shall see, but for the first time ever you can get Sluggy Freelance ceramic mugs! (I ordered a bunch of these mugs to verify they're good quality and waited for them to arrive before announcing this store. So they are, in fact, nifty!) Currently all we got is a mug based on this comic, a snazzy Zomblebee's coaster, and a limited time only (this season) Riff-n-Sasha BBQ Apron based on this comic! The apron is not breakable but it IS seasonal! Please note that these products are more expensive than you would probably find in the Sluggy Store as Café Press has such a high per-item cost. But check it out anyway! ;)

This is probably your only shot at a ceramic Sluggy mug since Kim no-likey breakables.

Drop me a line if you have a great idea for a large mug or stein!