The first time was kind of an "area fam," wandering the exhibit hall and finding the panel rooms across the hotel driveway (and the hall to said rooms, with a carpet pattern that coincidentally looked like the Bat signal (which volunteer
greyaenigma happened to notice and photograph!)). Then I went home, my hand still stamped with the little hey-I've-paid logo so I could get back into the con, and ate some snacks while watching the end of the Ducks-Golden Bears football game. (Well, someone had to lose...he said, trying to be philosophical...) And while I had access to my phone, I left messages for
knowmad, who I knew was at Stumptown but with whom I hadn't rendezvoused yet. He got back to me after those calls -- in fact, right after I left a second message (turned out he was checking my first message at the same time I was leaving my much shorter second message; elegant timing) -- and we aimed for meeting each other sometime during the panel for Mike and Laura Allred.I made it.
knowmad had made it, too: he'd described himself to me, as we'd not yet met each other in person. I hovered in the back as Mike Allred talked about an issue of his comic Madman -- one where he drew almost every panel in homage to a different comic artist's style, from Jack Kirby to Charles Addams to the Archie comics guys -- and didn't want to distract anybody during the panel. I'd have time.So I saw
knowmad see local animator S.W. "Conch" Conser and mistake him for me. This is the ONLY TIME THAT WILL EVER HAPPEN IN THE WORLD WE KNOW. (That one day, Conser and I were both blondish guys wearing red button-down shirts...again, strangely elegant...) But no wacky-sitcom mistaken identity wackiness ensued, as Conser said he wasn't whoever this Chris Walsh guy was.(Lesson, Chris: YOU'RE ALLOWED TO SAY "HI" TO PEOPLE, and you're capable of doing that quietly and non-obtrusively! In fact, you've done that many times before.)
OK, then at panel's end we managed to run into each other and introduce ourselves. We'd had dealings via LJ because we both know
octoberland; knowmad in fact used to live in Salen, Mass., same as her. I'm glad I went with the logic of If 'Land's a friend of his, he's likely a good guy. We wound down after the convention, talking while sitting down and having Orange Juliuses in the Lloyd Center food court. We never ran out of things to talk about, whether it was comics, movies, music or sports. He seems like a good guy. Looks like I've met another worthy person via LiveJournal.And it was after that that
knowmad and I got into my car, headed through the Hollywood neighborhood, and continued up Sandy Blvd. until we reached the neighborhood of Cosmic Monkey Comics, had a Chinese food dinner, and attended the event that will be in Part Three of my Stumptown '07 chronicle...