The final day for C2E2 arrived quickly and I leapt from my bed with excitement. I was going to try once more to get Jeff Smith’s autograph and make up for some of the fail of the previous day. I threw on two completely different socks and my Sonic hood once again. I shoved my copy of BONE into my book bag and bounded down the stairs of the apartment. Getting into the car, I told Chewie to “punch it.” We did and stopped at the nearby Dunkin Donuts for some breakfast.
I usually never have any problems at that particular chain, but that day seemed to be “mess up everyone’s order” day. After about ten minutes of getting everything straightened out, we were finally on our way down to McCormick place for the last time.
Bryan and Chewie dropped me off at the front of the building so I could race in to get my signature. They wished me luck and I made a break for the convention floor. And by “made a break” I mean I walked because I didn’t want to arouse any undue suspicion from convention security. I’d hate to be arrested by the K*BIS police en route to a signing.
I reached the main convention floor and adjusted my bag. The book, since it was a complete collection, started to weigh on me and get just a bit irritating. I convinced myself that it was worth it and made my way to the main floor and to where the line had formed for Jeff Smith last time.
I walked up to a less snooty looking Red Shirt.
“Is this the end of the line?” I asked.
He gave a light laugh. “No,” He said, “this is where we had to segment the line to not interrupt the flow of the convention. The line extends all the way that way. See the other guy in the red shirt?”
“No.”
The Red Shirt tried to point out where the next stage of the line began and I couldn’t see it. There were other lines leading to other places, but nothing like the fellow described. I said thank you and was going to just forage on to find the line myself, but was stopped.
“There’s no guarantee you’re going to get anything signed as the line is really big.” The Red Shirt said.
“Thanks,” I said, and walked away. Fuck the autograph.
I wandered about the web comics tables once more, just kind of zoning out. I met up with a friend, who we’ll call Patrick for sake of privacy, and we talked for awhile about making comics. The conversation soon devolved into comparing Flash and Photoshop and then we parted ways. I bought a cool shirt and then ran into my other friend Grace and a few of her friends. They had cool pictures from Cyanide and Happiness and SMBC, so I decided to do the same.
The C&H guys were very awesome about my requests and we talked for a little bit. I shared a pigeon-kicking story with the Fellow in the Tux Shirt and he laughed with delight. It was nice to revel in pigeon cruelty with another like-minded individual. I wanted to buy a plushie from them, but since my cash had run out, I was out of luck. Instead, I got an autographed high-five, which in hindsight was better anyway.
I made my way over to the SMBC guy, Zach Weiner, and commissioned a picture from him as well.
“What will it be?” he asked.
“I like cruelty to children and old people,” I said. He nodded like he understood my soul and started his piece of art. When he finished, I took it from him and gave him an enthusiastic high five. The picture was great.
I then wandered around the main floor some more and tried to see everything I had yet to see at the convention. For being small in size, there was a hell of a lot to see. I made my rounds through the various comic book stores represented and poked around to see what else I could find. Amidst all the shirts and merch I found Scott Ramsoomair and we talked for a little bit. Quickly I dispensed of the silly fanboy’isms such as “I’ve read your comic since the beginning” and “wow, you rock.” We then started talking about C2E2 as a whole and the differences between a for-profit run convention and a non-profit run convention. It was interesting getting his take on the whole thing.
With some awkwardness I said my goodbyes and parted ways with the artist. I had planned on coming back to buy a shirt, but forgot as soon as I found myself in Artist’s Alley. Chewie and Bryan joined me there and I followed them as they talked to the various artists they were interested in. As we toured the rows, I found myself regretting that I didn’t know of any of these people or what they did besides draw stuff. I was about to question turning in my nerd card when I ran into another friend I didn’t quite expect to see at the convention.
She recognized me first and it took me a few seconds to figure out exactly where I had known her from. We shared some cool allergy stories at a party once and I regaled her with the many times nuts tried to kill me. We caught up some, and then she was off to see more of the convention.
And then I was back at my apartment, and the convention had ended. It was over and everything would be back to the usual within a few hours. I took some time to think over the whole event and pondered what I would do differently.
Truth be told, I wouldn’t change a thing. That orgy rocked.
