Ginger's Bread

So my drawing ponies and stuff has brought some bronies to the site. And so far, one has sent some fanart! Going by the handle of sUiCiDaLn00b, he drew this picture of the Derpy/Ginger baking team:

Like all fanart past and future, it’s on the Fanart Page and in the fanart album on the Facebook Page.

So this past Saturday, I wandered around Penguicon. My first time checking it out, despite it being so close to me. It was both what I was and wasn’t expecting. But I had a good time. However, as this post will show, I didn’t catch as much as planned. (Disclaimer: My first sci-fi con experience, so my first write-up attempt. I apologize if things get disjointed.)

Penguicon is a small convention, and it’s not exactly a comic convention. It’s an “Open Source Software & Sci-Fi Convention”. More accurately, it’s a Geekdom Fandom convention because little actually seems to be about open source or sci-fi. There were a number of sci-fi and programming panels, sure, but also a few fantasy panels, a number of writing, a surprising number of webcomic related ones, gaming panels, and just a general mix of things. (The various panels on poly-relationships, furries, bdsm, drinking, and others on the schedule really didn’t strike me as belonging but were there too…) Now, to be fair, this is my first time to a convention so maybe I’ve had some misconceptions as to what there would be (Also, to be fair, I generally think of comic conventions, not general geekery conventions).

I went Saturday, and started a little after 10, wandering around, scoping out the place, getting a feel for how big it was. Not very, as it turns out. There were some inaccuracies in the map though and I wandered around the dealer’s room looking for the artist alley, which apparently, wasn’t really in the dealer’s room. So I missed out on some early webcartoonist meetings. I decided to sit in on some interesting panels though, which my original plan, was to take up the majority of the next six hours. The second panel I sat in on was with Gordon McAlpin of Multiplex (whom I was trying to find without success in the Dealer’s room) and Mark Savary (of Autumn Lake) talking about marketing comics and was interesting. After the panel, now armed with the knowledge as to where artist alley actually was and where I might find Gordon to actually meet him, I stopped by his table. Extremely nice follow, and I enjoyed talking with him. I picked up the Multiplex book (which I realized I should have gotten a sketch in, not just signed. D’oh!) and while talking to him, the rest of my day got derailed.

A friend of mine I literally hadn’t seen in three years noticed me as I was standing there in conversation and so most rest of my day was spent catching up with her. Which means I kind of missed a number of other panels I was going to sit in on and didn’t get a chance to talk to any of the other webcartoonists there. Well, I managed a momentary chitchat with Chris Hallback of The Book of Biff while I picked up his great books. So the only other panel I managed to get to was another webcomics one, “Balancing Comedy and Drama in a Webcomic”, which had Gordon, Jason Dunstan (Ardra) and Jill Fredrickson (Demon Eater & The Planet Closest to Heaven). After that panel though, I was spirited away to debauchery of dinner and drink for the remainder of the evening (although I did stop by to see Gordon again at one point to talk a little more and properly end the conversation with better than, “Whoop! Sorry, old friend.”). The Viking/Roman dance off was something else.

So I didn’t really get the whole con experience, at least as I had planned it. I didn’t stay the whole weekend, I didn’t hit all the panels or talk to all the people I wanted to, and I heard various bitchings about how things were run (“last year was better” “They gave panels to everyone” “They’re very disorganized this year.”*). So really, the typical con experience. I’m considering getting a table next year for the con since it is local and it was fun (I refuse to make a promise on it this far out because I can’t say where I’ll be in a year).

* – This is one that I can make a complaint about. Friday night, the first day of the con, I checked the website for information before I attended and there were STILL areas with “More Information Soon!” and, honestly, that didn’t give me high expectations. And I mentioned the mislabeling on the map. I’m less annoyed with the disorganization and more curious as to what happened this year to cause it.

Only too half the month but there’s finally a new donation image! With have the month gone, it’s even more of a limited time thing! This month is also featuring Steven and the hated Raccoon. It’s armed! Be careful!

Groovy? Groovy. Here’s the how-to song and dance: Donate at least $1 and get the wallpaper, donate at least $20 and at the beginning of next month I’ll ship a signed print to you! And if you donate $30, I’ll include a character sketch on a 5″x8″ card with the print! Since the comic is made digitally, this is the only original art available right now! Here are the details, also on the Breadites page:

Mention on the Paypal form which character you’d like a sketch of when you donate. This is not a commission, just a character sketch, so keep it simple. It’s limited to one character (or one character and an animal, for example, Kilgore) per sketch. You can requests specific poses/costumes and I’ll do my best to oblige (keep it clean though, no nudity), and if it’s overly complex I’ll let you know if it’s probably not happening.

So yeah, just click the tip jar/donation image to the left, on the Breadites page, or click here:

A head’s up: I’ve gotten word last month of some trouble with Paypal redirecting to the Wallpaper page after the donation, so I’m going to try to send an e-mail link within a day or two of each donation to make sure you can get the wallpaper.

Thanks for reading and supporting Ginger’s Bread!