Wednesday, August 13, 2008

World Con Wrap Up

World Con was a blast. The convention itself was a bit sparse -- set in such a large convention center, it didn't feel as if there was much there there. So, it was up to the Hyatt, across the street, to be the meeting place du jour. I got to hang out with a number of writers, a few artists (but surprisingly few,) the smaller/hipper/cooler publishers, and the good folks of io9.

The art show was good -- lots of great talent but nothing I wasn't expecting....except that the 3D work stole the show, particularly Vincent Villafranca's bronze work. Vincent is, without a doubt, one of the coolest artists I've run into (thanks to an intro from John Picacio) in years. A little steampunk, a little western, a bit of humor, and a wonderful sense of character and body language. I was surprised to learn that he launches into a piece, without benefit of a clear drawing.

Shout-outs to my new BFFs: John Joseph Adams -- editor extraordinaire. Writer Paolo Bacigalupi -- who I got to be for 24 hours. I never was so popular. I guess that's what happens when you have three Hugo nomination pins underlining a seemingly random collection of scrabble letters for a name. He, on the other hand, spent the time terrorizing authors with threats of purposefully bad covers. And Blake Charlton -- soonish to be Tor's coolest fantasy writer, if he ever gets that pesky medical degree out of the way. As if saving lives is more important than being a Tor fantasy writer. Whatever.

It was great to see friends, John Picacio, who had a stand-out art show showing, including a new shadowbox. Lou Anders, Alan Beck, Bob Eggleton, Alan Beats. Despite staying up until 3:00am each morning, the days always seemed to end too quickly. Come Sunday, I wished I had more time with them all.


I got to be Stephan Martiniere at the Hugos, which was fun until he won the damn thing and I had to nervously stammer in front of a few thousand people. (Congrats, Stephan! I'm stealing the commemorative pen. Feel lucky you get the rocket back.) Liz Gorinsky was my date for the evening. We got to do the whirl of Pre & Post Hugo parties, along with above mentioned BFF posse.


What else...

I got to meet and spar a bit with Bill Willingham. Ken Scholes was sweet to seek me out just to say how much he loves his cover.

What else...

Well, more than I can remember at the moment. Very much looking forward to Montreal in 09!

PHOTOS
TOP SET:
Blake Charlton and JJ Adams. Annaleen Newitz from io9. Annaleen, Blake, John. SECOND SET: Charles Stross. Paolo Bacigalupi. John Scalzi, Jim Minz, Lou Anders. Tom Doherty (yay!). THIRD SET: Bear, a big blue bear. FOURTH SET: Warren Hammond, don't know, Matthew Jarpe. Blake Charlton and Liz Gorinski, all dressed up. Mr. and Mrs. Ken Scholes. FIFTH: Scuplture by Vincent Villafranca. LAST SET: Paolo and I, stolen from stolen John Picacio's blog.

10 comments:

ces said...

Yeah, I've gotten the feeling from several places that the WorldCon is more of a writers' party than an artists' party. And, of course, it comes right on the heels of the enormously popular & huge ComicCon, after which everyone just wants to collapse & not go to another con where they have to be nice & smiley to everyone.

Sounds like you had a wonderful time at the con & a fun (?) time getting home! That'll teach you to be Martiniere. Oh yes, I'm sure he'd much rather have the Rocket than the commemorative pin!

Unknown said...

Montreal will be my first and I can't wait. I love the city too. There's a discussion on Tor.com about the relevance of World Con to younger people, was it a much older crowd than San Diego?

ces said...

Irene, have you seen this? I didn't know Martiniere did this type of art - he doesn't show or talk about it anywhere on his website. And I haven't seen it mentioned in any interviews I've read.

http://www.spiritandflesh.com/Stephan
Martiniere_GulliversLaputa_fantasy_art.jpg

Tracy Flynn Art said...

Sounds like it was a blast.....I usually go to GenCon in Indy, which is more of a gaming thing, but the art show is generally pretty good.

Tracy

Russell Dickerson said...

"I was surprised to learn that he launches into a piece, without benefit of a clear drawing."

I always felt I was being silly when I did it that way, good to hear I'm not the only one that does it. I just see 2D and 3D differently, a sketch first always ruined it.

Carl V. Anderson said...

How fun for you to get to be Stephan! I'm so thrilled that he won.

Thanks for posting about Vincent Villafranca's work, it is amazing. I'm so glad that he is in the Tor gallery. Great stuff!

Anonymous said...

wowee! wonderful photos irene. somehow i missed these until just now. i'm kinda relived, kinda sad that the exhausted-blake-in-an-elevator picture didn't make it ;) hope you're doing well out in nyc.

Anonymous said...

It was great hanging out with you. And I was completely obsessed with that giant bear statue that was looking into the convention center, so I'm glad you captured it on film. I kept thinking it was some sort of John Bunyan kaiju.

Anonymous said...

"Warren Hammond, don't know, Matthew Jarpe."

Ian Tregillis, one of the more recent Tor authors. I think this picture was taken just before Ian told the joke that is ruining my life.

Anonymous said...

Once I played Aion, I did not know how to get strong, someone told me that you must have [url=http://www.gameim.com/product/Aion_Gold.html]aion kina[/url]. He gave me some [url=http://www.gameim.com/product/Aion_Gold.html]aion online kina[/url], he said that I could [url=http://www.gameim.com/product/Aion_Gold.html]buy aion kina[/url], but I did not have money, then I played it all my spare time. From then on, I got some [url=http://www.gameim.com/product/Aion_Gold.html]aion gold[/url], if I did not continue to play it, I can sell [url=http://www.gameim.com/product/Aion_Gold.html]cheap aion kina[/url] to anyone who want.