Exactly one year ago today, I went to WonderCon in San Francisco to meet up with my friend Kim Evey who I had stayed in touch with over the years but probably hadn't seen in three or four. Kim was there with Felicia Day, creator and star of The Guild which Kim produces with Felicia. I knew about The Guild from Kim and I think early on I had even downloaded it when it was available via iTunes in podcast form, but I fessed up to Kim that I hadn't gotten around to watching it.
It was also my first experience seeing how popular Felicia was at conventions. We walked around a bit just before the show opened, and Felicia in search of some 20-sided dice (to no avail). Kim and I were catching up on what each of us had been up to, and I remember after about five minutes of walking with Felicia we essentially ditched her because she kept getting stopped by fans wanting photos with her. This wasn't surprising, Season 2 of The Guild had just finished "airing," and this was 7 months after Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
Catching up with Kim was great. We hung out (along with my friend Avi), saw the Watchmen panel (Kim knew nothing about the movie except that "the guy from Grey's Anatomy is in it!"), and checked in with Felicia throughout the day (she was being hosted at the California Browncoats booth signing photos and DVDs). I was about to start grad school and had recently been laid off from my job at B Street, so work-wise I really had no idea what was next. Just a few months later, Kim would ask me to help with marketing The Guild, starting with helping manage their twitter account. I look at the picture above of the three of us and have that strange juxtaposition that often comes with photos - that it is simultaneously "just yesterday" and also "so long ago."
I remember I also met Sean Becker and Doug Luberts that day, my first step in meeting all the amazing people involved with the show. So, in honor of the anniversary of my first introduction to The Guild, I'm going to blog this week about the show and some of the interesting projects I've done for it.
Funny sidenote that day: Out of the blue I get a phone call while at the Con from my parents saying "we're here!" They were visiting my family in the North Bay at the time but I had no idea what they meant. "In San Francisco?" I asked. My dad replies, "No, at WonderCon." See, my parents are old friends of Ron Turner of Last Gasp books, and they had called them to see if they could meet up. He told them about WonderCon and they assumed it was some kind of publishing trade show (which, technically speaking, it is, right?). So they just wandered over to the Moscone Center and walked in. No one even checked them for badges - I guess they're not really the demographic of the Con. They actually had a blast seeing all the cosplayers and cool art. And before they left I asked two nice fellows from the 501st if they would pose for a pic:
