Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Comic Con 2011!!



San Diego Comic Con = So Much Fun.


Weird galore. Bimbos. Steampunk. Superheroes. The Witch King of Angmar. 
You name it, if it's nerdy (or slutty), you'll find it at Comic Con.














Aw, look at this couple with their two babies :-) 










Where else will you find Beetlejuice and ... Speed Racer? Tron? ... levitating Jessica Rabbit?




Hello awesome steampunk chick who came to my signing.






Also, the elevators at the Marriott were sealed due to zombie-infestation.




So all that is good fun, like the craziest nerd Halloween ever. I wish I could have taken a lot more pictures, but I didn't end up being there that much. It was a bit overwhelming for Clementine. But some year I want to construct a wildlife blind with a high vantage point and hide in it for hours with a telephoto lens and just take pictures of glorious nerds in their native habitat. Really and truly. 

But the BEST part of Comic Con was not the strangers, it was the non-strangers! First of all, the fabulous folk of Little Brown Books for Young Readers, who I have gotten to see so much lately, they're beginning to feel like family. It's awesome.

Here is the Little Brown booth, with that gorgeous banner:


l to r: Andrew, Stephanie, Cecilia, Melanie, us

Look what they made! Hamsa tattoos. 




They are SO COOL. And totally tenacious; they stuck or DAYS, and I did shower. (I swear!)




And they provided a couple of hundred ARCs for giveaway, which was awesome. I did a signing in the booth ... Here with Lauren Billings who organized the Best Panel Ever, and who I was so glad to finally meet in person!




And with my Portland paesano Matt Holm, of Baby Mouse fame and now also Squish. Aside from being super talented, he is also incredibly nice, and when helping us move last month, he lasted until the bitter end. (Thank you again, Matt!) Also, his wife is awesome.




My fabulous agent Jane Putch came down from LA:




And, you guys, I got to see Stephanie!!!




Stephanie Perkins, my writing soulmate! You might not think it because our books are so different (and hers are so so wonderful), but our hang-ups and process and mental problems are very similar, so we can commiserate. Not so much the other wonderful favorite writer friend who I got to meet in person for the first time ...





Kiersten does not apparently suffer any writing mental problems. She just ... writes books. The most recent one in nine days. Yes. I know. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE??? She can be forgiven though because she is funny and sweet and talented (wait, that makes it less forgivable :-) and generally awesome. Also: cute shoes:




(Steph on the left sporting a kickin pair of Irregular Choices complete with a yellow plastic heel. 
Sigh. Want.)


But wait, there are more awesome people!!!

Finally, FINALLY, Steph's husband Jarrod who is a banker by day and a wizard rocker by night.

NO JOKE! (Gred and Forge, people. So cool.)




The above picture alone made Comic Con worth it. But there was more.

Like ...




Patrick Rothfuss!!! Have I told you that PATRICK ROTHFUSS has blurbed Daughter
and it is the best blurb ever??? 

"Wow. I wish I had written this book."


!!!AAAAHHHH!!!


I can't tell you how much this means to me. Also, if you are still not reading Pat's blog, fix that.
It's the funniest smartest best blog. Ever.



Oh, and look here:





That's Barron Storey, the illustrator and teacher in whose art school class Jim and I met thirteen years ago! I've totally told this story, but Jim and I met on the first day of art school when we parked next to each other in the parking lot and then ended up in the same class -- Illustration I -- and were randomly assigned to draw each other! Thank you for that Barron Storey :-) 

I don't know if he will have read it, but I gave him the little sampler of Daughter that Little Brown had made, as it seemed fitting: the first few chapters take place in a life drawing class at art school!


And then there was our panel!


Nathan Bransford, Tahereh Mafi, Andrea Cremer, and on far right Amanda Hocking


And here are YOU, who came to hear us! (for which: thank you.)




It was a terrific panel. Really good energy, a great combination of humor and smarty-pants-ness, and passion for young adult literature. 


And to get to do this after:




Who knows when I'll get a chance to sign beside these ladies (and Nathan!) again!

I loved seeing our books spooning each other.






Whew. Another thing that bears mentioning is that Comic Con is GREAT SHOPPING.

The books, oh the books! But that will be a post all its own.




The art!




The toys!








We adopted a baby yeti among other things:




Clementine named her Izzy, after her sixteen-year-old cousin, and gave her piggy-back rides.




And yes, Clementine was not a mere nerd-observer. She was a full-fledged baby nerd!








There is more to say, but I have to go WRITE! I left off yesterday teetering on the brink of a ...

possible BLOODBATH!

Will the blood flow? Whose blood?

We shall see!




14 comments:

Diana Peterfreund said...

Oh, it looked like so much fun. I am on mandatory con-hiatus until the baby is older (had to back out of Dragon-con last year due to it being when I was 9 months pregnant, though I was very tempted to go as an extremely-ripe Queen Amidala). I got Swine Flu at DC in 2009, though, so I was a little scared of getting sick.

Heather Davis said...

What a great time you had, Laini! I love the picture of Clementine and her beloved Izzy. I really want to get down to Comic Con sometime... Thanks for sharing the fun!

storyqueen said...

I think a baby Yeti is the coolest Comic Con souvenir ever!

Shelley

Connie Onnie said...

I love people watching & Comic Con is the ultimate people watching experience, not to mention all the other cool stuff to look at! So fun looking at all your pictures!
I remember you saying you & Jim met at art school but didn't know about parking next to each other, class & drawing each other...so sweet!
I wanted to see a picture of Stephanie's shoes, so glad you posted them. Man there are to many wonderful things to comment about it is all just so happy making!

Lo said...

AIEEEEE!!! So may awesome pictures! And inside, WHILE LISA WAS TAKING THAT PICTURE, I was fangirling like mad.

So good to meet you honey. So so so so good, you're adorable and wonderful and have the most lovely family.

Stephsco said...

Thank you for posting all the great pictures and commentary! I followed Comic Con coverage on twitter and watched G4 etc, but seeing it from an author's perspective is really great. As YA gets huger and huge-tastic, I bet there will be even more authors represented there.

Unknown said...

Who was the artist of the yeti card? It is beautiful!

dawn said...

okay, so we all know that jim is buff (well...if you *don't* know, he is) but it is SO perfectly displayed in that first photo of you guys where he's holding your BOOK BAG! :-0
proud of you i am.

wow! and who knew stephanie was SO TALL. :)

Amber Clites said...

I am in Yeti lust...Love it!!!

anne said...

Moomintrolls! I saw moomintroll stuff on that book table!!!! ComicCon really DOES have everything! (if you don't the Moominmomma and Moominpoppa, etc, you really must meet them!)

fun photos, great time! thanks for sharing!

Amber Clites said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kiersten White said...

I miss you and your beautiful family! Also: Best Panel EVER. Also: Did I mention I miss you and your family?

(Also you are totally exaggerating my good qualities.)

Laini Taylor said...

I got a couple of questions about the yeti artist: Here is her etsy page:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/vuduberi?view_type=gallery

:-)

Laini Taylor said...

Anne, yes:Moomins! I [heart] Moomins!

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