Supanova, day 1

Um, wow.

I had been tossing up whether or not to post anything about my Supanova experience, but I have had the BEST day today. Firstly, I got books signed by Marianne de Pierres (who recognised me from Supanova '08!), Christian Tamblyn, and Rob Kaay (who gave me a free poster). This was my goal for Supanova, really. Forget the big TV stars, writing is my passion, and these three are Australians who have been published, who are inspiring, and who are good at what they do! Marianne went to a university not far from me, a fact I cling to when I hear snide remarks about my arts degree. Christian and Rob both released their books only recently. I will be posting reviews of Rob and Chris' books when I get a chance to enjoy them properly. I grabbed them just in time to read all of Rob'sand most of Christian's, before I got them signed.

I stopped by the Borders booth to 'get my sign on', and I was absolutely privelaged to have a chat with each of my Aussie wricons. Marianne and I talked about the importance of writing regularly, the insanity of Karen Mill's writing pace, Kylie Chan's in-depth knowledge of Japanese mythology, and her awesome new hair. She is such a lovely lady and a regular con-goer. She said I must ask lots of questions in her panel tomorrow :)

Christian, oh wow! I told him I was a bit bummed I hadn't been able to finish his book yet, as I wanted to discuss the whole thing with him. He told me to drop him an email when I finished it, and let him know what I thought! I was stunned! He is currently working on a sequel to Dragon of the Second Moon, which I was very glad to hear. As a very newly-published author, he still has a 'day job' (engineering planes!) so a few people asked him in the panel how he goes about balancing that. I was really happy to hear he liked the cover they'd put on DOTSM, as I have heard horror stories about covers (Jenny Fallon has some funny ones). He was really friendly and chatty, and I enjoyed talking to him.

Rob is... well, he's definitely embraced a trans-media perspective. His book is available as hardcover, paperback and PDF on his website. He is in the middle of releasing a podcast version of his book. He is doing it slowly, bit by bit, because he's taking almost an old-school radio approach to it. Firstly it's HIM reading, not a random actor, and because of his musical background Rob writes music and sound pieces which are underlaid with the book being spoken. The whole effect is really different and it took me a bit of time to get used to it, especially since the music was a bit too loud in the live reading. Rob and I had an awesome chat about what might happen in a sequel, whether or not the book would translate to a movie well (he is actually working on a screenplay version!) and I suggested he look into the idea of making a webseries version. He was really keen to know more, but obviously he was busy doing signings and stuff, so he gave me a poster and said, "I'm really interested, could you shoot me an email?" I friended him on Facebook and basically told him to look into A Very Potter Musical, The Guild and Dr. Horrible. Again, love how open these guys are to feedback, and general conversation from fans!

Being able to talk to these amazing, talented people, not only as people but as artists who are genuinely interested in your perspective on their work was an amazing experience. I came away from that booth in an absolute daze. As an Australian who has a passion for the entertainment industry, it's so comforting to know that national and international attitudes are changing, that I won't have to move away to the US to prosper creatively.

I stopped at a little both labelled "Gestalt Publishing" during one of our non-panel times, and caught the eye of one of the guys there. I said, "Ok, I'm seeing some great artwork here, but I know nothing!" so he told me about Gestalt and their product. Turns out, they're a Perth-based comics and graphic novel publishing company, which I was really excited to hear. They had work from their more prominent artists there, including an anthology showcase called Flinch, containing short comics by twenty different Gestalt artists. I grabbed that right away, and there was this gorgeous, eye-catching volume sitting on the table:

image taken from Gestalt's website.

My boyfriend saw me eyeing it off and before I knew it, he'd grabbed that AND Flinch out of my hands and bought them for me. I even scored the last signed copy of Changing Ways! Justin Randall wrote and drew this beautiful, creepy volume. He lectures at Curtin. I'm seeing a trend here (do I need to transfer?!). I will be reviewing this graphic novel once I can figure out how to describe it. I haven't finished it and already I want everyone I know to read it. It's simply stunning. There was another comic there called The Example which sounded really interesting. I may have to go back for it tomorrow (since I technically didn't spend any money today, haha) and so I can gush over Justin in person. If you think that cover is beautiful, you won't be disappointed by the art inside. The writing absolutely does it justice, too. If this guy isn't an international star in five years, I will be very surprised and disappointed. He's seriously THAT good. The story's like... ah, I'm too tired to describe it. It can wait for a proper review.

We managed to get some pretty impressive celebrity guests in this year, including Mark Lutz, Charisma Carpenter, Summer Glau, Eliza Dushku, and Dichen Lachman. A nice big Whedon-y string. Today was the first three names on my list, and it was pretty good. Mark's turnout was small, which was really sad because he was the most engaging of the lot! He is a very, very funny man! He talked about squirrels, women's deodorant and his love of April Fools. I will be paying for an autograph from him tomorrow, on my Lorne tribute comic. Someone asked him about Andy in the session. Someone who obviously hadn't done their homework, and put it the worst way possible, ugh. Mark retained his composure, very professionally, and continued to be funny after that but I was pretty annoyed on his behalf. Having someone ask you if you were 'close' to your best friend who died a year ago doesn't really make for a fun convention experience.

Summer Glau was so adorable. I think she was a bit overwhelmed at how many people we packed into the too-small panel area. Charisma had already mentioned being 'warned' about how small Perth is and not to 'expect too much'. It was great being able to see/hear the two beautiful "Joss girls" in person, but to be perfectly honest, I enoyed Mark's session more. Because it was a lot smaller I got to ask a few questions, and because I know about his background on and off Angel, at one point he asked me if I'd been talking to his mother! I had to laugh at that. It was mostly because I was asking about his movie Victor, which wasn't aired in Australian cinemas.


There was a lunar eclipse tonight, on top of all that awesomeness. I tried to get a photo but it's freezing outside, and my camera was not behaving. I didn't get any good photos of con stuff today either! Ah, well.

Here's to day 2!
Jade.