#but only after i started sketching the panels did i remember that tumblr's limit is 30

[plugnuts]

I just realised that cyber au part seven is gonna be 32 panels long. tumblr's image limit is 30. part seven will have 34 images total. gdi

[gunterfan1992]

Interview with Fan Artist loycos!

(Art by loycos)

So a few months ago, I was absent-mindedly scrolling on Tumblr (or was it Twitter?) when I came across something: an Adventure Time fan comic by an artist named loycos. As a person embedded in fan spaces, I find fanart like this all the time, but this time, there was something special about the art I was seeing. It was so... show-accurate!

I don’t mean that necessarily in regard to the art style (although it does feel right at home in the Land of Ooo, while still being its own thing with its own flourishes), but rather in relation to the characterization; the way loycos wrote the characters was spot on. She nailed PB and Marceline’s dynamic as former lovers who deep-down miss one another. She nailed Finn’s naive heroism and his one-sided crush on PB. She nailed Jake’s goofball energy. It was perfect.

In the past, I’ve only interviewed people affiliated with the show’s production, but I thought I’d mix things up a bit and reach out to some fan artists that I think are fantastic. As such, I’m delighted to share with you an interview I had with loycos, who answered my questions about her art, her history with Adventure Time, and where her work is headed!

What is your 'artistic origin' story?

[It’s] kind of a corny answer, but I've been drawing since I remember myself. My earliest drawing memories are drawing Clifford (the big red dog) fanart when I was around 5 y/o. I was always more of a "fangirl" artist, [and] I would draw characters from my favorite franchises to illustrate my headcanons and daydream scenarios I'd put them in. That hadn't changed one bit since. I had since gone on to study animation and illustration in official institutions which forced me to design characters and worlds of my own, but when I draw for myself it's always back to fanart (or studies). I don't have any OCs.

Are there particular artists or styles that you were inspired by and/or like to emulate or allude to?

I'd joke that my artstyle is just a mesh of all the franchises I've drawn fanart for over the years, but honestly, is it even a joke? I think you can easily recognize I had a Disney Phase like every other teenager (I didn't have an anime phase though! I know, I'm an anomaly) and [Steven Universe] definitely left it's fat mark on my style too. Out of [Steven Universe]'s storyboarding crew (which I followed very closely over the years) I especially love Raven Molisee and Jeff Liu for their wacky expressions and proportions, and of course Rebecca Sugar for their fluid and carefree lines. When it comes to art in general, I tend to prefer stylized, colorful and brushy styles over realistic or gothic ones, So people like Hue Teo and Patri Balanovsky pop to my mind (and my artstation feed, seriously look them up).

How do you approach your projects; what is your general art process?

It really depends on the type of project I'm doing, though, my [Adventure Time] comics were all pretty similar in their conception: I write down all of my ideas in my notes so I won't forget them. Then I either roughly sketch out the entire comic as fast as I can, or I write a script (if the concept is specifically very dialog heavy) and then sketch it roughly. Then I do the lineart and color, nothing too complicated. The one thing I think is worth noting in my long comic process is that I draw all of my panels on the same document- that way it's easier for me to make sure the characters stay on model and that my panel layout remains fresh. So basically, the way you read the comics on tumblr, as a long scroll, is the format I work on.

How did you come to find Adventure Time? What made you join the fandom?

Adventure Time is one of those shows you just know about, so I don't remember how I first found out about the show. However, I do remember when I started shipping Bubbline—after the episode “Broke His Crown” aired. I somehow ended up in their Tumblr tag and was blown away by the (by 2016's standards) blatant representation. Despite my obsession with them at the time, I never actually watched any episode that didn't feature the girls' relationship. I only started fully watching the show recently. But I did consume a lot of fan content, which I think helped me shape my own headcanons and such. After my initial interest in 2016 I put Bubbline back on the back burner and kept on my [Steven Universe] ramage, until last year's “Obsidian,” which brought me back fully on board the Bubbline decks around 2 weeks before it aired, so I was in maximum hype mode when I watched the special. It did not disappoint [and it] really reminded me of why I loved these characters and their relationship to begin with. I started drawing my own art for the ship shortly after, when I felt like the hype around the special died down and there wasn't much to keep me sustained anymore. I make what I want to see ;)

As for joining the fandom, I don't know if I can be considered a member, seeing how inactive I am most of the time and my very limited list of [Adventure Time] mutuals. I am extremely flattered that my stuff caught ATimers attention in a positive way.

You've done some amazing Bubblegum and Marceline stuff. What draws you to their dynamic?

I'm gay.

OK, seriously now. I have a soft spot for extremely feminine, dainty characters that are very reserved, so PB immediately marked herself as an obvious fav, and the road to shipping her with Marceline (who is such an obvious candidate and a multilayered, fascinating character herself) was a short one. I know calling PB dainty is far from a true statement, but that's what she appeared like on the surface and that's what caught my attention. Another thing is that I love relationships between immortal beings, I think it always adds another layer of complexity to any relationship, especially a romantic one. The whole "getting older without appearing like you've aged" and "watching everyone you love die around you while you stay the same" can surely make 2 beings bond, right? It always felt like PB and Marcy get each other in a way no one else can, they are very different on the surface but share fundamental internal similarities. Oh, and the fact that they're EXES? The romantic tension and the longing? The familiarity and banter they had in every scene they shared?This hit the jackpot on literally every relationship trope that I love. I'd much rather watch a "getting back together" than a "falling in love for the first time" story.

All of this and the fact that they [are] gay. It's really that simple sometimes.

In broad strokes, what is next for you as an artist and/or as a fan?

I have a few [Adventure Time] comics ideas\scripts on the back burner and one that is in the making. I think I'll dabble into some Nintendo fanart cause I've been playing a lot of Smash Bros and [Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild] lately.

I’m so excited to see what comes next! Either way, a huge thanks to loycos for chattin’ with me! If you’d like to check out more of her art, visit her Tumblr and her Twitter page!

[elecman108]

Man, I forgot to post 90% of my art here for the past while. I’m gonna do an art dump in this post under the cut. Enjoy the bonk emoji if you don’t click the read more, and man am I dumb and forgetful lmao.

Includes: OCs getting names, a Sonic impression, a D&D map, homosexual energies, a sheep floating in the astral sea, a birthday drawing I already posted, Hex Maniac Ender, D&D Characters, D&D Characters as Miis in Miitopia, Little Hater Axel, local Demon in the consciousness of my D&D character yelling at him, illegal plants, a necromancer being cute, an actual event that happened in a D&D game two days ago, and Mermay drawing.

That’s everything in here as a TL;DR, I guess. Enjoy your day!

I’m gonna try and sort of have them in chronological order, oldest first, but I may end up putting them in the wrong order. If I do... Whoops, I guess?

[04/14/21] - This isn’t really new art, but I started to work on giving the four OCs of mine without a full name full names... I have not finished this bit, though. So Hunter and Akira have full names, and Warlock and Assassin only have temporary names. This may end up like Seven where I put in their names as a temporary name (7th OC I’d made at that time) and it just kind of... sticks. Lmao.

[04/20/21] - Alone on a Friday Night? God, you’re pathetic. I didn’t colour this one because it was a half-attempt at a meme image I still like it, though, so I might end up colouring it. It’s gonna appear again whenever I do my “unfinished drawings art dump” at some point probably in... June? I know I said I’d post them last month but forget it, lmao, it’ll happen eventually.

[04/20/21] - A D&D Map! This was to help me visualize the layout of my D&D character’s ship he used to be on. Also for my DM if they ever put us aboard the ship. The little fella in the corner is just there to vibe. This map is made of free to use assets from This Website, so while I’m gonna say DONT USE MY MAP WITHOUT PERMISSION, feel free to make your own!

[04/26/21] - Lesbian Day of Visibility drawing of yours truly, the disapointment! That’s... really all I have to say about this, honestly. It was just for that one day and that was it, lmao. I mean, I accidentally lined it in dark pink, so.. .That’s different, I guess?

[04/30/21] - Do Astral Seas dream of Ensorcled Sheep? Does the City know what Sheepleb is going to do? What crimes he may commit? Who knows! This was fan art of Critical Role ep. 134 if I remember correctly, right at the end when they jumped into the portal into the astral sea and Caleb was a sheep. Using my knowledge of the German language, I knew the word for “shit”, and had to use it.

[05/07/21] - This was already posted, but it’s going in here to dilinuate that it was drawn at this point. Also, aside from playing Miitopia, this is all I have to show for myself until the 12th.

[05/12/21] - Hex Maniac Ender challenges you to a Pokemon Battle! WIll you win against my team? My sis, who loves fairy types, pointed out to me that there’s a fairy girl and hex maniac duo, so I’d be the hex maniac. I spent... Over a week drawing this, because I basically had to redraw the Hex Maniac art from scratch in a higher quality size, and then draw myself over it. So... You can excuse the low-effort background for once. It was basically this, and then my birthday doodle from May 1st to May 12th, and then I took a break to draw up several D&D characters quickly for fullbody references.

[05/12/21] - Remember this art I made several months ago? I finally added my other two completed characters! I have three more named but without character sheet D&D characters, so for now this is just Kara, Axel, Golden Shadow, Kau, Cecillia, and Miri. Kress, Tempest, and Melia will have to wait until I make character sheets for them to be posted, and... For when I probably make more D&D characters. I have at least 9 additional, incomplete character ideas floating around, so... I’m never gonna be done this art, huh?

[05/12/21] - Speaking of D&D characters, did you know I’ve been making them as Miis in Miitopia? So here is their finished full body art next to their Miitopia self! Some of them look a little off (Golden Shadow, Cecillia) because of limitations of the editor and shading issues, some of them look a little off (Kau, Kress) because this is a human face canvas that I’m using to make a non-human face, and some of them (Melia, Axel) look REALLY GOOD. Common traits among my D&D characters include green eyes and tall. You wanna know why? Because I am tall and... despite having red eyes, I do have green eyes under the coloured contacts.

[05/15/21] - More D&D stuff! This is based around my D&D group’s current Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign where our Goliath Fighter, Nioh, ends up getting a little bit of hate for being cocky, and our little (well over 6′) hater, Axel, is just a man full of irritation. These are the tallest two characters of the group at the moment. Someone send help. Nioh belongs to one of the other D&D players, Axel (and his stupid additude) belongs to me.

[05/15/21] - This is what me playing D&D feels like. Me, the demon entity trapped inside the head of my D&D character, yelling at them to do things while the dice decide that they’re gonna get bopped a hundred times by a yeti and somehow still survive. This is also a reference to our first or second game where I just ran off like sixty feet to one side of the battle map to fight a Crag Cat and was just in Gay Baby Jail until like two turns later when I could run back to the others. I also drew him not in his winter gear even though this is a bit from when we were atop Kelvin’s Carin in an icy cave, so maybe that’s why he’s at low HP.

[05/15/21] - Melia has good gardening tips, such as Use A Mars Mii Trap To Hide A Body Because They Are Endangered And It Is Illegal To Dig Them Up. I love her a lot, because she’s the youngest of four, all four sisters based around the different seasons. She’s based around Autumn, so she’s all orange and yellow and brown and is so cute. Also she’s Chaotic Neutral, as if she didn’t need to be mildly more threatening.

[05/15/21] - Cecillia is my Tiefling gal who lived in a very northern town plagued by cold weather and snow, and Axel is my Pirate guy who spent most of his time further south on the high seas and warmer weather. So, naturally... I’ll use the guy more acclimatized to the hotter weather in the campaign where we spend 99% of it in the snow. She uses Tarot Cards as her spell focus, and I decided to sneak my other D&D characters onto her Tarot cards so naturally, Axel is The Hanged Man, given his backstory and personality. She’s a very cheerful and friendly Tiefling Necromancer of the Hexblade, so she’d for sure take care of those around her to ensure their success. Especially if they’re on her Tarot Cards, and their spirit comes to her aid when she asks for them.

[05/16/21] - Content Warning; Ryma thinks too much into local stupid moron’s lack of knowing how to answer a question and thinks too much into the reputation of Pirates. Poor Axel, man doesn’t know how to socialize with people who aren’t pirates and is used to being hostile towards everyone, so when he’s asked a question that his answer to is “uhh... no?”, he panics and ends up making a mistake that leads him to think that Ryma can read his mind. Ryma belongs to another of the D&D players. I guess me drawing all those spicy Cow Costumed OCs earlier just brought me to drawing Axel being a bottom in this, huh?

[05/16/21] - It’s Mermay, which means more OC drawings! Here’s Theo after drinking some potion that turned him into a mermaid, and Seven, tiredly, collecting his stupid boyfriend so that Lailah can fix the fact he’s turned into a mermaid. Mer!Theo is based around his sword’s colours of indigo-purple with red accents, which looks a little weird since Theo is the Blue one of the group, but... it looks cool, I guess. Seven’s just the same outfit as always, just no gloves this time.

--

And that’s it for the art dump! This was, frankly, MASSIVE. I’ll try and remember to upload both on Twitter and Tumblr at the same time, but... Ah... I have been drawing a fair bit. Just mostly sketches and linework that I haven’t finished and may not actually finish. If they’re not completed, I’ll dump them all into something at the end of the month or whatever. Maybe you’ll get the old sketch of the Axel face in panel 3 because in the sketch phase it was an Ahegao face, in the clean sketch it was a lip bite, and in the linework and final it’s just horny face. lmao.

Top ten things I have to remember for drawing: AXEL HAS A SCAR AND GREEN EYES. I remember his eye colour now, but if you look at his fullbody ref, he’s got brown eyes. And, naturally, I keep forgetting to put in his scar. He has more, but most of them are located in areas covered by his clothes. So if I ever draw him shirtless I guess I’ll have to place them somewhere.

Also maybe finish the reference sheets I have left to finish so I can post more of them, since I have two “Pets” completed (Roko and Mona’s nameless pet), but I have to do up Hunter, Warlock, Assassin, Akira, Myuut, and Stella. I’m betting when I do complete two more, it’ll be Hunter and Akira. Those two are the most fun to draw, at least.

[hotcookinmama]

HVFF Nashville -- My Story

Oh my gosh! That really happened!

This is the story of how I died.

No, wait. That’s the line from the beginning Tangled.

I guess I really didn’t die. Instead, I thrived!  Heroes & Villains Nashville (2017) was an amazing experience, and I’m so excited to share it with you.

Buckle up. This may be my longest post ever. I wrote this for my own keeping-track-of-my-memories benefit as well as a post to help other first timers who attend Heroes & Villains and to help re-experience the joy for those who attended.

It might help to understand that I’ve been wanting to do to a fan convention since I was 15 years old, and I’m 45 now. I remember watching Saturday Night Live (live, of course) when William Shatner was the guest host. He did that famous sketch set at a sci-fi convention. After getting some rather silly questions asking about the smallest minutia of Star Trek, he finally broke. He yelled at the convention attendees to “get a life”. He asked one guy “have you ever kissed a girl?” He told them they needed to move out of their parents’ basements.

As a die-hard Star Trek fan, I thought the sketch was hilariously funny but a tad bit close to home. Going to a sci-fi convention sounded wonderfully fun, but I was NEVER going to be THAT crazy! Nope. Like a normal kid, I moved out of my parents’ house when I went to college and married a guy three years later. The guy in question, however, was also a Trekkie and fellow geek. For years, we had talked about going to a con, but life was always in the way. School, work, kids, money. It was never the right time.

Everything finally aligned. When Heroes & Villains announced “Buy 1, Get 3 Free” general admission tickets for Nashville, I realized I could take my whole geek-loving family to a convention 35 minutes away for only $75.

Score!

I was really, truly going to be in the same room as Stephen Amell and David Ramsey. This was going to happen! Plus, my adorable 8-year-old daughter, Tea loved the idea of dressing as Felicity Smoak. This was going to be awesome. (My daughter’s name is longer than “Tea”, but since we all call her this nickname anyway, I might as well protect her identity a little.)

Then the awesomeness got even better. When HVFF announced that Melissa Benoist had joined the line up, @jbuffyangel started making plans to attend as well. Her daughter Lauren is a big Supergirl fan, and Jen decided to make this a special mother / daughter trip. (Jen has posted Lauren’s name multiple times on her blog, so I figure it’s safe for me to as well.)

Ya know… it’s all Jen’s fault. I’m in this fandom today because of her and now I’m in deeper than ever because of her.

Back in October 2014, in trying to make sense of “Unthinkable” (Arrow 2x23), I found Jen’s “How Oliver Queen Fell in Love with Felicity Smoak”, and I fell down the rabbit hole of fandom. Jen’s “The Ring” was the first fanfic I ever read. Now, I was able to attend my first convention having Jen, a convention veteran, by my side. We became internet friends in October 2015 due to me begging — ummmm — volunteering to beta / edit her fan fics. Thank you again @louiseblue1 for connecting us. I’m so grateful! Jen & I lamented several times that we wished that you, Lou, could be with us for this weekend.

This past weekend, however, Jen & I were able to become not just internet friends, but IRL friends as well. What a treasure!

The week started off with a major disappointment though. Melissa Benoist cancelled. No Supergirl for Lauren or Tea. And a rather pissed Jen. For good reason. When fans spend hundreds of dollars on airline tickets to attend a con, it really sucks when celebrities cancel, even if it’s for “work”. 

To ease Jen’s frustration and disappointment, I offered to pick them up from the airport when they arrived. Jen also mentioned that she had always wanted to visit Nashville and thought she and Lauren might do some fun stuff around town. I offered to be their tour guide. I LOVE being a tour guide for friends. It’s a blast to show people the best and most interesting things about places I love.

Friday afternoon, Tea & I picked up Jen & Lauren from the airport and got them checked in at their hotel. None of us had gotten lunch and, fortunately one of the best barbecue places around is right across the street from the hotel. It didn’t take long at all for 8.5-year-old Tea and just-turned 10-year-old Lauren to become fast friends. Hanging with Jen was awesome for me as well.

Folks… I gotta tell you. That wonderful brain of hers... the one that delivers such incredible insight into our favorite characters… it is always on!

Whether we were enjoying BBQ for lunch, touring around Nashville, having dinner with my husband later, standing in line to see David Ramsey the next day, or fighting traffic getting to dinner the next night, her brain was always making connections.

We got insights into the good & bad of season 2 (yep, plenty of bad stuff that people forget about!), her conversations with Marc Guggenheim, especially about 5x20, Stephen Amell’s height, speculation on behind-the-scenes issues and contracts, similarities between Olicity and CaptainSwan on Once Upon a Time, insights on negativity in the Arrow fandom, why How I Met Your Mother’s ending was so screwed up, how The Vampire Diaries should have ended, how various Arrow season 6 spoilers are all connected and so much more. In many ways, keeping up with her brain was the most challenging and enjoyable part of the weekend.

Saturday morning arrived and my crew was ready to go. Fortunately, all three of my kids were excited and in great moods. My teenage twin boys never want to pose for pictures, but they cooperated and we got this great family picture. If I do Christmas cards this year, this will be on it!

My whole family loves Arrow and we watch all four CW Arrowverse shows, but none of them are as passionate about it as I am. (duh) (At age 8, my daughter has only limited exposure to some of the shows.)

Fortunately, there were things at HVFF that interested each of them.

My husband got to see the car from Supernatural. (Cost $10 if you wanted a picture of you next to it.)

My boys found a trailer full of wide screens, comfortable seating and video games. We could even rent it for a future party (graduation, maybe?). Anytime they were bored at the con, they asked if they could go hangout in the video game trailer. So glad it was free!

My daughter couldn’t wait to try the space walk (also free).

First up for Arrow stuff… the John Barrowman panel.

We’re all big Doctor Who fans in this family too. In fact, I think I would be the only one who likes Arrow more than Doctor Who. So the boys wanted to see Barrowman, but I was a little concerned. I’ve seen videos from his panels before, and I knew they were NOT G-rated. Sure enough. Barrowman came out wearing a Doctor Who romper which he ripped open to reveal a Doctor Who dress.

(We were in the back, and this was the best picture I got. I won’t bore you with my other bad panel photos.)

He started out by telling a story about one of his early jobs doing song and dance here in Nashville long before he was ever on television. (Lots of stars have gotten their starts in Nashville, and not just country music ones either. Oprah, for instance.) Barrowman’s Nashville story, however, involved a drink spiked with laxatives, high kicking on stage, and people in the front row getting quite messy. If you want the gory details, here is the link to the video of the whole panel.

Even though my daughter was engrossed in a game on her tablet, and thankfully, not really paying attention to Barrowman, I decided it was best to not run the risk of her hearing anything even more inappropriate for her young ears. Us two girls left the panel to stand in line to see Stephen Amell. I wanted to get ahead of all of the people who would be getting into the line after Barrowman was done. Even so, the line was LONG! In fact, we had to stand in line to purchase our tickets to stand in line again.

As we were going from one line to the next, I spotted a bag that I had been looking for. It was @scu11y22’s Frak Cancer bag, so… that must be Tracy! It sure was!

Tracy was another one of the people I connected with early in my fandom experience. I remember checking her and Jen’s blogs daily on my browser long before I joined Tumblr or Twitter. We’ve connected in numerous ways online over the years, but the most special for me was recently when she agreed to co-host my Arrow Fandom Pampered Chef fundraiser to raise money for the fight against breast cancer. I knew I had to meet up with her at HVFF. After all, I had a set of cake pans to deliver to her! LOL!

I have always appreciated Tracy being such a positive force within the fandom. She doesn’t write fic but she’s the biggest fic cheerleader there is. Plus, no matter what’s happening on the show — even if she doesn’t like it — she tries to find a way to keep things positive in the fandom. Tracy was at the top of my list of fandom friends I wanted to find. I also was able to meet her posse.

@quant-um-fizzx, @redpensandgreenarrows, @ireland1733, @laurabelle2930

Meeting fandom friends at a con is a hoot. Out of habit, most people start with their real name.

“Hi, I’m Angela.”

That’s returned with a nice, “Oh, nice to meet you” and a hand shake.

Then someone else says, “Guys, that’s Hotcookinmama!” Then everyone says, “Hey!!! GREAT to meet you” and you get hugs. That process was repeated multiple times over the weekend.

Next time, I guess I’ll just lead with my screen name... or wear a button that says it. Tracy’s crew had the great idea of putting their screen names on their convention badges.

Back to Stephen’s line...

According to Jen and several others, Stephen almost never does selfies at his booth, but he was doing them this time. Most con veterans had told me that you get to spend more time doing an autograph than getting the professional photo-ops. I had wanted a picture, but I also wanted to chat a little. Since he was doing the selfies at his autograph booth, I figured we had the best of both worlds.

The lines were so long, that we stood in line for almost an hour before we even got a glimpse of him. From that glimpse, however, I could tell that the Code 8 beard was gone. Hallelujah!

During the time we stood in line, Barrowman’s panel ended, my husband took my daughter to get something to eat, my boys played video games in game trailer, and eventually we all gathered back together in time to meet Stephen. Unfortunately, we noticed the clock moving closer and closer to Stephen’s 1:30 panel slot. So did Stephen’s handlers, I’m sure. When we finally got up to meet him, he was very nice, but a bit rushed. He commented on my daughter being mini Felicity. He signed the photo collage I had brought, and we got our picture together. It all went by so fast.

As we were finishing up, I asked what kind of wedding will we see this year. He responded, “Ah, I can’t tell you that.” He thanked us for coming. And that was it. It still doesn’t even seem real that I actually met Stephen Amell!

We grabbed a quick bite to eat and my mini-Felicity found a seat next to a guy with an fantastic Green Arrow costume. I commented to the others at the table that I never thought I’d be eating lunch with Oliver and Felicity!

Next up… Stephen’s panel.

To get seats at the big panels, you have to line up beforehand. Then they carefully control how people are let into the seating area. They try to fill in all the gaps as they let people in. Since we had stopped to get a bite to eat, we were afraid we might not get any seats for Stephen’s panel. The cutoff for seats was right in front of us. Fortunately, a few seats were found after he had started and they ushered us in. We even had pretty good seats right behind the VIP section. This gave us a great view of the people asking questions.

Much to my surprise, I noticed Jen & Lauren in line to ask a question. Jen wasn’t even watching Stephen while she was in line. She was just typing on her phone. Was she texting during the panel?

No! She was live tweeting! She had her eyes on her phone and kept typing. All those informative tweets you all got during the panel… most of them was while she was standing in line! I know from my attempt at the experience the next day at the Arrow cast panel, it’s not easy. I’d much rather sit back and just watch the panel. So every time you enjoy a stream of great live tweets during a convention panel, know that the “reporter” is busy typing away instead of watching the panel.

Lauren did a fantastic job asking Stephen what he likes most about Felicity.

“I love how smart and how capable she is, that she can stand on her own and do her own thing. And I think that one of the biggest lessons that Oliver has had to learn is that he doesn’t always need to help her. He just needs to let her be her own person.”

Captain, my captain! I love how much Stephen loves and respects the character of Felicity Smoak!

Others have done a better job — and quicker job — recapping everything that was said at the panels. Here are some of my favorite parts:

He loved Nashville. Loved the atmosphere. He said it was as if Austin and New Orleans had a love child.

A fan asked if he had ever heard any good Arrow-themed pick-up lines. He responded “Hey girl, I’m all a quiver”. He said it was more of a “dad joke”.

He thought the beard was gross.Yay!

The flashbacks in season 6 will be move limited. There will be episodes without any flashbacks. The ones we get will also feature other character’s story lines. Oliver’s big 5-year flashback arc is complete. 

After the panel, my husband and kids did a little shopping. My teenage boys LOVED all the geek merchandise at the booths.  After a while, however, hubby and the twins decided they were tired and were ready to go home. So glad I had decided we were taking separate cars. Tea & I weren’t ready to go at all.

Jen wanted to get David Ramsey’s autograph and we noticed the VIP line wasn’t that long. She said it was fine if I tag along. She said David is usually really good at spending time with everyone, giving spoilers and fantastic hugs. She was 100% right! I stood there a couple feet away from Jen while they were chatting it up.

I took a picture of the very nice collection of David Ramsey photos. When you purchase an autograph, you can get it on your own merchandise or choose one of these photos.

David told Jen that Diggle and Oliver were going to clash early this season. He compared it to Civil War. (Pretty sure he meant Marvel’s Civil War and not the actual War Between the States.) When they were done, Jen and Lauren got their hugs. David saw me standing off a bit. He said “Come here” and wrapped me up in a huge hug. I thanked him and we walked off.

Jen was stoked about the spoiler and instantly started theorizing, but I was too moved by what had happened to say anything. She looked back at me and I realized I was crying a little. After having such a brief, rushed encounter with Stephen earlier in the day, I was so touched by how much time David took with us and how genuine he seemed to be.

As Jen later said in her HVFF post: “I was just so happy to be part of that purely joyful moment with her. It’s so rare when we are gloriously happy as human beings and she absolutely was.”

I will ALWAYS get in line to meet David again in the future.

Later in the day, the lines are much shorter. We spent time with Echo Kellum and Ming-Na Wen (Agent Melinda May on Agents of SHIELD and the voice of Mulan).

Echo was sweet and super tall.

Ming-Na Wen was even more sweet and so beautiful. She had bead bracelets and candy to give away to the kids who visited with her. And… damn, while looking her up to make sure I spelled her name correctly, I discovered she’s 53! Wow. She must have some of that non-aging cream that Stephen has.

The girls decided they wanted to enter the cosplay contest held at the end of the day. Each contestant walked across the stage and introduced themselves at the microphone. After Lauren walked by, one of the moderators said “who was that?” and the other shrugged his shoulders. These comic fan boys had no idea who Felicity Smoak was. Grrrrrrrr….

Tea went next and when she went up to the mic, she said her name and that she was dressed as Felicity Smoak. So proud of my girl walking up there all by herself! She didn’t seem scared at all. Our girls didn’t make the finals, but they did great and had fun.

There were some pretty fun and amazing costumes.

By the time the cosplay contest was over, we were wiped out, but we still had people we wanted to see. Jen & I both wanted to track down @dollyrose09 and we found her just before we left. She was also dressed as Felicity. “Felicity in the field” for her. Standing with our season 1 Felicity & season 2 Felicity, they made quite a trio.

While we chatted, our two Felicity girls had fun dancing.

Dolly headed to her photo-op, and we were ready to head to dinner. As we picked up Tracy and her friend Qwen @quant-um-fizzx from the front of their hotel, this giant sea of people was coming straight towards us from over the river.

In downtown Nashville, the Shelby Street Bridge is a old bridge that is now a pedestrian bridge. (For all you “Nashville” fans, it’s where Deacon proposed to Rayna.) It crosses the Cumberland River and connects the football stadium to the rest of downtown. The out-of-town visitors in my van were a bit taken a back. I don’t remember if it was Jen or Tracy, but one of them said that they had only seen a swarm of people crossing a river like that in movies, and it usually meant it was the apocalypse. We all laughed that these folks didn’t look like zombies or people fleeing zombies. They were, in fact, all leaving a US Soccer match that had been held at Nissan Stadium. Good thing we had decided to get out of downtown for dinner!

On the way to dinner, we had another stop on our Nashville tour. We drove pass one of the houses that they use for the show Nashville. Yep, here’s Deacon’s house.

Dinner was a Five Points Pizza (named for the Five Points area of East Nashville — not the shape of the pizza) and was delicious!

Several times I just had to pinch myself. Here I was sitting next to Jen and across from Tracy, two of my favorite people in the fandom, chatting it up about all things television and especially Arrow. If you ask my family, they would say that I’m a talker, but I was one of the quiet ones (along with my new friend Qwen) at the table. That was fine by me!

By the time we dropped off everyone at their hotels, it was too late for the girls to go swimming like we had planned. Not wanting to deny our daughters their swim trip, we made plans to meet in the morning. Jen’s hotel had a roof-top pool, and it opened at 8 am.

Unfortunately, hubby wasn’t with us on Sunday. He woke up with a bad headache and decided to stay home.

Day 2 of the convention was a lot less crowded! Jen said it’s usually like that at most cons. The lines were much shorter and it was easier to get seats at the panels.

The Arrow cast panel was first thing in the morning. Stephen wasn’t on this panel since he had his panel the day before. This one had David Ramsey, Rick Gonzalez, Echo Kellum, Katrina Law, Caity Lotz, and Madison McLaughlin. This time I was going to try my hand at live tweeting. Then Tea said she wanted to ask a question. Sure, let’s go get in line! Live tweeting while standing is too hard for me. I did, however, get a great video of David Ramsey dancing!

https://twitter.com/hotcookinmama2/status/884080356751749124

Since I was standing in line with Tea, I decided to come up with my own question. At dinner the night before, our group had lamented that we’ve never learned anything about Diggle’s parents. We know he’s from the Glades and we know his brother’s story, but we’ve never heard anything about his parents.

So, that turned into my question. “We know about Oliver’s family and Felicity’s family, will we ever learn about Diggle’s mom and dad?”

David joked “Diggle was hatched! He came out just like this.” He said it was an excellent question (cool!) and that they’ve been talking about it for season 6. Then he said that he thinks we’ll see a Diggle relative this season, “at least one”. He said “that will be important to the script.” Wooo-hooo!

Then Tea asked her question. She asked the new people how they have enjoyed becoming part of the show. Rick Gonzalez (Rene Ramirez) said he was very excited. He didn’t know that he would be playing Wild Dog when he auditioned. When he found out, he said “the 10 year old inside of me was jumping for joy!” Madison McLaughlin (Evelyn Sharp) also didn’t know that she was going to be playing Artemis. She remembers the first day meeting Rick and Joe (Ragman). It was the day they shot the “On the line!” scene. They all went out for dinner afterwards. “I realized that I didn’t just join a show. I joined a family. I love these people. They’re awesome.”

Going back and listening to our voices on the official videos of the panels, I realized that my voice sounds a whole lot more nervous than my daughter’s. She’s a champ!

I’m very glad they’ve posted all three panels (Stephen Amell’s, John Barroman’s and the Cast Panel). When watching the video, it doesn’t seem fast paced, but it’s hard to digest it all when you’re sitting there. While sitting in the seats, I was easily distracted by my kids and other people moving around. I tried live tweeting during the cast panel, but I only got a handful of tweets out. By the time I finished with one, I was engrossed in the next question. It’s a lot to take in.

After a little archery practice...

... shopping ...

(I LOVED finding geek-themed kitchen items!)

... and lunch, I went to get my David Ramsey autograph.

Even though the line wasn’t long, it was very slow moving. As frustrating as that is while standing in line, it’s SOOOO worth it because David spends time with each and every fan, including several I knew!

I wish my husband had been there that day, but we got some FANTASTIC family pictures with David. His arms are so long, he didn’t have any trouble holding the phone and doing the selfies himself! What a pro!

After getting our pictures and autograph, I reminded him that I was the one who asked about Diggle’s parents. He thanked me for that. He’s looking forward to that story line. I then asked him a question that was inspired by a conversation I had with Tracy @scu11y22 at lunchtime.

I said, “I’m working on a story that involves Oliver having to ‘out’ himself as the Green Arrow. What do you think Diggle’s reaction would be if Oliver ever had to do that?”

Quick as an arrow, he said, “He’d become the Green Arrow.” Then he shook his head like he had been caught. “Oh man, now I gotta tell you this. You managed to guess the plot for the first 6 episodes of season 6.”

“Wow,” I responded. “I guess I better finish my story before then, huh?” I thanked him a whole lot and walked away shaking like a leaf in a storm.

Jen was standing nearby but hadn’t joined me in line so she didn’t hear the conversation. As I walked away, she saw me and thought that I was just emotional about meeting David again. I shook my head. I couldn’t even talk. After a minute, I explained that I just got the BIGGEST spoiler. I told her what David had just told me and she said “You need to tweet the hell out of that, girl! Your twitter is going to explode!” She was 100% right.

As our girls were standing in line to do a “space walk” bungee-jumping thing, Jen helped me get out my tweets. My heart was racing and my thumbs were all over the place. She took my phone and edited my tweets for me to get them to fit. I laughed… All those times I’ve edited her words, and now she’s editing mine! She joked “the student becomes the teacher.” LOL!

For the next several hours, my phone was almost useless. I was getting Twitter notifications every second or two. I’ve never experienced that! 

We finished our shopping — telling Jen that my daughter wanted to get a “Pop” caused confusion. She thought I meant a soda drink and I was talking about a Funko Pop figure. LOL! — and headed out the door, exhilarated and exhausted.

I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced that much adrenaline and exhaustion at the same time. I was wired. I have a new appreciation for what it must feel like to be on Team Arrow. So pumped up and yet having your body be so spent at the same time.

Dropping off Jen and Lauren at the airport was sad, as much for Tea as it was for me. We had both had a wonderful time creating and developing friendships. We were sad to see the weekend come to an end. At least I knew that I would still be contact with Jen on a regular basis. We both assured our girls that we would help them stay in contact electronically.

Thank you so much for sitting through this whole post. Being my first con, I really wanted to document it as completely as possible, for my own sake more than anyone else’s. I hope that it will be a help to those who have not yet been to a con as well.

To finish my post, I want to thank Jen and all the amazing, awesome fandom friends that I met in person at HVFF and apologize for the ones I missed. I felt especially bad about missing @mel-loves-all . I really, really hope we have another chance to meet up sometime.

It was fantastic to be able to put faces to names!

Dolly  @dollyrose09 (@Duckyrose09 on Twitter)

@vaelisamaza Vanessa (@varellanoemo on Twitter) & Jason @jpg_pr (@JPG_PR on Twitter)

Forgive me if I missed anyone!

This fandom is wonderful, y’all. Thanks for making my first con such a delightful experience.

Y’all come back now, ya hear!