Rhode Island Comic Con with Jenna and Matt

welcome to a multiple nerdgasm specials episode about Rhode Island Comic-Con woo we are your hosts Jenna and Matt hello we spent the weekend at Rhode Island ComicCon it was a three-day event held in the Rhode Island Convention Center and the Dunkin Donuts Center both buildings are right next to each other connected by a skybridge we did have some problems with that but we'll get to that later um for now let's just talk about what we saw at the con itself yeah overall I had a really good time yeah so did I there were some good guests there yeah a lot of big names this particular one uh Stan leye notably everyone wanted to get stuff signed by Stan yeah this is his last New England appearance I believe yeah so I think people traveled quite a long way to see him in some

cases um Jeffrey Dean Morgan was there signing he's from The Walking Dead and at the moment he's a huge star and I think he he was one of the biggest problems with lines and people waiting for autograph yeah yeah exactly gal gdau was there uh the new Wonder Woman yeah um Alice Cooper was there signing autographs yeah uh and this was in the big room it's a basketball court right yeah yeah so to lay it out uh the Dunkin Donuts Center is a basketball court um so it's that Stadium style seating down in the center of that was where all those Stars Stanley and Jeffrey Dean Morgan uh where they were signing and taking photos around that just outside the stadium part were some small artists little tables yeah uh same with upstairs

the whole ring upstairs was filled with artists tables yeah and then in the other room of the Rhode Island Convention Center that's where some of the other celebrities were um I guess the ones that didn't make the cut well they had a lot of them they did yeah they did I guess it must have been tough to decide who went where really I guess it whoever they thought the longest lines were going to be four right so there were two rows of um celebrities and wrestlers and then the rest of the convention center was filled with comic book artists uh some big names actually yeah and then kind of Market stalls like you see it other conventions yeah and like yeah comic books like old Collectibles comic books uh statues Pub vinyls lots of Pub vinyls oh so many

yeah um a problem I have with this type of convention um this one didn't really have many panels it only had a few per day I think it had a gaming room but it wasn't really publicized at all I I wasn't sure where it was until I think it was upstairs at the convention center but a problem I have with these types of conventions is that you spend a lot of money to get in and then there's not really much in there for free there's a lot to look at but if you want anything um if you want to do any experiences if you want to meet anybody it all costs money yeah yeah I think some of the guests are very generous with their time and uh if you say if you want to get something signed they will talk to you and they will take a photo with you uh but not all of them in particular the

big names uh and again it's not always their fault I think often there're with some agency or there's companies that organize these they organize the celebrities for these events and they act on behalf of the celebrity and they will step in and and kind of demand money off people when they when they if you want to talk to them or get something signed and then get a photo like it's all got to be paid for that's right some of the celebrities were happy to talk to you without yes without you buying anything um in the smaller well the bigger room but the smaller celebrity area yeah um where stars like Shannon Elizabeth um Tara Reed Mina Saar uh Brent Spiner had a longer line there and um the Green Power Ranger I don't remember his name but he's a huge star

yeah his line was never empty yeah I know I was well I mean I never watched power range as much so I was a little surprised by that I mean he was the best one sure but still Amy Joe Johnson was there too the pink Power Ranger but I I don't know I don't know he he had photos all day he had people like a full line all day yeah ion zering was there from shark NATO and Beverly Hills 9210 a lot of wrestlers we talked to Billy Gun oh yeah wrestler Billy Gun he was lovely couple of the guys from Sons of anak were there yeah I've never watched that show I haven't either some voice actors yeah uh some people actually Troy Baker was supposed to be there but unfortunately he had to cancel but um it's unfortunate a lot of people canceled this year um our friend bought

a ticket only because Troy Baker was going to be there she was very disappointed to find out that he had canceled just a few days before it I mean it happens a lot especially with the with the ones in Australia uh it used to happen a lot I guess it must just be the same here like if a schedu and conflicts yeah if work comes up they've got to take the work so that's understandable yeah and a lot of comic artists uh with there we we we'll get to them because we actually interviewed a few and and had some stuff signed by others yep yeah many of them were very generous and and kind and hung out with us a bit so it was yeah was really good yeah so we met James Oar that was pretty exciting for me except he was not talkative at all no I think he's a very

shy quite kind of person yeah he he signed my copy of the crow graphic novel but he was not really willing to talk yeah well I guess he he's probably I think he's one of those celebrities that's not he's not a sociable celebrity because he's not he's just not a socialable person like I I've seen people say that he's kind of a jerk and I don't think that's true I think he's just he's just not a very social guy right that's fine but then if you're going to be in an environment like this I think you have to make an effort sure yeah but he wasn't rude he was just very matter of fact no and he was very busy talking to another artist next to him and didn't want to be interrupted yeah but yeah he he said hello what what would you like I will sign that yes have

a nice day you also he's I mean I think out of everybody he's one of the ones I was most nervous about yeah because he was a little bit cold and because I love the crow so much yeah yeah it's odd too because in those situations I think when when the celebrities is very uh friendly it kind of it puts you at ease but if if they're guarded which I can understand why they might be guarded too because we're we have press badges uh and at sometimes I had a microphone and I did ask a few celebrities if I could record them and I do think that probably puts us in a different position with them than say somebody who came up and was just kind of like like a straightforward fan like like a couple times when we asked a celebrity or or said could we could we record the

interview and they said oh no then things got a bit all quit afterwards yeah but again that's not their fault I mean but we didn't even try with him no no no I know I'm just saying that if with him I was just a straight fan I know but with the Press Badges and stuff maybe he that maybe put him off I don't know one of the big names we uh we got to talk to and who was super friendly was Roy Thomas who uh he worked for Marvel for a very long time he actually took over as editor-in chief after Stanley left from that position he he's written for so many Comics like Doctor Strange uh which is very topical and he worked on the Star Wars adaptations yeah the original ones yep yeah uh like Spider-Man uh he's probably touched um every oh yeah Conan the Barbarian he

brought that to America I think yep he actually started out um well I don't know if started out he actually originally worked for DC Comics right um for only eight days I read kind of a sad story about it where um he had done some work for Stanley in the past and then uh took a job with DC um I don't know if it's supposed to be long-term or not but then his boss was not a very kind man and he after just a few days wrote a letter to Stanley just like he said he was very upset in his hotel room as a 24 year-old I believe uh wrote a letter to Stanley not asking for a job but just saying hey I really love your work I'm such a big admirer of you and Stanley asked him in for a test yeah test right yeah wow see that's awesome yeah and and he was so friendly oh he's such a nice

guy he did give us uh he did give us an interview which which we'll play now um it is we talked about Doctor Strange specifically just because that was uh that's what's kind of going on today with the film coming out and he had some interesting trivia for us all here with Roy Thomas and I had a rumor that you didn't only invent the sanctum centurum you lived in the sanctum cantorum in a manner of speaking uh yeah uh I I had a my friend Gary Friedrich who wrote Marvel Comics too um in late 65 we moved into an apartment on Greenwich Village's uh bleer Street 177a there was a 177 and a we the door at 177a it no longer exists now they're both like 177 yeah right but at that time it was 177a and we lived there upstairs second floor

over some weird place for about 6 months until our it was supposed to be rent we found out it was rent controlled our landlord wanted us to pay more money than the rent control so he threatened to kill us and we had all kinds of trouble so we finally decided yeah well you know we C the cops on him and was nice but we decided maybe it was better if we you know we got Anonymous pH calls about how they were going to find our bodies in a trash can make sure I I bought I actually bought a gun I'd never shot my life and a police lock on the door I was ready to shoot if anybody had to come in but anyway So eventually um we decided maybe it's best to leave in the middle of the night but in the meantime a little bill ever also at that same time staying with us off and on was

Bill Everett the creator of the Submariner who was drawing Doctor Strange at that time he was the first artist after Steve ditco so he was drawing Doctor Strange while living there and his first the first panel he ever Drew showed Doctor Strange walking along our street it doesn't show that number but it's it looks a lot like Renville looked outside our door in those days and uh so about three or four years later in one of the last issue or so of that series of Doctor Strange for it died around 19 number 180 something or other I needed to have an address for Doctor Strange cuz he was going to get a telegram right and so on the thing I put 177a bleer Street which is our address obviously Doctor Strange's Mansion was

not going to fit in and ever since that that's been his the address that Mansion it was supposed to be on or near bleer street right but more near it than on it I put it on it and uh just gave it that number and it's always been on it I used to think I always thought Bill had done it and then years later I realized no I had done it yeah and and I and now I now they put that in the in the movie I guess yeah have seen the film what you think I haven't seen it but I just learned from Jeff isherwood who worked on some issues of Doctor Strange with me in the 90s that not only am I in this little the credit of a dozen or two people at the end besides of course Stan and Steve who deserve get the line and share of the credit but that along with you know uh a

few several other people including Jeff ferwood and others uh there's a credit for me a credit for my my wife Dan because her name was on these stories too and a credit for my first wife Jean because because uh she I I think because she had done a comic with with me working a little but it was mostly her in the 1970s called Night Nurse a very obscure comic it only lasted about five or six issues yeah instead of which was sort of half romance half adventure and we made up a hospital for it called Metro General they may maybe they use that as the name of the hospital or something so they decided to say they gave her and the artist a credit for that so both my wives and I together again for the first time in this credit you know and so

forth I hope they pay her pay her too you know that's awesome thank you so much sure thank you but I I'm hoping it be a good movie this the scenes I've seen the the uh the trailers I've seen online that people send me and things just look great yeah the the the special effects and stuff are really really looking forward to seeing it more than the average uh Marvel movie yeah even if I didn't have my name on it I didn't and I didn't think I would I was just looking forward to seeing the funny thing is back in the 60s the only Marvel series I didn't read before I came to work for Stan was Doctor Strange because I couldn't relate to the magic stuff but I always like's art so here so a couple years later I end up writing Doctor Strange even with dco for a little while

but anyway thank you very much yeah anyway thank you so much I'm glad that the movie's turned out okay it's taking a few hundred million dollars I guess it'll be all right they'll make another one yeah thank you thank you he was one of the few guys who didn't ask for anything to sign our Comics yeah um and he was totally willing to talk to us so that whole interview he told us all right I've got a few people online um I'll answer a couple of questions but that's all I can do and then he just didn't stop yeah he was he's just very I think he's excited to be there he's one of those people that I think just really loves what he does and in interacting with the people who who read the comics and stuff yeah he's really friendly yep so yeah if you get the chance to to chat

with him at a convention like definitely approach him he's very very friendly yeah uh another guy if you see him Tim estelas he designed our badges our um press badges at this Con he was so nice we talked to him forever he does uh a lot of he's an artist so he does a lot of comic art uh with characters you know and he works for kids at Hasbro Children's Hospital um he goes in and draws for kids to their requests yeah uh he told us a funny story actually where one of the kids uh requested a Frozen character but zombie and he asked her mom and she said yep that's fine and he had to go back and tell his managers um you might be getting some complaints from the hospital um and they they're probably going to question why I'm drawing zombies for these kids y yep and

he did uh they got some calls from some of the nurses and they told them it's fine you had permission to do it yeah yeah but he's a really lovely guy and he's uh he's got some great ideas and opinions around working with physical mediums versus digital because everything's kind of uh people moving towards digital these days and he has some strong feelings about that and uh and very interesting point of view yeah I think actually he um mentioned that he would like to come on the podcast at some point and talk about that yeah um well he suggested that we discuss that but I don't think we know enough to um I think it might be better if we have him on and we'll ask him questions that's right he's a great guy and yeah hope can touch with him and and have him on um we

also met Rob leafield um who is a creator of Deadpool yeah he's very uh controversial in the comic book World you've probably seen articles in the past uh discussing the uh the anatomical impossibilities of some of his characters yeah his art style is a little bit funny um like big muscles that well it's funny don't belong there it's also iconic like people mock it but like he like he He Turned like a whole comic series around in the 90s he he he worked at Marvel and he was put on uh New Mutants and he basically like that was their like their lowest selling comic and he took it from that to to being like one of their top top sellers and so he was put in charge of the whole project and from there he went on to do again yeah Deadpool xfactor like all of

these things he's very very very successful yeah we were lucky to catch him actually he was on his way out the door so unfortunately we weren't able to interview him yeah he just didn't have time to talk to us at that point but we did get a copy of Deadpool signed yes so and he was very nice yeah we were lucky enough to catch Alan Bellman and his adorable wife oh man I will put some photos up um on the Instagram of all of the people that we spoke to and interviewed but this is my favorite photo because every time we uh so we were there for 3 days like I said and every day that we walked by his wife was like full costume but kind of made out of just dresses and knee socks and hoodies like she and for context Alan Bellman is 94 years old and his wife is

is similarly aged and the first day she dressed as Wonder Woman with a Wonder Woman dress knee socks that looked like boots um a little Tiara yeah and a hoodie a Wonder Woman hoodie tied at the neck to look like a cake they are the cutest couple yeah 94 and Alan belman worked for timely Comics which is actually uh it is Marvel Comics but that's what it was called before stanlee came along but Alan Bellman uh was one of the original artists during the war working on Captain America uh Human Torch and all those characters before Marvel even existed he he was he was working on those comics and so he's like he's a true original as far as Marvel Comics go and so yeah it was really lovely to meet him and he's so nice yeah like he he's doing some more

conventions in 2017 I he's going to be down in Florida uh for a few like and yeah if you can catch him you should because he's just he's so nice and and really just one of The Originals we got a poster from him of Captain America punching Hitler yeah which is something he worked on back during the War I couldn't believe that that existed speaking of Hitler yeah do weird tangent yeah as we're walking around I mean they have a lot of collectible stuff at the at the event and and we encountered I think for Silver age Collectibles is the is the guy's company he had a bunch of stuff like a bunch of Star Trek figures and things old TV guides yeah a lot of really old very collectible stuff and uh like lots of interesting odd things and one of the

things he had was an original from the 1940s uh vinyl LP of Adolf Hitler's speeches mhm in German in German uh which was very illegal at the time I believe yep and right next to that he had a um probably about a 12 in figure greatest war criminals of all time Adolf Hitler action figure yeah a couple of days later when we came by uh I noticed they were gone and I asked him I said did somebody buy them yeah because they were like $300 they were very expensive they're pretty expensive uh and he said no apparently um people had complained and and he had to put them under the table and I I can see why but then on the other other hand see I I don't agree with them having to be hidden I I don't

know why they would have to be hidden that's kind of I don't know why someone would buy them but I think they're they are interesting as historical kind of documents and I mean it's particular the the the vinyl in particular is right I mean it's historically significant as repulsive as all that may be again I can understand why someone may have complained and if the convention didn't want to deal with that I can see why they might have asked him to remove them but I don't know I agree with it overall that's right I think just because we had just gotten that picture of Hitler like that picture of Captain America punching Hitler that that was okay and that a figurine of a war criminal like the Box said war criminals yeah so I I don't know that just that struck me as odd

yeah cross uh had a booth at the convention cross is a luxury Pen Company which uh you know what luxury pen is they it's basically that you buy one and you never really have to replace it because it's got a full lifetime warranty uh and they they're very like uh Hardy metal kind of constructed high quality pens and they've recently acquired from Disney the licenses for Star Wars and Marvel and they have new lines out which are the the Star Wars and and Disney lines and these pens are freaking awesome yeah they are they have fountain pens ballpoint um they have one that is like a really thin pen but three colors and pencil Le inside of it it's incredible and a stylus on the back it's called the tech 3 doth Vader special edition it also has a stylus on the back

of it so you can use it with a tablet so it's it's got yeah red red ink Black Ink a a pencil and a freaking stylus on the end of it so it's amazing and I was lucky enough they were doing a giveaway and I won a bb-8 pen uh and it's I mean it it's a pen I can use literally forever like if if anything breaks on it I can go in and they'll just replace it they said the only thing that's not covered is if it gets lost but they're actually working on a chip so that even that will be covered yeah so they can find it which is creepy but cool yeah but yeah know these are great pens if you're into if you're into pens uh or you know you're looking for a gift for somebody uh go to check them out cross.com is where you can find them and again yeah they've got they've got a

store opening in Providence here in Rhode Island if you're a local the only thing that I get wary of with things like this like it has a lifetime guarantee what if the company's not around in 10 years you know if it's a startup company and they say you have a lifetime guarant well that doesn't really mean anything to me well I think cross has been around for a very long time so I'm not sure if that's likely but I wanted that too because if I get this Star Wars pen right and I break it in 20 years and I go back in and they're like well we don't make those anymore right so I not going to get the same pen back unless they just have a warehouse full of these things so I don't know maybe if anyone from Cross is listening uh let us know how does how does that

work you but they are beautiful pens though so I'm glad that met one one uh because he would have otherwise spent a lot of money on them oh yeah I wanted one real bad I still want that doth V I know I know the the triple pen I don't even know how to write with a fountain pen and I want one they were they were beautiful the the fountain pens are amazing actually there's a run of limited edition ones where they only did like I think they did 1,977 of them to celebrate the the like Star Wars 1977 uh and they're I mean they're like 600 bucks but they're beautiful and they're actually like uh gold and and I think some of them have like gems and stuff in embedded in them as well like they really beautiful pens so yeah cross.com check them out y our friend

Liz uh has a booth at all of the New England conventions she has a company called tracky Mo uh which is comic art backwards she makes all original things out of comic books she sells wall hangers pins and badges Zipp W light light switch covers y so wallets are her biggest thing and she will even specialize if you want to send her some art that you liked from a comic book she can make you a wallet out of that yeah um so have a look at her website uh tracky mo.com that's comic art backwards so trci M o.com and yeah she does special orders yeah they're all handmade they're really high quality and they're they're made from the actual pages so uh it's actually some of them I'm like astounded that she manages to make them look as

awesome as they do because I'm like how do the pan how do you get the panels to line up like that I don't expect it to reveal her secret they're really cool we'll post a picture of that too on our Instagram we've got some of those I was also lucky enough to chat with Bill Diamond again yeah we spoke to him at Hartford ComicCon too he's a really really nice guy he's very talkative he's awesome we didn't have any recording equipment with us at Harford but this time we did and he was kind enough to grant us an interview Bill worked on Sesame Street the Muppets little little Shahara stage show The Dark Crystal he's a a puppeteer and uh puppet Constructor Constructor I guess he he makes all the he makes puppets and props and uh just really really cool

wonderful stuff you would have seen his work on fragle Rock and and and stuff like that so yeah he was very generous with his time uh they had a booth set up with a lot of these um puppets in there yeah um they had a gremlin actually he worked on Gremlins too oh yeah that's true um and they had one of the skis yes from The Dark Crystal and the sword the original sword from the movie um they travel around with that yeah yeah it's cool it's cool to see them all up close yeah yeah and again he's very friendly so we sat down ask some a couple questions I'm here with Bill Diamond how you doing good how you doing very well I was want if you could tell us how did you get started well uh how did I get started well the first thing is I woke up in the morning that's an always a

good start especially with coughing now get more done that way yeah I was in school I was interested in theater television art I majored in in uh TV but uh I was I was playing with uh puppetry and and stop motion I worked got a chance to know Ray Harry Howen MH yeah awesome uh did some stop motion but it was just too slow for me sure so I started experim of course I'm a Henson Pride I grew up with with uh Sesame Street but then little did I know I was going to wind up working on it for Reeves telet tape at that time and through that I met Carol spinny and from there um I I got to know Johnny Hansen and then his father Jim yeah right

that's awesome so that's how that started and then I was building my own company at that time and working in and out of what the hensons were doing at the time yeah and so ever since then I've been still working for the last 40 sem odd years with uh all my own projects and my crew so you do the the little chabahar stage show correct yeah I've been I built the puppet the um after it went off Broadway it went back on tour and then I did the tour puppet in 84 and then from then I did it and I still do it now um and then we built the Revival in 2007 and the puppets are owned by us at the studio as well as all the other characters the hundreds of characters we have and then we get a chance to bring them out at these cons for people to really get a chance to see

them they're awesome how long does it take to to build something like the the big ory 2 well a lot of people ask that I mean they go from a concept design to what materials will be used uh it can go from a number of months to you know it all depends on the production schedule we get yeah cool and what's the favorite well your favorite po I know it's a ridiculous question because I can never asked this question you know why because first of all all the characters behind me and if you ask them they all think they're the favorite yep so I'm going to get into trouble there because gorg goes right behind me so he's automatically going to say it's him so it's him yeah yeah but well maybe it depends on if I go over there or Gremlin May any characters listening it's you yeah

that's right right that's how you answer that get you out of trouble well thank you so much and enjoy the rest of your time here I will thank you for coming by cheers so it wasn't all like nerd comicy I guess there were some horror things as well at this and uh the same company that runs this altered reality actually runs teron in February which uh I believe we'll be going to so we'll be covering that also and I I would guess that most of these people that we're going to talk about next will be there MH Jason dble with monster Hau mhm makes really adorable comic books yeah they're just a Hau yeah with some monsters and each each book each monster has its own book yeah so he's got like the Frankenstein Dracula well I don't know if he calls them the Frankenstein dra he

doesn't how you name them but they're monster characters and yeah each strip is it's it's a hi cou but but it's still a joke like they're still funny uh and three panels but they're high coup so it's very clever and the art is very cute yeah I'm I mean I'm surprised he's managed to come up with as many as he has because again they're very they're still funny uh and clever but he was he was very cool uh Hew was a zombie yep which we have uh you can check him out at Monster haiku.com uh we talked to Lawrence elig he made he had um for sale at the con he had a bunch of horror busts um but we talked to him for a little bit and he did tell us some amazing Stories like I wouldn't ever have guessed yeah he he used to work um for Hasbro and Kenner and he

modeled like he clay modeled all of these toys yeah so like toys that you would have had like if you're our age you've seen these toys yep and actually all over the convention they're selling all these retro toys and he said like i' I designed all those yeah like I in we're talking like the Star Wars figures jurass Park Batman uh like all all all of the toys that you played with as a kid like he he probably had a hand in something that you that you were with and if you go to his website lawrence.com there's a section with toys and he's got a photos of a bunch up there and and I was flicking through oh man I remember that thing yeah like he made it yeah and he lives close so I mean hopefully we'll be talking to him again yeah uh but yeah he's uh he's

currently doing uh horror bust that he's sculpting them himself he's got characters like uh you know the classic Universal Monsters the hammer horror monsters Hammer horr monsters Vincent Price uh he's got several HP Lovecraft ones in different kind of styles Ed Al and Poe and they're really really good MH like really beautiful and they're bronze cast bronze so they're they're like serious serious sculptures like you could put this you know like a like like a mo mozar bust on your piano but but you know Frankenstein so yeah definitely check him out and uh and hopefully we'll we'll be in touch with him again yeah because I'm I want some of them and we also talked to there was a a collective of New England based horr writers that they had a booth there and

they were all really really friendly and awesome yeah they were right next to our friend Liz's Booth MH so we spent a lot of time talking to them yeah uh we obviously they they discovered that we were interested in horror and we have a podcast so so we had a chat we spoke with Jason parent Rich felberg kathern Grant David and Scott gowor yeah Jason parent actually gave us one of his books to read yeah um it's only been a day yeah so we haven't had time yet I did read the first couple of pages of one of the stories that he picked out for us when we said that we were po fans yeah and um I mean so far it is it is very similar to that but in a Modern English way yes that it captures the feel I think so far that's why he had me read the first page and then I was like all right

fine yeah so they're really great and if you if you're interested in horror uh they actually have kind of guide books to Massachusetts and I think there's a Florida one as well uh horror based guide books so that it tells you kind of the the history and horror of those States and I think they're probably working on more those are by David and Scott godswood um you can get more information about them at New England horror. org yeah I do want to say a special thank you um we met a couple of guys over at one of the comic book booths um yeah John Sano and John friends but they they gave us all of the information about all of the comic book artists there yeah like all right you should go to this guy here if like these are the books he worked on um they they

helped us out a huge amount so it was all shout out to them yeah it was quite overwhelming uh to to try and figure keep track of Who's Who and and what we could what we should ask everybody about and kind of what would be what would be an interesting thing to talk to everybody about and they gave us he gave us some really great tips on on things we could ask people about and and that kind of stuff so big thanks to them um now I would like to talk about the convention overall overall yes so we had some problems with the organization of the Convention as a whole yeah not just us I think in fact I think we probably had less problems than other people did where that's right on behalf of other attendees we had problems that's right yep so as I said uh the convention was

held in two separate buildings and it was connected by a skybridge so the first building that you entered into was the Dunkin Donuts Center which was the basketball court style one and then to get into the next building you had to take the skybridge and once you did that you couldn't come back you'd have to leave and then wait in line yeah because come back in and go through security again which was was annoying but fine on the Friday on the Saturday and Sunday that was a real problem because it was a huge problem and because lizz's Booth um was in the Dunkin Donuts Center every time that we would kind of we would go to help out um cuz I I worked at her Booth a couple of times for her just to cover for people yeah I would have to leave the con ition and then go back in

the main entrance yeah which is and go outside too but not only that you you because we had press badges you got in other people didn't get back in because the other issue and I understand why they would do this the building has a capacity and they sell more tickets than the building can fit because they assume people will be coming and going but when you're forcing people to leave in order to get from one side to the other they're leaving but they're not really leaving they're leing they didn't want to leave and so now they're stuck and they can't get back yep so the convention Center has a capacity of 17,000 people and by making the skybridge one way they were able to sell almost double the amount of tickets yeah because the Fire Marshall said that way

they could just H people through and out the other side which I'm sure that makes sense business sense it doesn't it's not very nice right though so this was a major problem with Rhode Island ComiCon two years ago where at about 11:00 in the morning they reached capacity and even vendors and celebrities were not allowed back in into the convention center for hours so people had abandoned booths and celebrities weren't able to make it to their panels or signings because they were stuck in the re-entry line outside in the cold rain yeah not not good no and I think it wasn't until about 5:00 that the doors opened again and the convention closes at 7 so I I know there was a huge huge problem with this two years ago and they were making efforts to fix it but I don't think they

really have they haven't done a great job yeah um there were points where we couldn't move like we were stuck in a stairwell because photo lines had backed up so much that they were blocking the entry yeah I don't know whether they just didn't allow for the number of people that were going to want to meet certain celebrities because it was just overwhelming like when if you went down that to that area you couldn't get out because the lines were blocking the stairs and people people wouldn't move because they could see what was happening like it was all kind of disorganized and they knew that if they left or moved out of the way someone else was just push in like it was just yeah it was not a good right and that's really

unfortunate for the people who had booths downstairs and were trying to sell their their art and their goods because nobody could get to them yeah exactly and it's not good for the celebrities either because I know for a fact that galo's panel was a problem yeah actually hers was pushed back people were complaining about that hers was supposed to start at 2:30 I believe and then they put up a post um Rhode Island ComicCon on their Facebook page put a post that it would be starting at 2:45 but even after 2:45 people were still asking when is this going to begin and when she did finally get on stage the panel was only about 20 minutes long because they didn't have any time right because she had to go back and do all the other stuff again I don't I mean

that is also a problem with scheduling like with um Jason David Frank who I now remember is the name of the Green Power Ranger um he was given a 10 minute session for photo ops right but he was very popular he was super popular so he had from 12 to 1210 were solo photo ops and then from 1210 to I think like 12:30 were photo ops with him and Amy Joe Johnson together 10 minutes is not enough time no for anything that's maybe what like three photos yeah I know and that I mean that just seems like that seems kind of obvious like I don't understand if something runs a little bit late then that's it you just scrap it h it just none of the scheduling really made sense to me there were a lot of panels that were canceled last minute or like pulled to a different time last

minute yeah I Think It's tricky in in some ways because a lot of the people working there were volunteers and I know it's it is difficult to coordinate people who aren't you know they're not being paid so you've got to kind of they're not going to be like on the ball the same way that somebody who's like whose jobs on the line right we did speak to a volunteer security guard and we found out that there were like three factions of security there right like the Comic-Con security the center security and the actual police and none of them had communicated with each other at all so it was kind of a mess and I think that's like the theme of the whole convention that there was no communication between anybody yeah it seems that way a lot of people

complained about the volunteers in the information booths because nobody was nobody had any information yeah and they all very friendly either no and even I found that problem when I the first day I went up and I said hey do you have a list of the panels and she said oh no no no you can check on the website maybe it's there yeah and I said do you have a map and she said oh no then how am I supposed to if anything is going on you expect like 30,000 people to use your website at once I don't know it it it sounds a bit nitpicky I guess at times but but nobody seemed to have any information right um I found a couple of Facebook complaints actually um let me read you just a couple of my favorites from Karina gager said you guys suck thanks for taking my money and

being rude to me and Katie Daly said a volunteer said right in front of me she would write rather commit suicide than help another person well that's just that's just not on I think it's it's tough because they volunteers and they they I think the organization made their job harder than it was that puts them in a foul mood and they they getting paid so they don't they've had enough as well so it's just not a good situation no but there was such a such miscommunication between people that um some of the people who bought special tickets like VIP tickets were left without things that they had bought um they turned away some of the Stanley VIPs which I think is you can't do that no they paid $400 to meet Stanley and to get a special bag that

came with um like a it came with a lanyard and a special Stanley toy right um which were never given out and then when people complained about it it was just removed from the website altogether like it just never existed see that's just not on right uh I think also uh telling people that I mean Stanley sold out very quickly right however it's not that they said it wasn't sold out they just kind of withheld that information yeah I did find a couple of posts where people said I need you to be specific can you tell me I like can you tell me if he is still signing autographs I have like I do not want a photo I just have something I once signed and they would respond with Stanley is still is still available for photographs yeah they were still selling

photographs tickets but not autographs cuz the line was obnoxious but they would never say that right that's that's what I'm saying it's just not I don't think that's on and they were actually even deleting comments off first of all they disabled posts to their Facebook page and then they were deleting comments and I think they still are like negative comments um and comments of people saying it's been sold out it's been sold out I saw somebody was anytime somebody asked they would say it's sold out it's sold out it's sold out and they would delete it every time yeah because they don't want they want people to come and still come yeah I don't I don't agree with it at all I maybe we're shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit by saying this but you know I I I

feel like it's it's yeah it's not on right right um people also had a problem with the company that takes the photos uh Froggies to the point where there's actually a Facebook page not using Froggies photos at conventions um they've had serious problems in the past somebody uh at Dragon Con complained that instead of sending the jpeg like they were supposed to they just put all of the photos from the convention up on a flicker site which led to sites like um BuzzFeed or Funny or Die collecting them and making fun of people and posting them for everybody to see these like private photos yeah cuz I mean there was a big thing with that years ago with the was one of the the scary haunted house things that did that and then people you should know that that's

not you can't do that anymore like right but that I mean that's happened in the past at this one they just kind of made a mess of everything um they lost photos the printers backed up for hours paper they ran out of paper people weren't able to collect their photos cuz you couldn't get to them right right and then yeah there was such big masses of people that you couldn't get there and they weren't taking any names or anything so they were just holding up a photo and saying like uh you've got long brown hair and a blue shirt on yeah so you had to like recognize your own characteristics to find your photo yeah there were still people now commenting on the Facebook page that they never got theirs and where can they yeah are they able to get it somewhere and I mean look

it sounds like we're being very negative but I mean we had a good time but then again we again we had the ability to skip a lot of this stuff because of the press passes and that so we're only we're talking about this because we think people should know about it and I don't agree with the fact that they're trying to hide it sort of and right particularly like if they've had these problems in the past well and if they're just deleting all the comments from Facebook that's that's not really acceptable like they need to address the problem not just try and pretend it doesn't exist uh and I wonder if this stuff is a symptom because we we had problems like this in Australia when the conventions blew up because this whole thing comic book conventions and and

geek culture in general has really blown up in in the last like say five years I think so it could just be you know it's grown beyond their ability to to handle it without you know maybe addressing how they're doing things but this I mean this is several years on that they've been having these problems and I think it should have been addressed by now that's why I'm I'm I'm I'm not sorry that we're saying right they I mean they either need to cap tickets which they have done but they're capping it at too high of a volume yeah um they need to cap them lower like Pax does or they need to find a bigger venue yeah yeah exactly and one that you can freely walk through because I I'm not into this start the like start out in this one building complete it and then you can't

come back in yeah with no notice that that's going to happen that's the other like you didn't one told you you weren all back once you walked over the bridge that's it just wouldn't let you back up security there yeah see it's just a lot of little things like that that combined I think to to make it a not a great experience for quite a lot of people that's right and then they would put artists um that I I guess they didn't know were going to be bigger sellers like comic artists yeah um in a small Lane oh yeah and then which created a line which just backed up everything cuz nobody could get through yeah um the one of the only places that you could get drinks right was a root beer stand right in the middle yeah right in the middle of the convention center which had a

line of 100 people and blocked the entire room from moving couldn't move anyway they've got to learn from from the mistakes but it just seems like they're not so I mean we can't say definitely we the first time that's right we this is the first time we've attended Rhode Island Comic Con but speaking to other people who were there um in previous years uh some friends who've gone in previous years some of the security guards it doesn't seem like they haveed people who've had booths and attended as vendors and artists in the past and won't anymore because of all because of these issues yeah yeah so I think uh yeah I think overall it was fun and if you're aware of these issues you can probably get around it but I think a lot of

people just had no idea what they were walking into Y and if you wanted to meet Stanley galotto or any of those big celebrities you probably had a bad day yeah and probably just waited in line from morning until after cling and potentially got turned away that's right at the end which is I mean I I understand sometimes it's it's not possible to fix it but I mean that's really just not on you can't charge people that much money and especially the VIPs and then just say oh sorry yeah yeah I I think that's the the biggest crime and and and just to be clear as well I do not for an instant I saw Stanley uh we met him at Sydney when he was in Sydney and I know for a fact that he had he he would have stayed to sign everybody's if he possibly could and I

know that anybody who got turned away that there's no way that's Stanley's fault because that guy is a machine yeah y he is the one of the kindest and coolest people in in the industry so yeah I don't I don't think it his fault for a second yep I guess we should also talk about the Afterparty we got invited to the Afterparty on Saturday night we did we did well we did buy um altered reality the company that was putting it on yes uh but then when we got to the door the head of security had no record of us well he didn't have any record of any of the media of any of the media that's right so um yeah I actually had to email him my media list so that he could check people in at the door which is just another miscommunication between everybody there and somebody actually

told me that that room capacity was only 250 people and they sold 500 tickets just hoping that people wouldn't show up which I don't think is right either that doesn't sound like something they would do yeah um I have to say the the Afterparty is not really our seen no it it was I can see how it would have been a lot of fun for people who who are into more Dancy music and stuff like that but I mean the other thing is the the Celeb were supposed to be in attendance and there was like there was nobody literally no section yeah it was empty and I mean that's not the only reason we were there but that it's just another thing where it's like it's not as advertised you know uh it was run by tight crew and they they did a good job I mean it was '90s music but it was not

the '90s music that I like the setup was good the but I mean they did a good job with yeah yeah they did a good job their DJ was good if you're into that kind of thing yeah yeah no I have no issues with the with their side of things and they were all dressed appropriately for the 90s which I I thought that was pretty cool it just feels like the whole thing feels like something that was a very small convention and it never adapted to accommodate like the the thousands and thousands and thousands of people that that go to these things now and they just don't have the capacity to handle it hopefully next year they've learned from a few things yeah um and hopefully because they'll even after listening to this they'll still invite us we'll have to buy tickets we are very

grateful to altered reality yeah we're very grateful and and like again we we we had a great time uh we had a lot of fun and people we went with who who didn't have press passes they still had a great time like it wasn't all terrible it's just that I feel like the the complaints that people with complaints aren't being handled very well no no and they are all valid complaints absolutely yeah multiple nerdgasm is supported by T if you got a multiple nasm.com merch you can find our t-shirts and mugs and other apparel and odds and ends with our little faces on it yep they have a lot of Marvel stuff um uh like any comic book character that you type in they will have it's all done by Independent Artists go go mm.com merch check out our

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over to multiple nerd gm.com and listen to the parent podcast that spawned this special yeah we've got the multiple n gasm podcast which is a weekly podcast about all things nerdy so all any other stuff we talked about here and more uh we've got necronom which is a podcast that Jenner and I do about horror films we discuss the story behind and the trivia about horror films and their Inspirations thank you for listening we hope you enjoyed the show