B-O-T-C-O-N : A Delicious Art God Smorgasbord

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OMSP. Botcon. Where should I possibly begin??
With the Artist's Alley, of course. I spent so much time there that I basically skipped everything else. fr srs. They tell me there are toys for sale at Botcon. But this year, they might as well have been invisible. (OK, all except for the customized DJD on display -- I about asplode at those guys. Holy blinking awesome. My camera is not equipped with a polarized lens, so my pics are fail, but trust me -- they were EPIC) I was there for art, and art alone. My love is pure.:love:

So! Art Gods who had to put up with my fangirling:

:iconmarkerguru: Alex Milne. Of course. I went straight to his table with my "Please for the love of Primus draw me Megs w/o his helmet, crest furled, I has needed it for 5 years!" I'd even sent him a heads-up tweet, in case he needed to check for reference beforehand. Alex doesn't seem comfortable surrounded by squealing fangirls, so I really, really try to be sensitive and not bug him too much. But he's also my first Art God, and the only Marker Guru I have, so I was very brave and refused to be intimidated. He deserves a zillion points for putting up with all of us. Thanks for coming to Botcon, Alex!!!  
Here are the Alex stories:
-I asked, and got to watch him color a Rung commission. I also found out that Rung's sticking-up-in-the-back-thing is not supposed to be orange, like it's sometimes colored -- it's a window. Alex was Not Pleased with mis-colors. He seems very possessive of his designs. (They are, after all, his babies.)
-Alex very, very kindly agreed to critique my latest marker coloring. ha-heeprime.deviantart.com/art… He gave it a very thorough crit, which was awesome. He found one weakness with it that I knew was there, and one that I didn't. This was very encouraging, because it means I am able to see problems with my art, and also that I learned something from the exchange as well. The thing I knew about was the shape of the shadow on the far side of his helm -- I just plain got it wrong. But I'd seen it too, so cool. The thing I didn't notice (and I got a kick out of this) was as follows: Alex -- "What mold is this?" Me -- "Dude, I have no idea -- this is fanart." Alex -- "Well, you can tell from the shape of the chestplate here that it's the [I forget the name] mold." (The Ongoing one that DonFig designed) "So you should have colored it a darker gray." I was (and still am) flabbergasted (and amused) that he recognizes molds and colors accordingly. Go Alex! You have shown me that I ought to start caring too. (Remember that whole I-don't-notice-toys thing? There is a time that they matter.) The cool thing was that he pronounced the work Good, and complimented me on the red sheenies on his face plating from his eyes. he liked the eyes, too. And lo, life was good. 
-He showed me the pencils for my commission, and I squeebled like a stepped-on kitten. He was doing this very dramatic low-angle, underlit scene from the fight pits with all kinds of energon splotches, and Glorious Details everywhere. OMP I about died. 
...And then I asked if I could color it. I know Alex is not keen on people coloring his stuff. So I told him it was fine if he said no. He pondered. Then gave his reluctant blessing, as long as I didn't make any prints of it. "Alex," I said, "I'm just doing this for fun. I ain't makin' no prints! I ain't no famous artist!" (OK, I didn't say it exactly like that, but you know.) Anyway, I hated to push, but of course I really had wanted to color it. I had given him a clear out. And he had said yes...
...When I picked up the finished pic, I had to laugh. He'd put in ALL KINDS OF solid black shadows. AKA, impossible to color on. Don't get me wrong; it's epic. But I miss the details.  And I do kind of wonder if it was a little bit of passive-aggressive Sharpie-ing. (It probably wasn't -- he'd told me what he was planning. I just hadn't realized there would be soooo much black!) I'll scan it in and share it in my gallery later. For lo, it is win. (I do realize I'm an insufferable ingrate, whinging about the shading, by the way.)

Notice to Everyone: You owe it to yourself to listen to this podcast interview with Alex the Art God. He is HILARIOUS in ways hitherto unimagined, and he gives some really, really cool insights into his work on MTMTE. DO IT NOW OR YOU'LL REGRET IT!www.fullmetalhero.com/t13114/

Next, I went to :icondcjosh: Josh Burcham's table, fell to my knees (not really a worship-pose, more of a natural way to get to eye-level that I ended up doing a lot) then, plunking my elbows on the table, I greeted him with an exuberant, "Josh-the-Art-God Burcham! How the heck are ya?" and presented him with the derpy horrible dismembered Fort-Max ornament I'd made for him out of Sculpey as a thank-you for the Fort Max cover he'd done for me a few months ago. He was like, :? with a side of :fear:the-fangirls-are-after-me! Understandable, I suppose. I was super stoked to meet him, because unlike Alex, I'd missed pestering him when he came to Botcon back in 2009. I bought the Chromedome and Rewind print he'd made, and told him how much fun I'd had in the Livestream for it, and how much glee I had about having a smidgen of input on the Cybertronian along the sides. "They can blame you," he said. GLEE. Along with prints, he had a TON of original sketches, the ones he used to post from when he was working nights and scribbling. I was like, :wow:! but had no idea which one to settle on and buy. (SO... MANY...) I asked him to sign MTMTE #14 with the creepy Overlord cover, because that was the one in which he used all that Overlord Red to such effect. I'd thought of asking him to sign my Stormbringer, the series that solidified him as the Ultimate God of Color in my pantheon, but I wussed out -- didn't want to pester him too much. (I got Alex to sign #14 too, and he mentioned again how much it creeped him out, ftw.)
-At the end of the Con, when I saw I still had a few dollars left (!!) I bought two original sketches from the Art God Josh: dcjosh.deviantart.com/art/Op-1… (aka one of my most successful color collabs EVAR) and one that I can't find in his DA gallery right now, but it looks a lot like this one: dcjosh.deviantart.com/art/Guzz…
-Awesome pal Ky had come with us to Botcon for the epic win, and she's a fellow artist, so she came around the Art God tables too. She's only seen MTMTE, but has put up with me squeebling about Josh-the-Art-God for a while now. When she saw the range of stuff Josh had brought as portfolio examples, she went into full fan-mode, which I thoroughly enjoyed. (Nice to hear someone besides me gushing, and also to have someone who works in the animation industry (she works on Disney games) say he's got the best color sense of anyone she's ever seen. See Josh? We're not making it up.) She was braver than I would have been, and showed him her sketchbook. 

Podcast interview with Josh the Art God Burcham: www.fullmetalhero.com/t11429/

:iconkaijusamurai: Matt Frank was my favorite Art Pal to hang with this year. It feels odd to call a dude "Art God" who throws out terrible slash jokes, and draws Tailgate biting his lip over a naughty "Decepti-Chops" magazine; so he's gonna be an Art Pal. In other words, Matt Frank is A KICK IN THE FACE and I love him. Holy slag onna biskit, you shoulda seen the sporfle-inducing sketches he was doing for commissions. Go find him on FB and check them out -- he's posted a lot of 'em. (The Whirl one! O M blinking P!) I snagged his last commission slot, because I just couldn't live with myself not getting one. I'll post it soon -- it is WINNING. 
Ky and I hung around Matt's table long enough to attain the rare and coveted status of Trusted Fangirls, which means we were the ones he asked to watch the table while he took a quick break, and the ones he asked to pick him up some lunch when the poor dude was starving. (I don't mean to imply he was a moocher, far from it. We were headed out anyway.) I am ridiculously honored by these requests. I so want to be the kind of person that even World Famous Art Gods can bum favors off of/tease mercilessly/discuss ideas with. I want to be a friend, not just a hanger-on. And so requests like this make me insanely happy. 
We got to talking about there being no girls in TFdom comics at the moment, and I added my intense and heartfelt "YES PLEASE!!" to his pitch for a story about Elita and her gang. They were AWESOME and we need them back. I worry Simon has made this impossible, but I believe in the power of the Barber Cannon (John Barber's powers of Continuity First-Aid) to make it possible. One funny moment was when Alex, who's also a big proponent of girls and who was next to Matt Frank, got an earful of our conversation and perked up with a "What are you guys talking about?" I sincerely wish there had been a hang-out room where there were fewer screaming hordes, so Alex coulda been more comfortable. But the other major reason for his head-in-the-paper was his willingness to take on a zillion commissions, for which we are grateful. (Alex = The Unattainable Art God.) Anyway, in the middle of this discussion, we got called to be in a Proof-of-Female-Fanpower project that was deserving of many Huzzahs and which I will write of later...
Matt Frank: More fun than ought to be allowed, and I'm so happy he put up with us and let me hang around so much. I'd brought both TF Mars Attacks and Trailcuter Spotlight, and asked him which had been his favorite to work on, meaning for him to sign that one. But he was very nice and not only signed both comics, but took me through their pages while telling me about what he'd done in each and how it had been to work on them. Awesome!
I also asked him to clue me on on Godzilla, of which, like Jon Snow, I know nothing. He had a sad for a bit because he'd read an absolutely evil review (no substance, just vitriol) late at night after a day of trying to draw commissions and real work as well. I honestly like his TF art better than his Godzilla work, because the great expressiveness he brings to our favorite giant alien robots is more fun in them because it is so unexpected on their unorganic faces. His Godzilla Rulers of Earth work was more straightforward, and I missed the quirkiness. Now, I realize I know nothing, and maybe his Godzilla work is waaaaay more quirky than everyone else's who has gone before. It's certainly fun -- his kaiju remind me of BHS-ArchetypeRex's amazing dinosaur work.   

:iconcaliber316: Casey Coller and :iconwordmongerer: John-Paul Bove were once again tag-teamin' it at a shared table, and were joined by JP's TOTALLY AWESOME new wifey, :iconvenkman-project: Jessica Bradley-Bove (of the delightfully rollicking name). They were the first Art Gods I saw -- ran into them coming into the convention center on Thursday, and greeted them with cries of joy and outstretched arms. Casey said hi, then assured me that Alex was on his way. Casey, Now Hear This: You are just as worthy an Art God as Alex is, and for the record, I was Not looking over your shoulder to find someone better! (I LOVE ALL MY ART GODS WITH A LOVE THAT IS PURE AND FERVID.) What can I say about these three? They just plain make me happy by existing. JP and Jess are HILARIOUS, perfect for each other, and just generally amazing. Casey is possibly the kindest, most generous Art God of them all, simply because he always greets me with a "Hi, Heather. How are you?" even when he's busy and probably bothered by my hanging around. That's a talent, Bro, and it makes a difference in the world. 
This Botcon was incredibly wonderful, because I for the first time ever had saved up enough to actually get a few things. But Chromie gets credit for making it possible to pick up even more eye-popping goodness. She and I both LOVE the way Casey draws Ironhide, so in 2011 she bought me one of his lineart prints to color. (Holy. Bleeping. Slag, that was a fun project to do!!!) This year, I bought his Kup and Springer lineart caliber316.deviantart.com/art/…, and she gave me dollars to get another Ironhide print..... holy crap, it's not in his gallery. (It's EPIC, Casey! Go post it!) It's from the Ironhide series, and it's the splash page where he's all weaponed-up and "Come at me, bro," before taking on all the Insecticons. (In other words, SMEX.) I also bought a print of his MTMTE Chromedome and Prowl Shadowplay cover, caliber316.deviantart.com/art/… . Casey does this very, very cool thing where he'll sell original art, but he'll also sell prints of his lineart on real comic board for just $10.00, so people like me and Chromia can afford them. Sadly, my printer cannot handle that thickness of paper for making colorable copies, but he has one that can, and it's a mass-market one. I forget the type, but if you need more info on it he can tell you. I'll be off to the local copy shop with mine. (Or maybe I'll just color right on them again like I did the first Ironhide one................ Dunno.)
It's ALWAYS fun to talk with JP. I asked about his writing, because I'm really happy that he's getting to write "for real." I'm also really stoked to hear he's got a project going with other art pals that he'll be doing on his own (i.e. not owned or behested by anyone else.) Can't wait to see it, JP!!! :excited: Ky and I also got some very, very cool-sounding comic book recommendations from him.......... And it's a good thing Ky wrote them down because it was the last day of the Con and all my brain cells were dead and I cannot for the life of me remember what the titles were! But it was oh so very fun to talk writing and books with an Art&Writing God/Pal. Isn't it fun to get all intense with the sharing of your love of something, and to have that love taken seriously? Good things deserve love, and friends who do not disdain your love for something are both good friends and good listeners. Huzzah.
I also got pointers on how his last name's SUPPOSED to be pronounced, (though he said he "mispronounces it for other people at this point"!) It's something resembling "BAW-vay." Throw on the Italian swag, and it works. 
Oh -- and he signed my Regen-One book, "Ha-Hee Prime is a psychopathic Art-God worshiper," for boss-level glee. 



Other Art Gods I worshiped with sincerest gratitude and praise, but do not have massive stories about: 

All-around-great-dude :iconlivioramondelli: --Got him to sign Autocracy, asked how the Star wars art was going, and shared my anticipation for the Monstrocity trade. Thanks to a comment by someone on the Underbase podcast, I cannot unsee the fact that he does indeed have glorious eyes. Awww! :love:

Colorist-extraordinaire :iconkhaamar: Joana Lafuente was there with some gorgeous prints (Hound, who is awesome, sneaked up and ninja-bought me the Drift one that makes me unspeakably happy to look at. khaamar.deviantart.com/art/Bot…and her fuzzy, fuzzy [I assume] husband. They were unspeakably cute together. It was very, very cool to see several pairs of Art God-and-Spouse there working together: Alex's other half was there, Ken Christianson's wife sat with him, and so on and so forth. Huzzah. There were also several Art God Bro's in attendance at various tables, helping out. Hoorah for the Support Teams!!!!! I asked Joana if she wished she could draw for the comics instead of "just" coloring them, because someone had mentioned that they felt she'd been unfairly sidelined. I was happy to hear her say that she preferred coloring. (I can relate to that.) She does great work and keeps getting better. 

Said Hi to :iconteyowisonte: Thomas Deer, and got him to sign the Trailcutter Spotlight. He's a great guy. And since I'm throwin' out the compliments, I'll state here that he's handsome, too! :D (Hey, we all need to hear it.)

Complimented :iconmarcelomatere: Marcelo Matere on his wonderful work on the TF Animated comics, which I've just recently gotten a couple of. (Shoulda brought them to have him sign! Only now just thought of it. D'oh!) Forgot to ask him the correct pronunciation of his last name (is the final e voiced?). I've always wanted to get it right -- Art Gods deserve to have their names said right. 

Said Hi to :iconrex-203: Robby Musso, and was a little sad to realize that he seems to have forgotten me. (He made my whole year at the 2011 Botcon by greeting me with a hug.) Did not push it. Robby gets mad props because he drew a free commission for my pal :iconty-chou: who has had an art table next to his several years running, but who had sadly forgotten once again to bring her Cliffjumper Spotlight for him to sign.

I found :iconglovestudios: at the IDW booth, and got him to sign my RiD. I also found John-the-God-of-Continuity Barber there on Saturday, and asked him to sign Foundation, because it's the only Movieverse story that I actually Believe In, which is a real accomplishment. 



There were several other artists there whose work is not as familiar to me, or who are not working for IDW but are just plain so talented it comes out their ears. See the giant poster for the list, www.botcon.com/BotCon2013/bc13… and click on names for bios. One guy did these MIND-MELTINGLY BEAUTIFUL pencil and white chalk drawings on beige paper that were worth every penny he was asking, and if I'd had $300.00 I'd have his Prime vs Megs print hanging on my wall as we speak. That midtone paper, pencil darks and lights technique is one of my favorite things in the whole world. 



I had a very cool encounter with :iconradiojane:. She is one of those softspoken, translucent, luminous people, and I saw her first as she was being very brave and showing Casey some of her artwork while asking him questions about how to be a professional artist. I looked over (butting in like I do) and recognized the art. "I know you from DA" I said. "Hi. I'm Ha-Hee Prime." I wasn't even certain she'd know who I was. But her whole face changed, and she responded like I'd just given her something wonderful. "You are??" she said. And then she told me how much my "nicest comments!" meant to her. That made my whole week. like, seriously. Finding out that I am, for one person, the kind of online entity that elicits that kind of wonderful response when encountered in the real world was amazing. I want more than anything to be a person who encourages others in their heart's work. JP made me feel great when he told me I did just that.



On Friday, I looked all over for Aimee Morgan of Underbase podcast fame, because I was wearing my beloved Wreckers short that she designed, and I wanted to thank her for the multiplicious delights of the podcast in person while wearing it. Didn't find her till the next day though. She's awesome. The Underbase podcast is awesome. (Go listen to it!!!) I just love getting to tell people in real life how much I appreciate all that they do. 



I found Mairghread Scott, writer on the TFP comics and some episodes of the show, at the IDW booth as well, and had a very cool talk with her. It is very neat to see a woman writer in TFdom now. She's also hoping to bring more female characters into the world, and to make Hasbro realize that there are a lot of us fans who are of the girl persuasion. She was the one who (with [I assume] her husband -- or possibly her co-writer on the comics) orchestrated the event that interrupted our talk with Matt Frank that I mentioned earlier. They called over the loudspeaker, and asked if all of us female fans would congregate at the Hasbro end of the Dealer's Room for a massive pic to prove to Hasbro that we exist. The energy of being part of that was amazing. It was a small Botcon, and a lot of people were elsewhere (in panels, etc.) But those of us who were there were passionate. 
"Who wants Elita?" Mairghread shouted, and I screamed "YES!!!" with all my might. "Who wants Chromia? Firestar? Moonracer?" And we screamed. "Airazor!" Chromia shouted, and everyone, including Mairghread, for whom that character is a favorite, screamed assent. "Write them with CHARACTER!" I shouted, and everyone loudly agreed. Tons of the guys came with their cameras to record the event as well. It was very, very cool. I only failed because I didn't find Tyla to make sure she'd heard the announcement and could leave her table to come be a apart of it. (I assumed she'd hear it.) She was sad she'd missed out -- she LOVES female TF's and thinks they're very important. 
I don't HATE the whole "genderless" thing, especially now that James has done the whole CD and R thing to give me the close relationships I crave. Genderlessness provides opportunities to explore very interesting things in new ways. But I do like all the non-G1-Arcee female characters. I think TFP Arcee has really drawn attention to the fact that girls can be awesome and interesting and cool, without being pink and "girly." And they certainly don't hurt the TF world......... unless, as previously mentioned, you make them Pink & Girly. I have no idea how real TF girls could be reinserted into the IDW comics in the wake of the Arcee Spotlight, but I trust in the power of the Barber cannon to make it so.  





This post has taken me ages to compile, and I'm sure it's taken you ages to read. But it was wonder, wonder, wonderful to get to hang out with so many creative people in the TF world. I truly love you all, and wish you all the best in life. Thank you for being YOU, and for all you bring to this fandom!!!

Sincerely, 
--Prime





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Laserbot's avatar
DUUDE! It was a really fun time this year! those haters can take their hate and shove it up their tailpipe! i had a great time there! I got to meet Steven Blum again and give him the Starscream Helmhat! That just made my experience that much more epic to get to chit chat and Joke "in character" with him! and meet Mairghread! LOL at one point she layes on the ground infront of me and asks me to aim my SHockstaff at her for a picture ROFL! that cracked me up when she posted it up later and said that Knockout didnt appreciate the dialogue she wrote for him. then later at the Girls meet in front of Hasbro she asked me to lead the "ROLL out" cheer as I was wearing my Optimus Prime Helmhat and Gun Prop. XD

I loved meeting all my fav artists there too man! Alex was really cool to sign all of my MTMTE and Drift series. I noticed you met one of my good friends :iconradiojane: shes quite a talented artist. she was also the costumer walking around as MTMTE Cyclonus. she built that costume, it took her 6 months from concept to finish and it was her first time doing it. :3 My other friends from AZ who were there consisted of my hubby as Breakdown, my friend as Airachnid and her BF was Smokescreen and more as Starscream, Dreadwing, etc. there was a lot of us from Arizona there!