Thursday 9th September 2010AussieCon 4

I went to AussieCon 4 (aka WorldCon) at the beginning of September in order to meet Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary fame. I've been working with Howard for over a year on the iPhone application, but this is the first opportunity we have had to meet in person.

WorldCon is the World Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention, and is held every year in various places around the world (usually in North America). The annual Hugo Award ceremony is held at the WorldCon convention.

The Hugos are awarded to the best Sci-Fi and Fantasy work from the previous year, as nominated and voted by the members of the World Science Fiction Society, which you need to be a member of to attend the convention. Howard was nominated in the Best Graphic Novel category for the second year in a row.

So from the 2nd to the 6th of September, I was in Melbourne at the convention, sitting in on various panels, helping out at Howards booth in the dealers room, and generally having fun.

As part of meeting his fans and selling his merchandise, Howard draws a custom sketch in every book he sells at these conventions. This is usually a black & white character from one of the Schlock Mercenary books, but when you purchase a copy of Xtreme Dungeon Mastery (XDM), he will draw any character you like.

I requested a Dwarven Barbarian with a Great Axe. No particular reason, I just wanted to see what Howard would come up with. I'm more than pleased with the results. Note Howard coloured the sketch because a) I've developed a couple of iOS applications for him, b) I was helping him out at the convention and c) he had some free time.

The other well known (in the webcomic scene) people I met were Phil and Kaja Foglio, of Girl Genius fame. The Foglios were also nominated in the Best Graphic Novel category, and won it last year, and again this year. I managed to get a photo of myself with them, with one of their award statues, and got a drawing of myself done by Phil.

While in Melbourne, I also met a lot of other people, made some new friends, and won a LOT of books from the Penguin Books booth in the dealers room.

I really enjoyed myself and would love to go to another WorldCon in the future (next year is in Reno). I would also recommend it to other fans of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and is a great way to meet some of your favorite authors and artists, and to discover new favorite authors and artists.