This past weekend Meredith and I were exhibitors at the Baltimore Comic Con, and it was a blast! It’s always a ton of fun to do local shows — not just because we get to skip out on exhausting travel, but also to meet people in the area who are new to Ex-Boyfriend!
Here are some highlights from the weekend, costumed and otherwise:
There were of course the usual suspects — your Supermen, your Spider-Men, etc. But this was the only transitional Clark Kent-into-Superman we saw, and we thought it was pretty cool. Especially in conjunction with his buddy…
Two-Face! I loved the commitment to the character with this one — the cosplayer did the half-and-half hair and necktie, as well as the suit and disfigured hand!
But whenever we work at conventions, my favorite costumes are the ones that are either really well-done from a structural/mechanical/design standpoint, or that reference more obscure characters:
My crappy photo doesn’t NEARLY do this guy’s mask and make-up job justice, but his mask was so perfectly applied to his face that you’d be forgiven for thinking he was actually disfigured in this way!
And this dalek from Dr. Who was pretty amazing, complete with lights, sounds, and rolling chassis! EXTERMINATE, indeed!
But my faves are always the obscure characters, like Marvel’s Swamp Thing analog, Man-Thing.
Or this couple, who showed up as a spot-on Shredder and Krang from TMNT!
But my favorite costume of the weekend was easily this one:
Wesley, aka the Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride! This guy gets extra points for authenticity for his inclusion of an ROUS (those are Rodents Of Unusual Size for you noobs).
And I would be remiss if I didn’t share this fun snapshot:
Some Ex-Boyfriend super-fans who came to the con rocking their Fuzz Aldrin and Pterodactyl Springs Summer Camp tees! We love seeing our stuff out in the wild, so if you’re ever hitting up one of the events we’re exhibiting at, be sure to wear your Ex-Boyfriend gear and stop by our booth for a pic — we’d love to see you!
Hint: we’ll be at the New York Comic Con next month from October 11th through October 14th, and just north of Baltimore October 27th-28th for the next Run For Your Lives zombie obstacle 5k!
Are you one of those types that really likes to see an item up close before you buy it? Have you often found yourself frustrated because you desperately want to wear my amazing designs, but can’t bring yourself to order them before trying them on?
Relax. I get it. I’m the same way!
So it’s pretty exciting for me to announce that you can now walk into finer establishments across the world (literally! We’re in Canada an’ everything!) and purchase Ex-Boyfriend merchandise without worrying about sizing, fit, and shipping charges!
Here’s where we’re at so far:
• Wink – San Francisco, CA
• Killer Rabbit – Fort Collins, CO
• Life By Lisa – Cedar Falls, IA
• Kustom Kulture – Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
• Wholly Craft – Columbus, OH
We’re not stopping there, of course — Victorious Yeti must eat, and I know not all of you reside in those five cities. Is there a shop or boutique near you that doesn’t carry Ex-Boyfriend that should? Tell ‘em! Tell us! Let’s make it happen, Nation!
Black-footed cats Godiva & Wyatt of the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo just welcomed two new kittens into the world earlier this month, and they. Are. Awesome.
Also, not to sound all broken record-y, but if you’re in the mid-Atlantic this weekend and would like to stretch your legs and see some cute critters up-close, please come support the Maryland SPCA at their 17th annual March for the Animals at Druid Hill Park in Baltimore, Maryland this Sunday morning (4/29/2012) from 10am to 2pm! There’ll be food vendors, demonstrations, training classes, plus the Maryland SPCA’s mobile adoption center for those of you who might want to welcome a new member into your family!
Oh, right — I’ll be there too! I’ll be selling the usual suspects: tees, messenger bags, art prints, belts, etc, plus handing out TONS of free swag!
So with April being more or less the start of “show season”, we hit the road a couple weeks ago and finally are back home in Baltimore!
Our first stop was up north for Anime Boston, where we got to meet, greet, and sell to some awesome new customers and fellow exhibitors:
The Ex-Boyfriend Booth!
Here’s the indoor version of Ex-Boyfriend’s show booth, Mk II. We’re constantly tweaking the layout and arrangement, but after the last two weeks we think we’re pretty close to perfecting things.
This adorable guy was busting a move in the center aisle of the hall!
One half of Daft Punk stopped by to say 010010000110010101101100011011000110111100100001
You may remember this cosplayer from our Otakon 2011 slideshow where she appeared as a balloon-clad version of Princess Leia in the gold bikini. This year she’s stepping out as Belle from Disney’s Beauty & The Beast!
C2E2 (the Chicago Comics & Entertainment Expo) was even bigger and a blast to be at; we ran into Tom Servo & Crow of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame!
What nerd-Mecca would be complete without an appearance by dread Cthulu?
Or, for that matter, Godzilla?
C2E2 featured its fair share of Star Wars-related cosplayers, but I was pleased by how many folks showed up as Ghost Busters. However, this Gozer the Gozerian clearly takes the cake!
When all is said and done, though, my favorite characters to see “in the flesh” are the more obscure B-and-C-tier heroes & villains — it’s like going to a DJ night or flipping on the radio at 3am and catching a bored DJ spinning an awesome B-side from your favorite band. This Moon Knight cosplayer was one of my faves of both shows!
And hey! Whaddaya know, but this top ten list goes all the way to ELEVEN, thanks to one of the many new Ex-Boyfans who just couldn’t wait to get back to their hotel room to upgrade their wardrobe from “meh” to “awesome!”
If you met us at Anime Boston OR C2E2 and want to get featured on the Ex-Boyfriend blog, just email us a pic of yourself in your fresh new gear!
Have a great weekend, guys! Don’t drink too much tomorrow, and please remember to tell everyone you know about our fundraising promotion for the Maryland SPCA — a lot of new designs this year, PLUS the art prints, PLUS you get karmic brownie points…and who couldn’t use a few more of those?
Sorry for the radio silence, guys! Been busily gearing up for our big annual fundraiser benefiting the Maryland SPCA!
You can get the details here. The exciting news is that this year, in addition to some new magnet & keychain designs, I’ve included my new art prints in the promotion! So now till April 15th, not only will the purchase of these items make your house look good, but it’ll make you AND some cute critters feel good as well! Plus, y’know, FREE SHIPPING! You guys like free stuff, right? Right?!
So c’mon and help us spread the word — tweet, share, link, and post about this all over the webz and help us help them!
I actually had a really cramazing Thirsty Thursday post lined up for today, but it’ll have to wait until next week — I have an exciting announcement to make (well, two actually):
The full video won’t be up on Hulu until next week, but rest assured, it will be embedded ASAP (provided Congress doesn’t destroy the internet between now and then). There’s something vaguely satisfying about Jimmy passing his GED test while wearing one of my tees…
But even MORE exciting than this teeny-tiny step up the ladder of fame is the addition of ART PRINTS to the Ex-Boyfriend product line! While a limited selection to start, I hope to be able to add to the collection of available art prints in the future. Each 11″ x 17″ print is digitally reproduced on 100 lb. glossy cover stock, ships for FREE in sturdy cardboard shipping tubes, and is guaranteed to get you mad high-fives & fist-bumps at your next dinner party (if your dinner parties are typically held at the Jersey Shore. And if they are, the high-fives might be for your delicious rum-ham.)
Typically I try to not let my home life bleed into these posts too much — I am boring, Japanese robots are not. But the other night after I was done working, I laid down on the bed and Oliver just made a bee-line for my arm, and well…this happened:
Bliss complete.
Have a great weekend, guys! And for those of you mid-Atlantic folks still trying to shore up your holiday shopping, you could do a lot worse than stopping by my booth at the Punk Rock Flea Market in Philly on Sunday! I’ll have free stuff like comics, candy & stickers waiting for you, plus event-only deals on shirts, belts, bags & more! Not too shabby for a meager $3 entry donation, eh?
THE PUNK ROCK FLEA MARKET-DOME
461 N. 9th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19123
Also, in case you missed it: my very own Whale Trip tee was featured quite prominently all over this week’s episode of ABC’s Modern Family! Alex Dunphy knows what’s up; do you?
I love cheese. Actually, “love” is kind of a weak-sauce descriptor for how I feel about cheese. If there was a word stronger than “love”, it would probably only apply to a few things in my life: Meredith, my cats, the Baltimore Orioles, and cheese. Maybe self-foaming hand soap (seriously, that stuff is right up there with flight, fire, and the wheel as far as technological advancements go).
So it’s pretty gratifying to find that Culture Magazine, the final word on cheese as far as print media goes, saw fit to feature my Check Out My Goat Tee shirt in their Autumn issue’s “Gear” section. I’m pretty stoked. And as you can see, it looks pretty awesome:
Pretty rad, huh? I’m gonna go celebrate with a glass of pinot noir and a hunk of gruyere.
Saturday was the first annual Baltimore Run For Your Lives zombie 5K obstacle race, and this guy had a front-row seat!
The race was very much a full-day affair, with the first group of runners heading out into the course at 8am and the last one crossing the finish line around 6pm, followed by live music until midnight! This of course meant that Meredith and I had to get to the event around 5am to finish setting up our booth before the attendees showed up for registration at 6am—which meant a 3am wake-up to load the car up for a 4am departure time!
Totally worth it, though—a very fun experience, and a great place to meet new fans and make new friends.
I even snapped some pictures throughout the day, though I had to wait until around 7:30 or 8 for the sun to come up and get over the treeline. Here’s the booth in the early morning—we were soooo excited to see the sun, and big-ups to the folks in the Funtastic Foods tent for keeping us warm with a steady stream of hot chocolate!
The event area itself was the perfect setting for a mock-zombie apocalypse: remote, lots of forest, and very cold and overcast for much of the day. Our stuff went over really well, and it was especially gratifying to see my newest designs get lots of love from the crowd, though pretty much every design I’d brought with us carried its weight—it’s always nice to see that Fuzz has still got it! Even nicer to see older fans already in-the-know:
I love this sort of thing—I imagine it’s a lot like being a musician and never getting sick of hearing your song on the radio.
All in all, it was a great day, but really long—the booth pretty much looked like this from 8:20am (around the time the first survivors made it to the finish line) until we started packing up around 8pm:
And sad as I was initially that I had to work the booth instead of run the course, I eventually realized it was definitely for the best; way too many reports of broken legs, serious cuts and gashes, and sprained ankles, not to mention that fact that there were two water obstacles that necessitated running around in soaked shorts & tees in sub-55˚ weather, followed by a thorough hosing down to remove caked-on mud. The weather was miserable enough being dry and fully-clothed, thank you very much!
But ultimately everyone seemed to have a blast—especially this guy:
Many thanks to all the new fans I met this weekend! And those of you who couldn’t make it, fear not and remember, you can take 10% off your purchase now through the end of October by entering the coupon code HALLOWEEN10 at checkout! And Philly fans—we’re coming back up in December for R5 Productions’ Punk Rock Flea Market! $3 gets you inside to shop for awesome holiday gifts from a variety of vendors, and I’ll be there with new stuff on shirts, bags & belts! Even better: it’s indoors! Hope to see you all there:)
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