The Professional Gamer - August 22, 2016

Back to a relatively normal week at work, and I've had a bit more time to have fun again this week. Even with biking to work, which takes about twice as long as driving, I was able to make some substantial progress in video games. And I'm looking forward to some fun convention time in the next few weeks. Ready? Let's go!

In the world of Elite: Dangerous, I've finally saved enough money for my next ship. I'm at the point of spending the next hours or so cruising around the universe to find my new ship and all the equipment that I need to outfit it to my needs. I'm excited that I'll be increasing my earning potential, and spending some time in a slightly more manuverable and fun ship again.

Next week, I'll be heading up to the Fort Collins Comic Con with Crystal, where she'll be selling some of her art and comics and I'll be helping her out.  I'm also hoping to spend a little bit of time looking around the convention, meeting some artists, and talking about comics with other fans.  This is only the conventions second year, but hopefully everything goes fairly well.

With that in mind, I hope to see you all again next week.  Have a great time, and game on!

The Professional Gamer - June 27, 2016

Hello readers!  I hope you all have enjoyed our coverage of Denver Comic Con this year.  We all had a great time.  Everything was comics and nothing hurt.  I've started reading and reviewing the comics that I bought, so keep your eyes on this space for more articles.

On top of that, I'm getting into my semi-regular reading of Lord of the Rings.  I don't really have a lot to say about it.  For whatever reason, I derive so much comfort from reading Tolkien's masterwork.  No matter what is going on in my life, it is a grounding to my youth.  

That's all that I really have for this week.  I'm taking a bit of an easier time this week, and recovering from Comic Con.  But, I'm planning to be back next week with some more discussions.  Have a great week and game on!

Denver Comic Con 2016 in Pictures

Denver Comic Con has ended, but as with any event it is not forgotten! Behold how it will eternally (or as long as I have a website / Facebook) exist! The full gallery can be found here as well.

E3 in Images

So over the past few days I took a few photos while touring the E3 Floor. And here are the results!

Anime Southwest - A Quick Review

Last weekend Anime Southwest had it's (technically) first event. Due to some personal circumstances I was not able to go near as long as I wanted, but I was able to get a decent handle on the event. 

To start the event was short handed due to a number of staff bowing at the week before the convention happened. The rumors (and that is all I can call them at this time) is that staff from a different con was supposed to assist, but opted not to at the last moment. Despite this problem the staff that were there all friendly. When I met with the press head he took the time to give me a tour of the convention showing me where the panel rooms, VG Room, Main Event, and Dealer room were. It was a much appreciated tour. I also spoke to a few guests and they were appreciative to what the staff were doing for them. One group had a technical issue that was handled in short order while another was able to get an impromptu Digimon panel setup. I hope that in future years they can keep up this level of dedication.

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As for the venue, it was definitely not the location they had wanted, but they were able to make it work. The center of the convention featured Artist Alley.  To get to any of the other rooms you had to go past the artists. They also had the small restaurant with, what I assume, were free snacks to keep the attendees going strong. While I don't see this happening in the future, or at least for all future cons, it was a nice gesture. 

Do I plan to attend next year? Yes, I do. Hopefully I won't have the same personal problems next year to keep me from attending all weekend, so I can truly enjoy Anime Southwest. And for those that want to see the photos I did manage to take, they can be found here.

Anime Southwest is Coming

Good news (I hope) anime fans! Denver is getting a forth anime convention. Anime Southwest is being held April 29 - May 1st at the Ramada Plaza at I-25 and 120th Ave. This convention is being put on by the group known as Sukoshi Con who have done other anime conventions across the country, so they do bring some experience with them. To some this group may sound familiar, and yes they have worked with Animeland Wasabi, possibly the most controversial convention in town on whether one should go or not. Well while they have worked with them they are a separate group and deserve the benefit of the doubt. So why should you got to Anime Southwest? Well that is always the question.

The panels / events of Anime Southwest include the standard array of costume contest and a dance. For Utena fans there will also be a Rose Ball where you can "Dance the evening away in a rose filled wonderland". The guests will also be holding their own panels. Samantha Inoue-Harte, whom has worked in over 33 anime titles and video games, will have panels about Auditioning for Video Game Voice Acting, Old School Anime Fandom, and what it is like Inside the Japanese Anime Studio. Then we have Blake Shepard who has been working in anime for over 10 years by lending his voice to shows such and Angel Beats, Sacred Blacksmith, One Piece, Air Gear, Elfen Lied and more. He is also a animator and will be doing an Animation 101 panel over the weekend. Kazha is also attending as a musical guest so we can expect to see a concert on the schedule. Lastly we will see two cosplay guests, DugFinn Cosplay and Umbra Cosplay. 

Hopefully we will see more events as the convention closes in. If you want to pre-registers you can do so here for $45.00 for all three days. Look forward to seeing you there.

Jim at Denver Independent Comics Arts Festival (DINK)

This has ended up being a year for a lot of firsts.  First year for a new anime convention and now the first year of an independent comics festival.  The first year of the Denver Independent Comic Arts Festival (DINK) seemed to be mostly successful.  I can't speak to the degree of financial success (either for the artists or the organizers), but there was a wide variety of artists and panels presented.  I had a lot of fun listening to some comics artists talking about autobio comics and the history and future of underground comics.  I also went to a workshop about how to make a zine, which got me out of my shell enough to make a short autobio zine.

I had a lot of fun.  My only regret, was that I did not have the budget to buy all of the amazing comics that I saw.  I hope that this convention can continue for many more years, since its a great change of pace compared to the large, mainstream comics conventions that are typical.