Only a quick glance for now. I'm sure I'll have more to say about the entire experience when I'm not getting ready to head off to my Grandfather's epic 94th birthday party. In the meantime, here are a few shots I just grabbed while surfing through the ultra packed Wondercon:
GDC kicked off to a tasty start for the Destructoid team at TellTale Games' party held at Cellar. Naturally we couldn't say no to the prospect of zombie makeup, karaoke, and free drinks, but little did I know that the party's most exciting attraction (for me, anyway) was the presence of the one and only Steve Purcell. In the flesh! And also sporting a rather adventurous felt hat.
For those of you not familiar with the man and his work, Purcell is known for his artistic contributions on many of the classic LucasArts adventure games. More significantly however, he is recognized as the brain machine behind the lovingly twisted partners in crime Sam and Max. It would be an understatement to say I was somewhat starry eyed and whiskey soured upon my approach to Mr. Purcell, in utter awe of the fact that I was about to meet one of the artists that truly set the ground rules for my sense of humor and my love for adventure games while growing up.
Chad and I both approached him at first asking for photos, an idea that was suddenly overshadowed by another fan's request for a drawing. Notebook-less I called the attention of Joey the bartender for a cocktail napkin and asked the same of Mr. Purcell, only to sign it for .tiff (of course).
And then there was Max! Exclaiming quite enthusiastically that .tiff is "Not a real name!". The sight of it set my fan girl flame on full blaze, and I beamed happily clinging to the napkin as I parted ways.
That was, until I thought I had lost it. The bar was rather dark and the copious amounts of drank had somehow shadowed the sight of the drawing hidden in the folds of my purse. I went from ecstatic to distressed in 60 flat, but Mr. Purcell noticed so offered to do another drawing, a Second Coming of Max, if you will. Brilliant as Purcell always is, the second drawing cleverly references the first and includes a bonus floating Sam head. Win! and Win!
Of course after gushing all of my fan girl pheromones all over Mr. Purcell, singing Material Girl with Leigh Alexander, and somehow making it home by the end of the night, I found the other drawing after all. You can better believe that I'll be framing these babies and keeping them forever!
A mega-ultra-super-happy-funtime thanks goes out to Luke for pointing this out to me. I believe I've covered my complete and utter adoration of Jamie Hewlett and his respective creative offspring, so it's no surprise that my insides feel dipped in sugar and rolled in sunshine upon the discovery of the upcoming pilot Phoo Action:
Lets just say that with my hair only a current shade away from becoming Whitey Action for Halloween (Hewlett's Tank Girl was a perfect guise in 2005), there is apt costume competition against my previous ideas between Stella from Interstella 5555 or a Yip Yip Alien from Sesame Street.
Toy designers Friends with You have designed a blind-box variety of small noise-making childrens' toys under the series title 'Wish Come True'. Capitalizing on bubbly, shiny, colorful plastic and plush creations, Friends with You has always managed to make the most of its figures by making them super-mega kawaii. These figures are certainly no exception, particularly with names like Fluffy Pop, Buddy Chub, Popo and Mr. TTT.
Take a gander at the following video to get an aural/visual peak at how these babies tick (and/or ping) or attend their release part at Yoyamart in NYC on February 16th and grab some while you can! And this is only the beginning! According to Vinyl Pulse, the 'Wish Come True' series is a large overarching project that will tour cities nation-wide in Spring 2008. I can't wait to see what's in store!
