GenCon 2015

Saturday starts my second summer vacation, which includes a day trip to Indianapolis. Last year, I looked over the outside of GenCom without going in because I could not find the booth where the badges were handed out. So I could not go into the convention.

This year I had the badge mailed, so it was on hand when I went to Indianapolis. I could not park in the Lucas Stadium lot like I did last year, because it was closed off. (I guess the Stadium folks wanted to make money off the convention goers this year, because the Colts are in Anderson doing summer training.) So I parked in a gravel lot south of the stadium with some other cars.

With my badge I made it into the convention center. It was a hive of activity, and I was about the only person there with normal-looking clothing. I found the Artist Alley fine, but since I had no idea where Ms. Douglass' booth was, I had to wander the maze looking for her. I was glancing at a lot of amazing art pieces from many artists packed into the labyrinth. The only one artist/Webcomic I recognized was Snow By Night from the Hiveworks site. I had navigated the entire Alley before finding Ms. Douglass, whose booth was on the far side of the Alley, furthest from the entrance.

I was within two meters of Ms. Douglass, who was with her mother helping with the transactions while she was sketching and talking to the convention goers. But there were quite a few convention goers between she and I, so I did not get to say hi to her. (I did do so later on Twitter.) I selected two medium prints (both from her Cloud Factory comic) and talked to her mother, who filled out a chit and had me go to some checkout counter two blocks down.

I now understand the purpose of the counter: The artists cannot be expected to handle transactions and artistic duties at the same time, so the convention folks handle it for them. However, when the line to the checkout is fifteen to twenty minutes, and when your parking is, how should I say, sketchy, I decided against waiting and simply left the convention.

(I later ordered a print of Ms. Douglass' from the Society6 site.)

Maybe I acted too rashly. I do not like the crowds. I do not like noise, but I have not noticed it so much at the con. As for the merch, her mother did say that I could pay for the prints up front. I should have taken her up on that.

Nonetheless, I am very happy to have seen Lexxi Douglass in person.