San Diego Comic-Con

[Webmaster Gabe]

This July some of the CrunchyCo staff is taking a road trip down to San Diego for the annual Comic-Con event. This year we will just be checking everything out and enjoying ourselves for the most part. We will probably bring some kind of flyers to promote Crunchy Comics, but nothing major this year. Next year, when some of our titles come out, we plan to have our own Crunchy Comics booth there.

[beb]

so much driving. you suck coltan

[Webmaster Gabe]

OH YEAH! Kevin Smith is gonna be doing four panels at comic-con this year! I will be attending the event as Brodie Bruce from Mallrats, so I better get to meet Kevin and get some photos!

[Webmaster Gabe]

So we've now made it to the state of Oregon! Only 300 miles to Cali.

We'll be driving all the way to Murrieta non-stop, then we'll chill for awhile before playing the KGHB show on Tuesday. By the way, KGHB got some new hardware baby. Check it out:

www.alesis.com/micron

Now all our gear matches red. Pretty sick.

[Webmaster Gabe]

We're driving through Cali now. It's quite hot. I hope our moist Washingtonian bodies can handle it and not shrivle up by the time we get back

[Webmaster Gabe]

ahh holy crap we're still driving. almost been 24 hours so far and we're almost to Murrieta.

[Fighter X]

You didn't mapquest all this did you? How are you guys getting around?

[Webmaster Gabe]

well, luckily coltan brought his laptop in which we've been able to use mapquest on. if he didn't bring it we'd be screwed!

We're in Murrieta now. Gonna do the show tonight!

[circles]

Hey, when you guys get to Comic-Con, you should totally go check out Booth 1330 (I think it is). It's the booth for a comic called Shortpacked, drawn by David Willis. Tell him he's awesome for me!

[seth]

Mmmm, micron. much better than the microkorg

[Webmaster Gabe]

Jul 24, 2008 2:06:35 GMT -5 circles said:

Hey, when you guys get to Comic-Con, you should totally go check out Booth 1330 (I think it is). It's the booth for a comic called Shortpacked, drawn by David Willis. Tell him he's awesome for me!

Aw man, too bad I didnt see this message until I got back today! Otherwise we would've checked it out for sure. There was SO MUCH stuff there, I can't believe it. Fucking AMAZING. We'll be posting pics and videos up pretty soon here.

And the KGHB show went decently well. First time using the Micron. I love it!

[Webmaster Gabe]

So I've started posting Comic-Con coverage material. So far I've just got a journal entry. Next up look for photos and video!

www.crunchyco.com/events/comiccon2008.html

Journal Entry:

Monday, July 21, 2008

We took off at about 2:30AM, a couple hours later than we had originally planned. We had a lot of driving ahead of us, but were in no hurry. The goal was to get all the way to Murrieta in about 24 hours, leaving just enough time to rest up before the KGHB show on Tuesday night. After all the anticipation, we finally crammed the last of our cargo into the van and sped off into the night. Since there would be no stops before our destination, we worked out a rotating driving schedule between Aaron, Lizzy, Brandon, and myself. Each of us took turns driving for about 3 hours while the others slept as best they could on the hard and unsettling car seats. Coltan, however, being a 19 year old without a driver's license, was able to freely ride the entirety of the trip without bearing an ounce of responsibility. Persons over 16 without driver's licenses are most certainly a pain and burden on society, but I'll save that rant for another day. On the road, as tired and uncomfortable as we may have been, we found enjoyment in talking, listening to music, and playing our handheld game consoles.

Moving along I-5, it was not long before we passed the last Washington exit and emerged into the state of Oregon. Portland was a sight to see, similar to Seattle with its large glass buildings and bussling streets. It was however the last familiar place we saw. Upon leaving Portland, we quickly observed that the rest of Oregon was in fact a barren wasteland, devoid of human civilization for miles on end. I must admit there are a few redeeming factors about Oregon. When we did manage to find a town somewhere, never once did we pay sales tax, and never once did we pump our own gas! Stopping into an oregon gas station, we were met by a strange man who immediately pumped our gas and washed the bugs off of our windshield. I think we were supposed to give him a tip, but naturally we did no such thing.

After passing through the bizarre no-man's land of Oregon, we crossed the border into California with only about 800 miles left to go! Looking out the van window, we watched the lush greenery of the pacific northwest quickly fade away into a dessert of nothingness; and we thought Oregon was barren. California not only disturbingly empty, but unbearably hot. Our moist Washingtonian bodies being used to clouds and rain, we had a very difficult time adapting to the California's scorching heat. Without air conditioning in the van, all we could do was roll down the windows and hope to catch some kind of a breeze. The bad thing about rolling down the windows in California is that the state reeks like nothing I've ever smelled in my life. We thought our hometown farmlands had a bad stench, but that was nothing compared to the foul odors of California. Never in my life have I encountered a stench so pungent that it stifled my breath and literally left a bad taste in my mouth. None of us could understand how anyone could bear to actually live in such conditions. Trying best to ignore the heat and the stink, I did find California to at least look beatiful, like some kind of strange alien planet. Compared to Washington, it was quite alien indeed.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Out of sheer luck, we made it to Murrieta around 3:00AM Tuesday morning. We had almost missed the road to I-15, in which case we would have been set back several hours. In Murrieta, we stopped at Lizzy's Aunt's house to pick up the key to the place we would be staying for the next few days. Unfortunately, we had arrived at a time when normal people are asleep, thus we slept in the van until our precious key could be obtained. After recieving the key from Lizzy's Aunt, we made our way to our final destination. Lizzy's parents were generous enough to let us stay in the house they had purchased in Murrieta but had yet to move into. Upon entering the house, we almost immediately collapsed onto the floor. Exhausted and sick of being crammed in a van for over 24 hours straight, I myself passed out on the carpet for a well deserved rest.

To be continued...

[beepbeepelizabot]

you forgot the part where brandon got a ticket before we even left everett! ;D haha... actually, i think we had just barely ENTERED everett, right? and we were less than one minute away from picking you up, too :/

[Webmaster Gabe]

Entry 2:

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Waking up in the late afternoon, we proceeded to get ready for the Kids Get Hit by Buses show we'd be playing that evening. The show would be our first out-of-state/in-country performance so we were extremely excited for it. The boys that invited us to play the show had been waiting almost three years to see us live, and we were finally going to be able to put on a show for them.

After showering the stench from our travel-weary bodies, we ventured out into the hot California wasteland to find food and a couple other needed items. Aside from the sweltering heat, one of the worst things about California is the undrinkable tap water. Even water from drinking fountains tasted like dirt and metallic debris. Since hydration was a necessity in such heat, we were forced to drink bottled water for the duration of our stay. If only every place could be like our Washington home where the water from any old faucet is fresh and delicious.

Returning to the house refreshed and ready for the day, Aaron and I got to work practicing with our gear in the kitchen. The upcoming show would be my first time using my new Micron keyboard, so I worked on finding the best sounding patches to use with my vocoder while Aaron ran through his parts on the keytar. It was a typical event, the two of us practicing seperately at the last minute before a show hoping that we'd remember everything. By the time we finished practicing and started packing up our stuff, we were pretty confident the show would go just fine.

Ariving at the house where the event was taking place, we were greeted by one of the Murrieta boys who invited us, James, who also introduced us to his friends Brandon and Cole. James informed us that the show we were about to play was going to mainly consist of punk and metal bands, thus the audience would be full of punks and metalheads. Unfortunate as that was, it hardly bothered us as we were used to this sort of thing. Being completely out of place would make us stand out at the very least, and as long as there were a few people there enjoying us, we'd be happy. There certainly were some people excited to see us. James showed his appreciation by having someone write "KGHB" across his ass cheeks with a big heart coming out of the crack. At about the same time, another man approached clutching his bare scrotum, also inscribed with "KGHB" in permanent marker. Aaron and I were not sure whether to be flattered or disturbed by these actions, but I suppose you really do know you're music makes an impact when someone bears your name on their testicles.

As far as the sound set up goes, there was an extreme lack of necessary equipment. The only thing there to project our sound was a pair of mediocre guitar amplifiers. Such equipment would be no problem for the average punk or metal band, but it definitely was a big concern for producing electronic music effectively. After much tinkering, we managed to get everything sounding decent enough to play. The Murrieta boys were nice enough to let us use one of their laptops for our background beats, and after hooking it all up to our little mixer, we were ready to play. According to James' advice, we played first so we could take off and dodge the slew of metalheads to follow.

To put it shortly, we played a decent show. From our standpoint, it was nothing exceptional, but a great deal of fun as always. We were happy to be able to show a new audience what we do, and show our Murrieta fans some songs they hadn't heard before. Despite the occasional slip-up, our performance was fine. The atmosphere however had much to be desired. Being a house show, the lack of lighting and acoustics took our stage antics down a notch, and the crowd didn't exactly make up for it. While we flailed around like fools as always, the room was filled with a motionless staring audience, uncomfortably backed against the walls either in awe or disgust. It appeared that most people just didn't really know how to act during a performance like ours. KGHB was obviously not like anything they've really seen before so the effect we had on them was quite understandable, yet still a bit dissapointing. Overall, we had a great time anyways, and so did our few Murrieta fans, which made it all worth it. One of the metalheads exclaimed during the show, "This band would be good if they had more breakdowns." Maybe we'll prepare a metal song for next time we visit Murrieta. After I made some comment about metal music a shout came from the audience: "Fuck metal, I like Wood!" Having just played the song "Ed Wood", this comment was hysterical on multiple levels.

After thanking the owner of the house for letting us play, we left the party with James and company, who had planned on leaving after watching us play anyways. Peforming our set and then leaving a show without seeing any of the other bands always makes us feel a bit like assholes, but then again metal music does suck.

For the rest of the night, we hung out with our new Murrieta friends James, Cole, and Brandon, at James' house. The houses in California all struck us as very nice and luxurious, the materials and architecture nothing at all like our plastic cookie-cutter Washingtonian homes. We were surprised when James pointed out to us where the rich people lived. After admiring his house, we just thought, "What!? I thought YOU were the rich people!" James' mother was extremely kind and treated us with dinner: home-made hamburgers complete with side dishes, drinks, and all the proper fixings. On the back porch we ate, talked, and watched James' cats fight in the dry California grass. After dinner, we went to James' room to share some music with each other. We were happy to see that James had an incredible collection of CrunchyCo music on his computer! Judging by their music collections and interests, we could tell that these Murrieta boys had exceptional tastes, and we were very happy to meet such fun and open minded individuals.

After making plans to meet up with them again the next day, we said our goodbyes to the Murrieta boys and made our way back to our place of rest. Brandon and Coltan wanted to sleep on the grass, but decided not to when they realized the lawns in California all have automated sprinkler systems. So inside we went, passing out on the floor once again exhausted from the day's events.

[Webmaster Gabe]

Entry 3:

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Awaking Wednesday afternoon, we got ready to meet up with our new Murrieta friends and see "Batman: Dark Knight." After driving a ways and walking through some big ass mall, we emerged outside to where the Murrieta boys were already waiting for us near the theater. After watching the film with them, we had to take off quickly to make it in time for the Comic-Con Preview Night, where the Con's exhibit hall is open a few hours only for those who pre-ordered four day passes to the event. We said farewell to the kids from Murrieta, told them we'd see them again next year, and then we were on our way to San-Diego for the first time.

San-Diego is about an hour away from Murrieta, so we had a lot of driving to do. Having not ever been to the San-Diego, let alone a specific place such as the Convention Center, we probably should have left a little earlier and been more prepared with better directions. Our lack of preparation combined with bizarre Californian street signs actually caused us to pass San-Diego completely and drive all the way to the Mexican border. Not feeling like going to Mexico, we turned around and eventually made it to the Convention Center with the help of Lizzy's brother, who lives in San-Diego.

Arriving late, we could see an immense crowd of people waiting outside to get in. We found a parking garage across the street, parked, then sprinted out to get in line. I am deadly serious when I say this was the longest line I had ever seen. From the door to the exhibit hall, it went alongside the length of the building, coiled around several times, then wrapped all the way down the street and around to the back of the enormous Convention Center. When we thought we reached the end finally, we realized that it just continued on across the street! When we really did reach the end of the line, the waiting began. Aaron and Lizzy had their Nintendo DS consoles, which they used to Pictochat with other people who were waiting in line too. Later, Aaron and I went to go get some drinks and were very excited to find a soda vending machine that took debit cards! Amazing! Anyways, by the time we got back with drinks, the line was moving quickly and it wasn't long before we entered the hall to pick up our badges.

Shuffled along as if on a conveyor belt, we hurried through the twisted maze of the Convention Center to the upstairs area, the "Sails Pavillion", where Comic-Con staff were scanning registration bar codes and handing out badges. After grabbing our badges, we were then handed an event guide and a large bag of Comic-Con freebies! Next, it was on the Exhibition Hall.

I cannot describe how incredibly overwhelming the Exhibit Hall was upon entering. We emerged on the far side which was surprisingly filled with a multitude of video game related booths showcasing playable demos of upcoming games, some of which had only been announced a week prior to the event. This section of the exhibit hall alone was overhelming enough. Continuing down the hall in attempts to get a feel for everything at the Con, we passed toy booths, movie booths, television booths, then finally some comic book booths, followed by comics, comics, and more comics. It took us forever to wade through the crowds of people and the immense amount of information bombarding us with every turn. Each exhibit we passed was extravagant containing gigantic banners or sculptures, and LCD screens playing looping advertisements. It was like nothing I've ever seen before really. The hall seemed to continue forever. We actually did not even make it to the end by the time the day was over. When the Exhibit Hall closed for the night, we left in awe, knowing that between panels and other Comic-Con events, it would be almost impossible to explore it all over the next four days. We went to sleep that night with an idea of what was to come. The only problem was going to be waking everyone up in the morning.

To be continued...