Jump back to [Part One/Thursday] [Part Two/Friday] [Part Three/Saturday]
SUNDAY – – – – –
In the lobby I saw Sam Damon heading to the sliding glass door with his suitcase, and we said goodbye. I met Larry Hama in the Hilton’s restaurant for breakfast. We talked about his young adult graphic novel trilogy for Abrams’ new YA imprint. (Hama has been talking about these for awhile. Their titles haven’t yet been announced, but 10 months back Abrams issued a press release for the rollout.)
Filed under Convention Reviews, Talking Joe podcast
Jump back to [Part One/Thursday] [Part Two/Friday] Jump ahead to [Part Four/Sunday]
SATURDAY – – – – –
Once again, I woke up earlier than I’d planned. Foolishly, I missed the 9am Cartoons and Cereal block. This takes place in the panel room, with a video projection of four G.I. Joe episodes. Past years have mixed ’80s Sunbow, ’90s DIC, and even 2010’s Renegades. I regret missing this, but between exercise, needing a meal that would sustain me longer, and doing a little prep for my panel, I kinda forgot. Maybe the milk and cereal would be still be out an hour later and I could have second breakfast? I don’t know what episodes played, but with the Iron Grenadiers theme of the convention, I was thinking of Destro-centric animated half-hours. Maybe “Sins of our Fathers,” with Destro’s ancestral home? (I’m going to jump ahead for this next photo, that 90 minutes later, after the first panel, I checked. While the milk was still out, the cereal had all been gobbled up.) Click to enlarge all photos in this report.
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Jump back to [Part One/Thursday] Jump ahead to [Part Three/Saturday] or [Part Four/Wrap-up]
FRIDAY – – – – –
A nice reminder that morning light and sunset are different colors, even to my not-great camera phone. This would be the first of three days in a row that I woke up long before my alarm, a combination of timezone shifts, the end of Daylight Savings a week prior, the phenomenon of the hotel/different bed, and general convention excitement and anxiety — don’t sleep in or you’ll miss something! (Click all photos to enlarge.)
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If you’d like to read about airports or Des Moines’ skyway system, check out my 2022 and 2023 reports. For the 2024 report, I’m jumping right in, minus this sign on the way from the airport to the hotel. Why, yes, that meatball is a spear-wielding Centurion. (It wasn’t dark out, my camera was just exposing for either the illuminated sign or the restaurant exterior, and can’t do both.) Jump ahead to Friday/Part Two] [Saturday/Part 3] or [Wrap-Up/Part 4]. Click all photos to enlarge.
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Two similar tasks are taking up part of the month. One is sorting, bagging, boarding, and pricing a few hundred copies of G.I. Joe-related titles at Hub Comics in advance of the Tom Reilly signing on November 16th. The other is re-bagging and boarding all my comics at home, particularly my Marvel G.I. Joe-related titles, as my wife and I recently moved.
Continue readingFiled under Back issues, General Musings, Hub Comics
Expert/pal Chris Murray lent me a one-of-a-kind G.I. Joe toy item, as well as a rare pre-production bauble, when I saw him at JoeFest in August. We had loosely worked out that I would photograph them in his hotel room, but I didn’t bring a proper camera or lights, and I’m not enough of a photographer that I could light these items properly. Chris generously let me take them with me. I offered to mail them back a few weeks later, but Chris was concerned about shipping mishaps, and said he’d take them back in person at the next G.I. Joe convention in November. I had assumed I would attend that show, but hadn’t locked it in — three months was a long ways off and it’s hard to plan your next trip during your current trip. But that settled it, I would be attending Assembly Required in November 2024. Now I had three months to photograph these two pieces of treasure. This week I did. Make that the passive voice, have them photographed.
Continue readingFiled under Book Behind the Scenes, Photography
SUNDAY – – – –
[Note: An earlier version of Part Three had Breakfast with the Sarge on Saturday the 22nd. In fact it was Sunday the 23rd, so I’ve moved those four paragraphs and two photos here. Sorry! No, you’re not crazy, you’re just seeing them again.]
In Parts [One], [Two], and [Three], Tim traveled to JoeFest in Augusta, Georgia, saw people, walked around, ate stuff, and attended a panel. And now, our exciting conclusion!
Once again, I was unable to sleep in. The Marriott bed wasn’t the greatest, and in general I was pretty amped up the whole weekend — in a good way — so it was hard to fully relax. That the convention would only be open from 11am to 3pm on this final day were a real mercy — that’s a late start after so much staying up late, and no early hours. But notably, the show would end “early.” I feel like when I was younger, toy and comics conventions went until 5pm on the last day, but maybe everyone noticed attendance tapering off as people departed and dealers anxious to start the trek home started packing up. With these floor hours in mind, every minute counted. (I’ve certainly found the final hour of some cons at which I have tabled these last few years to be quiet, so maybe this is a post-pandemic thing.)
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In Part One, Tim flew to Augusta and started having a great time at JoeFest ’24. Then, in Part Two, he continued that trend, despite dropping an amazing chocolate ice cream sandwich on the sidewalk! Read on for Part Three…
You may be at a G.I. Joe convention if you see this outside:
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In Part One, Tim flew to Augusta, Georgia for his second JoeFest! There, he checked into the hotel, caught up with friends, and ate a pizza! Read on for Part Two…
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This was my second year in a row at JoeFest, and the city of Augusta, Georgia, is similar to how I described it in last year’s report. With that in mind, I’m skipping all the descriptions — murals and storefronts — but you may wish to read my ’23 intro here to get a taste.
– – – [Jump ahead to Part Two, Part Three, or Part Four] – – –
A little context: There is no longer an official G.I. Joe convention, “JoeCon,” licensed and attended by Hasbro. Whereas JoeCon moved locations each year, JoeFest is always in Augusta, Georgia, and has aptly filled the gap for a major summer Joe show. Last year’s attendance was 7,500. This year’s I’m told topped 10,000. It was in the same space as last year, now just imagine more people. Here’s JoeFest 2024, or two-thirds of it: –[Click all photos to enlarge]–
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A Real American Book! 