User blog:JackFrost23/Red Dead at WonderCon!

So I went to WonderCon in Anaheim, CA this last weekend to help a buddy of mine run his booth. He sells comics, toys, statues and the like so we fit right in.

We were pretty damned busy most of the show, so my time away from the booth was pretty minimal. But on Saturday afternoon, I made the announcement that I'd be walking the con floor for a bit and left before anyone could come up with a reason for me not to go.

I wandered the aisles, not really stopping at any booth for too long, and not really seeing anything unique that would catch my eye. However, it should be noted that I was wearing a black t-shirt with the Red Dead Redemption logo on the front. I love comics a lot (well, with a bunch of caveats we won't get into here), but I think some games get under-represented, like Red Dead, so I tend to wear shirts for them at shows.

I get a lot of thumbs up for my Red Dead shirts. :)

Anyway, I was getting to the end of the room and was thinking about just heading back to the booth when I see a woman point at me and hear her say, "See? He's even wearing the t-shirt."

Naturally my interest was piqued, so I checked the booth which was for a website known as GeekScape.net, walk up to her and ask "what's this all aboot?" (sorry, Hobbes ;P) She and her co-worker start going into detail about an upcoming zombie flick that will have actors from Red Dead in it.

"Oh, you mean From the Trailer to the Grave?" I ask her.

"How did you know about that? Did you read our article?"

At which point I explained to them both that I am the bureaucrat here and that several mentions of the film have come up.

"Well, did you know that a couple of voice actors from the game are here?"

I was astonished! The games been out for nearly 2 years and this was the first sign of it I'd seen at a convention. She then mentioned that the voice of Irish and Bill Williamson were in attendance.

"Harrison Sweeney and Steven Palmer are here?!" I shoot back.

"Damn," she says, "You know a lot about this." At which she pointed over to Steven who was chatting with another fan. She wasn't quite sure where Harrison had gotten off to...

When Steven came over, I introduced myself and then mentioned that not only that I'm bureaucrat here, but that he'd recently done the interview with spawny (spawny, if you're reading this, both gentlemen were concerned about you current situation, so you might wanna shoot them an e-mail).

Steven, who sounds nor looks anything like Bill Williamson, was bummed that Harrison had chosen to go get a snack right before I'd arrived. Given that the booth was near the concessions area, I could see the line and knew that if Harrison was in it, he would not be back anytime soon.

And naturally, just as I find this booth that I might want to spend a little time at, I get a call telling me I had to return to our booth. Typical. So I asked if they'd be around later that afternoon, but Steven suggested that he and Harrison would actually come over to my booth and chat with me there.

I agreed and went back to the table, but I got a nag that made me decide to try and go back to their table lest I never got a chance to actually talk with Harrison. So I went back over, with my camera this time, and found that this time they were both gone from the booth. I waited for a bit, but the person working the booth didn't know where they'd gone or when they'd be back.

Given that this was St. Patrick's day, I wouldn't have been surprised to find that Harrison was getting a jump start on the drinking festivities... :D So I went back to my booth, trying to keep good spirits.

As I approached the booth, I was stopped by this fellow who seemed to be dressed as a steampunk leprechaun. He squints at me and a huge grin spreads across his face.

"Harrison Sweeney, I presume?"

He laughed and shook my hand and then Steven walked over and suggested that we get a picture of the three of us inside the booth with all the merchandise in the background (yes, that's me in the center):



I then got them both to do their respective characters. Harrison did the line from Irish about "gettin' reacquainted with the pair of tits I woke up in this mornin'" and Steve did the "I didn't kill you, John, but I sure as shit will now!". After which I had to tell Steven that everyone's favorite Bill Williamson lines are the ones with "implore" in them. Steven apparently already knew that and couldn't understand why those lines in particular grabbed so many people because he doesn't feel he put a lot into them. "Regardless," I said, "that's the word everyone loves to hear you say!"

After that, Steven told me he had a "secret video" for me to watch that he had on his iphone. He claimed to only show this to true fans and called up a vid of him and Harrison playing Red Dead Redemption.

Harrison then mentioned to me that there is some kind of contest involved with "From the Trailer to the Grave" and when I read more about it, I will post details here. He just recently sent me the link, so I can take a look.

He also suggested that he and Steven would go back and get me some signed headshots to do with as I please. So I'm thinking maybe a Red Dead Wiki Trivia contest or something so I can give a few away to the folks here at the wiki. And I assume some of you are interested? :D

At any rate, Harrison gave me one signed headshot that he told me I was not allowed to give away, that it was for me and I had to keep it because there's a story involved behind it.

The pic was signed to "Dude" and Harrison went on to explain that the "Dude" in reference is actually Jeff Dowd, the real-life inspiration for the Coen Brothers' character played by Jeff Bridges in "The Big Lebowski". Harrsion explains that he signed it to Jeff Dowd and the "fucker got so wasted in the studio that he forgot it, and he ain't ever getting it now!" So I was stoked to get that since it references a favorite game and a favorite movie all at once. But I've still got several more that are up for grabs. Steven gave me a stack of about 30, so I've got a lot of those to go around.

At any rate, after spawny's interviews, I really thought that'd be the closest I ever got to the voice talent for this game.



Oh, and in other vidya gaem news, there was a booth at the con that had a bunch of Portal merchandise and one of the things they were selling was an Aperture Science Combustible Lemon:



When you pull the ring, it makes the grenade vibrate, for some reason... :D

(Sorry the images are so blurry, I didn't realize that when I took them. I'll try to make them better later)

Anyone who's played and adores Portal 2 like I do knows exactly what this thing is... :D

Anyway, this is too long already, but hope you found it interesting!