If I’ve learned anything from the 5th Annual Spokane Comicon, it’s that I can’t drink like I used to and Nathan puts on one fine show. Arrived in Spokane Friday night before the ‘Con on Saturday. It all started easily enough. Joined by Matthew Southworth (Stumptown), Mark Rahner (Rotten), Eric Trautmann (Vampirella), and  Brandon Jerwa (The Mighty Crusaders) we found dinner at some place called the Golden Dragon near the mall. If you ever get the chance to go here, don’t. Oh dear lord don’t. The food was terrible and the service well… the waitress meant well but, ultimately came off a bit um… offensive when she decided to explain the menu in faux-deaf person speech. Insert drinks to make awkwardness less awkward.

From there we moved on to the Drink ‘n Draw held at Cyrus O’Learys pies where we were joined by Backroom Comics Eastern Washington specialist, Chris Walker and where people were in fact drawing and so we focused on handling the drinking end of the phrase. While conversations from that night will remain forever fragmented in my mind, some of the fine topics discussed were: the death of Randy “Macho Man” Savage, celebrity impressions (Ray Romano, Barney Rubble, and Kermit the Frog were some thrown out), the invention of a snack called the spaghetti taco, why Depeche Mode is a better band than you realize, and the fact that you probably shouldn’t let 4 year olds play Red Dead Redemption.

As the Drink ‘n Draw wrapped up and the night was still fairly young, we moved on to another libation locale as to continue the evening’s festivities. To be truthful, I don’t remember too much of any conversation here. I know there was some but, for the life of me can’t remember. Maybe something involving hula hoops and most likely something involving the love of comics. Oh, and it was all pretty charming and well phrased I’m sure. In any case, we made it to last call. Good for us. Or so you’d think. After returning to the hotel to retire for the evening it became clear that sleep would not be coming so quickly for me but, the return of my dinner would be. 2am to 5am were not my best hours. Ugh. Somehow Chris managed to sleep through the whole debacle. I’m still not sure how that happened.

Saturday morning found the hotel parking lot filled with about 20 DeLoreans. Surreal for sure but also epically amazing. Now joined by Backroom Comics Jetsetter Kevin Malcolm, off we went to the Con to ply the crowd with our witty tales and terrible sketches.

We must have handed out over a hundred terrible sketches to some very kind and appreciative folk (check out Facebook photo album for pics!) and had a blast. There were some amazing costumes… people dressed as all kinds of various Lanterns (not just Green but, Blue, Orange, Red, Yellow, and so on), Cobra Commander, Boushh, Dr. Horrible, Captain America (the First Avenger), and so many more. If that wasn’t enough there were deals to be had on comics for sure (A list of comics purchased is down below) and lets not forget the writers and artists and creators there that really slam dunked the event into the basketball hoop of awesomeness. . Aaaaaand, while some dingus pulled the fire alarm which forced all to step outside for a moment or two (and you know how nerds hate sunlight), the ‘Con just continued with the same all-for-one and one-for-all spirit until we were let back in.

We wrapped up the night back at the hotel doing an round robin style group interview with Brandon Jerwa, Eric Trautmann, Mark Rahner, Colton Worley (Kato Origins), and Matt Southworth discussing the world of comics, our place in it, dream jobs, business models, and so much more. All of which is set to be an upcoming episode so watch for it to appear soon. I have to say for as long as I have been involved with this Podcast and the amount of episodes we have filmed and interviews that we have done, this night is easily in the top 5 for sure.

A great weekend and a great Con for sure. I’ve already marked my calendar for next year and hope to see you there.

-Pete and The Backroom Comics Podcast

Go to http://www.facebook.com/#!/BackroomPodcast to see photos and more.

Comics Purchased (and all fromn the 3 for a $1 bin too!):

Rom – #2, 5, 6, Annual 2 and Annual 3

Boris The Bear -#1, 2, 6, 7, 11 – 17

Ripley’s Believe It or Not  – #59 and 66

Further Adventures of Indiana Jones – #7

Battlefield Action – #50

Rust – #1

Alf – Super-sized Spring Special and Super-sized Holiday Special

The Shadow – #13 and 16

Wacky Squirrel – Halloween Adventure

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