Geek and Fandom Events in BC and Washington State
Prototype 2 has already started tearing up the video game charts, but as with any sandbox video game, some glitches and bugs have slipped through the cracks with hilarious consequences. Take this one clip above where the enemy just kind of carries you around with his brain. Buddy can’t be bothered to brutally swing you around his head. More of these clips can be found over at GameRanx.com.
Source: GameRanx.com
In case you haven’t heard already, all badges, three-day, single-day, and otherwise, have sold out for PAX 2012. If that wasn’t surreal enough, Gabe wrote this heartfelt apology to the fans who couldn’t go. While it’s nice, I’m not sure that he needed to do that. Same-day sell outs have existed at big-name concerts for years, and for an event like this you need to manage your expectations. As big as PAX is, North America is in dire need of space like Tokyo Big Sight, where the 500,000 strong Comiket is held twice a year. You know those numbers are coming. But then I think, hold on! I’ve been going to conventions since they were nothing more than glorified band camps. How did we go from that to having enough numbers to literally storm Normandy Beach? What exactly happened here? Was it all the superhero movies? The invention of good video game graphics? Failures in institutions like school, religion, and major league sports franchises? All of those things I just mentioned had points in their history when they were only practiced by few and eccentric, just like video games, comics, and their ilk. Perhaps we’re on the verge of another such great expansion, but now we have the privilege of seeing it first hand.
Source: Penny Arcade
Last Thursday, Vancouver retailer Kidsbooks hosted a 45 minute Q & A with Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson Series at the Hellenic Community center in Kitsilano.
Riordan gave a retrospective of the influences (and the hairstyles) that led up to the creation of the hit young adult series, including Lord of the Rings, Norse Myths & Legends, and of course, Heroes, Gods, and Monsters of the Greek Myths.
This is a picture of Riordan’s first manuscript for Big Red Tequila, the first novel of his murder mystery series for adults, published long before the Percy Jackson Series. Percy Jackson came about through a couple of factors. Riordan wrote all his books while he was a middle school social studies teacher, and he wanted to write something for his students without quite so many swears. The second factor was that his son, a reluctant reader, was so enamoured with the Greek myths that they had run out of myths to read together. So, Riordan wrote some new ones in the form of Percy Jackson.
He also showed off some of the international covers. This is the German cover of The Lightning Thief, which is the only depiction of the minotaur I’ve seen with actual tighty-whities.
The fans were then treated to a sneak preview of The Mark of Athena, the next book in the Heroes of Olympus Series. For the price of admission, everyone also got a signed copy of The Serpent’s Shadow, the third and final book of the Kane Chronicles series. Even though it was mostly an audience of kids and parents, I highly recommend seeing Rick Riordan speak for anybody who’s interested in writing fiction. He is an incredible speaker, and his journey is an inspiration for anyone who wants to put pen to paper. Seattle and Vancouver were settings in one of Riordan’s books, so it’s likely he will grace us with his presence again.
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