This past weekend we attended Bayou Con in Lake Charles, LA. Although, the convention itself was a little slow due to the raging Contraband Festival outside, we still had a good time meeting a few excellent artists and interesting people. One of those excellent artists and very interesting people is Mr. Rob Guillory who joined us for our first ever Ustream broadcast, CCP Comics Un-Bagged. Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning...
Friday morning, we begin the not-very-long-but-not-so-short drive to Lake Charles. Not very much to say about the trip except for the FANTASTIC fudge at this gas station near Beaumont. By Friday afternoon, we were checked into the pretty sweet hotel room that was significantly larger than we normally have our sleepovers in and provided a cozy atmosphere for our Ustream broadcasts to come. After setting u at the convention, we went forth is search of food...and alcohol. Our first stop, Steamboat Bills. Personally, I had the baked potato drowned in shrimp etouffee which was delicious. My compadres however, participated in the mass genocide of hundreds of craw fish leaving no survivors in their wake. The staff at the restaurant were fantastic with the service and were very nice to us. After our feeding, we searched for some beer. Our search took us first to an Exxon that offered little more than the usual big three (Bud, Miller, and Coors) and some stank beer. The store clerk spoke a lot like the cajun in the
Waterboy movie and couldn't direct us to the nearest liquor store in any discernible manner. Somehow, we ended up in an unsavory part of Lake Charles at a bar that, at first glance, was easily mistaken for a liquor store. After getting some directions we finally found a liquor store that had a pretty decent selection of beer. With our bounty in hand (and a few losing lottery tickets in the trash), we made our way out of that area and back to our hotel were we shared some laughs, some beers, and some sleep.
The morning started early for most of us since Brian, Eroll, Seth, Ryan, and the Castros came in around 7:30 am. After a couple of hours, we made our way back to the convention. During the course of the day, we held two panels which entertained between two and ten eager minds thirsting for knowledge of self publishing and creative techniques. The day passed slowly as I and a couple other artists added more artwork to our portfolios. Some of us went from table to table checking out other fellow artists and vendors. When Rob Guillory came, some of our members hung out at his table and got acquainted. The convention director started shutting down the event at 6pm after which we escaped with Rob Guillory back to our hotel to conduct our first ever Ustream Broadcast of CCP Comics Un-Bagged which can be heard
HERE. The broadcast felt very natural and was conducted smoothly by CCP writer C.S. Humble. I won't go into details, you'll have to listen to the broadcast to know what we talked about. After bidding Rob Guillory good night, we hightailed it back to Steamboat Bills to feast again upon some excellent cajun cooking and hundreds more doomed craw fish. We returned to the hotel room and conducted another broadcast just for fun and to introduce the present members of CCP Comics which can be heard
HERE. We had a bunch of fun with this broadcast and hope you do too. After a whole bunch of goofing around, we called it a night, preparing ourselves for the day ahead and the not-very-long-but-not-so-short drive back to Austin.
Sunday morning came and we loaded up the vehicles with our bags and went to the convention. Not much happened through the day, but after a few hours we said farewell to our host and made a B-line to Steamboat Bills. Most of the staff recognized us and made us welcome as we ate our last meal in Lake Charles. The trip back was as unremarkable as the trip to Lake Charles except for the stop at the gas station near Beaumont where we had gotten the fudge mentioned previously. The only difference is that I (and a few of the others) crowded around a coin machine uses the quarters you put in the machine to push other quarters over a ledge and into a pocket in front of you. After winning a couple times, everyone was getting into it with Seth playing with quarters he "found on the floor". Finally, playtime was over and we pressed on homeward bound.
All in all, we had a fun weekend but now, we must prepare for Free Comic Book Day. Join CCP Comics at Austin Books and Comics this Saturday, May 7th for a day of fun as ABC provides the free books, CCP provides the free sketches, and Best Petite Sweets provides the most delicious sugar-free treats you'll ever stuff into your mouth!
-Rita
