I figured I would write up my experience at the con this past weekend, since the majority of you couldn’t make it. The Mo-Kan Comic Conspiracy Con is a fairly small convention. Only about half the size of the Kansas City’s Planet Comic-Con usually held in spring. And no, I do not know where that name came from.
I had to work on Saturday, so I had to make my stop that day fairly quick. I got in was given my raffle ticket and entered the con. There was about 30-40 different vendors/exhibitors, along with a row of artists. I circled the area and talked with a guy whose comic was in a online competition on zudacomics.com. It was a pretty good read.
I finally spotted Stan and made my way over there. There wasn’t much of a line at the time, but the guy that snuck in ahead of me came along with a box of comics. I almost made a joke about “I hope that isn’t full of all Usagi comics”. Good thing I didn’t, because it was.
Just my luck. But I guess I can’t blame the guy, I might have done the same if I had a full run of the issues too. 
Here is Stan signing next to Sergio
While signing the comics, Stan spotted me and asked if he could help me while he was doing that. I identified myself as the dojo member, monkey, and asked if I could just hold my future purchases aside while walked around some more. After a short trip around I came back to Stan’s table and peaked through his portfolio of finished drawings. I picked up the sketchbooks (even the Spanish one
) and Stan was kind enough to personalize my hardback trades and Art of Usagi book. Here are some of the signatures:
Most of the Usagi ones look like this.
Here is my Space Usagi Signature.
And I was lucky enough to get a full page one in my Art of Usagi book!
This was a convention sketch that I picked up as well.
I asked him to set one of the drawings aside and that I would return the next day for it. A crowd was starting to form behind me and satisfied with my encounter, I thanked him and moved on. In my excitement, I realized I totally forgot to pay Stan for the Sketchbooks. So I went back to rectify that and thanked him again.
On Sunday, I woke up and watched a few minutes of football as I got ready to go back to the convention. I got there, got a new raffle ticket and made a B-Line to Stan’s table. While in line, I heard my number called for a raffle. Sweet! But I stayed there to pick up my drawing. My fiancé was nice enough to let me pick this out for my birthday present:
A great picture of Usagi and Shingen.
My fiancé says she will even go get it framed as well.
So I made some small talk with Stan, asked him about the BBQ places he went to and if he liked his time in KC. I thanked him coming here and holding my drawing for me.
I went back to the raffle area to claim my prize, it was a $10 Gift Certificate for one of the comic vendors, and he mostly had a bunch of comic boxes filled with older comics from the 80’s and such. I thought I would go back there later for a more though inspection.
I checked out a few final things before Stan’s Q&A and spotted this on a random vendor table:
Well I knew I had to have it at such an insane low asking price. So I went back to Stan, yet again (Probably sick of seeing me by then☺ ) , But I figured it was worth it. He had a small sparkle in his eyes and perked up as he was packing up, “Nilson and Hermy”, he said. I forgot to ask him if he saw any others that weekend. He signed it on the inside cover:
Stan’s signature with the official “Stan Sakai Thumbprint of Approval”!
I thanked him again and promised I would stop bothering him.
I also stopped by Sergio’s table and the guy ahead of me had a pretty nice Batman poster-like thing. It looked like he planned on collecting batman sketches from all kinds of different Comic artists surrounding the few different batman pictures in the center. Hard to describe, but a pretty neat piece.
On my way out to Stan’s Q&A, I went back to the vendor to redeem my prize. I saw two teenage boys picking out comics. I asked them, are you going to buy those comics there in your hand?” (Which, in retrospect, may have come off a little scary or stalkerish) They said yeah, so I told them to go pick out some more as I handed them my gift certificate. Hopefully that made their day.
To end the day, there was Stan’s Q&A. It was both entertaining and informative. I learned a few things, biographically wise about Stan I didn’t know before. He also took us through a brief history of Usagi and his career path. Stan had some funny antic dotes
as well. He even pimped out the dojo board to the small group. While he was talking and answering questions, he had a big pad to draw some characters of Usagi’s world. He ended talking about how he goes about creating an issue and talked about his thumbnail pages. He used a boy in the crowd, Patrick, to illustrate. They did a Day in the life of Patrick. He signed it and gave it to the boy. We all thanked him as he closed and Stan left for the airport to go home. As people were leaving, I spoke with Patrick and his parents, as it turned out they helped out with organizing the panel there. I asked them if I could take Stan’s drawings that he left (at least the one’s that Patrick didn’t want) and said I was going to offer them to the members online. We talked about the Dojo Board briefly and I took off.
So, all in all, a good weekend. Stan, once again, thank you very much for making the trip to Kansas City with the Groo Crew. I hope you guys consider stopping by again if time and schedules permit. Ox, sorry I missed ya, I wasn’t sure if you were at the Q&A or not (maybe we dojo members should make some sort of button or pin so we can identify each other at conventions
).Well, Thanks for reading!
For those that read this long and too-detailed account of my weekend, here’s a bonus for ya. I picked up a few extra sets of promo posters and Usagi “Trading cards”:
I have eight sets available to the first eight people that reply and express their interest in one.
The rules are: You DO NOT already have these items and WILL NOT see Stan at a convention with in the next 6 months.
Just reply with “Monkey! GIMMIE DAT POSTER!” And I will send you a PM to the first eight people that qualify.
Lastly, I have two drawing from the Q&A to anyone that may want either of them. One of Ame Tomoe:
And one of a Japanese Spirit, Kasa-obake:
The first ones to reply that want one of these can have them. Only one and you can’t get both the poster and a drawing. Only one or the other. Also the same rules about not having any drawings from Stan and not seeing him for the next 6 months apply.
