I understand that my pals The Cardboard Troopers had a wild time this past weekend. They arrived in Atlanta for the 2009 edition of Dragon*Con, but they couldn’t actually seem to find a trace of the convention and the hotel people kept looking at them funny. I sure hope that they come back for the 10:00am parade on Saturday, they always seem to enjoy that.
Which reminds me that last month the Fall issue of the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine hit the stands and I was simultaneously delighted (97%) and mortified (3%) to read the article about me that staff writer Van Jensen composed after we met prior to my surgery this summer. Entitled “How Did That NERD on the Left Become That PIRATE on the Right?“, the article does a really nice job of catching people up with the kid who won the Batman contest back in the 80s… and the second page features a certain cardboard trooper standing in front of a line of “real” troopers at Dragon*Con.
So, like, last year we (the cardboard troopers) discussed something “new” (and socially distruptive) that we could do at Dragon*Con. The activity that rose to the top of our pile at this year’s Dragon*Don was to crash the Dawn Look-a-like competition, a costume contest devoted to one comicbook entitled “Dawn”… a dramatic series about a “goddess” who dresses in lace and armor, which we all know to be important elements in any elemental struggle between good and sexy. Always a T&A show, the Dawn competition is the brainchild of a fellow named Joseph Michael Linsner, and was rife for a raid by those merry pranksters of merriment, whose only goal at Dragon*Con is to make people smile and remember that the weekend is supposed to be about genuine fun. While Dawn may come in every shape and color, we knew that our Dawn would be BIG, BOXY and far too unwieldy to manage lingerie… chiefly, that cardboard trooper known as “Gallo Whirlpool”… with big pink balloons taped onto his chestplate… but then, I explain too much… take a look at the video!!
Here’s a wonderful short film shot and edited by our pal and sci-fi fan/collector “SexyBeast“, documenting the misadventures of the cardboard troopers at Dragon*Con in downtown Atlanta, from sexy girls to maddening fights over our cardboard Dawn costume. The whole time he was shooting this video SexyBeast kept telling everyone “Hey, have fun!!”. Looking back at it, maybe we did. I especially like his choice of Human Highway’s song “All Day” playing in the background… and after reading the review of it Continue Reading
I’m undeniably proud of the Cardboard Craze that I started at Dragon*Con back in 2005, especially of the guys who have been such dedicated cardboard costumers along with me since that time! After our great success as cardboard troopers last year, a lot of people have expressed their desire to join us in at the upcoming convention in September. Several folks have expressed that, while they have the desire, they just don’t have any good ideas on exactly how to build a good costume out of cardboard. So, as a service to those people, I’m going to begin a series of posts that will continue up until September, designed to provide you some design ideas and construction techniques. First out of the blocks is my design for Chewboxxa, a “Booxiee” from the planet BoxxaHarveyKorman. Continue Reading
DAY ONE Alfeo, Elliott and I suited up in the parking garage of the downtown Atlanta Hilton on Saturday morning and headed upstairs to begin walking down to Woodruff Park. I was bitching everyone out, telling them to hurry up. That went over famously.
Exiting the elevator, I figured that the first 20 people we ran into would provide us with a good idea of how we’d be received elsewhere for the rest of the day. We were particularly worried that the “real” stormtroopers would take demonstrable umbrage at our cardboard costumes, which was never my intent. Continue Reading
Note: Due to schedule problems several of us have already built our box robots. Also Note that there has been a change from Sunday to Saturday.
It’s nearly that time again kids, Dragon*Con is only a fortnight away! If you’re planning to be in attendance at this year’s convention and you want to do something that’s indescribably fun then pay attention: I am hereby issuing my 2nd Annual Box Robot Flashmob Challenge, this time with a twist. This year I am challenging people to meet me on Sunday, September 3rd, strike that, on Saturday, September 2nd, at 1:30pm, on or near the exterior balcony of the Hyatt’s lobby bar, to build robot suits from cardboard boxes. To participate in this event you must provide your own cardboard boxes (if possible try to collect white boxes), enough of them to make a suit that will cover your torso, your head, your arms and legs. You are also going to need to bring a cardboard tube. Continue Reading
A few weeks ago I didn’t have anything to do and nobody was hanging around down at the Stick so I went downtown to Trogdor*Con to check out the babes. I was trying to drink a Cold One when this dude got all up in my face about standing in front of his booth. He was all, “Hey, Dumbledork, are you gonna, like, BUY something or are you just a stupid, like, guy or somethin’?” I looked down and there was this shirtless guy wearing a cool mask and typing something on a laptop computer… totally all DOS stuff too. It was weird. HE was weird. And he was selling stuff. Continue Reading
A few weeks ago I didn’t have anything to do and nobody was hanging around down at the Stick so I went downtown to Trogdor*Con to check out the babes. I was trying to drink a Cold One when this dude got all up in my face about standing in front of his booth. He was all, “Hey, Dumbledork, are you gonna, like, BUY something or are you just a stupid, like, guy or somethin’?” I looked down and there was this shirtless guy wearing a cool mask and typing something on a laptop computer… totally all DOS stuff too. It was weird. HE was weird. And he was selling stuff.