This past weekend, I attended Nan Desu Kan in Denver with Baakay, her girls, Aernath and part of the many resin dolls that they own. After picking us up at the airport on Friday, we headed to the con, grabbed our badges and hit the dealer room. We got to see Goldknight as she toiled at Curt's booth selling things like this El Hazard cel. Afterwards, we spent an hour or so visiting with JWR and his wife before heading out to the former cow pasture Baakay lives in. Once there, a photo shoot with all the assembled mass of sculpted resin followed.
The next meeting, we piled into the minivan to head to the con. After a brief stop to let Aernath shoot some pictures, we made it there. We spent most of the day there, going through the dealers room and artist alley to spend money. (I got a couple of nice figures that I'll be taking pictures of to upload this week as well as a few magnets). Then, we headed to the anime music video show which was pretty good this year. It's definitely gotten better and better over the last several years.
But the highlight of the con were the two Japanese guests from Madhouse. Shin Itagaki and Hisashi Abe were both attending and doing a signing. Baakay and I were near the end of the line for the autographs. I had brought the DVD insert of Gunslinger Girl for Abe-san to autograph and she had brought a cel from Petshop of Horrors. As we got closer, we saw that they were doing sketches, so we put away the items and got sketches instead.
Shin Itagaki did this nice sketch of Sunabozu for me. I asked a few questions about his upcoming projects. Unfortunately, I wasn't familiar with the property he mentioned so the name escapes me at the moment.
Then, when I got to Hisashi Abe, I asked him to do a sketch of Henrietta from Gunslinger Girl. He said that it had been a while, so he wasn't sure he remembered the details. I brought out the DVD insert for him to reference and he joked that he remembered now. Throughout the sketching process, I was asking questions through the translator. He really impressed me with how much he seemed to be enjoying meeting the fans and his sense of humor. He apologized for the sketch since he wasn't sure that he had got all the details right, even writing "Sorry" on the finished product. But I didn't think that he had anything at all to apologize for, thanked him and told him that it was the highlight of the con for me (which was the complete and honest truth).
After the long trek to Baakay's house, we participated in the pretty much annual tradition that we have of celebrating our birthdays early. Both our birthdays are in early October and her husband's is just a couple of weeks later, so we exchange presents while I'm there. She got me a couple of graphic novels as well as this unknown pan cel which is clearly an end cel.
(I expect Keropi to ID this in 3..2...1..)Sunday, we were pretty much dead from our con roaming on Saturday, so we spent most of the day in. I continued my efforts in corrupting Baakay's children by teaching them how to play D&D. Finally, it was time to head back, but we needed to stop by NDK one last time. Baakay had bid on a painting in the art show and needed to see if she had won. Neither of us were expecting her to since she hadn't bid high, but she did and won a really nice painting for a great price. After that, it was to the airport where I headed back home (eventually..after several delays).
Then, today, I got in a cel of Naomi Armitage which I had won on eBay last week. So, I scanned it in with the rest and updated.
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Also I loooooooooooove the unknown pan cel (and a big a** 
Too bad I was unavailable when you called on Sunday. 
Siiiiigh. 
