Comic Con Baltics – 2023 Edition

Back in January, when I was in London with Lin, we were lucky enough to attend an after-show party of Mother Goose, the Panto with Ian McKellan. It was a ton of fun and on the way home, Lin asked me if I didn’t miss it. I replied that I did, but I really didn’t want to go back to it full-time. It was fine to enjoy it piecemeal, every now and again.

Thing is, what I realized this last week, is that this is exactly what Comic Con Baltics is for me. It’s a once-a-year way to scratch my production itch (just like going to London scratches my theatre itch). And this year was no different.

The show for 2023 was held in October rather than the preferred May since Vilnius had hosted the annual NATO Summit in July at the same place, and they needed a full three months to make sure it was all clean. Thus we were slotted into the weekend of October 20-22 and I would once again play host.

Oh boy! What was I thinking?

Also, in addition to the regular videos I’d been doing for the last few years, we were adding in grabbing brief interviews with the guests as they arrived at the airport. Just crazy! But what it meant in practical terms was that I was going to spend almost a week in Vilnius, away from family and the day job. But hey, it’s only once a year, right? So let’s do this thing!

Tuesday – October 17

I was scheduled to start my stint on Tuesday but since Rasa was teaching a class that day, I didn’t actually get out of town until after dinner. I loaded up my suitcase, backpack, and hanging bag, took a Bolt to the station and was ready for my adventures! As I pulled into Vilnius, I got a message from Paulius, the marketing director of the Con and the guy who pulled me into this orbit. He was there to pick me up and we went directly to LitExpo to get started. Well, I’d get started. He’d been in Vilnius for 6 weeks already.

When I walked in the door, I was immediately greeted by Saulė and Diana, the amazing team behind our panel programming and the Meet Lithuanian Film Industry platform. They were also the pair who wrote most of the opening ceremony. Honestly, I wouldn’t be able to do anything if it wasn’t for them. So it was a really nice reunion and we jumped right in to start talking about what they saw for the opening of the show. Just like that we were off and running!

Wednesday – October 18

We’d gotten back to the hotel and checked in well past midnight and I had a post-breakfast meeting scheduled about another project I was involved with called Transform4Europe. The project itself was happening in Kaunas, but the folks who were putting it together lived in Vilnius so it worked out nicely that we could meet up ahead of time. We had a good talk, and it seems like this will be a fun project. I’m sure when it’s done, I’ll be writing more about it.

With that meeting over, Paulius and I headed off to LitExpo for a brief bit before leaving for our first airport run. It was a gray and drizzly day, and we were supposed to be picking up War and Peas. One of the things Comic Con has pointed out to me is that I am woefully unaware of webcomics. We’re getting guests who are huge names, with millions of followers, and I’ve never heard of them. This year, of the four webcomic guests we had, I hadn’t heard of any of them. Much to my shame because they are all fabulous.

When we got there, though, the information I was sent about the various pick-up times and flights was different than the info the actual drivers were given so there was a bit of a panic as we tried to figure out where to actually meet the two cartoonists. As it happened, my information was, in fact, wrong, but even so, they came out the wrong gate so were still waiting for us elsewhere. Thankfully, the Vilnius airport is rather small, so it wasn’t a big deal. I introduced myself and we did the intro video. It was a good start to the day!

Because the next arrival was only 40 minutes or so later, we sent Jonathan and Elizabeth (War and Peas) off to the hotel and we grabbed a coffee (and Paulius continued to edit – which he was doing pretty much all the time) to wait for Harry Hambley, better known online as Ketnipz. His arrival video also went fine and we walked him to the waiting car before heading back to LitExpo ourselves.

Since our next pick-up wasn’t until evening, I met up with Saulė and Diana to really lay down some groundwork on the opening.

Here was a point for me to be a good dad. I knew Rasa and Monki were going to come to the con on Saturday for a bit and that Monki really wanted to get on stage in her costume. There is a masquerade parade on Sunday for prebought costumes, not the homemade cosplay stuff, but she wasn’t going to be around then. So instead, we worked it out that she would come on stage during the opening with me and I would ask her what her favorite thing in the con was. She would then yell, with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, “Cosplay!” And then she’d be off and we would continue. This would be a great way to show the previous year’s cosplay stuff and it would be fun for her. We tossed around a few ideas before we settled on that one, but in the end, that seemed to make the most sense.

One thing I need to mention here… in the office, they had a number of inflatable chairs for us as well as sponsor products to eat and drink. This meant as much light beer, Monster, Barni, Oreo, and Hermis as you could take…but no regular water. The upshot of this is that we were all working so hard that we didn’t eat properly for 5 days.

The third of four web comic artists was our next pick-up in the person of Coolman Coffeedan, a nice guy named Danny Casale, who came with his own crew (when I asked him later what he was filming for, he just said “some future project – most of this won’t see the light of day for a while, if ever – you just never know what’ll need”). He was followed by our last pick-up of the evening, at midnight, of Raymond Cruz, the first of our performer guests.

With Cruz safely headed off to the hotel, we returned to LitExpo to yet again work on the opening script. I now know what award ceremony writers go through!

Thursday – October 19

Thursday was going to be a busy day for sure. I headed down to breakfast where I ran into Raymond and his agent Raphael. As we talked, Raphael and I realized we had friends in common due to the fact he had produced Tony and Tina’s Wedding in Vegas. I knew several people who had been in that show, and when I mentioned them, Raphael immediately knew who I was talking about. It really is a small world!

After food, it was back to LitExpo. Things were moving quickly to get everything ready for the Friday opening, but it was complete enough to get started on doing a preview video.

Doing a preview video is always fun. It’s exciting to see everything before it takes its final shape or is in its final place. It’s the promise of things to come. Last year, Rasa and Monki only came to con the day before opening and for Rasa it was perfect. She got to see a lot and didn’t have to deal with the crowds. That said, this year they both came on Saturday, the busiest day, and had the chance to experience all the different booths and stuff. So a completely different take on things, but we’ll get there in a minute.

Around lunchtime, we realized we had completely missed the airport run to meet Jenny Jinya, creator of Loving Reaper, and get her “Welcome to Lithuania” video. Slightly embarrassing, but it worked out fine since we did it the next day at the hotel and got some great clips! Also, since I didn’t really want the cepelinai which was on offer for lunch, I ordered some chicken strips from Bolt for delivery. When I went outside to get them, the driver looked at me and said “You’re the guy from the Comic Con videos!” Glad I could make someone’s day!

This year, Paulius had a fun idea, to do a hall trivia contest. The idea was to ask trivia questions about geek culture or music to random people, and if they succeeded, we’d give them a special trophy. We also had trophies for our biggest fan and some for impressive cosplay. So I sat down and started to come up with trivia questions. Since I didn’t want it to be too easy, my questions turned out just the opposite and were rather difficult. Eventually, much later that evening, Paulius and I sat down to work on it together, coming up with 25 questions ranging from incredibly easy to really really hard. We’d put them into practice on Saturday and see how it went.

As the evening progressed, we headed back to the airport to pick up Sunny Suljic, a young actor known for some indie films and doing the MoCap and voice work on some impressive video games. He’d been flying for a while, so the glasses didn’t come off.

Once we put him in the car, it was back to LitExpo to try and get in a rehearsal for the opening before we had to head back out to the airport. This was going to be our first run through, so we were trying different things and changing them up on the fly. Lots of ideas were being bandied about but Saulė, who was basically our fearless live stage director, kept everyone focused and in line.

Finally, we were able to head back to the airport to for a last pick up of the night, Nikola Djuricko from Stranger Things (and who is huge in his native Serbia). Unfortunately, the weather was awful, rain and wind, which had caused several accidents on the highway. Add in to this the fact that his flight landed early, so by the time we got there, he was off the plane and waiting for us (he was traveling only with a carry-on, so we didn’t even have the buffer of waiting for luggage. We filmed our video, which was fine, but due to the outside conditions, his ride back to the hotel still hadn’t arrived by the time we were finished so we all waited and chatted until they did show up and we were able to see him safely off into the night.

Back at LitExpo, plans and ideas for the opening kept changing. No worries, we had another full day to figure it out.

Friday – October 20

Friday was set to be another busy day. I ran into Jonathan and Elizabeth of War and Peas and we had breakfast together. They are incredibly nice and fun. I looked forward to spending more time with them. We also meet up with Jenny and her boyfriend Eik at the hotel after breakfast and do the interview there (if you ever meet them, ask them how they met…or better yet, don’t). It’s great. Lots of laughs. It seems though that she is not used to the attention, which makes her delightful.

And in fact, when I catch up with them later at LitExpo, I witnessed the moment she saw her booth… and her artwork three meters high. It almost brought her to tears of happiness.

On Fridays, the con is “sort of” open. It’s designed more for school kids to come and count it as a cultural enrichment activity through their school. For us, it means most things are open (The Artist Alley being a big exception) and the comic artists are around and setting up, but none of the performer guests have anything scheduled to do that day. Also, kids don’t have all that much money to spend so, as I say, it’s basically a soft open to work out the bugs. Marius, my new camera guy, and I are able to get some good footage for a ‘Day One” video.

Finally, Paulius and I head off to the airport for our final pick up, Colby Minifie. For some reason, Marius was standing right at the door to the baggage claim area so as she walked out, she had to walk past him and wasn’t sure what to do. I stepped up and introduced myself and we got another great “welcome” video before sending her off to the hotel to sleep.

For us, though, it’s back to LitExpo to work. Once the Con closes for the day, we try to do yet another rehearsal for the opening. We’re pretty sure we’ve ironed out all the wrinkles, but running through it a few times wouldn’t hurt. Naturally, though, the dance troupe who is opening the opening, Ugnies Teatras (who are great) go over their time.

Instead of just running through their routine once or twice, they want to get in as much practice on the stage as possible. When you see the results, it’s certainly worth it, but at the same time, we also have work to do. We got a late start, but in the end, we were able to get a couple of run throughs done and (mostly) finalize the script. By this point, I’ve met and talked with all of our guests except one, Anna Shaffer. The only problem with this is that we’re going to be doing a quick interview with everyone on stage during the opening and we’re not sure where to go with her question. I also don’t know how to pronounce her last name. I was hoping to get a chance to meet her on Saturday morning before the adventure started.

Saturday – October 21

On Saturday morning, I got into my coat and tie for the first time since getting to Vilnius. These were work clothes. All of my previous videos were done in Comic Con Baltics gear (the color for this year was yellow) but I was going to be on stage today, so a Handsome Hobo bowtie was needed.

Rasa called to let me know when they were leaving Kaunas. I’d talked to them the night before and explained to Monki what her job was going to be during the opening. I gave her her cue (“daughter”) and explained her line (“Cosplay”) and she told me she had been practicing all night. I wish them safe travels, what with all the rain and still bad weather, and head out for breakfast.

Ironically, Rasa gets to LitExpo before we do! Paulius and I help her to park in VIP and I walk them in to get them credentials and stuff to make sure they can get where they need to be. Then I take them down to the stage and walk Monki through her part. She seems okay with everything, but I’m still nervous she’s going to get too nervous to actually do it.

With that all sorted, I left my girls by the stage and headed to the green room to explain to all the guests how it was going to work and what they should expect. I took the opportunity to also double and triple check pronunciations. Still no Anna so I figure I’ll wing it! I’m nervous but confident. And I guess it shows.

At 11:00 on the dot, Ugnies Teatras does their thing. They’re a dance troupe who use all sorts of electronic light sources in their act. At one point, they start spinning light wands which, using the persistence of vision idea, create images in light, including the logo for the Con. Everyone is surprised and excited. As they exit, I go on and start my schtick. I think I’m doing okay but the crowd is a bit dead. Ah well.

I get to the cosplay section and as soon as I say “daughter,” out comes Monki wearing her Iron Man suit with the Captain America mask and shield. She gets applause!

I turn to her and ask her “what’s your favorite part of Comic Con?”

“Cosplay!” she yells.

The cosplay video starts and I walk her off stage. Rasa told me later that Monki was grinning ear to ear. Monki herself told me she was a little nervous and embarrassed but she hid it.

Now it’s time to introduce the guests. Everything goes smoothly, I say the name, welcome the guest to the stage and then show them to a chair. Until I get to Nikola. Instead of taking the seat offered him, he decides to be the comedian he is and takes my seat behind the desk in the middle of a V of chairs. Then he props his feet up on the desk while I introduce everyone else. When I get to Colby, instead of the handshake, she pulls me into a hug and whispers “You’re doing great!” into my ear. She’s awesome and it really is these little things that help you power through, especially when the crowd just didn’t seem to be with me.

By the time the opening was over, we had taken a nice group shot of me and the guests with the audience as a background and also announced the dates for the next Con, along with some of the guests. It’s going to be hard to beat this one, but 2024 looks to be awesome.

I got to spend a little time with Rasa and Monki once the opening finished. Monki was waiting to get a Nyx make-up face-painting done but the line was long and not moving quickly, so I took Monki while Rasa waited. It was fun to introduce her around. We made it back in time for her to get the painting done and then Paulius decided she should get an award for best Jr cosplay. I interviewed her and again, the huge grin. She was thrilled.

Of course, by now, I had to get back to work, so I left them to get Monki out of her costume and go explore while Paulius and I handed out the award for the most devoted fan . Lin swung by for a quick visit and I see Rasa and Monki briefly before I have to get to my first panel, interviewing Nikola.

The panel went okay. Nikola wanted to discuss the SAG/AFTRA strike so that’s where we started. Then he talked about Stranger Things and his career path, going from Serbia to LA. He’s funny and personable and the packed house loved him.

We finish up and I head down to find the girls. It’s about 3pm and Rasa has had about enough of the large crowds. While I was doing my work, she and Monki played around with static electricity, held a stick bug, got lit on fire, and had all sorts of fun! So now seemed a good time to head out, grab some McDonald’s on the way, and go home.

Honestly, while I loved having them there, and was really excited for Rasa to finally see me do one of these things live, it was better they left because I felt guilty for not being able to spend more time with them. Rasa was fine and was good with sending me off, but I felt bad. So with them gone, I could focus on what we had to do. In this case, it was to try our hand at this trivia game.

I certainly like the idea, and I think if we develop it more for the next go round of the Con it will become a very cool event in and of itself. And it was fun. Especially when we tried the music trivia. We changed it from the contestant listening to a movie soundtrack (we didn’t have headphones and it was noisy) to me describing a film and having them do the theme. We had a great time and laughed a lot! Hopefully, Paulius got some good footage!

My next panel was Danny Casale, Coolman Coffeedan himself. He is an incredibly articulate, font of positivity. Honestly, he is just a good guy, with nothing but a positive message to spread. He deserves the millions of followers he has across social media. The panel was informative and fun, and while it may not have been as well attended as some of the media guests, those who were there were entertained and asked some good questions.

By this point, the day was winding down so Marius and I went around and did a Saturday wrap up video before the Con closed up for the night.

With the Con closed, we head back to the hotel for the one event we, as organizers really look forward to, our Saturday night dinner with the guests. It’s a good time, where we all get together and blow off some steam, we introduce the group to Lithuanian beer and food and usually party well into the small hours. I had a great evening, spent chatting with everyone and leaving at about one with Sunny, to make sure he got back to the hotel okay. I didn’t have a lot to drink, but when you drink as little as I do, even a beer and a few shots will affect you. So I crawled into bed to get some sleep before our final day started.

Sunday – October 22

It was the last day of the Con. I woke up and had a quick breakfast before Paulius and I were off to LitExpo. We still had a few videos he wanted to shoot so we got to work. Soon, though, Lin showed up. She was going to spend some time at the Con so we can hang out, even though I’m working. This is turning the tables since usually when we get together, she’s the one who’s working and I’m just tagging along.

She took some pictures of me doing my thing and then joined my first panel, where I was interviewing Raymond Cruz.

Cruz, who’s been around for decades and often plays heavies, leans into that role. I barely asked him any questions at all, instead letting him pace the stage and give the audience what they wanted, a Hollywood tough guy who didn’t take shit from no one. After, he joked with me about my silence, but I know my job the same as he knows his, and in this instance, the crowd was not there to hear me…they wanted his stories and observations about time on the set of shows like Breaking Bad and he certainly delivered.

For the first time in 5 days, I was able to sneak in an actual lunch with Lin. Prior to this, I’d been eating almost nothing but sponsor supplied snack food or grabbing something and eating on the go. This time we were both able to grab a surprisingly good burger from one of the several food trucks parked out in the space between the main convention hall and the gaming area. We had a nice chat while we ate, which took up the time until my next panel, with Colby.

That panel was hysterical. It started with absurdities about dinosaurs, got into some more serious topics, touched on the strike and the show she works on which cannot be named and then got into nicknames and deep character analysis. We laughed a lot and had a great time. She also knows her job, giving the crowd what they want, but approaches it rather differently than Raymond. Whereas Raymond plays a tough guy and keeps that persona, Colby plays a tough woman, but lets a certain amount of self-deprecation and silliness shine through. Both good discussions, but very different vibes.

Lin and I go around with Marius to grab some Sunday wrap up shots and I got to sit in the cockpit of an X-Wing fighter which was on display. I’d seen the full-size mock-up throughout the show but didn’t realize the interior was available to visit. There wasn’t a line so the guy who built it invited us in. It was incredible. Like flying the Millennium Falcon back in January with Troy, this was a childhood dream come true.

Not long after that, Lin took off and, as it was the end of the show, I took the opportunity to grab a few autographs, books, and pictures myself.

And with that, the con ended and the tear down began. The annual crew picture, in front of the guest background, kept getting delayed but eventually it happened. Outside, it’s pouring rain and there’s some debate as to how I’m going to get back to the hotel.

I finally grab a ride with Arturas, who thankfully takes pity on my and goes well out of his way to get me back to the hotel. I grab a quick bite to eat before heading up for an early, quiet night.

Monday – October 23

I can’t sleep late even if I wanted to. I wake up early enough that I can grab some breakfast and get a Bolt to take me to the train station for the train before the one I had intended to take. I had talked to Rasa the night before and Monki was running a temperature so it would be good to get home as soon as possible, considering that with Monki not in school, Rasa would be working from home.

It worked out and I was back in Kaunas and in our apartment before 11am. It was a great time, and I can’t wait to do it again in just about 7 months!