Going into it, I knew this year’s ComicCon was going to be different. Paulius, the guy who had brought me into the fold, wasn’t around anymore. To be fair, he now had two small kids and was working on a PhD, so the months of work which goes into creating a momentous weekend can be a bit overwhelming. Without him, though, I had no point person, so I wasn’t sure what, if anything, I’d be doing at con this year. This manifested by me putting in TBAs in all my syllabi in case I needed to be gone during the final week of the semester.
Thankfully, back in February or March, a lot of confusion got cleared up and I was back on track for doing something which, honestly, is one of the highlights of my year. While I love teaching, CCBaltics scratches a theatre/performing itch I’ve had since I was little*. So, with a plan in place to bet to Vilnius on Wednesday, May 22, ready to hit the ground running, I was good to go.
Wednesday May 21
Before I got on the train Wednesday morning to head to Vilnius, I had already been working on what I’d be doing there. It seems that originally, I was supposed to interview a Hollywood screenwriter on the Saturday, but unfortunately, he had to bow out at the last minute for medical reasons so Diana, who is in charge of panels and programming, had a slot to fill. She asked if I would mind doing a panel where I was the guest, one where I could talk about writing. Although it was a bit weird for me, I agreed. She’d also asked me if I could do a solo panel where I’d spend 35-45 minutes giving a lecture on the history of Superman. I agreed to that, too.
In fact, I was working on that lecture during the week before I left. I was assembling all of my materials and figuring out what to include and what not to, but I was doing it after Monki had come home from school (I still had classes on the Monday and Tuesday). The problem, with trying to get things done with her around is that every time I sat down to try and work, she would call and demand my attention for something. Then, on Monday, she announced she was going to make a PowerPoint about something. See, she’d learned how to make PowerPoints in her much-hated Informatica class, but she really enjoyed the creative process involved.
I had a brainstorm.
I handed her my lecture outline and asked her to make me a PowerPoint for it. And boy did she deliver! 28 slides, complete with flying text and wild transitions. She even did a bit of research and found pictures I could use as illustrations. While I did make some adjustments, about 90% of the final lecture was delivered with her slides (not always with all of her flying text, but that was more a time issue than anything else).
By the time I left the house on Wednesday morning, I had her version in my bag, ready to be worked on, which was a considerable relief. I dropped Monki off at school then headed for the train station.
The train I happened to get for my ride, though, was special. Evidently, it’s called the “forest train” and it is exactly as advertised. I wasn’t quite sure what it was when I boarded, but by the end of my 90-minute ride, I felt as if I’d been traversing the jungles of some far off land.
Upon arriving in Vilnius, Simas, one of the Con organizers, picked me up and we headed straight for LitExpo, where all of the action would be taking place.
Each year, the event had gotten bigger and bigger and this year was no exception. This year was the 7th Con and my fifth working, and by now, we had expanded to take up pretty much the entire complex as well as adding a second, simultaneous convention (Baltics Gaming Expo). This meant our offices had been moved out of the main building to meeting rooms in a secondary building which was both good and bad. The good was it offered more dedicated space, rather than trying to create an office out of a big empty area, but on the flip side, we had to walk across the cold and rainy courtyard to get there from the main event. Ah well.
I had a brief walk around the Con floor, then went back to the office to try and make myself useful (and work on my Superman lecture). While there, I overheard a conversation that one of our guests, the Wawawiwa cartoonist Andrés Colmenares, who had gotten in the night before, was asking about going to see Trakai. When no driver was available, I volunteered to take him.
Simas gave me the rundown on one of the Con-branded Renaults and I headed off to the hotel to pick Andrés up. Driving very carefully and with the aid of the car’s GPS, we eventually made it to Trakai and had a great time. Even though we come out that way at least once a year, we hardly ever go into the castle/museum proper, preferring instead to take a boat ride or just walk around. But since I was playing tour guide, we headed inside to see all the sites. Afterwards, we grabbed a nice Lithuanian lunch of pica and kibinai before starting back to Vilnius, all the while having some great conversations.
On the drive back, the GPS directed us past Angelų Kalva (the Hill of Angels), so I decided to stop. Rasa, Monki, and I had been there a few weeks back and I thought it was something cool…at least something to show a tourist so we went and took pictures. But by then it really was time to get back and deliver the car back for the evening. I dropped Andrés back at the hotel before figuring out how to get back to LitExpo. Once there, I had to have someone drive me back to the hotel so I could finally check in and get settled. I ended up grabbing some sushi from a little place across the street then did some work and watched some TV (Poker Face on the laptop) in my room before falling asleep.
Thursday May 22
Was up relatively early and headed downstairs for breakfast. There, I ran into Brett Parker. Brett is an appearance agent, responsible for booking guests into conventions like ours. We first met back in 2019, at my first Con, where he was representing Steven Ogg and David Faustino and had had a number of great conversations over the years. But here on Thursday morning, we just grabbed breakfast and had a great chat about life.
After breakfast, since I didn’t have any official duties to take care of until we started picking up people at the airport, I sat in the lobby and worked on my Superman lecture. Andrés came down with his own laptop and joined me. It’s been a while since I’ve sat in a café with a friend and we were both working on stuff, so that was nice.
Eventually, it was time to do the job I was there for, and Julius came to get me so we could run off to the airport and start interviewing people as they came out of baggage claim. I’ve been working with Julius on camera for a few cons now. He’s a talented operator and editor (and a shout out as he’s about to graduate with his Bachelor’s in Lithuanian Philology) and was one of two camera guys I worked with this year.
Our first pick-up was a group of motion capture performers; Rob Wiethoff and Roger Clark, both from Red Dead Redemption, and Ned Luke from GTAV. Rob had been here once before, in 2022, and Roger was supposed to have come as well, but he had COVID and couldn’t get on the plane. So this was a make-up visit. It was great to see Rob again and give him grief for not following me back on Instagram!) and Roger was fun to talk to, having toured the Baltics some 17-18 years ago with the play Frankenstein. Ned was also a great interview, and we all had fun doing these intro videos.
However, this was merely the start of my annual video adventures! Leaving the airport we headed back to LitExpo where, in addition to finishing my Superman presentation, I was tasked with recording some informational videos about tickets and how to navigate the space using the con app.
By the time were heading back to the airport, the rain started, but it didn’t really get going until we were safely inside and waiting for our pick-ups. Three guests all coming in together, albeit from different fields. We interviewed Shawn Fonteno, who was in GTAV with Ned and then the remainder of our cartoonist guests, Luis Coelho (Purr.In.Ink), and Valerie Minelli (Mrs. Frollein).
For Luis and Valerie, this was their first con and the idea of being met fresh off the plane was a big shock. Although, for Valerie, it shouldn’t have been. She’s friends with Jonathan Kunz of War and Peas, who were our guests at the last con. Jonathan warned her we were going to do this, but she didn’t believe him. Surprise!
Somehow we stumbled through and got everyone back to the hotel through the pouring rain. I went with them so I could have a quick chat with Rasa and Monki before dinner.
Dinner ended up being a night out with Luis, his partner Joana, and Andrés. We ended up at Casa Della Pasta for some good food and even better conversation. The topics ranged far and wide and got pretty philosophical. We closed the place down and by then the rain had pretty much stopped, so we ended walking the mile or so (1.6km) back to the hotel, continuing our conversation the entire time.
After saying goodnight to the dinner gang, I ran into Roger and Ned sitting in the hotel lobby have a nightcap. I joined them for a drink (Heineken 0.0, which was actually nice) and a chat before getting to bed around 1am.
Friday May 23
As is my wont, I was up early on Friday morning. Having to get up daily at 6:30 to make Rasa coffee and make sure Monki was up for school and fed tends to work itself into a routine. So I was up and showered and down for breakfast around 8:00. This was good since I wasn’t sure when my day was going to start.
Justas, who was overseeing the video production this time around, came to get me around 9 and we headed back to LitExpo. Again, we did some quick videos talking about tickets and the treasure hunt game and I even had time for a bit of a wander before my first panel.
This year, I was scheduled for five panels, two on Friday, two Saturday and one Sunday afternoon. There was also not going to be an opening ceremony as in years past, since, really, aside from the gathering of all the guests, there wasn’t much of a point to it. No one wanted to hear all about what was happening at the con, since they already knew all that and the reality of the situation was that the main stage area was in much greater demand for Cosplay, which, for the con, is certainly the bread, if not the butter as well.
My first panel was with a guy named Mille Carrasco, who is from Chile, but was raised in Sweden and who now lives in Kaunas. He’s in the process of writing a graphic novel called Ignacio Nuotykiai ir Kelionės, about a Lithuanian who emigrated to Chile some 150 years ago. It went well and I look forward to the book being finished.
Afterwards, I took a quick break and had lunch with my friend Xanos, a streamer, who had also been tapped as a moderator. Then it was time for my panel.
In this instance, I was being grilled by Ignas Kinčinas, a local journalist. It was weird to be on the other side of the couch, as it were, but I think I held my end of the conversation okay. If the video ever becomes available, I’ll certainly link to it, but for now, take my word – I was brilliant!
Of course, at the end of 45 minutes, I was like Cinderella at midnight. The magic wore off and I was back to work, filming more videos, wrapping up the day, before I was able to head back to the hotel.
In my room, there was a small, foldable bed, since Rasa and Monki were supposed to join me that night, stay for a bit and visit the con on Saturday before heading home. Unfortunately, Rasa wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t sure they’d be able to make it, so I was on my own for the evening… at least the early part of it (I had an airport run to make later in the evening).
Thankfully, I once again met up with the cartoonists from the night before and we again all went out for dinner, this time a little closer. We ended up at Brussles Mussels, right next door to our hotel. Again, good food and great conversation. Perfect way to wind down the day.
After dinner it was right back to the airport to get Tom McKay and Luke Dale, motion capture stars of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. These guys couldn’t have been nicer and more accommodating to our shenanigans, especially at 10:30 at night after a long flight. I thought this was going to be my last airport run of the weekend and figured this was a great way to end it… unfortunately, I was wrong, I had one more pick-up on Saturday. Whatever. I’m a professional and can do anything! So we got these two into the con cars and followed them back to the hotel, where I crashed out for the night.
Saturday May 24
Breakfast Saturday morning was a nice chat hearing some great stories from Ned Luke and Rob Wiethoff. These are stories which will never make it onto a panel or stage discussion but they are so good and Ned is a natural storyteller. It was a great start to the day.
Which actually needed to get started. I grabbed a ride to LitExpo with Luke and Tom, who really come across more like brothers than colleagues and co-stars. I played a bit of tour guide as we drove through morning traffic, and we all shared stories as we rolled into the expo hall.
It was cold and rainy, all day, but that didn’t stop anyone from enjoying the day. The fans are amazing, and they weren’t going to let a little thing like water from the sky ruin a day they’ve been waiting for all year. Nor was I! And so I was out in the rain, filming videos and doing my best to capture the wonderfulness of what Con is.
With our filming done, I went back to the office to hang out and get my head together before my Superman lecture…which is when Justas came and told me we had one more airport run to make. Our last guest needed to be picked up at noon. This was going to be tight, since my lecture was at 13:00. But hey, I’m a professional, right? Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.
So we bundled off to meet our guest, watching the weather and checking that the flight wasn’t delayed. And I watched the clock tick over, getting closer and closer to my own start time.
As it turned out, timing wasn’t on our side and we didn’t get the interview at the airport. That’s okay, I knew we’d be able to pick it up at the con itself. Now, of course, the problem was getting back to LitExpo on time. This is where we give a special shout out to Justas, who drove like a (safe) madman to make sure I was back and ready to go. I have no idea how he did it, and I was sitting in the front seat watching the entire time!
The panel was decently attended, especially considering there were some big names in the hall next door, but I was okay with that. There were even some of my students in the room, so it really did feel like I was in class. And I did mention that Monki made my PowerPoint, which she asked me to do. I was sorry she couldn’t be there to see it, but I did send her the recording.
My second panel of the day was with my now old friends Luis and Andrés, as well as Valerie. It was a great panel, talking all about creativity and positiveness. And it ended with us throwing Doritos into the crowd (they were a sponsor) and a lot of laughter. It’s so great when panels work out like that.
Of course, it was back to work after that, and we went around doing a wrap up video of the day. This is also where I get to indulge my ability to be a professional idiot, when I do all sorts of crazy, silly things, including getting my face painted.
With that done and in the bag, we headed back to the hotel so I could wash, have a quick chat with Rasa and Monki, and then head out for my favorite event of the weekend, dinner at Būsi Trečias. We go here every year, inviting all the guests to experience Lithuanian food and drinks and just have a chance to let our hair down. Me and the cartoonists walked the 20 minutes from the hotel and were the first to arrive.
Overall, it was a great night. Had another great conversation with Tom (which again makes me wonder, how do you make friends as an adult when you don’t live in the same city? If we were coffee shop range, I don’t doubt we’d have a coffee, but from a distance, it just feels weird) and then ended up sharing a cab with Luke back to the hotel. It’s so great to chat with industry people with whom I share a certain frame of reference.
Sunday May 25
Woke up and called the girls back home to see how everyone was feeling. Rasa said she was well enough to drive out for the day, and since it was our last day of work, I’d be able to drive home with her and take Monki to school on Monday morning. This was the best possible way to start the day.
Headed downstairs to have breakfast, met Andrés there and then the two of us, as well as Luis, Joana, Valerie, and her sister Kelly piled into a couple of con cars to get us to Sunday at the con.
Once back at LitExpo, Justas and I filmed a bunch of wrap-up material (including goodbye videos from performers Ed Westwick, Luke Dale, Tom McKay and Jack Gleeson, and Ned Luke and Shawn Fonteno as well as all the cartoonists – Andres, Luis, and Valerie) to make sure we got it while things were still going on (I’d missed that on Friday, when I wanted to do the face painting gag I did for Saturday). By the time we were finished, Rasa and Monki had completed their drive and I was able to show them around a bit, before I got called off to work.
Over the next few hours, I would check in on them as they did various activities and saw things. The con is really good for younger kids, with all sorts of events and happenings aimed at little ones. For Monki, her favorite thing is painting miniatures, which she’s done two years in a row now.
I caught up to them whenever I had a break, which included taking Monki to look at the tanks while Rasa waited for food. We’ve always had a nice military presence at Con and this year was no exception. Although this year, we had a large contingent of German military since a battalion (brigade? Group? Anyway, about 4500 soldiers and support) had recently settled permanently in Lithuania to help shore up security against Russia and these tanks and armament were a big part of that. Monki had a blast climbing into the cockpits, but she did get a bit scared when one of the tanks started its engine.
By the time we were done looking at heavy weapons, it was time for me to hit my last panel, this time with Jack Gleeson. We’d had an opportunity to chat ahead of time, and I asked him if there was anything he wanted to talk about. “I assume you’re really tired of Game of Thrones questions,” I suggested.
“Absolutely not,” he responded. “If that’s what people want to talk about, I’m all for it.” Then he suggested we let the conversation go where it will. I gotta say, by the end of that 45 minutes, I was a fan. I mean, I’ve been a fan of his since Game of Thrones. His performance was amazing in that.** But after talking with him, I’m also a fan of the man himself. Really nice, good guy, very attentive to where he was and what he was doing. I wish him nothing but success. Also, found out he’s playing Puck in the Sandman series, which, to my mind, is perfect casting.
And then I was done.
Rasa went to get Nutella and banana-stuffed crepes while I took Monki around and introduced her to the folks I’d been spending time with. Her favorite was Ned Luke, who she knew because she’s actually played GTAV with her cousin. And Ned was great with her! They took a few pictures together and he signed a GTA one for her.
When I introduced Rasa to Ned, he looked at her, then looked at me, then back to her. “She’s too pretty for you,” he said to me. He’s right.
We hung out long enough to get into the crew photo (a highlight of every con) then headed back to the hotel to check out and say good-bye again to the gang of cartoonists and Tom, who was just coming back from a run.
And that was it. Another Comic Con Baltics done and dusted. It was such a good time and really something I look forward to every year. I’m so glad they’ll have me. Maybe next year I can do even more to help out.
* I’d been involved in professional theatre since I was 9, but had been unofficially doing stuff since at least 6 – but that’s a topic for another blog post.
** He quickly put to rest any rumors that anyone has ever confused him with his character Joffrey, and says that had nothing at all to do with his decision to step away from acting for a bit.
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 