Day 19: The Ninja Turtles Meet The Guild!

Holy shit, guys! Do you know what today is? Today is the premiere of The Guild Season 5 and I am fuckin' stoked! OK, let me qualify that a bit. Today is the premiere of The Guild Season 5 on Xbox. I don't have an Xbox. I wish I did, but I barely have time to play my PS3 so it doesn't make a lot of sense. What this means to me is that a whole bunch of people get to watch the first episode of Season 5 today, but I have to be super excited for two more days until it's released to the general interneting public!

I debated about whether to post this update today, or wait until Thursday when I get to actually watch the new episode, but I decided fuck it, today is official enough for me. If you don't know The Guild I feel bad for you. Go here now and catch up. Or go on Netflix. I believe the first 4 seasons are available to stream. Each one is a little over an hour so it shouldn't take long.

On to today's picture. I thought about this one a lot. It's hard to over-emphasize my love of this web series so I knew I would be doing a Guild-related picture before I even started this blog. I had a lot of ideas of how to put the turtles into "The Game," or if I should do the "monitor POV" that the show is known for. In the end I decided on the idea of having them wait in line for a signing for a couple of reasons. First is the tragedy of my Eureka drawing. Drawing humans is not my forte and I would hate to once again totally mangle a cast of characters I love so much. Second, I figure a signing is probably the most likely way the turtles would meet The Guild.

In case you're wondering, here's a breakdown of what's going on. Clearly this line is out of control which is to be expected assuming they're at some sort of convention. Donatello is reading his copy of one of The Guild comics while Leo looks over it as well. Michelangelo is proudly displaying all four seasons on DVD that he's getting signed and wearing his Knights of Good t-shirt. Raphael is looking at a head shot of Amy Okuda who plays Tinkerballa in the show. He's got a little crush on her because she's got an attitude like him.

Now I have a little story to tell you because I think it's funny (and only slightly embarrassing) and it relates to today's picture.

This is the story of how I met The Guild creator/writer/star Felicia Day and made both of us maybe a little uncomfortable.

**Disclaimer: I don't usually have a problem meeting/talking to famous people. I don't do it often, but I have met a few and they were very smooth and normal encounters. I ran into Elijah Wood a few months ago at a movie and it was totally fine. I told him I was a fan, he was nice enough to take a picture with me and then we went our separate ways. This is a story about how I totally could not act that way when meeting this particular famous person.**

Last December, only a few days before Christmas, I heard from a friend that Felcia Day was going to be doing a signing at a local comic book shop for her recently released Guild trade. "Hooray!" I thought. "I'm a big fan of her work and I've never gotten to meet her. This will be awesome."

The day of the signing (Saturday) I had to work. The signing was at 2 pm I think (or maybe not, but it doesn't really matter) so when I got off work two hours before I went straight to the comic shop since it's on my way home. My wife opted not to meet me there, so I bought my copy of the comic and settled in to wait by myself. It turns out to be a good thing I got there almost two hours early. The shop started filling up quickly, but I was only about 20 people from the front of the line.

Since I was waiting alone I brought a Christmas present I had been working on for my wife. I was sewing her a plush Toothless doll from How To Train Your Dragon, partly because home-made gifts are the best and partly because all the retail versions of this doll suck. So I waited in line, eavesdropping on my nerdy neighbors and sewing like a boss. Eventually they had to move us outside because there were too many people in the store. It was pretty chilly, but I was OK because I dressed warm like a little nerd thug in a TMNT beanie, fingerless gloves and my trusty Venom hoodie.

Shortly before Felicia was set to arrive a store employee came out to give us a few ground rules. Mainly just one: She would only be signing for 2 hours, so time is limited. I looked at the massive line that had formed behind me and thought, "Two hours is not gonna be enough to get through all these people."

Shortly after that Felicia arrived and they started moving the line into the store in sections. Like I said I was only about 20 people back so it didn't take too long for me to get moved into the store to wait.

About now I began to realize something. All this time I had been pretty excited to meet this person I admired and, through the wonders of the internet, knew an awful lot about. It was almost like meeting someone in person after talking to them on the internet for years. But what I realized was it only seems like that on my end. To Felicia Day I'm not an internet friend, I'm a fan. And while she seemed to be very nice and interested in everything everyone was saying I couldn't help feeling a little bit foolish. No, maybe foolish isn't the right word. Maybe the right word is self-conscious.

Either way, the line continued to move and I watched as people approached and began chatting with Felicia about this new project they were working on, or that favorite thing that they had in common and I started thinking, "What in the hell am I supposed to say to her? I don't have anything interesting to chat with her about; she doesn't even know who I am!" I suddenly began to regret bringing her the Christmas cookies I had in my bag.

Oh, did I mention I brought her cookies? Cause, yeah, I totally did.

It's not uncommon, or so I'm told, to bring gifts to celebrities at signings and events to show your appreciation. My wife and I have often brought snacks and drinks to mc chris shows to help sustain him on the road. It's our way of saying, "Thanks for coming to entertain us." Thinking along these lines I grabbed a few cookies from a batch I made the night before and threw them in a Spider-Man paper lunch sack (it came that way, I didn't decorate it). I even put an ingredient list in there, since food allergies abound in nerd-kind, and an extra Christmas card from me, the wife and our animals, cause who doesn't like getting Christmas cards, right? Well, suffice it to say now I was feeling like a big dork for bringing them.

Despite all of that the line continued to move and eventually it was my turn to speak to the Nerd Queen herself.

Felicia Day: Hi!

Me: Hi.

FD: Thanks for coming out and waiting in line.

Me: Yeah, thanks for doing this signing.

*I carefully placed my copy of the comic down for her to autograph even though I don’t really collect autographs, but it would look weird for me to show up to a signing and not get anything signed so I did it anyway.*

FD: Do you want me to sign the cover or the title page?

Me: Um, title page is good.

FD: Do you want it personalized?

Me: No, that’s OK. Just your name is cool.

*At this point she seemed to become a little confused, like she was worried she had offended me, but as ever she remained very cheery and friendly.*

FD: There you go.

Me: I brought you some Christmas cookies.

*I placed the bag on the table in front of her like this wasn't at all weird of me.*

FD: Really? Awesome, I love Christmas cookies!

*She peered into the bag*

Me: There's an ingredients list, just in case.

FD: Good idea. I do sometimes get hypoglycemic.

Me: ...

FD: Did you want a picture?

*I did want a picture.*

Me: Yeah, if you don’t mind.

FD: Of course!

*I knelt down next to her chair. She's shorter than I imagined. Like, adorably short, though, not creepy short.*

*Click* (That was the camera)

--Awkward pause while she clearly was waiting for me to say something else.--

Me: Thanks again.

*I bolted through the crowd, throwing bystanders into expensive comic displays in order to escape the store*

FD: Umm, yeah, you too.

OK, maybe I didn't really throw anyone aside, but it's tough to say because I don't really remember leaving the store.

Once outside I called my wife to tell her I was on my way home.

Em: Hello?

Me: Hey, I'm done.

Em: Are you calling to tell me you're leaving me and running away with Felicia Day?

Me: Not today.

I hope you enjoyed the story. If you want a little bit more, here's the picture I took trying to look like it's totally normal for a slightly homeless looking man to approach a strange woman and ask her for a picture.