We drove out to Vegas. Wasn't too bad. Journey seemed a bit long, because we didn't get any good radio stations out in the mountains. And our tape deck doesn't work, so we just kinda drove in silence. We got to the hotel. They didn't have a king size bed so we got two doubles. We only used one of them (this will be significant in a few paragraphs). And the door was unlocked when we got there.
We got to the con at about 9 AM and began setting up. We got the table layout finalized right before the con opened. Got our banner put up - binder clips are really useful. The crowd was pretty cool. They seemed interested in our stuff. Undoubtedly Kawaii #1 sold out and a decent number of people bought the one-of-everything pack (7 of our comic books for $21 - until UK1 sold out, then it was 6 for $18). We weren't doing as much business as the guys selling wall scrolls of popular anime characters, but a lot of people came by to check us out (which is why I fully advocate having separate "dealer" and "small press" table pricing). And most of them were willing to come by and flip through our comics.
Rich, the guy who ran the con, gave us free muffins. We really dug that - thanks, Rich. I spent a while playing Star Control 2, but someone took a copy of Headphone Story. We told people, free flyers, free stickers. Apparently, a 24-page comic counts as either a flyer or a sticker to some people. So I started paying attention to people and welcoming them to our booth. We had a few people ask if things were free. And a few people ask if they were colouring books. (Answer: If you have the crayons, yes)
There was a dude there with a trenchcoat with an 12" Alternative Tentacles patch and several dozen buttons for The Dead Kennedys, Lard, and the other bands on that label. Coat was signed by Jello Biafra. I took a picture but it didn't come out. My friend Joe would've dug it.
Anyhow, we got back from the con about 7 PM and there were mysterious red stains between the beds. Mysterious wet red stains. They sent up housekeeping and security. Within ten minutes, there were three security guys there. We got sent to another room. Left our toothbrushes and razor behind - might've been blood. If there was some kind of guy going around bleeding in our room we wouldn't want to keep them. So we moved all our stuff and filed a report. And about an hour later, *then* we finally got dinner, our second meal of the day. Isabel wanted to leave Las Vegas right then. But I wasn't ready to drive for four hours and we had a lot of stuff at the convention hall. We called Rich a couple times that night. That morning, we got our stuff, got gas, and left town.
The first part of the ride home wasn't bad. Death Valley (home of the world's largest thermometer) was 86 degrees (Farenheit). Making it about 20 degrees cooler than our place usually is. The drive was mostly uneventful. Until our car stopped accelerating and started emitting black smoke. So we pulled into a gas station and called AAA. They told us it'd be half an hour until they could send a truck out. So we wait. In the car. And then they call us and say it'll be three hours. So we spent our day outside a gas station in the Mojave Desert. So our con experience was great until we left on Saturday. So if you're going to Anime Vegas, you'll have a great time there. It's just the rest of Las Vegas that we're not too sure about.
What was the substance? We found another sock, the next day, with the same bright red stains on it. So it probably wasn't blood; blood doesn't stay bright red for long. Might've been some kind of dye that was left there by the previous occupant. But we didn't know that at the time.
