Owly and I just got back from the awesome Anthrocon in Pittsburgh, PA! We were very humbled to be the Guests of Honor along with the amazing Mr. Peter S. Beagle and we had an absolutely AMAZING TIME! I’ve put together a few pictures from our trip below so you can all see just what this show is like, but there are more to see on my Flickr page!

Besides all the friendly faces, the most amazing thing about Anthrocon is all of the costumes, or “suits” if you know the lingo. ;)

But the really cool thing about all of these suits is that they are almost all original characters! Attendees dress as their characters as a form of expression! They usually represent something about their personalities and they craft them carefully, just like I do with Owly! It wasn’t long before I started to recognize them and relate to their individual characters.

Better yet, they usually wear badges with their character’s name on it so, you can recognize them when they’re not in costume.

I had the privilege of drawing a few of these badges at the show, giving me a chance to draw their own characters in my own Owly style. It was quite a challenge because I had to make sure I got everything right, but it was really fun drawing new kinds of animals and doing my best to capture their personalities. I had a blast!

One of the unexpected benefits of Anthrocon was becoming friends with Mr. Peter S. Beagle and Mr. Connor Cochran. Connor astounded me with his stories and Peter is such a gentle soul. Peter’s writing is incredible and I’m a huge fan of The Last Unicorn! What I didn’t know is that he’s also a huge Pogo and Buffy fan! My life is certainly richer by knowing these two amazing individuals and I absolutely can’t wait to see them again!

But Peter and Connor weren’t the only new friends I made this weekend. I made tons of new lifelong friends! All of the convention staff, organizers, and attendees blew me away with how much they loved Owly and all of his little animal friends!

I also became good friends with Mr. Joe Wos who runs an amazing museum of cartoon art known as the Toonseum! I’ve seen other toon museums before, but the energy and love for cartoons in this place blows them all away! Anthrocon was also attended by the incredible Mr. Jim Martin and I couldn’t believe how incredilby nice he was! Jim created and played Gary Gnu on The Great Space Coaster – one of my all-time favorite shows when I was growing up. Jim and I became fast friends and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see an Owly puppet at a convention soon! ;)

All of the Owly fans were very generous and I did quite a few drawings while at Anthrocon! I’ve added them to my “Owly As…” section of my site, so check ’em out! Thank you all so much for your overwhelming support! If anyone missed out on this amazing convention, I highly reccommend you check it out next year! Everyone is so nice and full of love at this show. I cannot wait to see you all next year!! Anthrocon will blow you away!