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I hope this isn't too long, but I wanted to get this recap down as soon as I could, since I didn't take notes, photos, voice recordings, cave paintings, or anything else to help me remember everything that happened. This will most likely require most posts and edits as I remember, since I'm sure I'll forget someone or something.

So this is the recap of the Manning Brother's trip to the Open House. *deep breath*

Anyway, the flight out was harsh because it was a red-eye, so I had to work on Thursday, fly out that night and we landed at 5am Michigan time. Our original plan was to just kill some time by driving around and seeing what we could do, but that was much harder, since I didn't take into account that we would be up for more than 24 hours straight if we didn't get some sleep before the VIP night. So we just went to Walmart (which didn't open until 7, so we ate at MickeyD's first), then checked into the Hotel early (and ponied up the half day charge for checking in 7 hours early) and slept until we had to shower and prepare for Friday Night. So we didn't go get pistol whipped on 8 Mile.

Friday, May 5
Friday night was crazy. It was completely overwhelming just walking around and seeing all the stuff set up for sale (every book, a huge toy section that was apparently only a small part of Kevin's actual collection). The one thing I just couldn't get over was the huge stacks of uncut covers for sale for a quarter a piece (the covers for almost every Palladium book was there). That night we grabbed covers (multiples of many of them) of all of my favorites: Robotech, TMNT, Ninjas and Superspies, Rifts, SoT (the Dave Dorman covers are way too cool to pass up), Macross II, Heroes Unlimited (I was hoping for the revised edition blue cover).

My bro and I were just wandering around dumbfounded when Brandon Aten (who was running by to give Taylor his name badge) introduced himself to us. When we told him who we were, he started talking to us about doing some stuff for Triax2 (RAWK!!), and then he went and got our name badges for us, while we were talking to Dark Brandon (thanks guys!)

Then we ran into Mark Dudley (DSS), and talked for quite a while. He's an awesome guy and I'm finally glad we ran into him. He was saying how he wanted to talk to us for the longest time as well. You guys may be seeing some DSS/Manning collaborations in the near future (hopefully for the swimsuit issue...His piece is crazy!! I love it!).

Kevin was full of energy and in a great mood when we all gathered up stairs to listed to him talk. He answered every question honestly, and in depth, and even went into a summary of the history of Palladium books (which was very cool to hear). He also mentioned Void Runners, Mechanoids space, and getting the Robotech License again (I NEED to do some artwork on that if he gets it). I'm sure others will go over everything he mentioned in better detail, so I'll leave it to their threads.

After his big pep-talk and before heading out I finally cornered Kevin and introduced myself (and my brother...we had never met him in person). He saw us running around and heard several "so you guys are twins, huh?" comments, but didn't put two and two together .

After that, we just went back to the hotel and read my copy of Grammercy Island that I picked up on the way out (that's when we bought all those uncut covers too).

[More on the way. This was just Friday night]

Saturday, May 6
PACKED!! I showed up at 10:30, even though I wanted to get there early, we were still on Vegas time, so I didn't get to sleep until 3am, and my body didn't want to get up at 9am (or 6am PST). We waited outside in line, because I didn't want to cut in front of everybody, but Jeff Hansen was waiting in line with us (with his freakin' cool Boba Fett jersey). We got in and just hung out walking around talking with other fans and freelancers, but never got around to setting up a table with our art placed out. We were sort of intimidated since Kent Burles, Scott Johnson and Apollo were all on the table, so we didn't put anything out, considering we were unsure of what to charge and wanted to see what they were asking (I really didn't want to charge more than them).

While hanging out, Kevin was saying that all the freelancers (artists and writers alike) should put a sign out, so everyone knew who (and where) we were. So I sat at a table with a little sign up, but no artwork out. Kevin sat down to chat for a bit with us, but a huge line formed for autographs (everytime he stopped it happened. We all were just hanging around watching him run around trying to get everywhere to talk to everyone). While he was signing autographs (he had us sign a few books too), Nick Bradshaw (I hope that's his name) stopped by, so we made him sit down at the artist tables with us (for a while, I think he left to play some games later on).

I hid in the back during the freelance writers panel talk (because there were so many fans there, I didn't want to steal a seat from them), and then we went to eat before the artists panel talk started. We hung around at the table for another hour or so, but this time we finally set our artwork out (around 2pm).

The panel talk was cool, because I got to hear about how Scott, Kent, Apollo and Mark all worked and what they thought about certain things, which matched my own problems, solutions and ideas, but at the same time I learned a lot from them as well. I was hoping Ramon would show, but he had car troubles and was stuck in Canada. The fans there asked some cool questions, and hopefully they learned a little more about what we do and how we do it (we were throwing around all kinds of trade secrets, which aren't really secrets).

Allen and I spent most of the day just talking to fans, and just having a blast. I had that light-headed dream state feeling the entire weekend I was there. I hope I don't miss anyone, but I'm almost positive I will. So if I talked to you for a reasonable amount of time at all, and didn't mention you, please chime in here and jog my memory, because I had a great time talking to EVERYONE that I talked with.

We sat next to that workhorse Mark Dudley who was doing character sketches all day. Man he was penciling, inking and even coloring some rapid-fire. He got me itching to try out some brush pens, so I'm picking some up before doing any more inking. While someone was explaining his/her character to Mark, Allen and I got to "entertain" anyone else in their group/party/couple while he was drawing them. We talked to Slag, Gideon, Galactus Kid, Taylor White (I forget his screen name at the moment), Todd Yoho, and a bunch of fans and aspiring Rifter authors as well. One group in particular helped us pass the time. Kyle (Bob_12 is his screen name I believe), Anthony (MDC Gunz), Joseph and all the other guys that were gaming up in room 576 were hanging out with us, and kept thinking that they were boring us, but guys, seriously if you're reading this that wasn't the case at all.

In fact now that I mention how I'll forget everyone's name, I realized I forgot almost everyone's name, even though I was asking, reading name tags and really making an effort to remember. There was just so much going on that I was drawing a blank all the time, and now many names have already left.

The rest of these are not in any type of chronological order, but I remember meeting El Magico, and entertaining the lovely Rae while he was busy gaming/talking/generally wheelin' and dealin'. I know we talked to Gideon and Slag for a while about their Rifter Submissions (Slag's article from #25 was a blast to work on, so I'm glad that he was happy with the work we did, and Gideon's Space Trucker article is one of my all time favorites). They both picked up some art from the articles they did, which we tried to set aside for anyone that wrote an article, just in case they wanted first dibs, but we just had most of it out anyway. Brandon Aten and Dark Brandon (don't know where Taylor was) hung out with is for a little while as well. I really can't wait for Mad Haven to come out. Plus the Triax 2 book sounds exciting, so I can't wait to hear more about that.

Slag really piqued my interest by giving me a small taste of the book he and Josh are working on, Delta Blues (I kept trying to take the manuscript). Man forget doing artwork for that, I wanted to play in a Delta Blues campaign!! I was so wired from all the great ideas all you guys just kept tossing at us. I can't wait to start doing some art for those books. Not to mention if Kevin does get the Robotech License, we're gunnin' for that as well. BTW Slag, could you send me the description on the Skull Walker. I just need to get some stuff out of my head and onto paper. I'm going nuts here.

The whole day we just kept staring off into the distance at all the games running, wanting so badly to join in somewhere, but at the same time I really wanted to be available to talk to the fans. I felt so bad when we would interrupt someone in mid sentence to stare at a table when the group would yell in excitement. Carmen's Killfest 2006 was just a constant barrage of screams and battle cries and we just kept ignoring people to see what was going on, only to apologize and continue the conversations. Really, anyone we did that to, I apologize again.

That night, I still wanted to play in a game somewhere (preferably Rifts). The guys up in room 576 were possibly running a Rifts game, and then Gideon said he was running a Northern Gun game, so I made a joke about ditching the other guys to play in the NG game. I was tired, and it was late, so I'm not so sure that came off as a joke, so I really felt bad that night. We headed to Denny's with a pretty big crew and Allen called the guys that I accidentally dissed and invited them as well, but they had just ordered a pizza and were planning on running a Rifts game, and we were invited to jump in after Denny's. We showed up late and the table was already full, so Allen and I just grabbed a booth off the end of the big table, but Gideon (Jason) sat at that table with us, and we talked for quite a while. I wanted to play some Rifts, but the day caught up with me and I was dead tired once I stopped talking and wandering around the Palladium warehouse. However on the way back to the hotel with Jason Richards, we ran into Brandon Aten, Taylor White, and a couple of others (I really don't remember I'm sorry) talking to a couple of guys that were talking to Wayne and Kevin, and possibly have a shot at getting some work. Alex (the artist) is freakin' amazing! He's the first guy that I've seen able to really pull off a unique look with some obvious Ramon Perez influence. I was so jealous of his skills (keep an eye on this guy)! His buddy Issac is, from what I've heard, quite a skilled writer with a shot at something big for Palladium.

After talking with them for a while I finally got back the room, read a couple of comics ("Y The Last Man" and "Jonah Hex") then passed out around 2:30.

[Sunday's adventure, plus any possible additions to follow...]

Sunday, May 7
We were able to get in a bit early, and set up right away. Mark came in shortly afterwards fired up for some more sketching (his work ethic is inspirational). Sunday was predictably slower than the other two days, considering everyone was wiped out, or heading home after Saturday, so I got to talk to Scott Johnson, Kent Burles (Allen and I even talked to his wife for a while. If they ever visit Vegas, we're taking them out on the town), Apollo and even Wayne Smith for a little bit.

Sold a few pieces right away, and immediately walked over to Kent to pick up an original piece I had been eyeing Saturday but didn't have the cash for, before it was sold. Plus, instead of donating cash to Palladium, we just spent most of the money from selling our artwork buying Palladium products (books, prints, food, etc...).

Around lunch time, Todd Yoho was chillin' at a table inside the freelancer's "fort", so Allen and I joined him with some pizza then Mark, Apollo and Scott all joined us. We just BSed for a while and just really had fun. We talked about how Apollo is the P.I.M.P of the bunch (he seemed a bit perplexed about that as well), and how exciting the projects coming down the road are going to be. Then Mark went right back to sketching (workhorse...seriously this guy's amazing). I was looking for Jason Richards or Gideon (his name is also Jason) waiting for them to stand next to Todd, so we could call them "J" and "Silent Todd". I kid you not, he looks so much like Kevin Smith it's eerie. Todd also mentioned how he and I believe Carl saw Killer Cyborg's Rifter submission (that "everyman" article idea he posted), and had to grab Wayne and show it to him as well. Hopefully we'll see it in an issue soon. I loved that idea.

Allen and I talked to Shawn Hall and his wife Lisa for a while about RPGs, Slot machines (how to beat Vegas), Credit card validaters and the SR-71. El Magico stopped by and talked about doing some stuff for Rifts Middle East if it ever gets the green light (apparently he didn't know that I was Jaguar Wong, so that was funny to see his reaction).

While I was going back through the uncut covers grabbing even more (I think Allen and I got something like 70+ uncut covers), I talked to the coolest guy ever...He's 73 and still running a weekly RPG group and is a huge fan of Rifts (although their group plays all kinds of genres, settings and dimensions). He's got a large group with a insane range of ages for the players (15 - 73). Plus he (and the woman with him) were telling me about the games that they run for children between the ages of 6 and 14 to introduce them to role playing, and how the games always fill up so quickly at conventions. They were buying the covers so he could put decoy covers over the books he was actually using to look up to get info to mislead players. And awesome idea!! I would have wasted the rest of the day talking to them, but Kevin went out of his way to find this guy and talk to him. So I just said my farewells and headed back to the table. that dude rocks.

On the way out, I tried to say goodbye to as many people as I could, but I couldn't find everyone. While wandering around, I hear Kevin yell "So the Manning Boys are leaving?! Good riddance!" (or something along those lines), then gave us a hug and was just in such a great mood. He was just glowing from all the energy (PPE??) flowing around from the weekend, and we said our goodbyes. I got to admire Rae's first attempt at painting a miniature (those tiny yellow eyes must have been difficult after such an exhausting weekend). Jason Richards caught a ride with us back to the airport and got a first hand glimpse of my awful driving (why does Michigan hate left turns?).

So anyway, I had a blast!! I am SO fired up about all the projects in the works, and all the tidbits that were tossed my way from the writers (that Freelancers collaboration book sounds awesome. A great idea and I'm glad that Kevin loved it so much as well). Brandon Aten, Dark Brandon, Taylor White, I hope Mad Haven is a huge success for you guys, and I can't wait for you to finish up Triax 2. And that Sovietski book idea sounds like a great addition to the Rifts world. Gideon, you need to really do some more stuff! your writing has such flavor and life to draw (pun intended) upon. Todd, Good luck with India...I don't envy you for taking on that job. It's gonna be awesome (and it was great talking to you about Dinosaur Swamps). Carl (the "Idea Factory), you're a true powerhouse in Palladium's freelance staff. John (Slag), curse you for getting me all fired up about Delta Blues (I knew NOTHING about it before Saturday)!! Now I have ideas and images just running around in my head. Jeff Hansen, Welcome to the wild world of RPGs. Good luck on Warpath. I've got to finish up "i, Robot" then I'll start on your novel right away (I can't wait for another copy, so I'm "carefully" reading the open house version). and who could forget Jason Richards ("BUY THREE COPIES!")? I can't wait to see what you have in store for Chaos Earth. I hope you made your flight as well.

Scott, once again, I can't thank you enough. If it wasn't for you sending me an email years ago about what I needed to do to get Kevin's attention I wouldn't have been there this weekend. Mark Dudley, your work ethic and speed are inspiring. Allen and I can't wait to do some collaborations with you and the DSS guys. Kent Burles (I don't know if he reads here, but if anyone reads this, you can pass along this message), you're an amazingly talented artist, and I learned alot just by looking at your original artwork (along with Scott, and Kevin's as well). You renewed my drive to really study animals and nail them on paper. Apollo Okamura, watching you slave over character sketches for the fans really showed that you love giving back. You were glued to your chair and sketchbook and really busted out some great pieces for the fans (even though you had to stop taking commissions so you could eat and breathe). I felt lazy with you and Mark there (it was my vacation, though). Allen...You suck and you hate technology.

El Magico and Rae, it was a pleasure meeting the two of you, and I hope you get a shot at something for Palladium (so that Rae will have to do all your proofreading and be forced to crack open some more Rifts books to learn about the world). I didn't catch the names of the two guys we were talking to about the Mountain Dew Cornflakes, but the narcoleptic player's failed roll incident is pure comedy. Shawn and Lisa...you can't beat Vegas! The House always wins! ha ha ha ha (maniacal laughter). Kyle, Anthony, Joseph, and the others (I wish I could remember your names. I think one of them started with a "T"), it was really fun hanging out and talking about vampires, werewolf broadside attacks, and MDC Gunz. Sorry we didn't make it to your Rifts game. J. Lionheart, I hope you liked your sketch. I wished now that I had my sketchbook out to do more for some other fans. "Big Willy" (that was the only part of your name badge I remember), if you're reading this board, I loved your stuff, and hopefully you'll get a solid submission package together for some stuff in the Rifters. Palladium could always use more killer Heroes Unlimited artists.

To those that I couldn't talk to, I really wanted a chance to talk to more of you. MADMAN MIKE, Braden (besides the small conversation during your search for the Wormwood uncut cover), Killer Cyborg (we had such a short conversation waiting to go eat or game Saturday night), Daniel (I don't know if he's here, but he had a sketchbook full of character sketches that made me feel like I was really slacking), NMI (I met you on Friday, but never got to chat afterwards), Levi (we only really chatted briefly, but I think you were busy gaming).

Everyone else I forgot (I know there are a ton of you, since I forgot your names, but remember some of the conversations we had), I really apologize. Feel free to post here and jog my memory.

M.D.C. Gunz, what else would a person expect from palladium gamers at 5:30 in the morning? I totally forgot it was on my arm...

So it was awesome meeting you and your brother, always been a fan of your work, and my little bro was freaking when i showed him all the signitures i got for him and the little words you two left him. Thanks.

The California Contingency (As Kevin put it), included Kyle (Bob_12), Anthony (Joseph Kerr), Mike (Kazuzic), and Tyler (Ominai). We heard of a few other Californians, and even met a guy from Roseville, which isn't that far from us! We all had a blast hanging out with you guys, and we were seriously kicking ourselves for ordering that pizza! Ah well, the Open House was still pretty fun, and Vegas isn't that far from us anyway , what all do you two play?

Slag really piqued my interest by giving me a small taste of the book he and Josh are working on, Delta Blues (I kept trying to take the manuscript). Man forget doing artwork for that, I wanted to play in a Delta Blues campaign!!

Well...I know eight people that are the only one's to ever play in a Delta Blues Campaign....my players that play tested it.

But enough teasing...

Thanks for the kind words on the project, too bad that I couldn't be there.

~ Josh

*is jealous* %&#$#* stupid final exams... *grumble*

Jaguar Wong wrote:
Slag really piqued my interest by giving me a small taste of the book he and Josh are working on, Delta Blues (I kept trying to take the manuscript). Man forget doing artwork for that, I wanted to play in a Delta Blues campaign!! I was so wired from all the great ideas all you guys just kept tossing at us. I can't wait to start doing some art for those books. Not to mention if Kevin does get the Robotech License, we're gunnin' for that as well. BTW Slag, could you send me the description on the Skull Walker. I just need to get some stuff out of my head and onto paper. I'm going nuts here.

PM on the way. Glad you liked!

The brothers Manning are awesome guys, and it was great to finally meet them. Thanks again for the lift, fellas... I made the flight just fine.

Joseph,
Your brother was the only one we did a (somewhat) personalized autograph for, but if we had thought of it sooner, we should have done some goofy RPG related quote like "Keep rollin' them 20's and ridin' dirrty" or something equally cheesy. But we were caught off guard when you asked us to sign the books for him.

Josh,
That book looks fantastic. I loved Todd's Dino Swamps books, and Delta Blues just has that same flavor and personality that I loved about those books. I really want to be part of a CS platoon out there just trudging through the swamps being forced to use tactics and bad gear to hold a huge chunk of land.

Seriously, great stuff. Congratulations to you guys.

Slag,
Thanks, I got it, and I really want to do something cool for that one. I haven't read any of the other vehicle descriptions, but this was such a great idea, it just stuck in my head (I can see it moving and everything).

I really had a lot of fun, and I am so glad I was finally able to talk to the fans and freelancers in person, instead of this much slower paced forum conversation.

Yep, the Mannings rock!

Thanks for saving the artwork for me Jag, and send your technophobe brother my regards.

Mark,
I agree completely about Kent. That guy is so down to earth (and talented). I've always been a fan, but this really made him much cooler. That panel talk really made me feel like I'm doing something right, so I'm fired up about cranking out some more work. A DSS/Manning Clan collab is next on the list, right? Just send that swimsuit pic to us, and I'll make sure Allen inks it. I don't think he's working on a piece yet anyway.

Pass along my hellos to the rest of your crew. I wish more of them could have made it, but at least we got to meet the man behind the crew.

Gideon wrote:Hey guys. It was great to finally meet you. I wish I had had more American Dollars to buy more of the Sunhammer stuff from you.

TOO LATE! IT'S ALL GONE! j/k

Yeah it was a blast talking to the writers. Again, that was very cool of you to leave the table to hang with us at Dennys. I'll be sure to keep in touch, though. I've got AIM on my phone, so I'm logged in all the time.

I'll try to post that finished pic for the "Take That" that wasn't printed, so you can see what it's supposed to look like. Man that reminds me...my website is SOOO out of date. Most of the art that we brought to the show isn't even on my site. I'm trying to get Allen off his butt so we can put a Manning Brothers site together, but I think I'm better off just scanning the art and just putting it all on my site (which I need to renew my domain name this week).

Jaguar Wong wrote: I didn't catch the names of the two guys we were talking to about the Mountain Dew Cornflakes, but the narcoleptic player's failed roll incident is pure comedy.

That was me and Spectre. I may be one of the potential future freelancers as well (I swear DL, that PM is coming). It was good meeting you two and wish I could have split myself ala multiple selves so I could spend a respectable amount of time talking to everyone. you two are awesome dudes, and hopefully will be doing some art for my writing in the future! I'll also pass along your sentiments to Dan (the guy with all the character sketches), as he was one of my crew as well.

Mark, I swear man, that email is coming as soon as I get time. You WILL see my vision for that character so you can "kill" the sketch! It was awesome getting to meet you too man.

DLDC,
I'm glad that you like our work. I've been a fan of your GMing style (and game recaps) for quite a while now, and I'd definitely be up for some artwork in any book/article you send their way.

I was hoping to squeeze some info from Rae about your Coalition of Magic concept, but I think we kept on moving the conversation into different directions (like groupies, proofreading your work, and art in general). I had fun talking to her, so I kept forgetting to pry any info out of her, since you were on the other side of the room.

Warwolf,
Seriously, good luck with that. There were so many genuine Palladium/Rifts fans with a love of the game, I hope many of you do get Kevin's attention, and hopefully push Palladium further. I loved all the ideas (and bits 'o manuscripts) that I was able to gather just by being there all weekend. And I think I'll have to try some Mountain Dew and Cornflakes someday if I've got nothing else in the house (although I wouldn't have Mountain Dew at all, so I don't know how that would happen).

And yeah, tell Dan to keep on filling up those sketchbooks. He seems pretty driven to push his skills, so I would really suggest that he just goes nuts and starts reading all kinds of books on art (like traditional art, not just the cool comic/manga stuff that we all like to read). And keep on filling those sketchbooks. He definitely puts in the work, and he's got some potential. But he seems caught in that comfort zone of full body character portraits (we ALL had that phase of just drawing what was comfortable for a while). He should really push his creativity and start drawing everyday people doing everyday things (like people watching at the park, Borders, subways, etc).

He just stood here and read that. He was quite stoked to get some praise and advice on the matter, and upon reading about breaking free from the comfort zone, he replied, "I know, I need to work on other stuff."

So there you have it. I appreciate the sentiments Mr. Manning. You and your brother take care, see you round' the boards.

LOL, I'm glad to be of service.

But I need to heed my own advice as well. I've skipped out on several chances at people watching sketch sessions with other artists, and I don't use nearly as much reference as I would like (Mark suggested I pick up a "Visual Dictionary", so I would suggest that to Dan as well). I do however study a lot of tradition art and artists, but I tend to get most of my inspiration from comics, though.

My favorite comic artists include: Terry Dodson (and Rachael Dodson, his "inker"), Frank Cho, Ryan Ottley, Tony Moore, Tony Harris (INSANE skills), Bob Layton (old skool), Joe Kubert, John Romita SR and JR, Jim Lee, and a ton of others, but those are the biggest.

You should also try to find some stuff by Andrew Loomis (I can't find any of his books anywhere, but I downloaded some scanned pages), which Kent Burles also highly recomends to all artists.

I love the character sketch! It straight up rocks. I loved getting a chance to meet and chat with all the artists who are behind the great visuals that give Palladium such a real feel. There was so much more there, both art and books, I would buy if only I had the finances and wasn't 2500 miles from home. Ah well, I guess I've got to save some things for buying in the future, right?

Thanks again for the sketch!