Saboten-Con Report: Day 1

Posted by Stilts

So, Arizona has an anime convention called Saboten-Con. It's currently being held on the first floor of a Hilton hotel, so it's not exactly large enough to rival anything San Diego, New York, or Miami have, but it's nice enough for people like me who can't afford to go out-of-state...or would rather spend the money on Gunpla and various stuffed toys. Besides, among the many panels were Q&A sessions with Steve Blum and Vic Mignogna. Ryoko and I went to  Steve Blum's solo panel first. Some answers I thought were interesting enough to write down:

• The strangest thing a fan's ever asked him to do was sign their baby's head. "And for the record," Blum said, "I did it."
• On a related note, the strangest gift he's ever received from a fan was "a pair of men's underwear. Used. With a picture on it."
• When asked about his thoughts on the Disney/Marvel merger, he said he hopes Disney will provide financial support for Marvel but stay out of the way of their creative teams.
• He said Toonami was "an amazing ride to me." When he and his colleagues heard the news of Toonami's cancellation, they all cried in the studio. He didn't realize how important Tom was to him until it all ended and was touched that so many people contacted him to tell him how Toonami was a big part of their childhood.
• He never planned to be a voice actor. In fact, some of his early aspirations were entirely different. "I wanted to play in a band," Blum said. "For a while, I wanted to be a doctor."

And what was my contribution to the Q&A session? Well, I asked him about his experience doing voice work for The Dig (he loved working for LucasArts and was impressed that I remembered the game) and got him to shout the classic "Showtime!" line from The Big O. I am a man of simple--but very specific--needs.