From the Night Zero team, thoughts on the 2010 Emerald City Comicon

A great thank-you the thousands of fans who came by to visit at the Emerald City Comicon this year. The Night Zero team had a great time meeting fans new and old, applying free makeup effects, shooting in the HDR photobooth, and sharing the joy that is what we do.

For those who missed the email or missed ECCC 2010, the Night Zero photobooth gallery can be found at Night Zero’s Flickr page.

Below are some words from the team members who were at the show, sharing their thoughts of the crazy, incredible weekend.

KELLY OTA

I was only there the first day, and I don’t know how much we sold, but I loved that by noon, Anthony had to rush home to grab a second box of Volume One books, and by the time he got back, we also sold out of the Special Edition Volume Two Survival Packs. I feel like in the year since we first went to ECCC, Night Zero has not only become more known as a local business, but also much more popular. It was exciting to sell so many books to so many people that were excited about Night Zero!

KATRINA HAMILTON

I talked to so many people at ECCC, it wasn’t long before I couldn’t keep track of the conversations. People would come by that I recognized but I couldn’t remember if I talked to them last year or that morning. At one point I actually stopped in the middle of a sentence, looked up at the woman I was speaking to and said, “I already told you how HDR works, didn’t I.”

Many of you may not know that Alexander Theoharis, a writer for Night Zero and the man most likely to say “Do me a favor and hold this?” while handing you a gun, is also a lawyer. Alexander was in charge of helping people in and out of the photo booth, as well as offering them the guns and/or girls of their choice. Halfway through Day One I expressed to Alexander that all of the power he has as an attorney doesn’t seem to make him nearly as happy as the power to yell “Babes!” and have girls literally run towards him.

One of my favorite moments of the convention was a guy who came over to the booth during the later half of the day and told us how great he thought Volume One was. I asked him where he had heard about Night Zero and he told me that he had just bought the book from us less than an hour ago. He had been walking around the convention reading his copy of Night Zero, and was already a fan.

I still can’t get over how good Indiana Jones looks in HDR.

JANA HUTCHISON

Last year, our makeup area was separate from the rest of the Night Zero crew by (what felt like) a great distance.   It was a blast and we learned so much, but the main booth area was simply not large enough to contain us all! That was our first attempt at offering this fun experience to the public, and it was a definite success, but we struggled to tie-in the makeup with the Night Zero brand.

Since that first booth, we’ve taken our makeup to Crypticon, helped break the zombie world record with Fremont Outdoor movies and created zombies for a Shawn of the Dead event down in LA. We zombified or killed nearly 100 extras for the big downtown protest shoot that you’ll start to see next month, and over the last year our setups have ranged from  just me with my own little kit and a chair to a freestanding tent with four professional makeup artists. All this in addition to the small but demanding shoots that Night Zero does every single month.

This year at ECCC, I was elated to be at the main booth. The energy and support and fun in our space was palpable, and we were mobbed the entire show… I was fortunate enough to have the help of a professional makeup effects artist, Anne Sellery. Side by side, we gored or zombified over 120 people through the course of the show. Having had hundreds of people in my makeup chair since that first ECCC really changed how we approached each person, and I’m still proud that we don’t do “canned” makeup effects. Everyone is a great sport, often waiting in line 45-60 minutes to get in the chair. Some of my favorites (and this was true last year) were the whole families that wanted to be bloodied. Parents would become zombies, kids would become battle-scarred warriors, then they’d go get (what I hope is) their Christmas card photo taken at our famous HDR photo booth.

We always love to hear stories of your convention experience and what happened when you left the convention center all dolled up in blood and bruises, so please send us pictures and stories or leave them in the comments below!

ELI BLACK-MIZUTA

Saturday I took one five minute break at about 4:00. I ate lunch with one hand while taking pictures with the other, and by the end of the weekend I figure I’d photographed (counting group shots) probably in excess of 1,500 people. You guys were all awesome… though I’m concerned by the number of people who, when handed a gun, immediately pointed it at either their head or their friend. In the event of the apocalypse, we’re all going to die.