Guests of GottaCon 2010 Announced!!

[Evan Hatch]

GottaCon Conventions is pleased to announce our guest line-up for GottaCon 2010. Below find a little information of each of our guests and the panels they will be taking part in.

Guests of Honour - Dead Gentlemen Productions
Dead Gentlemen Productions is a group of filmmakers located in the Seattle/Tacoma area of the Pacific Northwest, as well as Los Angeles, CA. Their recent film The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, is currently distributed by Anthem Pictures.

The group met each other over 1996-97 while attending Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. Between 1998 and 2000, the Dead Gentlemen filmed two feature films: Demon Hunters, and its sequel, Demon Hunters: Dead Camper Lake. The films were met with great acclaim on campus. In 2001 they shot what would be their flagship property for many years to come, a 45-minute featurette called, The Gamers. A comedic short film, The Gamers follows a group of college students playing a role-playing game, switching between the players squabbling at the table to their fantastical characters in the world of their imaginations. The film gained worldwide attention at game conventions and related film festivals. With the success of The Gamers, in 2002 the group founded Dead Gentlemen Productions, LLC.

Since then, Dead Gentlemen Productions produced several comedy sketches and short films, the high definition feature The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, and co-produced with Margaret Weis Productions, creating the Demon Hunters Role-playing Game, containing the newly canonized world of their original Demon Hunters and a short film entitled: The Brotherhood Orientation Video. To this very day the Dead Gentlemen exercise their super power of unmatched collaboration to create projects together.

Our guests from the group include Chris Duppenthaler, more commonly known as Mark from The Gamers films, Jen Page, a passionate film actor who has played everything from a chaotic sorceress rogue to a godling, Don Early, senior producer of The Gamers: Dorkness Rising and general manager for the group, and Christian Doyle, who played Gary, Fastidian, and the male Luster in The Gamers: Dorkness Rising.

Join the Dead Gentlemen as they take you on a Q&A session and a film screening session on Saturday from 6:30 PM to 10 PM in the panel room! DGP will also have a booth in the vendor area where they will be signing autographs and selling their products.



Loading Ready Run Crew
LoadingReadyRun.com launched in 2003 to wild critical acclaim-that is, the acclaim was wildly critical. Started as an outlet for co-creators Graham and Paul to fulfill their desire of making funny videos, LRR has grown into an internet comedy destination.
Inspired in name and appearance by the Commodore 64 Home Computer System, LRR is a site run by-and for-geeks. You have to be at least a bit of a geek to think writing, shooting and producing a new, original short sketch every week is feasible. But you have to be a giant geek to actually do it. Since Loading Ready Run's start in 2003, it has consistently updated with a new video, every week. Often more!

LRR videos have been featured in film festivals such as the Comic Con International Film Festival in San Diego, and shown on major TV networks, including G4 TechTV, The CW and even CNN.

In 2007, LRR organized the First Annual "Desert Bus for Hope" charitable fundraiser, in support of Child's Play. The event, which saw members of the crew play the worst video game ever made for 4 days solid, raised over $22,000 for the children's charity. In 2008 they punished themselves again raising $70,424 and in 2009 they defied all disbelievers when the topped $140,000

The LRR Crew fear actual work and have no transferable skills, so expect the silliness to continue for a great while.

Come meet the individuals from this amazing cast of characters and see their videos at GottaCon 2010 on Sunday from 2PM to 5PM in the panel room!


Gareth Von Kallenbach
Gareth Von Kallenbach is a syndicated movie & game critic, writer, author and frequent radio guest. His work has appeared in over 60 publications worldwide and he is the creator of the rising entertainment site "Skewed and Reviewed" and his latest endeavor, Skewed and Reviewed magazine which launched in fall 2009.

He has three books of film, game reviews and interviews published and is a well-received and in demand speaker on the convention circuit. Gareth has appeared in movies and is a regular guest on the top rated Seattle morning show as well as an East Coast radio show. He has also worked in the game industry giving him insider access to the latest industry news.

Join Gareth as he speaks about videogames – the good, the bad, and the dead, on Saturday from 2 PM to 4 PM in the panel room! He’ll then talk about geeky media – reaching the geek, immediately afterwards from 4 PM to 5 PM. On Sunday, Gareth will be talking about movies and games coming over the next five years from noon to 2 PM.


Dave Carter
Dave Carter is one of the founding members of Mind Storm Labs, a media production company that creates intellectual property for a variety of different media. Their flagship product is the world of Alpha Omega, which they have initially presented as a table-top RPG set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic Earth. Dave enjoys creating new mechanics systems and was one of the lead designers of the "6-6 System", a progressive dice pool system used in Alpha Omega, and is currently working on the "Delta System", a streamlined, fast-paced engine that will be featured in Mind Storm's new table-top war game "Prelude to War", also set in the AO universe.

Join Dave as he speaks about writing and publishing a role-playing game on Saturday from 12 noon to 2 PM in the panel room!


David Pulver
David’s first book, GURPS Ultra-Tech, was published by Steve Jackson Games in 1988 (it's still in print!). Since then, David has written over a hundred roleplaying game books, and has also been employed as a line developer and editor by SJ Games, Guardians of Order, and Internet Hollyworlds. His works range from D&D sourcebooks to miniatures rules, but his best-known books include the Transhuman Space science fiction universe, the anime-inspired Big Eyes, Small Mouth game line, the GURPS Basic Set 4th Edition, and numerous classic GURPS books such as Vehicles, Bio-Tech, and Reign of Steel.

Join David as he speaks about writing and publishing a role-playing game on Saturday from 12 noon to 2 PM in the panel room!


Eric Seaton
Eric started roleplaying seriously in 1990 when he arrived at the University of Victoria. He was involved in the Gaming Club there for several years, and has since played many systems from Battletech to Villains & Vigilantes. He began designing his first game system, Elemental Axes, in 1992, and formed Crosstime Games in 1999. Since then, he has been involved in roleplaying conventions in Victoria and Vancouver.

Join Eric as he speaks about writing and publishing a role-playing game on Saturday from 12 noon to 2 PM in the panel room!


Julia “Jules” Sherred
In early 2008, Jules was hired by Party 934 | 102.5 FM Hudson Valley NY as their Program Director. When the station finally hit the airwaves in September 2008, she began to host her Geeky Pleasures radio show. Once a week for 2 hours, she played a wide variety of music including many geeky songs and discussed with her listeners some geek topic of the week. She has had some pretty well-known geeks sit across from her during her shows, including interviews with: The King of Geek Wil Wheaton, MTV Executive Producer Shane Nickerson, Bad Astronomer Phil Plait PhD and geek music sensation Jonathan Coulton. In 2009, she also took on the additional duties of Assistant General Manager of the station and launched her Geeky Pleasures website when her show and blog could no longer adequately fill the demand she was receiving to share her “unique brand of geekiness”. Due to a change in circumstances, she has stepped away from her radio show (hopefully temporarily) and her AGM and PD duties at the station. However, she is still employed at the station as their Program Consultant and will hopefully be heard back on the airwaves sometime in the near future.

Join Jules as she speaks about videogames – the good, the bad, and the dead, on Saturday from 2 PM to 4 PM in the panel room! She’ll then talk about geeky media – reaching the geek, immediately afterwards from 4 PM to 5 PM.


Karl Johanson
Karl Johanson worked on numerous computer games for Sanctuary Woods Multimedia and Disney Interactive, doing game and activity design, creative writing, technical writing, quality assurance, video capturing, localization testing co-ordination and other assorted tasks.

He recently wrote the Canadian trivia questions for the X-Box 360 version of "Wits and Wagers." Karl now tests security software and is the editor of Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine which has won two Aurora Awards.

Join Karl as he speaks about videogames – the good, the bad, and the dead, on Saturday from 2 PM to 4 PM in the panel room! He’ll then talk about geeky media – reaching the geek, immediately afterwards from 4 PM to 5 PM.


Steve Saunders
Steve's first break was doing interviews and reviews in the comics industry and being quickly picked up and given the infamous All The Rage news, gossip and rumours column over at Silver Bullet Comics Books.com (now Comics Bulletin). For the better part of a year Steve learned many ins and outs of the comics industry and once his run on ATR was done, he jumped right into writing some comics himself. Nowadays, Steve busies himself by working on the Secret Cross comic and RPG, editing and adapting various comic things, working for Studio 407 (a Los Angeles-based comics company), being a part of the Comics On Comics podcast, trying to get back to doing the demon-gamer webcomic Orcusville, and gaming his ass off every chance he gets.

Join Steve as he talks about geeky media – reaching the geek, on Saturday from 4 PM to 5 PM in the panel room!


As you can see we have a fantastic line-up of guests and a diverse selection of panels!! We hope you see something that interests you and that you have a chance to take part in at least one of these events!