Invisible Crane
Straw Hat Pirate
I'll start with mine, As someone whos gone to comic cons on a semi regular basis for over 3 years now I like to think ive never had an experience where ive met a guest and been absolutely dissaponted by it. But recently that happened and it was from the last person I would have ever expected.
So let's cut to the chase I decide to go to my first ever convention in America and I decide to choose Animate in Philadelphia. The reason?, mainly the guests, lots of voice actors. One of which is Tara Strong who I don't need to give an introduction to, chances are you've heard her in some form for almost 40 years now. Now while she may not be my all-time favourite voice actress (that would be Tress MacNellie) or someone I grew up hearing a lot of (i never saw the likes of Powerpuff Girls or Fairly Oddparents or her time as Batgirl in the DCAU or Ben 10, etc) she is someone who ive grown to appreciate (mainly thanks to Raven and Twilight Sparkle!). And having missed out on meeting her twice (first time was MCM London 2019, the other was Telford Comic Con 2023 which she cancelled) i decided rather than continue to wait for her to come to the UK again i was gonna go to the US.
So come early this month I leave for Philadelphia and have to wait til Saturday to meet her as she cancelled her Friday appearance (first red flag something was up). I also notice on the table set up for her theres a list of all the purchase options the guests offer, no selfie options or even video options just autographs and that's it and she I believe was the only guest there who was like that (second red flag)
So Saturday comes in managed to get in line early enough so im one of the first guests to get in and immediately head for her table and manage to get in line first (well in the regular line, there's a separate line for VIP attendees who get first dibs at meeting her).........then it turns out shes running late. After almost an hour she finally shows up and eventually I meet her and here's the 3rd red flag about her.......she did not seem to show any enthusiasm or interest it all. I tell her I came from Scotland, doesn't say a thing (everyone else i met did, Americans have quite a interest in Scotland ive come to notice) she doesn't even say anything about the hoodie I was wearing (its meant to look like the one worn by Barbara Gordon in DC Super Hero Girls). I get her to sign my convention badge at least ($120 btw........she was i think the most expensive of all the guests at Animate). And had it not paid for a photo op in advance that would have been it. So the photo op comes, after waiting for at least 15/20 minutes its my turn. Before I get in the shot she decides to take a photo there with her boyfriend (unlike me and the rest of the guests who met her she was more interested being around him.......I understand why, if I had a girlfriend she'd probably do the same thing). So we get the photo taken and........even that felt like it was a waste of time, she doesn't even thank me or say goodbye, she just points where to go and that's it.........now I want to make it clear that despite that I had a really fun time at Animate and Philadelphia in general. The other guests I met (Richard Horvitz, Roger Craig Smith, John DiMaggio, Jamie Marchi, Carlos Alazraqui, Ray Chase, Robbie Daymond, etc) were all fun to meet yet Tara who i wanted to meet the most ended up being such a dissapointment it still stings a bit even a week later.
I know maybe i should be just glad a met her to begin with and fair enough, but understand my disappointment since I travelled across the Atlantic for this and this was the treatment I got from her. In addition everything ive heard about her at conventions paints her as the nicest/sweetest person you will ever meet yet that never happened. Compare to when I met Grey DeLisle Griffin (her and Tara have been besties for almost 3 decades now) in 2022 at Telford, when i met her I had no idea what to expect and what I got was what I consider to be the best guest meeting experience ive ever had, the complete opposite of Tara in that she actually did some of her voices, she called me a twerp (for context its what Vicky calls Timmy Turner in Fairly Oddparents), we talked for a bit, we took a picture together, she gave me a hug and thanked me for seeing her and it all felt genuine.
Im sorry to go on so long on this, I hope all that happened was I caught Tara on an off day. Cause im so gonna try again. I loved my experience (barring meeting Tara) at Animate and at Philadelphia exposo much i want to go to another American convention next year and try to meet her again and hopefully the experience will be much better this time but in terms of planning which one ill go to its way too early for that right now. And also I want to go to a convention not just with her but a different set of guests than who I met at Animate obviously
So let's cut to the chase I decide to go to my first ever convention in America and I decide to choose Animate in Philadelphia. The reason?, mainly the guests, lots of voice actors. One of which is Tara Strong who I don't need to give an introduction to, chances are you've heard her in some form for almost 40 years now. Now while she may not be my all-time favourite voice actress (that would be Tress MacNellie) or someone I grew up hearing a lot of (i never saw the likes of Powerpuff Girls or Fairly Oddparents or her time as Batgirl in the DCAU or Ben 10, etc) she is someone who ive grown to appreciate (mainly thanks to Raven and Twilight Sparkle!). And having missed out on meeting her twice (first time was MCM London 2019, the other was Telford Comic Con 2023 which she cancelled) i decided rather than continue to wait for her to come to the UK again i was gonna go to the US.
So come early this month I leave for Philadelphia and have to wait til Saturday to meet her as she cancelled her Friday appearance (first red flag something was up). I also notice on the table set up for her theres a list of all the purchase options the guests offer, no selfie options or even video options just autographs and that's it and she I believe was the only guest there who was like that (second red flag)
So Saturday comes in managed to get in line early enough so im one of the first guests to get in and immediately head for her table and manage to get in line first (well in the regular line, there's a separate line for VIP attendees who get first dibs at meeting her).........then it turns out shes running late. After almost an hour she finally shows up and eventually I meet her and here's the 3rd red flag about her.......she did not seem to show any enthusiasm or interest it all. I tell her I came from Scotland, doesn't say a thing (everyone else i met did, Americans have quite a interest in Scotland ive come to notice) she doesn't even say anything about the hoodie I was wearing (its meant to look like the one worn by Barbara Gordon in DC Super Hero Girls). I get her to sign my convention badge at least ($120 btw........she was i think the most expensive of all the guests at Animate). And had it not paid for a photo op in advance that would have been it. So the photo op comes, after waiting for at least 15/20 minutes its my turn. Before I get in the shot she decides to take a photo there with her boyfriend (unlike me and the rest of the guests who met her she was more interested being around him.......I understand why, if I had a girlfriend she'd probably do the same thing). So we get the photo taken and........even that felt like it was a waste of time, she doesn't even thank me or say goodbye, she just points where to go and that's it.........now I want to make it clear that despite that I had a really fun time at Animate and Philadelphia in general. The other guests I met (Richard Horvitz, Roger Craig Smith, John DiMaggio, Jamie Marchi, Carlos Alazraqui, Ray Chase, Robbie Daymond, etc) were all fun to meet yet Tara who i wanted to meet the most ended up being such a dissapointment it still stings a bit even a week later.
I know maybe i should be just glad a met her to begin with and fair enough, but understand my disappointment since I travelled across the Atlantic for this and this was the treatment I got from her. In addition everything ive heard about her at conventions paints her as the nicest/sweetest person you will ever meet yet that never happened. Compare to when I met Grey DeLisle Griffin (her and Tara have been besties for almost 3 decades now) in 2022 at Telford, when i met her I had no idea what to expect and what I got was what I consider to be the best guest meeting experience ive ever had, the complete opposite of Tara in that she actually did some of her voices, she called me a twerp (for context its what Vicky calls Timmy Turner in Fairly Oddparents), we talked for a bit, we took a picture together, she gave me a hug and thanked me for seeing her and it all felt genuine.
Im sorry to go on so long on this, I hope all that happened was I caught Tara on an off day. Cause im so gonna try again. I loved my experience (barring meeting Tara) at Animate and at Philadelphia exposo much i want to go to another American convention next year and try to meet her again and hopefully the experience will be much better this time but in terms of planning which one ill go to its way too early for that right now. And also I want to go to a convention not just with her but a different set of guests than who I met at Animate obviously
