PopCon Indy 2026 coverage part 2 - Autograph adventures (& a Bionicle bonus)

When looking through the guest list for this year's PopCon, 3 voice actors caught my eye - Christine Marie Cabanos whom I know best as Mako in the Kill la Kill dub, Dee Bradley Baker who plays literally every clone in the titular The Clone Wars, and Patrick Warburton, who's big-man-dude voice I love most as Brock Samson in The Venture Bros.

I thought it'd be real cool to get a piece of merch of the respective character signed by the respective voice actor, so we got a display base for a Pop Up Parade figurine of Mako, a Black Series Captain Rex (technically a Temuera Morrison version but hey close enough), and a Venture Bros season 1 dvd (I actually wanted to get my Go Team Venture artbook signed but that's a big book that would suck to lug around, so a dvd case is far more bag friendly and just as suitable).

Would I manage to get all 3 autographs? Will it be too expensive? The lines too busy? Can I even get over my shy nervousness to ask? I had my mission, and it was to at least walk out with one autograph signed on these...

...and it was simple as that! There was practically no line too, just a $60 fee standing between me and an autograph. I suppose that's a benefit of a middle-to-small sized con.

You could pay an extra $10 for a specific quote written down, and an extra $40 for some selfies with the actor, which would be nice had I only been after one. But I was after three! And I needed some money left over for artist alley! So we went for the basic package across the board. They were all nice fellas, and boy do those autographs look clean on this merch! (especially with the Brock art on the inner DVD case especially, chef's kiss)

I got Patrick Warburton and Dee Bradley Baker on my first day and would have been satisfied with that, as it was getting kinda expensive too. But on my second day I just figured 'what the hell, let's go 3 for 3', though this time I wanted to try doing a lil extra for Mako Mankanshoku. It was pretty late into the vendor hall hours and I hastily went out to the lobby, notecard, pen, and pencil out with some refs on my phone open to hastily draw a notecard sketch to gift.

My hands shaky as hell, I don't draw traditional that much these days, and I really don't like to draw out in public... but in a good 15 or so minutes later we got the job done! And at the absolute 11th hour at that, as Christine and her booth crew were literally about to leave. Luckily they were able to humor me for one more autograph, and I was able to deliver my little notecard doodle. Mission accomplished! A very cool experience with a real clutch maneuver to remember.

And also on that second con day, a surprise Bionicle moment! I unexpectedly found Stuart Sayger had an artist booth, who I was reminded was the artist for the 2006-2007 run of the Bionicle comics by the giant red Piraka Hakann banner he had hung up. I still remember the thrill of hopping off the bus from school to check the mail and finding a new bionicle comic with his art on the cover every month!

The whole Mask of Life arc with the Piraka and Toa Inika and whatnot was pretty much when my love of Bionicle was at its peak (I was a latecomer!), so it was super cool to just randomly meet one of the artists who was a part of it. Was real nice to be able to tell him all that and my appreciation for his art, and he also showed me a portfolio full of his bionicle work which included a bunch of amazing art that lego never published! So cool.

I ended up buying these two prints which I felt were some pretty iconic pages with the Piraka and Toa Inika prominently featured, which I still had the issues that they came from here! Stuart also signed both prints, which was a very delightful and appreciated cherry on top.

The first print, featuring the Piraka roughhousing amongst each other as they do. Super cool to see this full page spread as a proper large unbroken piece!

And the second print, where the Piraka's roughhousing is brought to an end by our Toa heroes. The last page of the 2006 arc! You can just hear it cutting to the credits with this song.

Also very interesting realization upon comparing the print to the comic pages was the shifting around of the characters. Jaller is probably more striking at the forefront of the print as the big red leader of the team, but Matoro triumphantly holding the Mask of Life in the comic... Greg Farshtey must've asked for a rather specific revision, totally not foreshadowing the ending of the arc of the following year.

And that's a wrap for this part of our Indy PopCon 2026 coverage! A super cool experience getting to say hello in person to some of the talent behind my favorite stuff n' things and having mementos from them to prize at home.