WHO is coming to A & G Ohio???

My brother and I were stunned to learn that there will be an anime convention very close by in 2009.

A & G Ohio is moving its convention to the Holiday Inn in Eastgate. That is just around the corner from us.

Then, they announced that the voice of Master Shake, Dana Snyder, was coming to Eastgate. I thought that was as good as it could possibly get.

It just got way better.

Two of the absolute legends in the anime business, Richard Epcar and his wife Ellyn Stern, will be coming to what we're dubbing Eastgate-con. This is totally awesome.

Forget the fact we just saw them in Baltimore in August at Otakon. For them to be coming to Eastgate - that is just incredible.

Needless to say, we'll be there in March (13-15, 2009). We'll have it all covered here. Of course, Ohayocon 2009 is up first at the end of January.

Ohayocon has listed 11 guests for the upcoming convention on its forums. Getting to meet Brett Weaver in person will certainly be awesome. Mike McFarland's improv is always a highlight of the weekend. The annual roast will feature ADV co-founder Matt Greenfield. It should be a ton of fun.

There are two previous guests not listed for 2009 that I'm hoping will be back. The first is Monica Rial, who has become one of my favorite female VAs in the business. The other is Chris Sabat, who was awesome two years ago, but a late minute cancellation kept him away earlier this year. Here's hoping he's back to run the dubbing panels like he was scheduled to do last year.

This has nothing to do with anime ... but Mike and I were talking about it so it had to be posted here. This type of news makes me want to celebrate like the guy in this video: