Idle Thumbs will be conducting its first (and possibly only) ever live panel during this year's PAX Prime show in Seattle. Three-day tickets to PAX itself are likely to sell out this week, according to the expo's official Twitter feed, so if you want to come see us do a live cast and most likely see me perform a song, get on that soon.

What: Idle Thumbs Live Show at PAX Prime
Who: Chris Remo, Jake Rodkin, The Return of Nick Breckon, Other Guests?, You
Where: PAX Prime in Seattle (get your tickets at the official site!)
When: Sunday, September 5, 2010, 2:00PM
More Where: Wolfman Theatre
Games: Video

Tell your friends. And people who listen to Idle Thumbs, but aren't your friends.

Update: PAX has run out of 3 day badges. Passes for individual days are still available, however, including Sunday.

Update: We'll be meeting at the Crossroads Irish Pub. It's only a few blocks away, on the corner of Beacon St and Massachusetts Avenue (Google Maps link). For anyone who wants to head straight there, we'll be there around 7:30. We'll still be meeting outside the convention center at 7:15 and walking over though (see below), so meeting us right outside PAX for the walk or just to say hi is okay too. See you guys tonight.

As noted on The Idle Thumbs Podcast Episode 4: Super Expert Pro, Jake and I will attend PAX East this weekend, and we'd like to meet up with some Thumbs.

During last year's PAX Normal, we met up with a few dozen Thumbs and had a good time hanging out at a bar. Can we repeat that success? It's a mystery.

Who: Chris Remo, Jake Rodkin, and YOU
When: Saturday, March 27, 2010
Be more specific: 7:15 PM, Eastern Standard Time
Where: At the main entrance of the Hynes Convention Center at 900 Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts
Be more specific: It's the front door with the large awning (apparently)

If you plan to attend, feel free to RSVP to our electronic hotline, and we will endeavor to keep you updated if any details change.

Also! If you are a resident of Boston or environs, please contact us with suggestions as to a good nearby alcohol-serving location that you think might not be completely packed to the point of impossibility. During last year's PAX meet, our intended venue could not hold us, and the group nearly disbanded before an alternative was fortunately found.

VIDEO GAMES

One of the most remarkable things we've ever received in the Idle Mailbag arrived just over a week ago, and now that we have a public blog we can properly share it with all of you.

The artist Lars Brown, whose comic strip may be found on the internet and whose books may be found on the Amazon, rendered for us the wondrous Idle Wizard, an unfortunate genetic fluke forced to live out his enchanted days with the heads of three semi-coherent podcast hosts, and accompanied by his ghostly familiar, Peter Molyneux.

Unlike most of our readers, who are under the impression Jake resembles either Big Bird or Max Headroom (not that these impressions are wrong), Lars must have wielded Google Images to conjure up our appearances, because his interpretation is spot-on. From left to right, that's Jake, me, Nick, and Peter Molyneux.

We were lucky enough to meet Lars during our recent PAX meet-up, and he graciously gave us the original artwork. He suggested we appropriately return the favor with a copy of the wizardly Trine, and we of course obliged.

The Wizard is tantalizingly teased in the header image above. For his full glory, click through to the rest of the post.

[Update: New pictures added below, thanks to forum member and attendee H. Helluva.]

During BlizzCon, Nick and I posted a spontaneous Twitter message offering to hang out with any Idle Thumbs readers attending the show. Having conceived the idea 98 minutes prior to the "event" itself, it was a decidedly informal affair -- three extremely friendly Thumbs showed up and we talked about Video Games. We did it again the following evening, to similar results.

The fact that anybody showed up at all made us consider attempting something more organized at the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo. We tossed around some location ideas and fairly arbitrarily came up with some plans.

Much credit and appreciation must also be given to developers Frozenbyte, Zombie Cow Studios, Riot Games, and Stardock, who hooked us up with, respectively, download codes for Trine, download codes for Time Gentlemen, Please!, beta codes for League of Legends, and 10% discount coupons for Impulse to give away during the meet.

But our plans were insufficient and we were characteristically unprepared. As it turned out, some 40 Thumbs showed up -- several times the number we had estimated based on RSVPs.

Idle Thumbs is attending the Penny Arcade Expo this weekend, and we'd like to meet some of our loyal readers to thank you all for listening -- both those who are attending PAX itself as well as those who will simply find themselves in the Seattle area this Saturday, due to local residence or by way of darker, more sinister designs.

Who: Chris Remo, Nick Breckon, Jake Rodkin, and YOU
When: Saturday, September 5, 2009
Be more specific: 5:15 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Where: Near the escalators on the first floor of the Seattle convention center
Be more specific: The corresponding address is 710 Pike St., Seattle

Be aware that this part of the convention center should not require a PAX badge. It is open to the public. If you don't see us immediately, look for what will--with any luck--be a growing group of people, a few of whom might have some kind of sign or piece of paper that says "Idle Thumbs" on it.

After about fifteen minutes or so of collecting ourselves, we will migrate about a block away to eat or drink or eat and drink or talk about video games.

Where: FOX Sports Bar and Grill
Be more specific: 1522 6th Ave., Seattle

At some point during these shenanigans, we plan to figure out a way to hand out a bunch of download codes for PC games and possibly also give out some disc-based computer and video games.

If you think you can make it, why not send us an RSVP? This is of course entirely optional, but it would be helpful for us to get a sense of how many people to expect. And if you get lost or show up late and can't find us, please send us an email at the same address, as it goes to at least two of our mobile devices.

See you at PAX! Unless you aren't going.