Awesome Con 2015
by Eric Henson on 06/01/15
This past weekend (really it was only Friday) I went to my first con. I decided to try out Awesome Con here in DC. I figured it would be a good "first" as its not really dedicated to any one discipline (not specifically set up for gaming, comics, anime, etc). I've got to admit, at first I felt really underwhealmed. I waited in line for an hour for the con to start, just to wander through a half set-up, concrete floored warehouse =P It appears that many vendors and artists did not arrive the day before to get their stuff set up, nor did they arrive early the day of. Instead, they arrived about the same time we, as the attendees did. Thankfully, as the day went on, everything got better.
As I wandered the vendor hall, there were some really cool things I spotted right away. Several booths sold lego figures painted to look like different super heros. In the first booth I found, there was a legion of superman and superwomen.....it would appear more than just the son of Jor-El escaped Krypton....
The booth that had these had a legion of differnet figures, both large and small.
As the day went on, I was able to see more people in cosplay outfits (some of them were trully amazing) and got to take a number of pictures. I also found a guy who makes chain mail Jane hats from Firefly (http://whitetreechainmail.com/) Gotta give him some love by sharing the website. Really friendly guy, really good merchandise.
When I decided to go to this particular con, a large part of the decision was based on the fact that Bryan Johnson and Ming Chen from Comic Book Men were going to be there doing photo ops. In addition, John Rhys-Davies was going to be present. I've been really shocked over the last 4 days as to just how few people around me know who John Rhys-Davies is. In case you happen to be one of them, he was in Shogun, Indian Jones, Sliders, Pirates of Dark Water, Robin Hood (the TV series), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and a TON of other shows and movies. He is also an absolutely amazing guy. His photo op was at the end of the evening, and made the entire trip, and every dime I spent worthwhile. I don't have the picture of he and I up here, as I've been too lazy to scan it. Same with William Shatner. I sorta got side-tracked when I was about to say Shatner was there Friday. That was a bonus, but not a reason for going.
Anyway, I wandered the celebrity area, and decided to go up to Bryan and Ming to say hello. Imagine my surpirse when I could get an autograph, and a photo with both of them for far less than I paid for a pro-photo with just Bryan (Ming got Shatnered cause of time and money...) =P Anyway, I talked to Ming more than Bryan. Ming was a really cool guy. He couldn't seem to believe that I went to the con specifically to meet him and Bryan. He asked me several time, saying things like "you mean you didn't come to see John Gallagher, Kevin Eastman, Mark McKenna, Mike Raicht, and Mike McKone". I wasn't interested in big names in comics. I came for the Comic Book Men...and I got to meet them.
While I was standing at the booth talking, Brian O'Halloran came up and started talking. Ming introduced me to him, and asked me to take a picture of the two of them together. Unfortunately, it was only with Ming's phone, rather than my camera =P. When I wandered over to where Brian's booth was, I realised someone else was there (and I got an autograph and photo from him).....
Mr. Jason Mewes....Jay himself...Snoochie Boochie! He was a really cool, friendly, laid back guy. Very personable, and very interested in his fans. In fact, while I was waiting for my photo-op with John Rhys-Davies, a guy came up who was late for the Jason Mewes photo-op. He talked to the attendant who apologized, but explained that the guy was 15 minutes late, so Jason had left. He told him he might still be in the hall if he wanted to try to find him. The guy took off at a run. 5 minutes later, Jason came, leading him, went right into the photo booth, found the photographer, had her set back up, and took a picutre with his fan. What other celeb is that cool to his fans???
There were a bunch more celebrities that I should have talked to......Casper Van Dien (Rico from Starship Troopers), Dina Meyer (Diz from Starship Troopers), James Marsters (Spike from Buffy), and Brian Tee. All the Power Rangers, all 4 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (plus April) were also there, and a slue of other celebs, not to mention all the comic artists. Instead, I met a few cosplayers. I got to talk to a lady going by the name Intraventus (www.facebook.com/Intraventus; http://intraventus.storenvy.com/; http://intraventus.deviantart.com/; http://instagram.com/intraventus/). She was an amazingly sweet and friendly lady. If my back hadn't been hurting by that time of the evening, I could have spent a lot of time at her booth just talking. She though I made a good choice for my first con. She said that the people at awesome con were just the friendliest just about anywhere.
I also met two who were wandering around, enjoying the show. Beryla Gann (www.facebook.com/berylaganncosplay) and Keller of Quartermaster's Cahce (www.facebook.com/TheQuartermastersCache). I asked if I could take their pictures and they happily said yes. After I was done, they both asked if I couldn't mind sending them copies of the photos. Its the only way they get to see themselves all dressed up (besides a mirror) =P. I was happy to send them my pictures. I hope they both enjoyed them. Anyway, they are below. Beryla is the one dressed as Ty Lee (Avatar the Last Airbender) and Keller is Booker Dewitt from BioShock Infinite. I thought he would look good with an older looking photo, so I did some editing with a B&W utility I have and got the picture below.
I used a slightly different effect for Beryla.
At the end of a very long day, my back was screaming, by legs were screaming, and my feet were screaming (I still need to build up more stamina - especially for standing in line), but I went home happy.
I never really thought I'd like going to cons, but I must admit, I wish I'd bought the 3 day pass and spent the entire weekend there. Next year, I think I might just. I'm even thinking about trying to put together a costume to wear at least one of the days. I doubt I'll go that far (unless I can figure out a Jimmy Olsen outfit, so I can fit my camera into it), but, you never do know. All I know for sure is, I will be back. It was too much fun to not to go again.
To see the remaining picures I took, feel free to look at my AwesomeCon phot gallery at http://www.icewlf.com/AwesomeCon2015.html
Thanks for readying the whole blog post!
Eric
