What do a group of nerdy people do for fun on the weekend? Well, if that weekend was this past weekend, and the first Fayetteville ComicCon was happening–we were over there. It was a super fun event, and I am already looking forward to next year and plotting who of my writer friends/Con vendors/artists I can rope into sharing a table and getting more involved. But first, a quick rundown of the day’s events.
First, I hopped in the Jeep with Ladybug, a stroller, and my camera. I had intended to cosplay this whole, elaborate costume, but being the chronic procrastinator I am, I ended up wearing a Sarah Connor Charm School T-shirt, and instead hung out with fabulously-dressed folks.
See what I mean? Fabulously dressed folks.
The first thing we did when we got to the Con was park and head off to the end of this REALLY REALLY LONG line. We were a little astounded to see that it wrapped around the building, up the steps, and down the long sidewalk of the Crown Expo. Gritting our teeth and wishing we had bought tickets at one of the places in town ahead of time (lesson learned for next year), we hopped on in. About 45 minutes later, as we just neared the top of the stairs, we had two friends tell us that the Con was actually in another building, and the line was way shorter over there. So we got OUT of line, and headed over to the right building, letting the people at the back of the line know that there was a shorter line someplace else. (Some folks actually took us up on that.)
After getting through the ticket line, we walked into the large Expo hall, which was where the majority of the action was happening. There were vendors, gaming tables, some food vendors, and a stage that had demonstrations and contests. The roar was nonstop, and the crowd kept coming and coming. On the floor, there were some awesome cosplayers. I found anime girls…
Anime in real life. Awesome.
…pirates–well, a pirate…
That’s CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow…
…refugees from Gotham…
Did you say your names was … Mr. P.N. Gwin?
…a mad Steampunk hatter…
I salute your mad hatting skills…
…and some creature looking for a lagoon.
Splish splash…
Along the way, I picked up a few comic books. (Before the rundown, here is a hint to future comic book vendors–if you’re going to sell signed Issue Number 1’s, it would be awesome if you had some of those collectible covers to put them in, even if you had to charge an extra quarter. I had a baby, a stroller, a backpack, and a camera, and I was very, very, nervous about buying a nice comic, getting it signed, and getting it home in one piece.) I picked up Tugg: A Hero Among Us, Numbers 1 & 2 (okay, they had the actual Tugg there, in person, and he was so cute …. PUPPY!!!!) I also stopped by Micah Myers’ booth and picked up an Alterna comics one-off, Snarl, which looked pretty interesting. My final comic book purchase was an indie comic from 15-year-old artist and writer Alannah Ross, Sentinel. I would have liked to have spent a little more time at the booths chatting with the artists and writers, but the press of people was really kind of amazing, and so it was purchase, wave, and move on. I’m hoping that next year there will be some sort of artist track or separate vending area, or perhaps more than one panel track where Con-goers can chat up the creators who are selling their stuff.
Speaking of panels, while I’m a big fan of them as far as the general concept goes, there weren’t any I was dying to attend. Still, since I was at the Con, I figured I should hit up at least one. I ended up heading in to the panel area and after a short delay while I snapped some more photos of breakfast sandwiches…
Most delicious Cosplay ever…
…some gentleman who wanted to raid a Lost Ark…
Got lost in his own museum, he?
…some fabulous Steampunk fashion…
Steampunk is so awesome…
…and these folks who just wanted to keep flying.
Got a job, we can do it. Don’t much care what it is…
I sat in the panel for a little bit, until Ladybug started fussing. One small quibble I had with the panel was that there were no microphones for the members, and no moderator. This meant that it was hard to hear the speakers over the ambient noise filtering in from outside (this was a LOUD Con), but also that it was hard to keep them on topic. I’m also hoping that next year there are some writing-centric tracks, and I also volunteer as tribute to help lead one.
After the panels, we decided to do another walk around the vendor floor. We poked our noses around some more of the vendors, checked out some of the gaming tables although we didn’t play, and watched a martial arts (the kind in armor with swords) demonstration. Finally, as Ladybug started to fuss, our footwear started to make itself known, and my stomach started to remind me that it was mid-afternoon and I hadn’t had anything substantial to eat all day except coffee, we headed out into the sunshine and back to the Jeep.
Overall, the day was a lot of fun. I am so glad that the organizers put this together, and I’m hoping that next year, our writing group will represent with a table in the vendor hall and possible participation on a writing-centered panel, or even track. Clearly, there was a lot of interest, and participation, and it was fun to go and be with our people. Even the strange ones.
People are Strange.
See you next year!
Only thing that upset me, (I am handicapped and was thrown inside by the ticket booth by family) was that the family went outside to get in the long line and people who came inside to purchase their tickets (we had purchased ours a few days earlier) just cut in the front of the line and the people working the doors and a gal from the expo staff just stood there and watched it happen. I started telling folks that the line to get in was outside but they just blew we off and walked to the front of the line. Other than that we all had a great time and the kids loved it.