I get up to get off the train to head out to Awesome Con and I notice that there is a girl in her late twenties painted all blue dressed up as the mutant, Mystique from the X-Men. I realize today is going to be a weird day…
Then I ran into a litter of cosplay characters circling the Convention Center, including a group of black ghostbusters that had some of the best props I saw all day.
It was nice to see that Awesome Con was well organized and got the attendants in the building and through the ticketing system pretty fast.
Awesome Con is the only place where you can see Master Chief waiting to take the elevator.
Photo credit: Alexander Hunter
Definitely one of the rarer items I ran across was a comic book vendor who stated that they have a copy of Incredible Hulk #1 from the Silver Age of Comic Books. Price Tag: $7,000. And it was only that “low” because of its low cosmetic grade, if it was a higher cosmetic grade it would be in the hundreds of thousands.
Seeing cosplay become such a huge part of the comic book convention world is such a 180 from the earlier days of comic conventions. Now the attendants in their elaborate cosplay with functioning armor and technology are the main draw.
Speaking of the earlier days of comic book conventions, it’s great to see the comic/superhero industry in such a place of such popularity where they can fill up a huge portion of the Mt. Vernon Convention Center compared to 1998, when I went to my first comic book convention which was literally in a multi purpose hall in a 2 star hotel.
Excuse my finger, Spidey T-Rex was running so fast I almost missed her (Photo credit: Alexander Hunter)
A group of 30 Mandalorians came into the exhibit hall as a procession complete with a 4 foot drum getting hit every 15 seconds, so they could capture everyone’s attention. Which they did.
It looked like the Q&A hall was the size of a football field.
Seeing an entire family dressed up as Jedis gave me hope for the American family structure.
Is it just me or is the comic book/cosplay community one of the more inclusive social groups in all of culture.
Finally I got what I have always wanted… a Duff Man from the Simpsons refrigerator magnet with the phrase, “Ohhh yeaaa.” My cup is filled.
