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DC Awesome Con Comments - First Time at a Comic Convention


I recently attended the 2014 Washington DC area Awesome Con, http://awesomecondc.com/ , a comic-con event at the Washington DC convention center.  My wife and I had never been to this type of event and had no idea what to expect. We purchased one day tickets that were a bit pricey at $30 each. We had a fun afternoon even though we didn't plan ahead or allocate enough time.   It wasn't too crazy while still being whimsical enough to be different and fun.


Awesome Con had a comedy night, a party and a concert. We missed all of those so I have no information to offer about them. About 20% of the folks were dressed up in costume.  They got lots of attention posing for pictures with other attendees. The kids really liked the costumes.

Awesome Con is primarily aimed at fans of comics, science fiction and fantasy print and visual media. This event was mainly made up of 4 parts, Artists , Famous People, Sessions and Vendors.  


Artists occupied a good portion of the exhibit hall. There were kids book writers, comic book writers, graphics novel writers and science fiction  and fantasy writers.  There were also a group of illustrators and graphics artists that operated in several media.  Some of the writers were also artists and almost all collaborated with artists to create highly illustrated books of various types.  There were also craft artists in the jewelry , pictures, wall art and other media.

Vendors occupied the other major portion of the exhibit hall. There were comic book stores, gaming shop, on line stores that sold tie-in merchandise for science fiction and fantasy TV shows, movies and books. There were also some other vendors there including theater or musical promoters. I had no trouble filling my Doctor Who needs at various vendors :-)

Famous People including actors , voice over artists, child stars and writers filled the back 1/3 of the exhibit hall.  There were probably 20-30 of these people. They were mostly involved in science fiction and fantasy TV series and movies.  The primary purpose of this area was to let fans could get autographs and pictures with a transaction charge for each autograph and picture.   The most popular had hundreds of folks move through. Autographs and pictures ranged from $15/$20 to $50 for the most popular.  This seems to be a way folks can make additional income in a relatively small market.  I would have probably purchased a picture if I had known to bring enough cash for this. 

Sessions were held in about 10 meeting rooms through out the event.  At least two of the largest rooms ran back to back panel discussions, talks and live feedback sessions with the famous people from the autograph area.  We couldn't get into the ones while we were there because we never got in line in times.  Other sessions covered business related issues getting into the comic or artist related businesses including things like gender bias, finances and IP protection.  Other session previewed movies, new books or other unreleased or recently released media content.  I attended sessions on the history of gaming and the use of 3D printers in costume construction.  The 3D printer folks passed around pretty impressive pieces.

Conclusion

There was a variety of different things to do at comic conventions.  Plan well in advance and pre-purchase autograph/picture slots for the most popular stars if you are interested.  Look at the session schedule and decide what days you wish to attend.  Dress up if that's your thing.  Those folks seemed to have the most fun.

Enjoy yourself...

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