Pensacon Followup

~ crossovercreativechaos

Dispersed bookmarks. Got some prints. Got lots of cards – some people’s art was the type that might do well for a future book cover, who knows? And got the family t-shirts, which they asked for; I think I spent almost more on those than on shiny books and art….

So. Impressions.

…Those poor, poor SCA people.

They came dressed for February. What they got was a balmy Florida February – I think we hit 80 F. When I saw them Sunday, they were flattened. Ooof.

Cosplay characters seen: Goku from Dragonball. Sango. Teen Titans Raven. Kirito and Asuna. Sebastien. Maleficent. At least two Jack Frosts. Tracer. A Pikachu and Jigglypuff. Plenty of Stormtroopers. Probably a lot more I couldn’t ID.  And one guy in a black suit with red tie and a “Darth Vader for President” pin… and a DV mask.

Now that was style.

Hardcore comic fans are intense. Comic conventions are no place to go if you want to pick up manga. Drat. And it may be just my opinion, but the fanart was a lot prettier than the official comic stuff. For one thing, less… blatant fanservice.

There were cat fanarts. That was odd. Especially the cat Little Mermaid. I dunno, that sounds like a bad mix there….

I managed to run into at least 3 local artists/authors and tell them about the Santa Rosa Library system, that – among other things – likes to host yearly events for artists and authors and put local books in the library. Who knows, maybe it’ll help their sales. 🙂

Sunday was a lot quieter than Friday. Maybe 2/3 the people? With a lot more in costume. And even tired, everyone was friendly.

(Except for the guy policing drinks at the door. Even water. Sigh.)

All told, it was interesting. If exhausting.

And I have a map and notes! Should at least help me plot what would and wouldn’t work, story-wise. 🙂

39 thoughts on “Pensacon Followup”

      3. >…It’s just a map of the convention building and how the dealers were laid out.>
        Don’t forget to note which walls are load-bearing and which are curtain. Just for reference, really. *EG*

        Ja’far: “Simon are you trying to bring the entire building down on us and everyone else?!?”

        Simon: “Don’t worry. I know precisely what walls we can safely toss the monsters through.”

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      5. Ja’far’s answer to that will probably still be “Kill him after this is over. Kill him a lot.”

        Thinking about it, I willing to be one of the many Noodle Incidents in the life of Simon Cavins does involve him and Ja’far having to use foliage clothing. Because Murphy wanted to indulge in nostalgia.
        Ja’far: *sigh* “Here we go again. Through I suppose I should have seen this coming.”
        Simon: “Happen a lot in our other life?”
        Ja’far: “Yes.“

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      7. *snickers* Quite.

        Just noting the thought that Simon Cavin’s life is half-composed of Noodle Incidents. Individually they could have happened to anyone . . . to a degree. But the fact that all of them happened to Simon . . O.O

        And it does seem to be his Generals’ lot in life to be involved in at least some of those Noodle Incidents.

        Especially poor Ja’far. Because as you said, Sinbad will never not be his problem.

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  3. Especially the cat Little Mermaid. I dunno, that sounds like a bad mix there….

    And subject to terrible cat fish puns.

    They came dressed for February. What they got was a balmy Florida February – I think we hit 80 F. When I saw them Sunday, they were flattened. Ooof.

    Ouch.

    Always remember visitors, that while there is variation in the climate here in Florida, for the most it’s pretty warm most of the year. Often it is hot. And humid. Plan your clothing appropriately.

    Not saying don’t bring a light jacket and some other warm clothes – it does get cold here sometimes.

    (Except for the guy policing drinks at the door. Even water. Sigh.)

    Case of no liquids allowed?

    Or a case of the only liquids allowed are the ones you purchase inside at a ridiculous mark-up?

    I’ve never been to one but I’ve heard that what they will charge for food and drink at these things falls squarely into outrageous.

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    1. Markup. Oy. And yes. With my list of allergies, I figured purchasing anything was too risky. Ah well.

      “Cat fish” was the most sane thing that sprang to mind. Cats trying to eat fish…. Heh.

      And yes. The Panhandle weather in this month is, bluntly, variable. Some days may be freezing. Others… not!

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  5. I’m glad you enjoyed yourself. Cons are exhausting. You may want to check out http://animecons.com/events/calendar.shtml/001 for anime cons in Florida. I saw two in March. One of them is in Orlando, the other Tallahassee.

    Now looking forward to Simon and company trashing some poor unsuspecting con. Although given the types of people that go to cons, I’ll bet more than a few end up going “OMG! That is SO cool!”

    Texas has been having the same up and down weather as Florida. Yesterday high 80, today high 60. I have a very confused garden. Daffodils, roses, red buds, and Texas mountain laurel all blooming at the same time.

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  6. And that’s why my state holds it’s Medieval fair in late autumn, here. Of course, it means that you’re at least 50% likely to get rained on, and 80% likely to have to avoid mud (I can tell you, the medieval ladies had some very good reasons for those pattens shoe-attachments.
    Saying that, another state has a medieval style theme park open all year around, I can’t imagine what the poor bastards wearing armour do when it’s summer and 40 degrees celcius outside.

    They really won’t let you take in ANY water or food? Sheesh. Conventions in Australia all serve ridiculously marked-up food and drink in the venue, of course, but I’ve never come across a convention in Australia (and I’ve been to cons in three states) where they won’t let you take in drinks, at least. Cons held in summer will always have a free water station too. (There are concerts or music festivals where you can only take in bottles of water or soft drink with the seal still intact, but it’s pretty obvious why.)

    That Darth Vader for president cosplay sounds cool. I take it you managed to avoid any truly heinous cosplayers? By which I mean those people who have some very strange ideas about ‘appropriate’, either by fandom or decency laws. The sort of thing which generally makes you take one look and think “No. Just… No.” I don’t have any problems with people who want to show off what the Higher Being of their choice gave them, but there has to be the occasional line drawn.
    …my worst, saw-it-with-my-own-eyes example?
    Sexy. Chick. Gandalf

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      2. In the neighbourhood/convention hall. Skin-tight off the shoulder croptop, sarong high enough up one leg that you could see it right up to her hip when the wind blew (and it was pretty windy outside that day), and I’m still half-convinced she had built-in underwear.
        But the beard was only abou 4 inches long.
        The convention was in Australia winter, or she might have had a bikini top instead! (Mind you, for summer conventions a bikini top might have been downright practical)

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  7. I’m glad you had fun, and ugh, doorcheckers. I’ve never had an issue with waterbottles(and in fact had Con staff fill one for me one time when I was having difficulty walking.), but I can unfortunately see where they’re coming from. And yeah, comic cons are quite a different animal from manga/anime, who again are a different animal from gaming cons or general geekiness cons(or stuff like Star Trek conventions).

    And I kind of just let cosplay be itself as long as it follows the rule of “no real weapons/nothing hanging out”. Alternate world costumes can be the best. And costumes are hot to wear.

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    2. Hmmm… I’ve never had an issue finding manga and anime at the pop-culture cons (never been to a straight gaming one); all the big distributors have there own booths.
      I think it might be because you have a lot more kinds of cons in the US (um, you are from there, right?). Here in Australia, oz comic-con is 4 years old, and supanova (which basically started because we couldn’t get comic-con to come down here) is… I think 13 or 14 years old? But only expanded to all the capital cities about 5 years ago.
      At the same time, my home town’s AVcon (anime and video games) has been around about 15 years, I think, and the biggest anime con in the country ran from 1999-2013; once it folded, two others started (one in a different state) to fill the gap, and Australia’s biggest distributor premiered it’s own con last year.
      The only cons I know of before that were specialty, one-shot cons for Doctor Who and Star Trek.
      Basically, I think it might be because the really big cons first got a real foothold with anime, not the other way around like in the US.

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  8. Huh, I’ve been to a nearby anime con for years at this point and they don’t check water or food at the door into the convention center….then again they have maybe two food booths and it’s all run by volunteers so they likely don’t have enough people for door checks beyond the ever present badge checks everywhere.

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      1. My local con is also does not check food or drink with one major exception: the dealer’s room. Maybe it has to do with the space?

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  9. *nods* I went “huh?” at the drinks comment – but then, my background with respect to cons is fan-run cons in hotels, where there is generally a con/hospitality suite. Toronto Trek/Polaris had Ten Forward, which was “free snacks/drinks/TV watching” – I was staff and then ConCom there for most of my years going.

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