Point of View: Scenes from a Con

So we’re about to hit the road (or the sky) for our trip home from Nijicon in Philadelphia. It was a good con – come next year, y’all! But we had a blast, and met some great folks.

So I thought I’d share a few moments with you from our time at the con:

1) The Dancing Alex: Our buddy Alex Woolfson, of “The Young Protectors” fame, was at Niji with us. The Hall wifi kinda sucked, so every time he made a sale (which was fairly often). we’d look over to see Alex doing his wifi dance to try to get a signal for his Square. Which was awesome. And it must have done something to appease the wifi gods, because the connection *did* seem to get better by the end of the show.

2) Catbug Catch: The folks at the booth across from us had a little stuffed animal they called a catbug – still not entirely clear on what a “catbug” is. But at the end of Day One, they initiated a game of Catbug Catch, which is exactly what it sounds like. The little guy was whizzing back and forth across the aisle, from vendor to vendor. I kinda sucked at it – I’m not particularly athletic – but hey, it was fun!

3) That Lady in the Bathroom: Nijicon did a laudable thing – they made both bathrooms in the Hall gender neutral. Which was cool as far as it went. But then I went to use it, and wanted the one with the urinals, cause hey, I’m a guy and it’s just easier. I poked my head into one bathroom and said “is this the one with the urinals?” There was a woman inside. She frowned and said “this one is the WOMAN’S bathroom.”

*sigh*

So much for gender neutrality. Some folks still aren’t comfortable enough to embrace it, even at an open con like this where it’s officially the rule.

4) The Sewing of the Ears and Tails: About five booths down form ours, there was a cute couple sewing ears and tails for cosplay – wolf parts, fox parts, and many more. I wanted to buy them all. But Mark wouldn’t let me. 😛

5) That Guy Who Drove All the Way From Ohio: One guy who came by the Mischief Corner Books booth told us he’d read the night before that the author of the Kyle’s B&B comics was going to be there. So he got into his car and drove seven and a half hours, just to attend the con. Turns out he’s a huge Angel Martinez fan too, and had read her book Gravitational Attraction many times (hey Angel, time to get to work on the sequel!!!). It was thrilling to see her meet a super fan. 🙂

6) Meeting (and Greeting) Friends: Finally, we saw several folks we’d met in person first at Rainbow Con: Angel Martinez, Alex Woolfson, and Carole Cummings, just to name a few. For first-time face-to-face meetings, I finally got to meet MCB’s Freddy MacKay and Diane Allan. And Gus Li was there – Gus and I are collaborating on an anthology project, but I had never had the pleasure of actually meeting him.

I loved them all.

And of course, the lovely Lyndsey Bellamy, who runs the con and who also created the new QSF logo!

Oh, and special shout-out to Deven Stewert, a fairly recent QSFer, who will be interviewed in the group for next year’s Graphic Novel Week (keep bugging me, Deven)! That’s Deven with the MCB crew below.

So that’s my wrap up. For the folks who were at Nijicon, what stuck out for you? And for everyone else, what are some of your favorite con memories in general?