A Lost Weekend at the VA Cosplay Con… Sorry, I mean my VA Comic Con in Review
How do I start this? It is fair to say I had a convention adventure at VAComicon aka VA Cosplay Con, it would be fair to say it was a roller-coaster ride. Although I was one of the few who came out okay, there was a huge disconnect compared to last years much better run show. So, to review this show I am going to know it down into two sections, the good and the bad.
The Good
Let’s start with the good that came out of this show. We picked up a booth for this event, had a good setup and pushed the boat out on the Teddy Bear Tales gear, and actually had space to display my other non-Teddy Bear books. The location looked good, being placed on the main transit aisle and we even was able to set up on Friday night. All helps to ease yourself into the Saturday morning.
I was joined again by Charmingly Geeky which is run by my wife, the making of geeky jewelry has been a boon for her this year, keeping her active while dealing with a chronic disability.
Tristan the Teddy Bear at VA Comic Con
And then the show begins… it was really cool catching up with Kickstarter backers, and fans of the Teddy Bear Tales work. I rarely get to see you all face to face and finally putting names to faces was a great experience. Also talking to new fans who are taking a chance on my work makes for an enjoyable time. When I could talk with having to shout over the Deadpooly Cosplayer and his Boombox.
The Kilt
The Kilts at VA Comic Con
I finally met Chuck Parker, and teamed up with Chris Otto of Dogs Life fame and took an amazing Kilt picture which has been bopping around the internet. I am sure there will be several versions on the world-wide web by now. Chuck has been a backer of every single one of my book projects, and I finally got to thank him for his support face to face. You are awesome Dude, and again thank you for your support!
The Commission
I only got one commission during the show hours, which is pretty normal. I don’t really go out of my way to advertise that I do commissions, as it takes face time away from me directly talking to Attendees. It was a sketchcard illustration of a custom anime character.
Tristan Meets The Cosplayers
Tristan the Teddy Bear meets Ivy Doomkitty at VA Comic Con
I decided to more the Tristan meets the Cosplayers gallery over on theteddybeartales.com makes more sense to put it in our favorite little Teddy Bears internet home.
The Writers Workshop
I was privileged to be tapped for the Writers Workshop, and I was joined again by the Yankee Cowboy in Kilt known as Chris Otto, and we had an engaging discussion with several budding writers. I think we managed to inspire then to keep writing, helped them through a few sticky writer issues and maybe one of them will be the next best seller. Just hope I make it into one of their acknowledgements.
The After Party
On Saturday night VAComicon threw an After Party for the VIP’s, it was a like a mini-con held back at the main convention hotel. About dozen artists attended bringing a little bit of their booth setup’s with them. I brought my sketchcard prints and did two quick BW sketchcard commissions before calling it quits, and going to bed.
The Middle
Last year VAComicon was a huge hit Creators and Comic book fans all in one place, great atmosphere,great show for everyone. Based on this information alone I signed up a booth and convinced a fellow Creator Scott Markley of Time of Hugs to pick up a table, getting bigger after a successful first year show is only a good thing, for most shows anyway.
Sorry Scott hope a huge from Tristan makes you feel better…
The Bad – Welcome To VA Cosplay Con
Before this continues, I feel it is important to points out I have no real issue with Cosplayers at conventions, almost all of the Cosplayers I have met are pretty cool people, and just like us Exhibitors they add color to a comic book convention, and with the exception of a tiny few, most are rabid comic book fans. Together we make the THE show, apart it becomes something very different. I think this is what happened at VAComiccon.
Updated – 11/26/2014 – Yesterday I posted that Cosplayers got in for FREE at this convention, this was based off the Cosplay Rules information, namely Rule 11 on the Vacomicon.com website.
’11. Lastly, all attendees claiming a free cosplay ticket at the door MUST be in costume. If you are not, your cosplay ticket will not be accepted. Please remember that these rules are for the safety of yourself and other con goes. Compliance with these ensures a safe and fun convention environment for everyone! Guests and cosplayers alike. If you have any questions regarding these rules, please look back over them or be sure to speak with our friendly security staff at the event.’
It turns out I was incorrect with this information, and based on sources only some of the Cosplayers got in for FREE.
But Gosh… Did this convention go sideways. First off it was marketed with the emphasis on it being Cosplay Con over comic books and pop culture. Proving it is true what they say, you market to certain segment you only get that certain segment of the market, so in may way their marketing towards Cosplayers was very successful maybe a little too much.
Plus White Tiger Filmz were there filming their version of Heroes Of Cosplay, called Viva La Cosplay which is airing on CW Richmond, and this too was heavily promoted. You know be nice one day if a reality TV company documents what an Indie Artist/Creator goes through before a show, I know a couple of subjects who might make good TV.
Deadpooly Dance Party
This has already been mentioned, throughout Saturday my wife and myself were subjected to the Deadpooly BoomBox Cosplayer and his impromptu dance parties. You can read my much longer account of the most disruptive cosplay behavior I have ever experienced here, and learn of the VAComicon reaction to it.
Cosplay Take Over
On Sunday, I watched the crowd change from regular attendees to almost all Cosplayers, when the Award show started around 3pm they clogged up the entire opposite end of the Cosplay Catwalk, blocking up the Comic Book Vendors – these are the guys that paid the big money for their space. Until it got so bad a Fire Marshall turned up and moved the Contest out into the main lobby. By this time I was seeing Exhibitors packing up and leaving, it was done, this show wasn’t about comic books, artist, or creators… It was about the Cosplayers, they had taken over.
If the Convention Organizer wanted a Cosplay Ball, then perhaps he should have organized one of those instead. The whole priority was completely sideways.
We left around 6pm after packing up our Booth, and as we drove off the Cosplay contest was still going on in the main Lobby, the show had left. I wonder if they even noticed those funny artists and comic guys had gone?
I wont be returning to VA Comic Con again unless something drastic changes – I know I’m no loss, in fact VAComicon have told me I am no loss and the other Exhibitors who said they wont be returning will be no loss to them either. This is the way of things, but it still stinks.
Sum Up
I had some fun experiences during this show, and largely this was an okay convention for me. A lot of ill-feeling towards Cosplayers was generated at this show, it had nothing to do with Cosplayers, but the Convention Organizers getting it complete wrong.
I don’t really know what else to say… Just complete disappointment.
Update 11/26/2014 – This article was originally posted late on 11/25/2014 and I got a lot of heat for it from mostly one VAComicon Officer. While I acknowledge I did get the Cosplayers got in for FREE information wrong, it was caused by misinformation on the VAComicon website. The rest of this article is pulled from my own observations, sources within the VAComicon staff on the show weekend, and the two dozen Exhibitors, (some of whom want their money back) that I talked to during the show.
I stand by the Fire Marshall moving the Cosplay Award Show out into the Lobby area, I wish I did take some pictures to visual proof of just how crowded it got down there. I got the Fire Marshall appearence from three sources, and I think as an ex-Hack that is good enough.
The VAComicon Officer admitted the show was understaffed which may have led to some of the chaos of that became the Cosplay Take Over on Sunday, only two of the ten volunteers turned up over the weekend.
The VAComicon Officer asked who told me about the Fire Marshall, and like a good Journalist I refused to reveal my source. The Officer then said he would talk to the staff to find out who did talk. For this I want to say sorry to the Staff Members who talked to me at VAComicon, I didn’t mean to put the source into a situation where they might feeling pressured into admitting they dared to talk to an Exhibitor about some of the shows problems. I hope they do not suffer any repercussions for being generally helpful and having to deal with some real awkward situations on the floor with little, or no support from the VAComicon Officers.
While I understand VAComicon might want to do damage control, right now a general ‘don’t talk to anyone about the problems’ works better than singling one person out. Doing that stinks of something even worse happening behind the scenes that even I don’t know about. After all in the end, I am just a very, very small fish on the Mid-Atlantic convention scene and don’t have that huge an impact (accept if I fall down, something I have to see to in the new year), and would be surprised if this article pushes into double numbers.
One last thing, and I did take offense to this. I was accused by this VAComicon Officer of seeking attention and of click baiting for ad revenue, and as such I should be ignored as this is my third article about VAComicon (one was fun, honest!). This is my answer.
I posted what happened, I’m not big-headed enough to think any of this will get attention.
I don’t make ad revenue on this website- although I am sure I may have a Google Ad on one of my satellite pages somewhere.
I retracted the bad information about Cosplayers getting in for FREE – clear the confusion up on your website
I paid for my space at VAComicon I have a right to run commentary about the show as I see fit
I have zero issues with Cosplayers, except for Deadpooly… But he made his own problems
I don’t like the feeling of being bullied into taking down an article on my website, and while I will post retractions and corrections, what content goes up on here and stays here is my choice. No one else makes that choice, this is after all my rented space on the interwebs. Be thankful I am not posting everything that was revealed to me or posted any names, a Asshat Hack would do that, I’m not an Asshat Hack; hence why I never really got anywhere as a Journalist.
