I’ve been back from Otakon for a few days, but I think I’m still recovering! We checked in after 10 PM the first night, and Artist Alley stayed open until midnight Friday and Saturday. It was quite a show, I’ve never done anything like it. The best I can describe it is a 25,000 person, three-day sleepover! If that sounds like fun, come on out next year–I know I’ll be back!
Throngs of attendees crowded both lobbies at the convention center Saturday morning, eagerly waiting to sign in.
Here was our table, and Shaun my brother-in-law who was a huge help all weekend.
Dreamer stuffs to buy! Stickers, charms, buttons, magnets, posters, books!
And my sister with her handmade “Teena Bee” bags!
Magnetic Bea dress up doll sets!
And look at the cute! Chibi stickers, charms and magnet sets! Spontoon!
It’s impossible to talk about Otakon without talking about the cosplay. I can safely say that half the attendees were dressed up. So of course you were bound to run into your favorite characters throughout the weekend. A few of my favs?
Mai with stuffed Zuko doll!
Sirius Black!
Van from Escaflowne!
This was a superb Avatar lineup. My cabbages!
There were events and panels and signings going on all weekend, but I spent most of my time at the table selling things and meeting Dreamer readers (and a few avid fan girls)! I did leave my booth Sunday morning for a fashion show, by a famous Japanese designer H. Naoto.
All the models were Otakon attendees, which must have been a lot of fun for them! Later, I was at his booth in the exhibitor’s hall, where we actually ran into him. He was trying to sell one of his dresses to my sister, lol. We thought he would’ve had someone else do that for him, but he seemed to enjoy interacting with his American fans.
As always, I worked on commissions throughout the weekend. Here’s me working on a Poison Ivy drawing.
I shared my table space with Dreamer colorist Julie Wright! Here she is half dressed up as Prussia. She made a killing selling Hetalia stickers, magnets and charms all weekend.
Hetalia fan girls sometimes three and four deep pushed in to flip through her book of samples. I didn’t mind because they often flipped through a copy of The Dreamer while they waited. ;)
Poor Julie is only half dressed here (she had the whole get up, it was quite impressive) but she fell and twisted her ankle and got a pretty nasty bruise on her knee. She was a trooper, she roughed out the rest of the weekend.
On the other side of my table were Comfort Love and Adam Withers, creators of The Uniques and Rainbow in the Dark. (Remember the piece I did of young Kid Quick for The Uniques Tales?)
Comfort and Adam were kind enough to take me under their wing all weekend. And I was lucky to get table space next to them. I learned a lot about anime shows and conventions in general from them. They do about 15-20 of them a year. Makes my 5 – 7 look weak!
The night before the show even started, we saw so many cosplayers in the street that we decided to play a game: Cosplay Bingo! We created a Bingo sheet and filled it in with all the characters we hoped to see. And tried not to pick anyone too easy, for instance, instead of Cloud or Sephiroth from FFVII, we put down Red XIII. We still found him though!
Along with Red, here are the five that ultimately won us Bingo!
Toph from Avatar (with Appa on her head)! Who knew she’d be the most popular character to cosplay? We saw her everywhere!
A cupcake Lolita costume.
Three Magic Knights!
Aaaand, the costume that strolled by about 11:30 pm Saturday night that got our win, Soul from Soul Eater!
(S)he was nice enough to pose with our winning bingo card!
I was so slap happy that we’d won! Or I was slap happy because it was midnight and I hadn’t slept in three days. Or slap happy because earlier that day someone had pulled the fire alarm! And thousands and thousands of cosplayers took to the streets of Baltimore.
Someone must have thought that was funny, but it took several hours to get everyone back in and the show running again.
We wrapped up the weekend with a late lunch at the Paper Moon Diner after the show closed on Sunday. It’s sort of a tradition that comic reporter Steve Sunu started for me several years ago at Baltimore Con. This year Comfort and Adam came with me.
It was lovely to meet so many of you this weekend. I enjoyed talking to all of you!
Thanks for the good times, Otakon 2010! See you next year!
Ahh I’m glad you won your BINGO game! I saw two Disney princesses pass by my table after I came to say hello, but they lacked a third 8(
Anyway, it was really really awesome to meet you and I wanted to say you pretty much made my weekend! I’ll definitely be checking out some of the museum events in Pittsburgh that you mentioned, to see if they have anything as interesting as that George Washington one. Also, thanks again for the Nathan and Dreamer pins! I will have them proudly displayed in my room somewhere, to inspire me :”)
It was so awesome getting to meet you and chat with you about G. Dubs! :D Loving my new pins and magnets~
Hi Lora! It was so great to meet you at Otakon! I was the one who got the Alan Boston commission and I love it. I will make sure to look for Roxbury Russet apples at the farmers’ markets this fall!
Wow! I totally forgot Julie Wright did the variant covers for The Dreamer. DUH!
Now I am even MORE happy with the commission sketch I got from her at Ikasucon :)
Will you sell any of those products on your website or through Etsy? I would really love a magnet dress up doll of my own, but I live in Australia and can’t get to any cons : (
AVATAR!!!! HETALIA!!! SIRIUS *BLEEP*ING BLACK!!!! <3<3<3<3
I love Cons. I can never afford to go though…I'm supposed to go to one in September but I'm begining to think I can't afford that one either.
And your sister's bags are awesome. Does she take commissions?
Papermooooooooooooooooon!
@Noelle: We never did find 3 together. :( It was nice talking to you too! I <3 Pittsburgh.
@Emily: Any convo about GW is a good one. :)
@Ariane: Please do!!!!! :D :D :D
@DecMeadow: Julie has colored the last two issues. The variant cover artist is Jenny Frision. She wasn't at this show, but I'm pretty sure she's going to be at Baltimore Con in a few weeks, since she's nominated for a Harvey Award.
@Cassie: We're going to sell them here on the site. Mike is going to figure out how shipping works with the new shopping cart system we have here, and then we'll add them!
@Caera: I think she does! Visit her Etsy shop and send her a note. I'm sure she'd be happy too.
@Steve: You were definitely missed!! But it was fun to introduce some one else to it's magic!
Sounds like it was a really fun show. Ill have to look into attending next year if the schedule permits.
I was Otakon and I stopped by to say “Hello!” I saw your book and I wanted it, it was nicely done, but then I spent too much money on fanart. T_T *curses her fangirl ways* I will have to buy the book through the store here on the internet!
I was eyeing those bags by your sister and was wondering who had made them. I am glad to find out through the comments here that she might do commissions. Could someone direct me to her Etsy?
PS- Can’t believe I missed Sirius! WHERE THE EFF WAS THAT I DID NOT NOTICE HIM?!?! That’s a really good cosplay!
@SiriusHPfan: Sirius was wandering around Artist Alley Saturday night. That was the only place I saw him, but the convention was huge.
You can message Tina about her bags at her etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/teenabee
Hey, I’ve been to Paper Moon! Hee, that’s neat.
I WAS SIRIUS! :D thanks for he love <3
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs131.ash2/39897_417220693955_810013955_4453232_2572641_n.jpg
;) HAHA :P
OMG, that’s awesome!!! I have no idea how you found my blog, but your cosplay was all kinds of awesome! <3
ud be surprised what comes up when u type in “Sirius Black Otakon 2010″ haha :) thanks again for appreciating my cosplay :) ill be doing it again next year with a real prisoners outfit. this year was just a test run i through that together in 5 monutes :P
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