Journey Into Awesome

Patriot, Hulking, & Wiccan cosplay at Dragon*Con 2012

As previous mentioned, Dragon*Con went well. There’s so much going on that I always feel like I’m missing something, but I did manage to make it to a few Comics & Popular Arts Conference presentations. Theresa Fine-Pawsey’s “Incognegro and the Legacy of Lynching” and Christopher Belanger’s
“Counterfactual Cognition and Ethical Dilemmas: Lessons from Duncan The Wonder Dog” were both quite interesting despite the fact that I was unfamiliar with Incognegro or Duncan The Wonder Dog. They’re now both on my to-read list.

As expected, Brian Ladd’s “Female Characterization on the Covers of Super Hero Team Comics” led to a rather heated debate, but that’s what happens when you suggest that women should be presented better in the comic industry. He was joined in a Q&A by indie superhero comic creators Adam Withers and Comfort Love who held their own against the more ignorant members of the audience.

Plus, I had a nice chat with Peter David about his current run on X-Factor and the challenges of writing in a shared universe, I caught some Young Avengers cosplayers (my favorite cosplay of the Con), spotted Tom Felton blending into a crowd and taking pictures of con-goers, found several comics and trades I’ve been trying to hunt down, and was relived that my friends’ under-rehearsed lightsaber flash mob wedding went well. It was a crazy weekend to say the least.

How did your Dragon*Con go this year?