Back From Anime Weekend Atlanta

As much as I hate to say it, AWA was a bust. I usually love this con and I hadn’t been able to attend in about 3 years, so needless to say I was excited to be going (and to be visiting with my friend Angel of course.) But yeah… Angel and I don’t think we’re going to go again. And she’s been going for 6 years straight. That oughta tell you something.

But that’s not to say it was all bad. I certainly enjoyed talking to the fans that stopped by, thanks to everyone who bought art, comics or buttons!  Thanks also everyone who visited this site after talking a business card. And I met some awesome artists who I will link to later in this post.

The main problem was none of the artists seemed to make much money this year, and before you cry foul that we’re all money-grubbing sellouts: I only tend to make enough to cover my travel costs and maybe some extra, for me it’s more half vacation, half promotion. Other artists at least want to recoup the cost of their table, perhaps more local travel, and make a bit of a profit. So from a selling point of view, the con was just a tad abysmal. I think it was a number of factors, namely “the economy” and the fact the artist alley was in a room rather than an open area this year.

But even the events sucked. The only event I tend to make it to is Midnight Madness, and one year they had Studio Sokodei’s parody dubs, which can only be seen at cons, and the entire room was on the floor laughing. This year… well, it was painful. There was about 5 minutes of funny in between a whole slew of godawful acting, poor comedic timing, and unfunny jokes. Me and my friends’ half-awake heckling was funnier for crying out loud. I heard secondhand about other events being lackluster.

Well, at least Vic Mignogna was there as usual. He even came by the Artist Alley and then started messing around with the intercom system. You know. Because he can.

As for the aforementioned awesome artists: I got talking to Fevereon, the conversation becoming especially lively when we figured out we’re both native Rhodeys (no matter where you go in the world you will find someone else from Rhode Island, it is a fact.) Not only is her illustrative art great, but she creates mind-blowingly detailed cosplay weapons and costumes. In fact she was wearing a kickass Assassin’s Creed costume she made when I first saw her. Definitely check out her website, even if it’s just to ogle her creations.

I also bought a new pair of horns from Tangible Illusions who had a booth there this year (and judging by the number of her horns I saw people wearing might be one artist that did do well.) These are way better than my old clay horns, they’re hard but made of light-weight resin and are attached to a transparent and very thin but strong elastic. She makes so many different varieties it’s easy to find something you like.

Other than that I picked up a print copy of Strays, a webcomic I’ve been enjoying and I got to meet Blix-it from DA, an awesome artist I gave a Daily Deviation in my Gallery Director days and both of us apparently assumed the other wouldn’t know who we are.

So, that’s that. The con was still fun of course, but it’s beginning to not be worth our time is all (especially mine, with how far I travel.) Either next year or in 2011, I think Angel and I are going to be setting our sights on Otakon. It’s about time we went to a con closer to my neck of the woods.

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