This past weekend I was a guest at Coppercon in Mesa Arizona. Yup. Mesa. Almost Apache Junction. It was a small con. SMALL! I’m all for small but DAMN! So here we go.
THE GOOD:
I had the pleasure of doing a panel with the always smexy Lady Thor (Toni Darling) owner of Pop Fury and the Cosplay calendar. I’m in that BTW. our panel was on the business of cosplay. Cosplay is becoming huge and the sky is the limit. We talked about the different business practices and styles in which we run our individual businesses. I also did my fist cosplay safety panel. I feel that this is important especially for the very young cosplayers who might not know whats out there. I did this panel in my civies to keep the seriousness of this issue in tact. The lovely Victoria Page graced us with her presence as did Zenescope icon Raven Gregory. Mike Grell had an unfortunate illness and couldn’t attend so Raven was kind enough to fill in even on crutches. Fables artist Steve Leialoha was kind enough to look over my book Project:Shadows. He gave me some great insight. Thnx Steve! I had some great conversations with Liz Safian-Berube. She was the FIRST woman DC artist and the ONLY one through the Silver Age. I watched her do some drawing and use some different techniques. YOU GO GIRL! Wimmen’s Comix founder Trina Robbins is so feisty. I hope I can age that awesomely. I even had a few pics drawn of me. One was by Kip Mussat. He drew me as a Chibbie! This was my gift for cosplaying him. Yea I did that. Alfred Trujillo did a Grumpy Powergirl of me. CGC was there with Pop Culture Paradise and Mark Greenawalt were there too ( Mark did my Variant cover for issue 2 of Project:Shadows). BEST OF ALL!! I GOT TO WEAR THE SHARNADO HAT FROM SDCC!! Thnx Al Sparro for bringing youre beautiful wife with her awesomesauce Sharknado hat!!
THE BAD:
I always appreciate a new con or a change in con ideas, however, this is a well established convention that decided to take a turn into the comicon realm. First; they charged too much. You can’t charge as much as a bigger show, you just can’t. Phoenix con costs that much. Next; the venue was…well.. a shithole. Sorry it was. And it was kind of in the ghetto. Panels were scheduled poorly and the show started the day AFTER schools in the area started. Why would you open the doors on a Friday morning when kids are at school? If this was maintained as a book convention (the original Coppercon) I could see being open during the day. But going for a comic/cosplay aspect means young people. They are IN SCHOOL.
So there you go. Quick Note: The WOD was there and I have a monthly column in that newspaper so check it out online and in print. Now here are some pics and links. Next up! Sabotencon!
http://183degree.storenvy.com/
https://www.facebook.com/AZPowergirl
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