Here is a friends view of Dragoncon last week. he is a comic and art collector and less into most of what Dragoncon is
Posted by
peglegpete (aka peglegpete)
Sep 5 '13, 20:54
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I got back from the con on Monday but have been hibernating a bit since
due to a cold I picked up.
I went down knowing Dragoncon was unlike any other con and that it is
not very comic-centric. It was more for the social things that I went down.
Arriving early on Thursday, I had set up a studio visit with Brian
Stelfreeze. I have known Brian on line for 5 or 6 years now and had met
him twice previously at conventions. It was a great visit where we
talked about art and looked at some of the strip art i brought down with
me for the show. We had a nice lunch and then I headed off to the
hotel for a nap. That eventing I met up with Benno, Dave Newton, Alan
Dion and Karen (Benno's wife) for a dinner. Prior to dinner I went to
Benno's house and got to see some fantastic pieces of art. An amazing
collection.
Dragoncon sends you this postcard thing when you prepurchase tickets
that you have to cash in to get your actual tickets. I was hoping to do
that on Thursday but apparently it was so busy and they capped the line
at 9:20 with 2 hours of wait still.
I decided to get there early on Friday to get my badge. Arriving at
just before 8 am I was greeted by a line that went one and a quarter
times around the city block where the Sheraton Hotel was. Despite the
long line, I had my badge in about an hour. The dealers room and
artist's alley didn't open until 1 so I had some time to kill. I went to
a few panels. I had a good chance to walk through artist's alley and
the big art show they put on every year. Interesting stuff. I managed
to get on the Darwyn Cooke commission list as well as Brian's list.
Brian didn't get done yet but I am sure it will happen soon enough. You
can see the one piece of art I came home with here.
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1047944&GSub=144794
The dealer room I walked only once during the entire con. It was so
overly crowded that there were many times you were standing still with
no place to go for 2 to 3 minutes waiting for someone up ahead to move.
There must have been over 200 vendors there. Maybe 6 of them had
comics. I'd estimate over 100 had leather of some sort for sale. There
were a dozen sword and knife dealers and a few prop people. Lots of
crafts people. The focus of Dragoncon is really more on the cosplay,
steampunk and gaming genres. There are events planned most days until
well into the wee hours of the morning. I went to see a screening of
Akira with a talk by Joe Peacock who is a huge fan and has the largest
Akira collection. Although scheduled for 2 and a half hours I had to
leave after about 2 hours since I was taking the subway back to my
hotel. In those 2 hours we got through the first 10 minutes of the
film. Fascinating talk and seeing all the cells and getting all the
background info was amazing. I wished I could have stayed for the full
thing.
Saturday was the art show and I contributed about a dozen pieces to the
show although there was already a lot of great strip art all ready to
display. Benno had the stars of the show with his Foster Val Sunday
from the 40's, a Rubimor Tarzan Sunday, Hogarth Tarzan Sunday, Mandrake
Sunday and a few other heavy hitters. The other locals were all great
to meet and talk to. Alan, David and Richard were all very welcoming
and friendly. We went to dinner that night along with Gary Gianni. It
was a fun day meeting fans of strip art which is not a common thing. We
also introduced some new people to our strange hobby. After dinner we
went back to the con to look at costumes. I should mention that
Dragoncon does not take place in a convention center or giant hall. It
involves 5 downtown venues that are multileveled and inter linked. Each
of the 3 main hotels (Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton have 3 levels of
convention rooms filled with panels and exhibits. They moved the dealer
room this year to the Americasmart venue across the street and despite
how crowded I thought it was, others said it was better than previous
years.
Sunday was one of the highlights for me. Benno had know what a big
Caniff fan I am. We arranged a visit to the largest Caniff collector
who lives about an hour outside of Atlanta. He only collects strip art
and has amassed an amazing collection but his focus in on Terry and the
Pirates. Benno had warned me there as a lot of art to see. There were
over 400 dailies from Terry there and maybe a dozen and a half sundays.
You could read the storylines from the dailies that were there. I saw a
few grailesque pieces for me from my favorite Terry storylines. After
several hours there we headed back for another dinner at a Southern BBQ
place. We met up with Alan, David, Richard, spouses, Gary Gianni and
Bill Stout. It was a great place to eat and great conversations. After
that I headed back to the hotel and then headed out for the airport the
next morning.
My impressions are. Dragoncon is a lot of fun but don't expect much in
the way of comics and comic art. Some great local artists and guests.
It is more of a festival than a convention and you can party all night
if you wanted. It is busy but well run. I booked my Hotel too late so
had to stay a few subway stops away. If I had managed to stay downtown
I would have done a lot more of the late night activities(Like the 2 am
Rocky Horror Picture show on Saturday). The transit in Atlanta is great
for getting around. $25 for a 5 day pass covered all my needs including
too and from the airport.
Lastly. A big thank to Benno and his lovely wife Karen for their
hopitality. Benno is the one that convinced me to come down and set up
the visit with the collector. I knew I wanted to do it and timing a
visit with Brian Stelfreeze cemented the plans. Dragoncon was just the
excuse to come down and do all of that and I am glad I did. Benno was a
fantastic host and I hope I can return the favor.
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