After regretting missing out on it in years past, I made the decision that I was going to Dragon*Con this year. As it turns out, kids six and under are free so I asked Carly if she'd like to go. Excited about any excuse to dress up in costume (little mommy), she said she wanted to be Wonder Woman, or, as she says, "Woman Woman". I'll admit, I was a little nervous about taking a four-year-old to a huge sci-fi/comic convention what with all the scary costumes, big (I had no idea how big) crowds, and possibly contagious dorks, but it turned out to be a really fun experience for both of us! I had no idea how big of an event this was and next year I definitely plan to make it a two-day thing. There's just WAY too much awesome at Dragon*Con to be seen in one day. In fact, you could make an entire day out of just going around to the different hotel lobbies – no registration needed – and taking pictures/people watching. Of course, while there were far more amazing costumes than my iPhone could catch, I still managed to get a lot of great pictures. But, in the immortal words of Levar Burton, "You don't have to take my word for it."
First up, here's a couple of pre-con pics of the cutest damn thing I've ever seen:
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| "Woman Woman" ready to take on Dragon*Con! |
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| Time to go! I think she was more excited than I was. |
Some pics form the second half of the annual parade. We were late getting up to it because the registration line took over an hour. Next year = Pre-Registering!
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| Not quite sure what the theme is here, but that guy's sideburns deserve some recognition! |
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| Steampunk Batman on a motorcycle? We've got that. |
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| Mixed Nuts. |
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| Monarch henchmen fron The Venture Bros., Secret Squirrel, and Marvin the Martian droppin' it like it's hot. |
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| Okay, so Dragon*Con was my first introduction to a particularly disturbing subset of Furries – Bronies. These are men who are obsessed with the new My Little Pony animated series and … sigh … dress up like them. I shudder to think what happens in the hotel rooms. I think the two kids up front have the right idea. Kill them with fire, boys! |
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| Which way to the Thunderdome? |
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| A Mad Max float complete with tortured prisoners strapped to the front. Take note of the blonde Amazon chick up front … |
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| I wish i'd have gotten a better shot, but DARKWING DUCK!!! Also, in the middle are two very lost grandparents just kind of going with it. Senility ain't so bad. |
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| Where else can you get Gandalf and Master Chief in the same shot? |
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| I bet that's one nervous Grunt! |
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| Master Chief, complete with rolling turret! |
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| These guys were the real deal. Some very impressive detail on these Spartan armor variants. |
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| ODST! |
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| Who knew Santa was a Jedi? Kind of makes sense though. The red and green lightsabers were a nice touch. |
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| Very funny, intentionally crappy, cardboard Star Wars costumes. Props to General Akbar. |
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| I loved the Hutt head on a stake. |
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| A Star Wars villain float, complete with Han Solo frozen in Carbonite! |
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| The guy on the front's mask was very impressive. |
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| This is a shot of the streets of Atlanta filling with nerds post-parade. |
Here are some pics from the lobby of the Marriott. Like I said, you could spend all afternoon just taking pictures of some of these amazing costumes!
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| Scorpion and Sub-Zero: BFFs! This must be before they started ripping each other's spines out and stuff. |
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| "Remember, Remember the third of September!" Hmm … I wonder what the policy is on weapons during Dragon*Con? I'm pretty sure people couldn't walk around carrying swords and daggers in Atl. any other time of year. |
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| Mr. and Mrs. Captain America were actually among my favorite of the show. Really well-done costumes. Also, a decent Emma Frost in the background. |
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| Another shot of the patriotic couple. I wonder where they got those shields? |
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| Illegal Alien. … Anybody? Is this thing on? |
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| GOJIRA!!! |
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| Guy Gardner and Harley Quinn |
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| Not only is this an AMAZING Adam West Batman costume, but this guy was in-character the whole time, striking cheesy poses and spouting one-liners. It made me wish there were a Burt Ward Robin around. |
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| An undetermined member of the Belmont family, and a girl in what looks like Mass Effect armor. |
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| Cortana escorted by two Spartans. |
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| The Bros. Mario. |
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| Two versions of Solid Snake and Ghost from the Modern Warfare series pondering whether or not love truly can bloom on the battlefield. |
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| Metal Gear!? |
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| This group dressed as Marvel Mini-Mates figures and were another favorite on the show floor. Kudos to all of these guys and gals! |
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| Nightcrawler! |
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| Judging by their eyes, Silver Surfer has apparently granted these two children the Power Cosmic! I also dig the suave take on The Riddler in the background. |
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| GAH!!! She's following me! |
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| Another group shot. |
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| I was going to tackle this Thanos if he didn't have the Infinity Gauntlet on. In the back, you can see a Giant Man who build stilts into his costume to tower above the other characters. Nice touch! |
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| Bayonetta and Dante, a match made in … Hell, I guess. |
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| A great Azrael costume! |
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| These four Iron Man variants were another big hit. As you can tell, each suit is fully wired and articulated. Also, it looks like the Nintendo 64 Kid showed up to have his picture taken. |
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| Having Pepper Potts there to handle PR was a nice touch! |
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| Jinkies! Where's Daphne? |
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| Scarecrow, Harley Quinn, and The Joker. Props for going with the Arkham Asylum version of Scarecrow, too! |
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| Nothin' says lovin' like a 7ft. tall Wookie! |
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| Who better to hock handmade Ocarinas than Princess Zelda herself? The cool part was that she actually knew how to play a lot of the tunes from Ocarina of Time. Every once in a while, you'd hear a familiar tune drifting through the Exhibitor's Hall. |
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| A VERY cool Gambit costume. The black contactacts with red pupils make it! |
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| A clan of WOW Orcs. Not only were the costumes great, but they were in-character, sneering, cat-calling, and making fun of passersby. |
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| I LOL'ed! |
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| Lord Sesshomaru fron Inuyasha in 8" platforms. |
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| On our way back to the car, we ran across the Wonder Twins! "Form of: BEST COSTUMES EVER!" |
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| And finally, Woman Woman, and her trusty sidekick Baby, all conned-out. She was quite a trooper. |
A you can see, there's a LOT to do and see at Dragon*Con! For souvenirs, I found Carly an original animation cell fron the Smurfs cartoon featuring Smurfette, and ran across one of my favorite dinosaur illustrators,
William Stout who was kind enough to autograph and do a sketch of a raptor in one of his books for Logan. Of course, Daddy brought home a nice stack of comics, trades, and some old Savage Sword of Conan magazines! We never got a chance to make it over to the hotel where all of the celebrities (The Battlestar Galactica cast, William Shatner, Stan Lee, etc…) were, but now that have a better idea of what to expect, I can't wait for next year!
As we were heading back to the car, Carly said, "Daddy, next year I want Mommy and Logan to come so they can see this world." Well said, honey.
