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Fun and interesting twitter

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Neutral Corner, Feb 13, 2018.

  1. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

    I've told Dragoncon stories before. I guess that I thought people had seen that, or knew what it was, or could pick it up from context. San Diego Comic Con is the best known and probably largest such convention, followed by New York Comic Con and Dragoncon. Think 80,000 geeks and nerds of all subspecies (Science Fiction, Fantasy, films, comics/manga, Star Wars, Star Trek, gaming, makeup/costuming/special effects and basically every similar and related fandom popular or obscure) taking over five high rise hotels in downtown Atlanta during Labor Day weekend. If you've ever gone to Atlanta for the various opening games of the college football season, these are the thousands of people in cosplay swarming on Peachtree Street. I've seen fans of multiple schools wandering around slackjawed gawking at the crowds. Downtown Atlanta shuts down on Saturday morning of DC for the parade of people in costume. The event brings $25-30m to the local economy. It's a big deal.

    It's in my wheelhouse, so to my mind "One time at Dragoncon" is essentially "One time at Comic Con". I'm sorry if the description lacked context for you.

    Photo galleries will give you some idea. Walk into the lobby of any of the event hotels at 9 on Saturday night and you might see anything from a steampunk Wizard of Oz group to Thanos to Oddball from "Kelley's Heroes". I remember one year in the parade there was a paintball team from North Carolina who built the Trojan Bunny from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" on a trailer and drove it down to Atlanta. It made me laugh thinking about the looks they got on the interstate or when they stopped for gas. It was dead on. You can count on seeing hundreds of variations on Spiderman, Deadpool, and Harley Quinn, some of which are incredibly original spins on the originals while others are dead nuts exact copies.

    Photo Galleries - Dragon Con

    Then there was the time DC took the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest Thriller Dance (mostly in costume. Watch for the guy in the "Alien" monster suit, he's a howl.) - which was followed by roving packs of zombies and zombie conga lines all over the con.



    It's hella fun.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2021
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  2. garrow

    garrow Well-Known Member

    While I am not really that big of a sci-fi fan (either tv or novels) and haven't read a comic book since the the 1990s, several good friends are really into the genre. I have been to two big cons (including MegaCon in Orlando) and two smaller, regional ones. They are a lot of fun. The highlight of the first one I went to was seeing a Q&A with Stan Lee. At the most recent one I went to, I got to meet (and get an autograph from) author Kevin J. Anderson!
     
  3. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

    Not to snark at smaller cons, but the guest list at Dragon is a whole different world. I chose to do authors over being on the Walk of Fame where the big media stars are, mostly because it stays totally packed and insane while running the writer's room lets me chat with and get autographs from people that I have read for many years. Even doing that, I've run lines for William Shatner and Patrick Stewart among others as an overflow space. (Shatner's a dick, Stewart a fine gentleman. That may be a little unfair to Shatner, who has been through the mill with these cons for decades, but he treats his fans like shit.)

    High profile names at DC include both of them, Nimoy, Carrie Fisher, Malcom McDowell, George Takei, David Tennant, Walter Koening, Nichelle Nichols, half a dozen various Dr. Whos, and lots more I'll kick myself later for not remembering offhand. I've run probably forty signing sessions for Kevin Anderson and his wife Rebecca Moestra over the years. They came to Dragon almost every year. Nice people.

    A personal favorite was Adam Savage of "Mythbusters", who was in my area multiple times. Nice guy, down to earth, incredibly popular. Where many of the name guests are pretty isolated and travel the con with a convoy of security, he would wear some sort of cosplay so that he was unrecognizable and travel with one or two security guys. He'd roam all over the con at will.

    SDCC is the big dog for these guests, especially over the last decade or so. It has become an annex of Hollywood, with the entire name cast of movies and TV shows appearing, as well as never before seen clips and previews. As a result it really isn't fair to compare it to any of the other conventions.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2021
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  4. garrow

    garrow Well-Known Member

  5. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    Would watch.
     
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  6. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

     
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  7. matt_garth

    matt_garth Well-Known Member

    St. Patrick’s Day did not go well for the Flyers (and I hate the Rangers).

    Also:



     
  8. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

  9. Spartan Squad

    Spartan Squad Well-Known Member

    If you need a hammer, you're kerning too much
     
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  10. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

  11. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

    Trigger warning: Incredibly insensitive toward Jewish people.

     
  12. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

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