I’m doing Wizard World New Orleans this weekend. Sleeping at my mother’s place, so it’s real easy to break even.
This morning she showed me a couple of articles in the newspaper on the convention. Both of them really focused on the fact that people dress in crazy costumes to attend the show; there was mention of meeting tv personalities and little else. Nothing about the vast horde of people like me, selling the weird comics they’re passionately dedicated to drawing, nothing about the larger entrepreneurs selling licensed or semi-licensed stuff. Just the costumes.
Because, of course, costumes make for interesting photographs.
I find this interesting because I’ve seen the furry fandom get the same kind of coverage, and change because of it: the furry fandom is a lot more focused on dressing up like an animal character, in no small part because that’s what it’s been promoted as by the media. So new furries have come in with the expectation that, hey, I need to come up with a character and get a fursuit made. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing – hell, I’ve got a friend who pays her rent entirely by making fursuits – but it’s a thing.
Maybe I should start dressing more outlandishly when I sit behind a table, simply to increase my chance of getting interviewed by Normal Media covering the con, and have a chance of getting the pitch for my work included in a widely distributed article. Although it’s also enough hassle that I should make sure I’m having fun doing it, too; doing things solely for business sucks.
WWNO has been extra crazy for a comic con, because it’s in New Orleans and it’s close to Mardi Gras. Everyone’s ready to party; the Krewe of Chewbaccus has been rolling through the show floor intermittently, complete with brass band playing nerdly favorites. I think I’m going to come back next year, especially if I go through with my plan to take a year off from furry cons and see if I miss them – I definitely need a convention somewhere below the Mason-Dixon Line to take the edge off of a Seattle winter! Business hasn’t been amazing, but it’s been decent for my first appearance at a con. And it’s been fun.
My tweets yesterday were a running list of Interesting Things I Saw Passing My Table. I’ll probably copy them, and today’s similar tweets, to a post about the con tomorrow evening or Monday.
When I worked as media rep for Anthrocon, we brought the press in, and I set up interviews with a dozen professionals. I set up interviews with up-and-coming Hugo Award winners. I set up interviews with our guests-of-honor, among whom were thirty-year veterans of comics, film, and television.
What interview did they print? The one with the random con-goer who wore cat ears.
Wear a costume.
SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT.
I wonder how much was the reporter/editor going in with a specific story to tell, and looking for material to match it?