Things I Saw at Wizard World New Orleans

This past weekend, I went to a comics convention down in New Orleans. I cursed Past Peggy when I got on the plane, because I really did not want to go to another con just yet, what with the recovery from Further Confusion taking a lot longer than normal due to what might have been pneumonia circulating in the dealer’s room, but I think overall I’m glad I went.

I didn’t break even – I’m down about $200 – but I had a pretty good time. I sold all of the Tarot decks I brought, and would have sold a couple more if I hadn’t been super low on stock. I sold about half of the copies of Rita 1 I brought (down to 9 out of ~20), and am going home with less than ten business cards out of a hundred. I’d say that’s doing pretty good for my first time at a con in this area.

Plus seeing my mother, catching a COG show, having the Krewe of Chewbaccus roll through the show floor several times, and getting to tug on Bondage Harley Quinn’s rings for a photo. And wandering around yesterday taking a bunch of mood notes for when I do ‘Drowning City’, and finding a half-remembered sculpture that really needs to have Something Important happen in front of it in that comic.

If I take next year off from furry cons like I’ve been toying with, I will DEFINITELY be doing Wizard World New Orleans again.

It was never a high-stress con, so I spent a lot of time sitting at my table watching the passing crowd, and tweeting about the costumes that amused me. Which I will now cut and paste into this blog post. Also there will be a few photos. I didn’t really take many because I hate hollering for passing costumers to stop, as it feels like a lead-in to HIGH PRESSURE SALES TACtICS, which I have a serious aversion to. If someone stops a costumer I like in range I’ll usually snag a shot, though.

(Oh yeah, and since someone asked on Twitter: when I mention someone is fat/spherical/whatever, it’s not in a tone of mocking, it’s just reporting. Sometimes even celebrating, I am all for EVERYONE getting a chance to have a great time flying their freak flag. If anything I underreport how many people I noticed were overweight; I can usually find the gate for my flights home by looking for the one with the highest average weight. They don’t call Nawlins “Fat City” for nothing. And, as I summed things up, I’m a cartoonist; reducing things to borderline-offensive caricatures is kind of a core job skill.)

DAY ONE.

(Parenthetical comments are stuff I added when collating this.)

My table at Wizard World New Orleans.

Either Aaron Diaz (cartoonist of ‘Dresden Codak‘) is at this con or I just saw someone cosplaying as him.

Damn these two got style.

Deadpool with a bulge. Oh yeah.

Comic con? Rave? Who cares. #plur

The PA is telling me to check out a booth with a DARK TWIST ON FAIRY TALES.

Girl in Skyrim Assassins Guild armor with long furry tail, with friend with doggy tail. #furries

Bouncy castles? At a comic con? Sure. Why not. For the kids. (I may be suggesting this as a thing for Rainfurrest when I hit the next staff meeting to talk about maybe doing an installation of the game I did with Auntie Pixelante!)

Dude dressed as Animal. With drumsticks.

The Krewe of Chewbaccus just rolled through the show floor. Only in New Orleans comic cons.

I keep looking up and seeing the ass of the lady in the center of this photo. (Her top had Spider-Man on the front, btw.)

Lady dressed as Dick In A Box.

Wondering if the music on the PA is a Wizard World thing or unique to the New Orleans WW.

Dude who looks like a hybrid of Sonic and the Joker.

Was the dude in the gimp mask just now dressed as The Comedian or Marshall Law? (Probably The Comedian.)

That’s the second steampunk Ghostbuster.

Full body leather or latex Harley Quinn. In 5″ platform heels. RESPECT. And drool.

Why have I never seen a steampunk Doctor Who? Gonna cross play as that next con. Tom Baker with gears all over and a clockwork K9. Actually I’d rather get back in shape and dress as Leela. #janusthornsforall

Minimal Sonic: blue tracksuit, red sneakers, short spiky blue hair, toon gloves, big plastic ring.

Huh. Just got a table commission. Honestly never expected to get those at comic cons. It’s M’ress, surprising nobody.
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They turned off most of the lights with an hour left to go. Wtf? (seriously, dimming them like 5-10 minutes before the end is fine, but an hour? The convention center has both bright white lights and dimmer yellow ones; they turned off the white ones.)

Dude just told me Rita reminds him of this cartoon he saw when he was a kid. “Samurai Jack?” “No, My Life as a Teenage Robot”. #oldsoveryold

Dude wearing the Kevin Matchstick shirt but no baseball bat. What is wrong with you man.

Dude dressed as Nightwing. With bulge. Yes please. Also the Catwoman hanging with him looks good.

Group of four young girls. One Tardis shirt, one “Keep Calm and wear a Bow Tie” shirt, two Tom Baker scarves. They got the version of the Rita pitch that notes that one timeline is totally not my Galifreyan fan character. Totally.

Joker with green-dyed muttonchops and mustache.

Dude in Totoro kirigumi hanging with two dudes in Pokemon kirigmi. Picachu and the black one with yellow circles on the hips. (Who folks on Twitter reminded me is Umbreon.)

Sudden realization that I should put Kevin Matchstick’s shirt on the lead of Drowning City at some point, it started as obvious Mage ripoff. Which is why I sat on it for five years until a better main character showed up. Who has a Hellboyish giant hand. We are our influences.

Then the dealer’s room closed for the day and I went out to see the Consortium of Genius host a party with two other bands and a costume contest. Which ended up being won by Darth Maul Twi’lek, with second place going to Laura Croft. Also there was a lady dressed as Doctor In A Box, with a gift-wrapped Tardis at her loins, sleazy beard and mustache and sunglasses, and a fez on her head. I asked to see her Eye of Harmony. Sadly, the dildo in her box did not light up.

Blade. With disgruntled Batman.
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Meanwhile, in the next wing of the convention center…

Dancing butt to crotch with a dude I’ll probably never see again. Fuck yeah con parties.

DAY TWO

Only one hour late for Saturday sales. Not bad for partying until 1 last night.

Seeing lots of 4th Doctor here. Tom Baker rules New Orleans, even forty years on, I guess. (Though it was pointed out later that they’ve been pushing his scarf as official merch a lot after his appearance in the 50th Anniversary show. Which I should dig up and watch some time.)

Sub-Zero and…whoever the blue palette swap lady ninja in Mortal Kombat is. Both cute.

Gambit dragging Rogue by her hand to a friend at the end of the aisle

Google Image search for M’ress from the animated Trek is surprisingly clean. Or maybe I’ve just been broken by furry fandom.

Nice Zillyhammer, dude.

Girl with 60s Bat-cowl, bat t shirt, utility belt, gloves, and bat y-fronts. Needs a Bat-beer for the full “lazy Sunday at the Bat-cave” vibe IMHO but awesome anyway!

Young girls with ears and tails photographing a really nice AC4 outfit

Girl dressed in purple street clothes with gem on her head, carrying a matching Pokemon plush.

White dude as Luke Cage, Power Man. Sure, why not?

3 young dudes as various Doctors.

Lady dressed as Sexy R2D2 pushing a stroller. Followed by Sexy C3PO carrying a baby.

“Doctor Who Dat” shirts

Lady dressed as the creepy gas mask kid from that early episode of New Who. The “Are you my mummy?” one.

Lady in green spandex (ivy-less Poison Ivy?) carrying a tote bag with Harley Quinn on it

Girl covered in process color dots, dressed as a Lichtenstein comic blow-up. Followed by Robin Hood.

Dude in ill-fitting Spider-man costume under normal clothes. With camera. Mask and all. Also with lady in skin tight latex as Black Cat.

Full body costume made entirely of Mardi Gras beads.

Kid as the blue knight from Castle Crashers. SO CUTE.

Sexy whichever Doctor has the fez. Tweed coat, scandalously short skirt, red stockings and garter belt.

The girl with the Daisy Dukes in the next island of tables is in a plastic Princess Peach outfit today. With butt.

(I’m all for skimpy costumes, and she had a really nice butt, but I got surprisingly tired of looking up and BUTT. Eventually I would discover that she’s a professional cosplayer who was selling photos of herself in the various outfits she was sporting at her table, and I was like, yeah, that works, I’m fine with that. I think she did a lot more business than I did, too.)

Fezzes: the new fedora?

Dude dressed as the Bat-Signal

Dude dressed as Hunter S Thompson. Carrying a flyswatter.

See a Maleficient while pondering what Peach With Ass might be selling. Ponder a Maleficient With Ass outfit. Actually maybe I should just draw Sexy Maleficient some day.

There goes Mama R2 and C3PO again. Wonder if they’re a couple.

Captain Iron America Man. Followed by a small child as helmetless Iron Man with painted on mustache and goatee.

Round Leia. Not Slave Leia.

Half naked Iron Fist with body paint logo on chest. Rrrrrowrrr. Hanging with Dr Strange.

Dude blocking traffic with a cart full of long boxes stuffed with old comics.

Dude with speaker strapped to his back wandering around trying to get people to enter a drawing for a Ghostbusters pack signed by Akroyd.

Did I just pass PLUR Galactus on my way to the bathroom?

Ooh. That was a yummy Namor.

Portly Silver Age Flash with cardboard wings on his helmet.

Playboy Bunny Thor and Loki

PLEASE MAKE WAY FOR THE PARTY ROVER (as part of Chewbaccus rolled through in a moon rover covered in blinking lights, with a Deadpool hanging off the back drunkenly)

Drawing M’ress with a huge ass. I blame the Peachbutt.

Girl in TARDIS dress with Baker scarf colored arm warmers.

WI FI MAN

Oh god the ladies room line keeps growing. Gonna wet myself if it gets much longer. Drinking so much water because I have to TALK so much. Also for some reason the ladies room is FUCKING FREEZING.

Stacked Deadpool with some SERIOUS BOOTS.

Leather Harley Quinn in maroon/black instead of red/black. Classy-looking combination!

Would you like to ride the Derp Animal Cars?

Evil Boba Kenivel Fett

There goes the Party Rover again. Actually there goes a parade. Complete with brass band.

What’s the collective noun for Boba Fett? Three pudgy ones in different colors.

Ye gods Phoenix, how can you walk on those 6″ golden heels? Is this your mutant power?

Krang the Hunter with big soft sculpture lion head vest. Accompanied by lady in tiger spandex, maybe Cheetara? I dunno.

Tall unshaven Bubbles and Blossom crossplay with short cisfemme Buttercup

Dude towing two identical kids with spiky blonde Mohawks. Best dad ever.

Wonder Woman with nude-colored tights that fail to obscure the thigh tattoo of a Death Star with Hello Vader

Man dressed as the entire Toy Justice League

Black dude with grey makeup and huge candy corn horns. Trollsonae transcend race.

Sexy elfin Phoenix crossplay? Dude in black with golden lightning bolt on chest, yellow boots, and elf ears. I dunno. He was cute. (Folks on Twitter figured out that this was Black Adam, who I think is basically the Anti-Shazam.)

BIG ROUND KLINGON

5″ copper heels with half gears sticking out of them

Rockabilly Harley Quinn

Male Aquaman with a seashell bra over the orange shirt

Strap-on Enterprise.

Blue Timelord checking out Princess Peach’s butt

Doop de doop de doop Inspector Gadget.

Yellow zentai with Pikachu ears, tail,and back stripes

Formal dress and creepy faceless owl-like masks. There were three earlier. (Folks on Twitter figured out this was the Court of Owls, who are Batman villains.)

Twilight Sparkle with Celtic tattoos on her arms.

Adventure Time Ice King with huge cardboard beard with the pointy teeth drawn on it.

Finally got a photo of Sexy Namor. Ohh yeahhh.

Post-apocalypse gunslinger Harley Quinn? Not sure. I should maybe draw that.

Small pack of fursuits

Girl in Original Trek dress with Tardis light hat.

A hoopy frood who knows where his towel is.
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I applaud Homemade Leather Spider Man even as I find his costume ineffably creepy.

Red Twi’lek with Darth Maul markings. In black bikini. Rworrrr.

Dude in green bathrobe with the Green Lantern logo. Accompanied by lady in booty shirts with skeleton hands giving the finger on each cheek.

Fat Snape

Mpreg Slave Leia crossplay

Dude dressed in Saints football outfit with a giant whistle for a head.

Goth Lolita Harley Quinn

Freddy Krueger with a tattered “Free Hugs” sign.

That Darth Maul twi’lek.

Link and a sparkly strawberry girl.

There goes the Party Rover and the rest of the parade. Drums and horns and whatnot. This con has a lot more carnival than most comic cons!

SPIDER BULGE♥️

Roach full body suit. OMG ITS GREGOR SAMSA.

Flash hoodie with glittery earwings. Medallion with glittery lightning bolt.

Bead Armor Guy. Yesterday he was in purple, green, and gold beads.

Spherical dude in Captain America shirt. With the cockiest strut ever.

Did I just see a fat dude dressed as Bouncing Boy from the LSH?

“It’s the Bud Light of comics.” #overheardatthrcomiccon #noidontknowwhatcomic

Superman with trucker hat. And I’m out for today. This has been Wizard World New Orleans.

Group of gutter punks that includes one member wearing a rubber wolf head.

DAY 3

Code switching: Normally I refer to “my mother” or “my mom”. When talking to people over this con table, I am “stayin’ by my mama’s”. I NEVER say that. But I find it popping out as a “I grew up here” marker.

Seeing lots of people in official Who shirts covered in counting marks but nobody doing the easy cosplay of “draw lots of hash marks on me”. (I ultimately saw one person doing the hashmark cosplay. Who did not stop by my booth, so I couldn’t do my usual thing of saying ‘um, ah… you need to add another three’ while offering a marker.)

Yay, first sale of the day within minutes of the floor opening.

Rescued from one Ancient Mariner telling me about his personal seagull by another. AM 1 was a Redcoat telling me at great length about the superiority of monarchy and how what we call “right wing” and “conservative” here in the States is neither. AM 2 was a full latex Batman telling me about his full body Bat tattoos.

Short professorial looking dude as the Colin Baker Doctor. Maybe the first Five I’ve ever seen at any con.

Bat-lady with backpack under her cape, accompanied by Velma. I’m calling couple on that one.

Dude with stitches on his coat, patchwork shirt, and a giant screw through his head. (Folks on Twitter told me that this is Professor Stein from an anime called “Soul Eater”.)

I think he’s Silence In The Library? Yeah, he’s got the green indicator.

Woman in brocade coat with elaborate techno eyepatch

Captain America with lumpy soft sculpture muscles

I am not sure what this woman is but AWESOME. Possibly 50 Years Of Who!!!.
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Little kid with sword and grey toque turned into the Dragonborn helmet

Short spherical Princess Peach

And speaking of Peach, I think Latex Peach Bottom is actually wearing street clothes today. (She wasn’t. She was just taking her time getting in.)

Cutest Leeloo ever! Despite the lack of MULTIPASS.

Anonymous

Accountant-looking dude in soft sculpture Spidey costume, sans mask

Dude dressed as pre-madness Ice King (crown, beard, broken glasses, tweed coat) with daughter as Marceline. (Actually I think it may have been Marshall Lee crossplay.)

Girl in Picachu kirigumi with dude in Saints shirt

Lady Spock with tribble

Tiny Green Arrow: green hoodie, plastic mask, quiver of suction cup arrows made of green painted cardboard tube

Steampunk corset and belly dance skirt

Radical Fairies

Little girl with bloody ripped shirt and no-lips zombie makeup

Little boy in green zentai, black shorts, and creeper baseball cap

Girl in black corset with back piece of raven wings and withered trees

Cardboard Pyramid Head with bucket stilts beneath the robe

Latex Booty Peach is now Latex Harley Quinn with lower half of butt on display. Photo later, I just saw a glimpse.

Nepeta and whichever troll has a rasta-colored scythe. Matching backpack on the latter. Might be fan troll, I dunno. There’s so many.

Little kid dressed as Stan Lee. Dad: Accountant Spidey. Mom: Wonder Woman. Sis: uh I forgot I was blinded by the amazement of Little Stan

Girl in black/red brocade dress with blood drips makeup on left eye. Cry of Dawn I think?

That cloud dude from Mario. Short spherical Peach as well. Who is SUPER CUTE from the front.

Jedi dude wielding two green light sabers accompanied by Jedi gal with no saber

Booty Quinn posing with Giant Hammer Quinn

Zombie Umbrella Corp. scientist

Chubby Harley Quinn in ruffles and flared pants with contrasting colors in the flares. Tempted to make her pants for casual wear.

Ash from Pokemon with major stubble and underchin beard

Purr. That was a nice Nightwing though the fanny pack didn’t work so well.

Original Harley Quinn model sheet come to life, whoah. Right figure and everything.

Crossplay Joker with unlit light saber

Black Spidey (Venom?) crossplay with shiny latex rims on the eyes. Accompanied by steampunk lady with black veil, possibly Agatha Heterodyne in mourning? Glasses were square tho.

Long-haired girl in black bikini top, black leather pants, X Men belt and Wolverine claws (folks on Twitter figured out this was X-23)

American McGee’s Alice

Woman leading creepy clown in muumuu on a leash. Clown has empty eyes, spiral on nose, and spiky red hair.

Mama Leia in platform boots holding baby Yoda. SO HEARTWARMING. Also Leia was pretty hot.

Cardboard Pyramid Head is being followed by a very bored looking blood-splattered little girl

My mom asked me to get a photo with Mike Mignola. Huzzah!

Poison Ivy with serious disco heels, hanging with blue/red Harley Quinn

Someday I hope to see a gay male couple crossplay as Harley/Ivy. Someone please do this.

Thor crossplay and her Umbreon(?) friend. Umbreon got my last deck!
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Lady Deadpool with pink Ghostbusters proton pack. And a belt reading SEX DRUGS AND DUBSTEP.

Two girls in matching Totoro kirigumi

Mountain man looking dude in lab coat, goggles, rubber gloves. With crazy sword/bazooka slung over his back and a serious badass kinda walk.

Iron Fist on his cel phone. With shirt this time, not sure if it’s Shirtless Iron Fist from yesterday.

Tiny Superman killing imaginary enemies with his blue light saber

Hellboy crossplay with nice Right Hand of Doom

Father and son in matching golden Cylon armor (original series)

Pair of crossplay Beetlejuicem. Beetlejuices? What’s the proper plural of that anyway?

Sylvester McCoy Doctor and Ace.

Cluster of trolls

Harriett Potter, the Girl who Lived. Sadly not hanging with Voldemorticia.

Dude carrying big airbrushy looking print of Teenage Mutant Ninja Spider-Men

There goes Mpreg Slave Leia again.

Swapping Illustrator tips with Lady Frank-N-Furter. Whose day job is medical illustration. In Illustrator. (She’d attended my Illustrator panel. Which was sparsely-attended but a success: If one person comes up to me afterwards and tells me I’ve just transformed how they’re going to use that program, it was totally worth doing.)

Twelve year old girl in Halo armor

Purple cat thing with huge jack-o-lantern head (Not Prof. Genki, and not a Cheshire cat – Twitter suggested both but didn’t come up with a solid guess.)

Red Dalek dress and matching doughboy helmet with eyestalk and blinky lights. Why don’t I ever see dudes as Daleks? I’m sure someone in a wheelchair has done Davros at some point. TARDISes are never dudes, either.

Then I did a rough sketch for the Harley/Ivy crossplay I want to see. I need to pull up some reference and finish it, and also possibly draw hot male Dalek and TARDIS. “Crossplay I want to see.”

Chell and Inflato-Turret

Leather Harley Quinn with attachment rings dangling from her wide-spread horns

BEST MEGA MAN EVER. He threw it together this morning on $0.

I finally got a shot of Mpreg Slave Leia! Complete with beer, for that nice touch of fetal alcohol syndrome.
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SPIDER-TUX. Man I want to see a comic about Spider-Tux. Tempted to do it myself. (Spider-Tux, Spider-Tux. Does whatever, he gives no fucks. …needs work)

“I have to put on my human clothes before I leave the con. Last time I walked down the street I got three people asking me to get in their car.” -Lady FrankNFurter

Finally, a photo of Bondage Harley. (Who turned out to be walking the show promoting a nerdlesque show she was doing that night. She was looking for donations for a charity raffle, so I gave her a Rita. Because nerdlesque bondage Harley Quinn is clearly my people.)

She then wanted a photo with this particular donation and its creator, so we got a passer-by to do it.

Later on she came back with a friend in a latex Catwoman outfit for another photo, presumably in case I never sent her the photo that was on my phone. She said I was the only person who knew what the rings were for. NEW ORLEANS NERDS YOU ARE FALLING DOWN ON THE KINK FRONT.

Gambit and Rogue. Both in great shape. I’ll just be over here objectifying them both. #dirtyoldlady

Fez Doctor with mop, followed by life-size cardboard Tardis with a guy in it. (Possibly the first dude I’ve ever seen as a TARDIS, now that I think about it. And he was of course completely covered.)

Vash the Werewolf Stampede

Short aging beardy dude in shorts and shirt with all over prints of yellowed 60s covers and panels

Woman riding by on Derp Panda from the Derp Animal Ride, cellphone to her ear.

Steampunk Light Bondage Harley

I think the most popular characters this con were Harley, Fez Doctor, and Scarf Doctor.

Light Bondage Steampunk Harley excitedly talking with Pastel Purple And White Alicorn. The black and white pattern on that alicorn’s outfit almost read as Stormtrooper Alicorn with Purple Hair (and blonde tail) from afar.

Fey dude in lovely red velvet dress with black fur trim. Actually it might be a butch lady. Allow me my fantasies.

Costume idea: Dick in a Hoard. Treasure chest at loins with Bad Dragon toy in it, dragon costume.

This booth was right at the front of the show. What.

And then the con was over. I hooked up with Lewis and Jeanine for dinner; they also gave my con suitcase a lift home. We had STUFFED HAMBURGErS which were less obscene than I feared at first – they were only a half pound of beef, but stuffed with other yummies.

Lewis wanted to play with the panorama feature on the iOS7 camera. I helpfully demonstrated what happens when you do a panorama of something in motion.

I was really, really glad to finally take that furshlugginer wristband off after three days.

We brainstormed some terrible ideas for Corset Titty Shelf costumes while waiting for the food.

After dinner, I went back to my mom’s place. I wanted to just crash but her toilet had other ideas; I spent like a half hour repeatedly plunging it after it clogged on me. Her plunger is not very effective. I bemoaned my situation on Twitter, because I’d taken the phone in with me, but I’m not going to copy those.

I’m kinda tempted to to back and do quick doodles from memory of some of these things I saw at the con, but I probably will not. I know myself.