I have a few stories to tell about my adventures at DragonCon, but they are rather long and instead of writing a novella I will break them up into story time shorts. Trust me it's for the best.
DragonCon is the first comic con I ever attended. Before that, I had never even heard of a comic con. I knew that there were fandoms that had conventions to celebrate their obsessions, I had even gone to a Monkees convention in Chicago, but I didn't know that there were cons for comic books and nerd culture in general. In 1996 (I'm old) I went to DragonCon in Atlanta and it was quite the experience.
Friday night my friend Tricia and I were looking for something to do and we saw that there was a concert by a band we had never heard of. GWAR was playing in one of the ballrooms, and since we like music, we figured why not?. We went to the ballroom to see if we could get in and well... we couldn't. The room was so packed people were spilling out into the hall. Ah well, better luck next time. I think we went to see a Godzilla movie in Japanese as an alternate activity.
Anyway, cut to the next morning Tricia and I went to the dealer's room and when we walked in we saw a long line that snaked all around the dealer's room. We got curious and wanted to know who or what was so important that merited such a line. As we got to the head of this enormous line we saw a booth with a group of guys and a bunch of foam rubber heads. The guys were giving the heads to the people to try on. It was kind of cool but I didn't think much of it so I started looking around for a booth to visit. Just then Tricia said to me, "hey, that guy is talking to you." I looked around and a guy at the booth was waving me over. When I walked over he asked me how I was enjoying the con and other niceties. Then he asked me, do you want to try on a head? My response was, "Wha? Uh, sure..." With that, he plopped this head on me. It smelled of foam rubber and sweat. I looked around and then he took it back off. He said, "Now you can tell your friends you wore a GWAR head!" Since I wasn't really familiar with GWAR I just smiled and shook my head. He told me to stop back by any time and to enjoy the rest of the con. What an odd experience. Just then I happened to look at the line and saw that everyone in line was looking at me like who TF is that. They were more than a little annoyed and it occurred to me that I had cut them all in line. With that Tricia and I went on our way, mostly to get away from the people who looked like they wanted to kick my ass.
A few months later Sally Jesse Raphael had a show dedicated to parents and their kids who listen to scary and problematic music. One mother had her kid on and his band of choice? GWAR! When the band came on, they showed a clip of the band and then the guys all came out. The guy who called me over was David Brockie, the lead singer, and it was his head that he put on me. Apparently, it's a great honor, and yes I am honored.
My experience at DragonCon was amazing and this story was just one of the little gems I have to share.
DragonCon is the first comic con I ever attended. Before that, I had never even heard of a comic con. I knew that there were fandoms that had conventions to celebrate their obsessions, I had even gone to a Monkees convention in Chicago, but I didn't know that there were cons for comic books and nerd culture in general. In 1996 (I'm old) I went to DragonCon in Atlanta and it was quite the experience.
Friday night my friend Tricia and I were looking for something to do and we saw that there was a concert by a band we had never heard of. GWAR was playing in one of the ballrooms, and since we like music, we figured why not?. We went to the ballroom to see if we could get in and well... we couldn't. The room was so packed people were spilling out into the hall. Ah well, better luck next time. I think we went to see a Godzilla movie in Japanese as an alternate activity.
Anyway, cut to the next morning Tricia and I went to the dealer's room and when we walked in we saw a long line that snaked all around the dealer's room. We got curious and wanted to know who or what was so important that merited such a line. As we got to the head of this enormous line we saw a booth with a group of guys and a bunch of foam rubber heads. The guys were giving the heads to the people to try on. It was kind of cool but I didn't think much of it so I started looking around for a booth to visit. Just then Tricia said to me, "hey, that guy is talking to you." I looked around and a guy at the booth was waving me over. When I walked over he asked me how I was enjoying the con and other niceties. Then he asked me, do you want to try on a head? My response was, "Wha? Uh, sure..." With that, he plopped this head on me. It smelled of foam rubber and sweat. I looked around and then he took it back off. He said, "Now you can tell your friends you wore a GWAR head!" Since I wasn't really familiar with GWAR I just smiled and shook my head. He told me to stop back by any time and to enjoy the rest of the con. What an odd experience. Just then I happened to look at the line and saw that everyone in line was looking at me like who TF is that. They were more than a little annoyed and it occurred to me that I had cut them all in line. With that Tricia and I went on our way, mostly to get away from the people who looked like they wanted to kick my ass.
A few months later Sally Jesse Raphael had a show dedicated to parents and their kids who listen to scary and problematic music. One mother had her kid on and his band of choice? GWAR! When the band came on, they showed a clip of the band and then the guys all came out. The guy who called me over was David Brockie, the lead singer, and it was his head that he put on me. Apparently, it's a great honor, and yes I am honored.
My experience at DragonCon was amazing and this story was just one of the little gems I have to share.
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