Even with all of the video games, books, anime, and other nerd culture stuff that I enjoy, I have never been to a convention for something like that, besides a smaller con that I went to while in England. So this past weekend was Dragon Con in Atlanta and I was able to go on Saturday! It was bigger than I could even imagine, with the whole convention being split across 4 different hotels in downtown Atlanta, the whole city felt like it had been taken over by the convention.
One of the main things for you to do is all the panels and guests that are there representing the shows, movies, anime, or video games that you love. Since I was only there for Saturday, I was not able to get to as many panels as I would have wanted to, but there were a couple that were definitley highlights for me.
The first one was the first panel I saw which was about the cultural impact on the X-Men animated series that came out in the 90’s. This panel had really good interaction with the audience, which was helped because it was in a smaller conference room. One of my favorite things was hearing people talk about how the cartoon was able to tackle cultural issues like race, but not talk down to them just because it was part of a “children’s cartoon”. Some of the con-goers in the audience even said that it made it easier for them to deal with heavy themes like the death of a family member or helping them discover more about themselves at a young age. Hearing people talk about that is always a eyeopening experience and makes you realize just how much media can impact a person’s life.
The next panel I went to was a sit-down chat with some of the legends behind the early days of Marvel Comics, including Jim Chaney the man who created Thanos. It was a very interesting look into an industry that I really don’t have a lot of knowledge about. Hearing about what the Marvel offices were like, how prints and art were created and how so much stuff has changed with how big the comic properties have become was extremely fascinating. It was a one hour long panel, but because of how natural all of the conversation was, it really blew right by.
After the panels, we ended up going to America’s Mart, which is were the all of the vendors and artist alley is set up for you to meet some of the people who were on panels, and to buy artwork and souvenirs from. I was blown away on how big this was, multiple floors with so much stuff to look at. To be honest, for my first time it was definitely overwhelming. Between people selling tools for cosplay, to Funko Pops there was something for everyone that was there. The only thing I was slightly disappointed by was the lack of amazing food options at the convention. None of the food was bad really, but was definitely underwhelming and extremely over priced.
Probably my favorite part of being at Dragon Con was just walking around and people watching with everyone who decided to cosplay. Seeing everyone’s creativity shine through was absolutely incredible. Being this was the first time I had cosplayed as a character, the experience of someone being excited to come up and ask for a photo was a huge boost to my serotonin levels. I think that might be my biggest takeaway from this Dragon Con experience was just how nice everyone I interact with was. Whether it was me asking for a photo, or just someone walking by and shouting out the character I was (FatGum!) I don’t think I had one bad interaction with someone the whole time. With a convention that is as massive as this was, that is honestly surprising.
All in all, this first major convention experience at Dragon Con 2022 was awesome! I already am coming up with ideas for next year and definitley want to visit other cons to see how they stack up.