So, I’m finally recovered enough from Otakon to put together a report. All in all, this has been one of my best experiences with Otakon and I’m glad that things worked out the way that I planned. While Baltimore isn’t my favorite place in the world, I had quite a it of fun.
My wife, Kate, and I arrived in Baltimore on Thursday afternoon so that we could get in line to meet Hyde and Kaz of VAMPS. We sat in the hot sun for about two hours before the line started to move which left us both feeling kind of gross. It was rather cool to met the boys up close. I got to shake Hyde’s hand and I even handed him a copy of both the Petit Rusika CD and The System Is Down. I suppose it’s doubtful that he’ll ever listen to them but you never know.
After the autograph session, we got ourselves some dinner and then walked over to the BCC so that I could get my con pass. It was really nice of Otakon to let those with VAMPS tickets go to the front of the line. So, it only took us about 30-45 minutes to get through and we were on our way back to the concert venue.
Now, the concert itself could have been better but it wasn’t the bands fault. I really don’t understand why medium sized clubs like that need to crank up the bass levels. It was painful to listen to it without ear plugs. The kick drum was more of a thunderous boom than anything else and I could barely make out any bass lines since they all seemed to run together. At least I could still make out Hyde’s voice which was a good thing. Since Kate had to work the next day, we ended up leaving the show a little early. Getting out of Baltimore at 10:30pm meant that we’d be home by midnight giving here only 5 hours of precious sleep.
I slept in a bit on Friday but I was out of the house shortly before lunch. I spent most of the day walking around the Artists Alley and the dealers room but I also walked around and took some pictures of cosplayers as well. You can find some of the pictures I took at the bottom of this article.
While I only picked up a small trinket in the dealers room, I did make a few purchases in the alley. I finally picked up the first two Red Strings books from Gina Biggs. She was quite pleasant and I was happy to finally meet her after stalking her on twitter.
Another book I picked up was by Hans Tseng. It’s called ‘Directions of Destiny‘ and I was intrigued by both the art and story line. Go check it out!
Now, I generally don’t spend a lot of money in the dealers room unless I see something that I really want and I know I may not be able to find it elsewhere. I do enjoy checking out some of the strange oddities that are sold and some of them did peak my interest. Those are the booths that I usually pick up a business card so that I can check out their website at a later date.
One of those booths happened to be Voodoo Baby. They’re strange, cute and a little bit on the twisted side. Since they’re not very expensive, they could be a possible gift idea down the line.
Another one that caught my interest was Hole in the Ground Productions. They’re a company that makes costumes and prop replicas. On their table was a very cool proton pack that looked straight out of Ghost Busters. Very cool!
I also ran into a the group that does Teddy Scares. I first saw them at Horrorfind a couple years ago. It’s the sort of thing that falls in the same line as the Voodoo Babies. Cute and twisted. It looks like they’re in talks with a company that might be turning Teddy Scares into an animated series.
I ended up staying at the con till about 7:00pm. I wanted to make sure that I got home early enough so that I could be rested for Saturday. While I really don’t enjoy the three hour round trip drive to Baltimore, it’s cheaper than getting a hotel room. That and I get to sleep in the comfort of my own bed.
Kate drove me back up to the con on Saturday morning so that I didn’t have to deal with it myself. My wife rocks! So, I got into the Artists Alley and met up with the girls at Beware of Ninjas so that I could share a bit of their table space. While I didn’t sell a ton of BS/OD stuff, I did end up breaking even since people seem to love my dango stuff. I have some ideas to expand on that line in the future and I may even open up a separate website for trinkets that don’t really belong with BS/OD.
I packed things up around 10pm or so when Kate rolled in to pick me up. Man, I was exhausted from three days of running around and such. I always forget just how much energy it takes to go to a convention but it never stops me from wanting to do it again. The next con we’ll be attending is Anime USA in November. We’ll be in the Artists Alley all weekend and I hope to have some new stuff to sell by then. I’ll keep you posted!
