Anthrocon 2K5: Oh Brave new world: A newbie’s tale.
Warning!
This is an account of a first-time “furry con” attendee. In addition, it is also the first time he has traveled anywhere by himself/packed suitcase/booked hotel/the works. PHEW! If that hasn’t already scared you off: revel at the antics of this blatantly obvious first-timer [and maybe learn from his (many) mistakes].
Preparations to go:
I’ve probably first started thinking (read: dreaming) of
attending Anthrocon since discovering the furry fandom
on the internet (and realizing that other people drew this kind of stuff as
well). That was in 1998, but I wasn’t
permanently employed, so I never made plans.
Late 2002, I was made permanent at my job, but I didn’t have enough
accrued leave to go (or so someone told me).
2003, only God alone knows what happened in that year! 2004, my
Anthrocon 2k5 was to take place on July 7th to 10th and I only actively started preparing to go after the Visa was approved. Around April, I bought the ticket; late May, my vacation was approved by the boss; on the sixth of July, I got my credit card; and I booked my hotel that very night! Did I mention that I was leaving the country early the next morning? \xB9
July 7th: Date of destiny.
In true Trinidadian\xB2 fashion, packing was done at the last
minute. Worse yet, in addition to going
to Anthrocon, I was also going to visit my parents in
I had to reach the airport for 5:30 AM; fortunately, my
brother dropped me off with time to spare.
I had to use some of the $
8th July: Good God, I’m really here!
I am not an early riser; no, seriously, I hate waking up early. So, I guess I can attribute my early rise (7:24) to excitement at going to the con (or due to the fact that the hotel had complimentary breakfasts at TGIFridays from six to nine thirty). I still stayed in bed and watched T.V. (Krypto: the superdog, Winx club). True to my Trinidadian blood, I arrived there at the last minute (9:28)! After breakfast, I went upstairs to prepare for the con. I used internet T.V. for the first (and last!) time and e-mailed my parents (at the cost of $9:99. Thank God, I wasn’t interested in looking at the adult stations).
While, preparing for the con, my eyes were on the weather. It had been steadily drizzling since I had arrived in Philadephia and I wasn’t too keen on getting wet. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like it was letting up anytime soon, so I consulted the hotel’s map, and away I went to find the Wyndham hotel. My God, who would have thought that rain would have been so cold! No, seriously…that rain was damn cold! And I got lost! For twenty minutes! In the cold rain! The icing on the cake was when I found the Wyndham…and walked right past it…in the cold rain!
On entering, I blundered into the video-gaming room, where the nice guys showed me exactly where to collect my badge. Note: the guy I collected my badge from, said that my badge number (1616) was one of the highest for pre-registration (I’m not so sure now…). I spent the next half hour drying off, trying to understand the con-book, looking for the “so this is your first con” workshop, and generally looking quite lost. I eventually found the workshop thanks to some kind fellows. I wanted to go to the “inking and drawing” workshop hosted by Chris “Paf!” Goodwin but I missed it.
Uncle Kage, 2 the ranting griffon, and K.P. made us newbies feel at home with their jokes and antics. They had humorous skits demonstrating how not to behave when dealing with the Guests of Honour, dealers, other fur-fans etc. I then wandered around the Dealer’s room (briefly passed through the Artist’s Alley) trying to decipher the con-book. Stan Sakai (author of Usagi Yojimbo) was due the next day, so I busied myself looking for other artists. The layout of the Dealer’s room reminded me of a sort of bazaar, with all the artist’s laying out their wares for us to peruse (and buy). I saw a few fur-suiters wandering around just outside of the Dealer’s room, and several people were wearing furry tails and ears.
It was actually fun to see the artists whose drawings I’ve admired for so long in the flesh (fur?). I absolutely refused to gush over anyone so my enthusiasm was subdued to the point of appearing quite reserved. There was a section of the Dealer’s room that housed some of the more famous female furry artists in the entire fandom including Terri Smith, Michelle Light, and Sara Palmer. Looking at last year’s Dealer room layout, they seem to like sitting close to each other every Anthrocon; not that I’m complaining, mind you. Since they’re all in one place, they’re easier to find (and get artwork from).
I also hung around the video-gaming room where there were such games as Dance Dance Revolution 2 (Remix?), Super Smash Brothers Melee, and Star Fox 64. There was even an old Nintendo entertainment system, and two guys were playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 on it. Between Super Smash Brothers Melee and Dance Dance Revolution, I’m not too certain which one drew more crowds. Both games look like real fun, but I hadn’t the foggiest idea on what the hell was going on in Super Smash Brothers! I didn’t play any games; I was just content to watch.
My first treasure of the day (“treasure” being described as a really really great purchase) was an issue of Steve Gallacci’s Command Review volume 3! I bought it at M&T Publishing. I already have issues 1, 2, and 4. I’d have never thought I’d have gotten that at all, and I’ve been searching for it for years! I left the hotel around minutes to six or thereabouts (sorry, no room parties for me). There’s a Subway restaurant across the street from my hotel so I bought dinner and ate it in my hotel room. My night was spent perusing the con-book and watching Law & Order: SVU, and Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.
July 9th: Furry comics, Artwork, and
I woke up around minutes to eight and watched Krypto: the superdog and Winx club (again). Since it was Saturday, breakfast at TGIFridays ended at 10:30, so I could “slack off”, and arrive later, which I did. Unlike the day before, it was sunny and I knew where to find the convention hotel. I wandered around the hotel until the Dealer’s room was opened, but this time I made certain to pay an extended visit to the Artist’s Alley. There was a lady selling “furry shot mugs”. So I made certain I bought one (with a bat on the side of it), I also bought a clip-on ring so that I could attach it to my jeans. I never got the lady’s name though.
Not far from the “shot mug lady”, there was a guy advertising Tales of the Tai-Pan Universe, my favourite fanzine, but unfortunately, he wasn’t selling any. Still, he offered to let me read a couple of his that he brought over (I only took a look at his short comic What I did on my Summer Vacation). It turns out the guy was Bill Knoots, and we talked about the Tai-Pan for nearly an hour. He told me that there would be big stories to look out for, including a major change in the life of Iktome Captain, Bendigo Roberts, and a story that ties up the loose ends of One Last Dance. He even let me see some of his notes for a new story he was working on (tentative title: Sleeper) about his character, an opossum called Wyatt whose 500 years old thanks to being cryogenically frozen.
After talking with Bill Knoots, I checked on the Rabbit Valley Booth, but they didn’t have Tai-Pan fanzines either. I consoled myself by buying all of the Tale of the Fehnik books including the stand-alone issue by Antarctic Press. I also picked up Mangaphile #3 with the Kenichi Gunsmith Cats Sonada interview and Hit the Beach #10 while I was there as well. My very first issue of Genus (#50) was bought at M&T publishing. I bought more prints by Michelle Light, Terri Smith, and Diana Harlan-Stein. I then decided to go to Stan Sakai’s booth. When I did, I realized that I had no paper nor had I a sketchbook. I was able to acquire two pages from a dealer who gave them to me for free. In payment I bought a print from her (wish I knew her name too). Thanks to her kindness, I was able to get two sketches from Stan Sakai (one for me, the other for a friend). And in case anyone was wondering, yes, I was the bastard that bought the Usagi versus Jei sketch too.
Between all of this, I had also gone to the video gaming
room to watch the Super Smash Brothers Melee tournament. Although I hadn’t a clue on what the hell was
going on (moreover, how the winners actually won), I thoroughly enjoyed
it. My personal favourite
time was when everybody kept falling off of the stage for an extended
period of time. I took a closer look at
Star Fox for the game cube, and I was impressed. Unfortunately, I didn’t play anything (still
too shy I guess), and out of all of the games, I’d have played Star Fox. I returned to the hotel around six (again),
had Subway for dinner (again) and watched Law & Order: SVU on
July 10th: It’s over already? But I didn’t do anything!
As this was the final day of the con, I had to make the most
of it. I woke up surprisingly early, but
stayed in bed to watch Cartoon Network (no need to tell you the titles, you
already know). I had an early breakfast
and then I set out to explore my surroundings.
I took a lot of pictures of
At the con, I bee-lined straight to the Dealer’s room and bought more prints. I bought a gothic cross for a friend at the Regal Pewter booth as well as a very tiny fox necklace (for another friend) and a surprisingly heavy cat necklace (for my sister). While I was at Diana Harlan-Stein’s booth, I briefly met Ch’marr (he’s really tall) I had expected him to be painted like a cheetah, as he was accustomed to doing but not this time. He graciously directed me to the Artist’s Alley where he had VCL badges (I took two). While in the Artist’s Alley, I bought two prints from Louis Frank. I also bought one print from a first time dealer (and I’ve forgotten her name goddammit).
Coming out of the Artist’s Alley, I almost blundered straight into the fursuit parade that was just going in. I stood to the side and let them pass. Because I was stationed right at the entrance, I got a good (and very close) view of the parade (hey, I high-fived a fursuiter too). It’s funny, I’m not a fan of wearing costumes of any kind, but I can appreciate the time that was spent making them. My favourite was one of a horse in full medieval battle garb; the most awesome one was of a ten foot tall “mecha wolf” which had passed through the Dealer’s room the day before.
Anthrocon’s 2004 Ursa Major Awards were hosted on that day so I attended out of curiousity, if only to see what it’s like. Uncle Kage hosted the event and had us laughing at almost everything he said. The winners of some of the categories were of no surprise to me; Tales of the Tai-Pan Universe won the category for best fanzine, Usagi Yojimbo won for best comic book but some of the other choices were just plain weird…Father of the Pride won Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Series? Artist Kacey Maltzman won for best cover illustration, which was rightly deserved (wow, she’s shorter that me!). I wanted to see whether E.O. Castillo (author of Wolf without wings on the Spontoon Island website) would have won for best dramatic short story, but Chuck Melville beat him to it for his story, Felicia and the tail cutter’s curse (which I haven’t yet read). One complaint about the Ursa Awards was that the hosts breezed through the event so quickly. It seems weird for such an event to be hurried through.
Most of my afternoon was spent at the video gaming room, and rightly so because the Dance Dance Revolution Tournament was going on. I never knew that that game had such cool music (video game fanatic that I am), I was tapping my feet to the majority of the beats. The highlight of the tournament for me was when for bonus entertainment a fursuiter had a go on the dance pad (what, you expected them to be using joysticks?). How many people could say that they saw a guy in a wolf costume grooving to Dance Dance Revolution? He was actually quite good, I think that this year was the last time Anthrocon would be hosting a Dance Dance Revolution Tournament. It’s a pity; I think a fursuit category would have worked pretty well.
Like the Super Smash Brothers Tournament the day before, I have absolutely no idea who won the Dance Dance Revolution Tournament. But then again, I didn’t hang around to find out. My excuse this time was that I didn’t wish to miss the closing ceremonies. Uncle Kage presided over the closing ceremonies, and according to their records, about 2376 members attended. More would have attended, but due to 1) The terrorist bombings in London on the 7th, 2) Hurricane Emily was close to Florida (if I remember correctly), 3) Some fans went to the Adams Mark (!), last year’s venue which was to be torn down. And even with all of those negatives, Anthrocon 2k5 was a resounding success.
With the tearing down of the aforementioned
I went back to the hotel soon afterwards and watched T.V.
(guess!) and packed as I was to leave for
July 11th: Why am I writing about this?
Seriously, why am I writing about this anyway? The next morning, I woke up early, bathed and
went down to have my complimentary breakfast.
I left the hotel around ten thirty, but my flight was to leave around
one almost two for the latest. Would you
believe I was subjected to a random search (not as bad as it sounds)? Since I went very early to the airport, I was
able to get an earlier flight to
Major regrets:
The following is a list of things I either did, or didn’t do at Anthrocon that I regretted immensely.
The Big Question: Will I go back again?
That is actually a tough question that I cannot easily
answer. I didn’t have any bad
experiences at Anthrocon. Everybody was pleasant and smiling, and I am
glad that I was there at least to see what it’s like. My sister said that she was proud of me for
just deciding one day to attend a convention by myself. My parents were just happy that I came to see
them, but I think that my father especially, was pleased that I went to the
convention too. During Uncle Kage’s “so this is your first con” workshop, he mentioned
(much to my surprise) that it probably wasn’t a good idea for Anthrocon to be anyone’s
first con. He gave the reason that it’s
a huge con, it fact it’s the biggest
“furry con” in the
Well, 2006 is definitely out. In December (last year), I flew up to Canada to be at my good friend’s wedding, so as a result, I have absolutely no money to go anywhere…much less, to invest in an automobile and/or the stock market which I was planning to do too …maybe I’ll aim for 2007, but to attend Anthrocon again? Maybe I should try a smaller con (like Midwest Furfest or Memphit Furmeet), at least to see what it’s like and then decide afterwards. How to address the loneliness issue in the hotel room is another matter…
Artist Print List: Just for the hell of it.
Other notes: Because I’ve forgotten exactly which date they occurred on!
I also got a chance to talk to Shawntae Howard. I asked him out of his characters from his comic Extinctioners, which was his favourite. He had two; one was Scarlett his super strong hot headed flying vixen. The other was his favourite character to draw, and that was Cee Cee the weasel who has mind control powers. I think he’s still amazed that everyone seems to like Artica, his arctic fox. I should have asked him who his worst character was (as if he’d have admitted to that one!).
While I was by Eric Schwartz’s booth, I overheard an artist bemusedly relaying a story to another about only the “freaks” in the fandom ask him to draw the weirdest things. It seemed a couple conventions ago, someone asked him to draw a character with 32 pairs of breasts (!). I almost choked when I heard that one.
Stan Sakai uses the
same kind of pens I use (Sakura Microperms)!! Yeah, yeah, I’m not that vapid…I use those
pens because they don’t print through to the other side of the drawing paper I
use. They also dry quickly, which is a
plus because since I’m left handed, I don’t have to worry about smudging. It still feels pretty good that a guy like
Other Anthrocon Memorabilia:
\xB9 (Yes, you read that right! I’m already regretting that idiotic planning! At the least look at how much miles I lost as I paid for my ticket before I got the credit card!).
\xB2 It’s a local thing really, but Trinidadians are known for waiting until the very last minute to accomplish anything.
Updated: 2006/03/30