ON THE LOOSE AT DRAGON CON 2010!!!-Part 2

9/3-Day One of the Con proper.

Following a mostly sleepless Thursday night, the first day of Dragon Con proper began with me, A.C. and Jimmy enjoying some fruit and caffeine in the Hyatt Regency's VIP courtesy suite. They girded themselves for a day of signing in Artists Alley while I made my way over to another hotel for the morning's scheduled MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 panel, but that event was postponed until Kevin Murphy arrived (he'd been delayed), so instead I wandered around and shot pics of con-goers until I had to take over at A.C.'s table so she and Jimmy could take a lunch break.

Barf enjoys a dog biscuit.

A family of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 fans. I love the idea of Mom as TV's Frank.

The best of the many cross-dressing cosplayers. The use of the choker to obscure the masculine Adam's apple was a brilliant stroke.

My favorite of several Buddy Christs.

Old school STAR TREK's Uhura. Bill Theiss lives!

Zero from THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, complete with glowing nose.

Gennosuke and Usagi Yojimbo.

My favorite parent and child costumed duo.

The best of the many Hit-Girls. (There was an adorable two-year-old done up as this character but I couldn't photograph her because I saw her while in transit between buildings in an area where stopping to take pictures would have fucked up the flow of traffic.)

Gir, in disguise mode...

...and revealed.

Frighteningly, this K-9 is not all that far removed from the '70's version.

A Jeannie fan represents.

The family that geeks together...

Everything you need to know about Aquaman, summed up in one image.

A favorite from last year returns: The Bruces from MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS.

Never did I imagine I would think illicit thoughts about Pikachu.

The Matt Smith Doctor: "Fezzes are cool!"

Kickass, posing tough.

Not a planned stunt: From out of nowhere, Kick-Ass was assaulted by the Gingerbread Man, who beat him like he owed him money. It was fucking brutal (and hilarious).

The first of a seeming legion of Deadpools (more on that later).

It's Barbarella! Yaaaaaaay!

The best Doctor Fate I've ever seen.

Harley Quinn has been a ubiquitous cosplay presence for nearly twenty years, but this is the first time I've ever seen The Squire.

"Spider-Man on vacation."

My second-favorite of the many bunnies in attendance.

Most unexpected costume of the expo: Freddy Mercury.

Old school Thor fans, rejoice: an excellent Enchantress.

The best of several Ms. Marvels.

The most infamous character from an MST3K short: Mr. B Natural.

Note to self: thick, silver-painted black demonesses rock!

My favorite of the ubiquitous Poison Ivys, who gets the win thanks to her man-eating plant that growls.

The Dude abides.

A superb Red Sonja and Conan. For the curious, Sonja says the individual scales for her armor (what there is of it) were fashioned from plastic, so it's all relatively lightweight and non-pinchy.

The one and only Darwyn Cooke.

Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner.

One of many Turanga Leelas. I see more and more of these with each passing year, and the simulation of her cyclopean eye keeps getting better.

I nominate this shot, taken by me, as the most pimp photo ever of George Perez.

Donna Troy, aka Wonder Girl. Possessing perhaps the most convoluted origin story/stories in comics history (next to Hawkman), the character has nonetheless been one of my Top 3 female heroes of all time and I've been in love with her since discovering her while she was drawn by the legendary Nick Cardy (who designed her classic outfit), and then forever polished and defined by Marv Wolfman and George Perez in their NEW TEEN TITANS run. That said, this woman is the first cosplayer I've ever seen to truly nail the character.

When a camera flash provides unexpected special effects.

Awesome Zatanna, decent modern Wonder Girl (a character I fucking loathe), best/worst Aquaman ever (the beard makes him look like a waterlogged Gabby Hayes), and the current version of Donna Troy, complete with sparkly star-field outfit.

A fuzzy Usagi Yojimbo.

Fry, Leela, brain slugs and Slurm.

More old school STAR TREK. She built the phaser and tricorder from scratch!

Two enemies take a stroll.

No matter how many times I see it, this gag never gets old.

We all know that everybody loves bacon, but when this guy walked into the room the sentiment became quite literal. Everywhere he went, people would shout, "I love you, Bacon!" This was especially true of the plethora of hot chicks who draped themselves all over him for photo ops throughout the day.

The Monarch gets his drink on.

During my formative years there was no greater influence on my taste in what is female than Julie Newmar as Catwoman, so I love it when I see cosplayers who favor her version over all the others. This woman totally nailed that rare Newmar thing and completely appreciated it.

Not only did this lady nail it, she's also the first Newmar cosplayer I've ever seen who had the famous cat-gun. She said it was made for her by a friend.

I may despise He-Man, but I love Orko. Go figure.

Expect a lot more of Thor as of next summer...

Gotta love that Black Widow on the end.

The same lady who rocked the Batman look the previous night returns, in a visually coherent Huntress getup.

Keg party Hulk.

The Black Canary and the Green Arrow, perhaps the most popular couples costume for comics geeks. Extra points for the boxing glove arrow!

Harvey Birdman, lawyer.

While Gil Gerard signed in the same room, a fan rocked the Buck Rogers look.

The most petite Power Girl I've ever seen.

An exceptional Dr. Rockso, from METALOCALYPSE.

The Red Skull represents in the name of sheer, balls-out evil.

I have no idea if this guy was supposed to be a specific character, but imagine wearing this outfit at the end of the summer in the American South. Sheer lunacy.

A lithe modern jungle girl stretches for the lads.

I'd say the Dark Phoenix is the last person you'd want to have tell you "Talk to the hand."

The jungle girl archetype represented: Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

A FUTURAMA fan rocks a brain slug. The brain slugs were very popular this year and were all over the place.

TO BE CONTINUED

ON THE LOOSE AT DRAGON CON 2010!!!-Part 1

Ah, the Labor Day weekend. The unofficial end of the summer. A last seasonal hurrah for cookouts, beach parties and roving herds of scantily-clad females. It's also when the annual Dragon Con rolls around and turns downtown Atlanta into a fevered hallucination rendered into fleshy three-dimensionality. It's one of my favorite vacation destinations, celebrating as it does the might and majesty of geekery in many of its permutations, and I once more found myself there and on the loose, armed with a press pass and a strong need to be among my people, namely the great throng of concentrated American geeks. There are certainly many other venues in which to mingle with my brethren and sistren (yeah, I know that's not a word), but Dragon Con remains my very favorite of them all.

9/2-The day before the kickoff.

I awoke early and made my way to LaGuardia Airport to make the first of two connected flights that would get my beige ass to Atlanta — I would have gone for a one-stop direct, but I booked too late for that to have been an affordable option — and as I made my way to the terminal's food court for a quickie breakfast, I ran into friend and former DC colleague Scott Nybakken.

Yer Bunche and the excellence that is Nybakken.

I asked him if he was also on his way to Dragon Con, but instead he was headed to visit some friends in the Carolinas. I should have already figured he wasn't headed to the con because DC doesn't set up a presence there, but it would have been great to have him around as a companion and convention drinking buddy.

After two uneventful and packed U.S. Airways flights, I disembarked in Atlanta and opted to take the MARTA train system to the hotel, rather than get fleeced by the available shuttles and taxi pirates who charged an average staring fare of $16.50. Word to the wise when attending Dragon Con: always take MARTA because it's only a twenty-minute ride from the airport to Peachtree Center, which puts you off right smack in the middle of where all of the con's hotels are, and the fare is a mere $2.50 each way. To an everyday subway rider like me, it's completely painless.

Upon arrival at the Hyatt regency, it was already quite apparent that things were gearing up for Dragon Con and there was a palpable air of a powder keg of geekishness being primed for ignition. I took it as a good omen that the first thing I witnessed during check-in was a guy who'd brought his own homemade version of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000's Tom Tervo, only with a different color scheme and equipped with weapon-arms.

With Servo coming in second only to the robot from LOST IN SPACE in my estimation of fictional automatons/artificial intelligences, I was particularly tickled by this interpretation as it played into tiny and somewhat-fey Tom's own fantasies of being a powerful, conquering death-machine, a persona he once described as "Servotron: destroyer of worlds."

Both Josh Elvis Weinstein and Kevin Murphy — respectively the originator of the character and the replacement actor/puppeteer whose performance of Servo for nine years truly defined the little red 'bot — were listed as appearing at the con and I'd have loved to have seen their reaction to this excellent bit of DIY hero worship.

My dear old friends and hosts: Amanda and Jimmy.

This time around I was invited to share a VIP suite with con guests Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, both of whom are old colleagues from my days in the comics biz trenches and very dear friends, especially Amanda, whom I grew up with and have watched flourish as one of the best cartoonists around over a three-decade-plus trajectory. We ended up with a lovely room located on the 21st floor and when one looked over the the floor's ledge, the vertigo-inducing effect brought to mind the seemingly endless depths of the Krell machine as seen in the sci-fi classic FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956).

The Krell machine.

The view from the 21st floor of the Hyatt Regency.

Once within the confines of my portion of the suite, I set up my modest "media lab" and set off to pick up my press credentials from the con's media liaison room.

My bitchin' tabletop "media lab."

Once I clipped on my ribboned press badge, I set off to explore the surrounding area and chronicle the sights of the pre-con mishegoss. I encountered my first cosplayer of the show on the way out of the hotel, an enthusiastic Brit who rocked a female variant on the classic Batman costume (but significantly not a representation of either the classic or current Batwoman).

As my travels brought me outside into the considerable Atlanta heat and humidity, I noted the gigantic, completely unsubtle inflatable Jaegermeister bottle at poolside, a monolithic idol to potent alcoholic libations and a portent of the many "con babies" that were likely to be conceived over the next few days of copious drinking and sybaritic costumed fornication.

Advertizing or a fertility idol? You decide!

One of the unavoidable aspects of the show for attendees is the nightmare of picking up their tickets/badges via the pre-registration line, and it became a lengthy ordeal for many.

A con staffer acts as traffic control for the massive pre-registration line.

When I arrived to check out pre-registration and pick up the con's program and schedule book (which were not to be had at the media room due to them not having been delivered yet), I was staggered by the volume of the line which, according to one of the security guards at the entrance inside the hotel, numbered around 1200 people, and that was just those who'd made it inside the building.

The pre-registration line, as seen from inside the building.

Just a small section of the line outside, a throng to rival the exodus scene in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

This line extended from the Marriott's lower level and literally wound around the building. One con-goer told me she waited on that line for five hours to pick up her badge. Yikes!

Another word of advice to those who may someday attend this con: always know where the nearest liquor store is. It is guaranteed to be cheaper than the bars found in the hotels and you can pick up cheap foam coolers with which to stock your room with your own mini-bar.

The excellence of Sol's, located a mere two blocks and one avenue away from the Hyatt Regency. It was there that I picked up a couple of six-packs and a cooler for under tweny bucks, while two beers and a shot of Quervo at the hotel's bar cost more than that.

Once back at the hotel and fully set up, I hit the revelry in earnest, leaving A.C. and Jimmy to attend the post-wedding barbecue of comics superstar Adam Hughes. As I waited for the elevator down to the lobby — the first of many very looooooong waits over the course of the weekend — I encountered a guy dressed as Charlie Brown in his infamous fucked-up ghost costume from IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN.

He was delighted when I recognized what he was supposed to be, stating that he thought his outfit was an obscure reference. I've got news for ya, bunky: if your outfit is culled from a special that has aired annually on national network television without fail for over four decades, it ain't obscure.

So then I hit the Hyatt's bar.

This hotel bar annually becomes the nexus for all of the local hotels' costumed revelers, and even the waitresses get into the act. In no time, the place becomes crawling with boozed-up geeks and partiers, the majority of whom are in great spirits and ready to share in the overwhelming sense of geek-love and solidarity. All manner of fannish interests were represented; movie, TV and video game characters, anime heroes and vixens, superheroes, robots, fantasy gaming mainstays, monsters, aliens, you name it, and it's a riot to get schnockered with these living representations of the pop culture imagination.

The first couples costume of the weekend.

Undead and stylin' at the bar.

The excellent Miss Kiss.

The first of the weekend's many bunnies, and by far the most charming.

Strawberry Shortcake and her crew.

Unbridled testosterone: the Man with No Name meets Colonel Kilgore.

Who knew a xenomorph would be such a chick-magnet?

The blonde had a cute kinda/sorta European accent and when she giggled "oooh! It's so scary," I was suddenly fifteen again.

The Droogs from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE are a convention mainstay, but this may be a first: the Droogs and their tribal enemy, Billy Boy.

Billy Boy on his own. Well done, sir!

Actual quote: "I'm just a dinosaur! Why does everybody think I'm Reptar?"

My favorite of the con's many Jesuses ("Jesii?"), gaining points for that kickass halo and for not being the Kevin Smithy "Buddy Christ." NOTE: I like Buddy Christ, but it's getting played out as a costume at cons.

I actually took things kind of easy on the first night, enjoying the costumes rather than getting completely faced (like I did last year). The one sad note of the evening was seeing a woman dressed as one of the Droogs from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE from behind and, when I asked if I could take her picture, discovering discovering she was crying her eyes out to a couple of her friends, over what I cannot say. She sweetly asked me to "give her a minute," despite her tears, but I opted to let her alone, hopefully to recover her moxie and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

With that, I retired to the suite, where Amanda had returned from the barbecue and was readying to get some sleep before what would be hours spent signing in Artists Alley the next day. Alas, both of our efforts at slumber were thwarted by the cacophony of all-night partying on all floors of the hotel making its way to the 21st floor in a fashion concentrated and focused by a trick of the hotel's acoustics. The din was unbearable, a melding of con-goers and that uniquely Southern breed of football fans who were there to celebrate the start of college football season, and by the time that things finally died down, the place was filled with all manner of screaming and the sounds of police cars, fire engines and ambulances arriving at the Hyatt and the neighboring hotels literally every five minutes or so. We eventually were able to glean some small amount of shuteye somewhere near 4AM, but this was only the night before the con proper got underway, so the true tumult had yet to begin...

TO BE CONTINUED

COMING SOON! ON THE LOOSE AT DRAGON CON 2010!!!

I just got back from Dragon Con and I am one seriously exhausted sumbitch. I'm only posting to alert you to return on Wednesday for part one of the epic recounting of the adventures in Hotlanta, and I'm not posting sooner because I have over four-hundred photos to weed through and pick out the best to share with you.

Anyway, come back on Wednesday!

DRAGON CON: SOME EARLY HIGHLIGHTS

I'm exhausted as hell — thanks to running around like a lunatic and enduring last night's incredibly loud sounds of screaming and partying at the hotel — but damned glad to find myself in that state because I'm having so much fun! I hope to have the full photo-safari up sometime next week, but here are some con shots to tide you over until then.

This guy was actually shocked when I recognized his costume, claiming he thought it was an obscure reference. Here's a fact: when something is seen in annual rotation on network TV for over four decades, it ain't obscure.

May the gods bless the mighty jungle girl...

I'm proud to say I've taken what may be the most pimp photo ever of George Perez.

The original savage female archetype: Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

"I'm Dr. Rockso, and I do cocaaaaaaaaine!"

Julie Newmar-style Catwoman. Meeee-Yow!

What's not to love about this?

Donna Troy: best live action rocking of this character ever!

When MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 fans represent: Mr B. Natural.

Freddy Mercury.

Who knew a Xenomorph would be such a chick-magnet?

The Man with No Name meets Colonel Kilgore.

The lads from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, with what may be a convention first: their arch-enemy, Billy Boy!

OFF TO DRAGON CON 2010!!!

Dear Vaulties-

Yer Bunche will be attending Dragon Con 2010 in Atlanta for the next few days and will make sure to chronicle the whole mad experience. I'll be bringing my computer with me and schedule permitting, I plan to post daily highlights, so stay tuned.

"UNDERWATER SUN" by LUX INTERIOR

Early this morning, an old friend alerted me to Lux Interior, the late frontman of the Cramps , having done a song for SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS. Well, here it is, and I find it wistfully appropriate that what will probably be the last (relatively) new song by him should be one in which describes all the usual suspects and goings-on in Bikini Bottom.

Highlight from ESCAPE FROM THE BRONX (1983)

Best helicopter explosion ever! Make sure to note the goofy flying body.