Okay, hands down, Otakon rules ! I’ve been to 5 cons across America in the past 3 months and I gotta say I really enjoy Otakon this year. Now you’re saying to yourself – how can he know ? He’s in Artist Alley the whole time ! Yup, I was. I racked up 14 hours on Sat along – almost came close to hitting the 15 hour record for MetroCon.

It’s my gut instinct. The overall sense I got from being there. Despite some weird glitches (but then again, EVERY con has glitches), from what I observed and saw, I definitely would put Otakon on top of my list for 2010.

My trip started not so well. I’ve forgotten my Canon G9 point & shoot which I left back in LA so my only camera was my iPhone. I almost missed my flight out of LA – dang long lines are everywhere ! Flight was delay in getting to Baltimore, I struggled to find my hotel in the dark (I prefer driving during the day) and here’s the big one – I forget to pre-reg !!!!!! Yes, I guess juggling 10 cons I was bound to forget something so I stood in line at 7 am on Friday morning. It took close to 3 hours – not bad – about the same as last year when I forget to pre-reg too (don’t start with me).

Here’s my set-up on Friday. Not everyone is there yet so looks kinda empty. Oh, Otakon is unusual in the way they have “islands” of tables which I prefer to the standard rows of Artist Alley tables.

Friday was incredible – Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, dA followers came a-calling. At one point my Artist Alley neighbor Jamaal remarked “You’re popular” which I protested the statement but he shut me down with “No man, you ARE popular”. Jamaal’s table was behind me and I noticed that he didn’t put any of his artwork on the back. As you know there’s been a thing about artists using the back of their PVC pipe display to show work that might be confused with the other artist sitting behind them. Jamaal was cool enough he didn’t do that but since his work is so different from mine, I told him to put it up and I’ll just direct people to his side. By the way, if you wanna see Jamaal’s work, here’s his dA page

By the way, remember this guy Luis ? He showed up again ! This is the 4th time I’ve seen in the past three months 🙂 I think if I would have a “stalker” reward, then Luis would get it 🙂 He told me he didn’t plan on attending but a last minute offer had him flying out to Otakon.

Meanwhile other Twitter followers Tom & Roni were so sweet in bringing me Mountain Dew and Skittles ! Yes, they must have read my tweets religiously because I do mention my favorite sugar rush is Skittles and Mountain Dew 🙂 Since they bought me a case, I shared some with my artist alley neighbors. Serious guys, thank you !!!! I really needed that because going on to 10 hours in Artist Alley table, well, I need a kick and I don’t drink coffee so that doesn’t help me at all.

Close to 2 pm on Saturday, emergency lights started to flash around Artist Alley. At first everyone was like…okay…alright… and not paying too much attention until we were asked to evacuate. I think the con did pretty well. They got the building cleared like in 10 or 15 minutes. I’m sure we shocked the cars driving down Pratt St to see waves of otakus running amuck….oh, alright, everyone was actually calm and level-headed. I’ve heard two different stories – 1) someone pulled the fire alarm and 2) small fire. I have no idea which one is the true story. I did take this opportunity to find a spot to go take a brief nap.

Me with Twingenuity from Indianapolis, a pair of cosplaying twins 🙂 They were so helpful when I first met them at Otakon 2009 so I was happy to see them again in ‘10.

Every con I go to, I’m giving away a copy of the that new cosplay magazine Cosplay Gen to the 20th buyer of the book. I unfortunately did not get the gal’s name so uh…congrats Otakon winner ! Look for me at future cons with more.

You can look through the rest of my photos over on my Flickr set. feel free to tag yourself. Meanwhile since I’m always in Artist Alley and I don’t get a chance to see everything, I’ll be looking through Flickr and YouTube to see what I missed ! Also if you took photos at Otakon (or at any cons for that matter), you can post them to my Flick group “Cosplay in America” . I’ve been encouraging my followers on Facebook to post up their photos but since they don’t last long in my stream, I decided to just have them post up on my Flickr group and I’ll link them back to Facebook.

Okay guys, so I’ll be taking a brief break for a month before heading back out in September. I got a three week job with a photographer to shoot products for a website so luckily I’ll have 3 weeks of work to keep my credit cards off my back ! I also started a mailing list so if you want to me added, just send an email to cosplayinamerica –AT– gmail with subj “ADD” and I’ll put you on my mailing list so you know what’s up. As always you can follow me on facebook, twitter, myspace, dA plus more. Just check cosplayinamerica.com and look on top for icons.

(Originally posted Aug 4, 2010 )