Dragoncon 2010
"I'm doing a late-running article on Dragoncon 2010.
You got a problem with that?"
Copyright 2010 by Charles C. Craig
Every year 28,000 or so people
gather in downtown Atlanta, just 26 miles from Roswell, and over the
Labor Day weekend they hold a four-day-long costume party called
Dragoncon.
Thousands of people wander the Marriott, Hilton and
Hyatt hotels in downtown Atlanta, enjoying the party atmosphere, the
meetings, the dealer room, the celebrities, the panels ... and did I
mention the party atmosphere?
Dr.
Zoidberg of Futurama fame walks in the 90 degree heat that prevailed in
Atlanta during Dragoncon, having spotted a tasty-looking dumpster. Not
for him the food court, the hotel bars and restaurants that OTHERS may
patronize!
A favorite lurking
spot for attendees is the railings near the elevators, because most
people go up and down the elevators, sooner or later, so you get to see
a LOT of costumes. Note the red and gold dress and top hat sported by
the onlooker at center: it's a steampunk outfit. More on that later.
DragonCon provides plenty of things for participants to do during the four days: panels featuring stars of fan favorite science fiction, fantasy, anime and goth media. There are dances, costume contests, screenings, celebrity autograph signings, a dealer room selling an incredibly eclectic variety of costumes, toys, games and whatnot. But for my money, none of that is "where the action is." The "action" is out on the floor, where fans who have labored for weeks or months on incredibly imaginative and detailed costumes pose for other fans, who are not infrequently in costumes themselves as they take the pictures.
There are many fan websites that cover the proceedings at Dragoncon, but what stands out most is all the photo-oriented website. Dragoncon maintains a listing of all the fan websites at their website, I'll put the link at the bottom of this article so you can check out the hundreds of thousands of pictures taken at the con and then stored on the Web.
Bikini
chainmail
barbiarian women are always popular at Dragoncon ... for whatever
reason.
Becky and I like to find a perch near the elevators and watch the costumed participants go by. Our son Corwin used to enjoy the gameroom, but it is mostly boardgames and he is more into videogame nowadays. The dealer room is also a popular destination, full of the sort of stuff that nobody needs and everybody wants, from inexpensive tsotschkes to leather boustiers costing hundreds of dollars, and probably more expensive stuff as well. This is probably the most densely crowded area in Dragoncon most times of day, which is why I tend to avoid it, but clearly, it's popular.
"Meet
my little offplanet friend!" One of the pleasures of attending
DragonCon is getting yourself photographed with memorable characters
you don't ordinarily meet on Earth, such as this Predator. (Neither of
these people is me, or
anyone that I know, that I know of.)
It's always fun to sit near poeple who are at the hotels for non-Dragoncon-related reasons and listen to what they make of it. Our favorite overheard remark this year was from a member of a group looking at the crowd in the lobby, pointing to an elaborately costumed group and saying "No, honey, I think they're paid performers."
Not paid performers: This group
of Star Wars fans boast elaborate costumes from the movies, and a very
robotlike prop in the form of R2D2, but they are not paid performers,
they are simply kids and young adults who think it is a hoot to spend
four days playing at being their favorite movie characters.
And if you are not familiar with DragonCon, I suppose it's reasonable to assume that all the people wandering around dressed exactly like characters from various movies, comics, anime and whatnot are paid performers like you might see at a Ren-Faire, but the real secret of DragonCon, the thing that makes it fun and exceptional, is that it is not really at heart about the celebrities and musicians who are the only paid performers at the event, but about the fans themselves, entertaining themselves and one another with their elaborate costumes, which is known as cosplay. The cosplayers are the center, the heart of the convention. The TV and movie stars there to hype their various projects, the comic book artists to sell their works, the dealers selling their wares, even the convention staff, are at the periphery of the event.
It's the fan cosplayers who make the event what it is, though they are generally aided by a sizable contingent of Goths and generic partiers whose different sense of costuming and fun reinforces the fancentric nature of DragonCon -- the point is to come and have fun with others like you, and maybe not so much like you, not to be a passive participant in a media event ... though you can certainly do that if you want to. My feeling, however, is that if the fans only attended the panels and bought the dealer room tsotchkes, DragonCon would have all the excitement of a press conference held next to a toy store, which is to say, very nearly none.
One
of the surest signs that the costume wearers in DragonCon are there for
their own reasons is the little liberties many of the them take with
their characters' costumes. Here we have a pair of "shower troopers'
from Star Wars, undoubtedly from a shower scene that did NOT occur in
any Star Wars movie. Perhaps they saw the shower scene from "Starship
Troopers" and became confused. A natural mistake!
It's that fan-centric aspect that gives DragonCon its buzz, that makes it more than just a commercial endeavor for the people who come there to play. The fans tend to move in their own directions, for their own reasons that don't always make much sense, commercially speaking. There has always been a large contingent of metal bikini wearing Princess Leias at Dragoncon, which ballooned over previous years until you had 50 or 60 of them together posing with a plaster Jabba the Hutt. Commercially it doesn't make much sense to pay so much attention to a move made 30 or so years ago, when there are plenty of hot new properties to hype now, now, now, but it's the fans who decide what costumes they want to wear.
Last year the number of metal bikini Princess Leias seemed lower, and this year their numbers diminished a lot, to be replaced with a variety of female characters. The newly dominant costuming group in DragonCon seems to be the steampunk fans. Theirs is a much more varied form of costuming, based on Victorian-era dress for explorers, ladies and gentlemen, accented with bizarre brass weaponry, outsized brass goggles, large copper timepieces, pith helmets, top hats, and in general finery accentuated with improbable Victorian science fiction weaponry and devices. Steampunk is even LESS of a commerce-driven costuming fad than metal bikini Leias, as it is not associated with any commercial property in particular, just hinges off a group of properties, most of them long past their prime, such as Jules Verne's adventures and the Wild, Wild, West television series (let us make no mention of the dreadful Wild, Wild West movie).
Here we have a nice
steampunk-attired couple waking the Dragoncon halls, the man
wearing a protective iron helmet trimmed with brass, the lady in a very
nice woman's fedora with gold trim, the man sporting an improbable bit
of green and copper chest armor, though it could also be
some sort of device, it is really hard to tell, while the lady wears a
boustier accentuated with a copper chain ornament, and black lace
gloves. There is no particularly correct steampunk outfit, it's
variations
on a theme, which makes for a lot of fun and ingenuity for
participants.
I saw photos of 50 or 60 steampunk cosplayers gathered together at this year's Dragoncon for a photo shoot, except there's no Jabba the Hutt and the costumes are CONSIDERABLY more varied, as are the wearers. (Of course there are some winks to traditions -- check out the steampunk R2D2 on this page). One of the things that is probably fuelling steampunk costuming's popularity is that it looks good on everyone, male and female, young and old, fit and not so fit, whereas metal bikini Leia costumes generally only worked for women who look good in bikinis, a considerably smaller subgroup.
Nattily
dressed young steampunkers watch metal bikini Leia walking away with a
hunky barbarian guy. Ain't it always the way?
Every year there's some website out there saying that the most recent DragonCon has been utterly ruined by something or someone or other, and this year is no exception. (Nor will next year be, I feel safe in predicting.) My feeling is, so long as the center of DragonCon is the fans enjoying each others' efforts, DragonCon is just fine. All the rest is a side issue.
A
lone Star Wars stormtrooper in fishnet and a helmet stands at a
railing, while a steampunk lady sits to her left, keeping a vigil for
the other faithful fishnet Storm Troopers, and indeed, for all the
wonderfully wacky fans who visit DragonCon each year. Long may ye party!
Link to DragonCon fan photo pages
Return to Planet Roswell's Home Page
Comment on this article
Dr.
Zoidberg of Futurama fame walks in the 90 degree heat that prevailed in
Atlanta during Dragoncon, having spotted a tasty-looking dumpster. Not
for him the food court, the hotel bars and restaurants that OTHERS may
patronize!A favorite lurking
spot for attendees is the railings near the elevators, because most
people go up and down the elevators, sooner or later, so you get to see
a LOT of costumes. Note the red and gold dress and top hat sported by
the onlooker at center: it's a steampunk outfit. More on that later.DragonCon provides plenty of things for participants to do during the four days: panels featuring stars of fan favorite science fiction, fantasy, anime and goth media. There are dances, costume contests, screenings, celebrity autograph signings, a dealer room selling an incredibly eclectic variety of costumes, toys, games and whatnot. But for my money, none of that is "where the action is." The "action" is out on the floor, where fans who have labored for weeks or months on incredibly imaginative and detailed costumes pose for other fans, who are not infrequently in costumes themselves as they take the pictures.
There are many fan websites that cover the proceedings at Dragoncon, but what stands out most is all the photo-oriented website. Dragoncon maintains a listing of all the fan websites at their website, I'll put the link at the bottom of this article so you can check out the hundreds of thousands of pictures taken at the con and then stored on the Web.
Bikini
chainmail
barbiarian women are always popular at Dragoncon ... for whatever
reason.Becky and I like to find a perch near the elevators and watch the costumed participants go by. Our son Corwin used to enjoy the gameroom, but it is mostly boardgames and he is more into videogame nowadays. The dealer room is also a popular destination, full of the sort of stuff that nobody needs and everybody wants, from inexpensive tsotschkes to leather boustiers costing hundreds of dollars, and probably more expensive stuff as well. This is probably the most densely crowded area in Dragoncon most times of day, which is why I tend to avoid it, but clearly, it's popular.
"Meet
my little offplanet friend!" One of the pleasures of attending
DragonCon is getting yourself photographed with memorable characters
you don't ordinarily meet on Earth, such as this Predator. (Neither of
these people is me, or
anyone that I know, that I know of.)It's always fun to sit near poeple who are at the hotels for non-Dragoncon-related reasons and listen to what they make of it. Our favorite overheard remark this year was from a member of a group looking at the crowd in the lobby, pointing to an elaborately costumed group and saying "No, honey, I think they're paid performers."
Not paid performers: This group
of Star Wars fans boast elaborate costumes from the movies, and a very
robotlike prop in the form of R2D2, but they are not paid performers,
they are simply kids and young adults who think it is a hoot to spend
four days playing at being their favorite movie characters.And if you are not familiar with DragonCon, I suppose it's reasonable to assume that all the people wandering around dressed exactly like characters from various movies, comics, anime and whatnot are paid performers like you might see at a Ren-Faire, but the real secret of DragonCon, the thing that makes it fun and exceptional, is that it is not really at heart about the celebrities and musicians who are the only paid performers at the event, but about the fans themselves, entertaining themselves and one another with their elaborate costumes, which is known as cosplay. The cosplayers are the center, the heart of the convention. The TV and movie stars there to hype their various projects, the comic book artists to sell their works, the dealers selling their wares, even the convention staff, are at the periphery of the event.
It's the fan cosplayers who make the event what it is, though they are generally aided by a sizable contingent of Goths and generic partiers whose different sense of costuming and fun reinforces the fancentric nature of DragonCon -- the point is to come and have fun with others like you, and maybe not so much like you, not to be a passive participant in a media event ... though you can certainly do that if you want to. My feeling, however, is that if the fans only attended the panels and bought the dealer room tsotchkes, DragonCon would have all the excitement of a press conference held next to a toy store, which is to say, very nearly none.
One
of the surest signs that the costume wearers in DragonCon are there for
their own reasons is the little liberties many of the them take with
their characters' costumes. Here we have a pair of "shower troopers'
from Star Wars, undoubtedly from a shower scene that did NOT occur in
any Star Wars movie. Perhaps they saw the shower scene from "Starship
Troopers" and became confused. A natural mistake!It's that fan-centric aspect that gives DragonCon its buzz, that makes it more than just a commercial endeavor for the people who come there to play. The fans tend to move in their own directions, for their own reasons that don't always make much sense, commercially speaking. There has always been a large contingent of metal bikini wearing Princess Leias at Dragoncon, which ballooned over previous years until you had 50 or 60 of them together posing with a plaster Jabba the Hutt. Commercially it doesn't make much sense to pay so much attention to a move made 30 or so years ago, when there are plenty of hot new properties to hype now, now, now, but it's the fans who decide what costumes they want to wear.
Last year the number of metal bikini Princess Leias seemed lower, and this year their numbers diminished a lot, to be replaced with a variety of female characters. The newly dominant costuming group in DragonCon seems to be the steampunk fans. Theirs is a much more varied form of costuming, based on Victorian-era dress for explorers, ladies and gentlemen, accented with bizarre brass weaponry, outsized brass goggles, large copper timepieces, pith helmets, top hats, and in general finery accentuated with improbable Victorian science fiction weaponry and devices. Steampunk is even LESS of a commerce-driven costuming fad than metal bikini Leias, as it is not associated with any commercial property in particular, just hinges off a group of properties, most of them long past their prime, such as Jules Verne's adventures and the Wild, Wild, West television series (let us make no mention of the dreadful Wild, Wild West movie).
Here we have a nice
steampunk-attired couple waking the Dragoncon halls, the man
wearing a protective iron helmet trimmed with brass, the lady in a very
nice woman's fedora with gold trim, the man sporting an improbable bit
of green and copper chest armor, though it could also be
some sort of device, it is really hard to tell, while the lady wears a
boustier accentuated with a copper chain ornament, and black lace
gloves. There is no particularly correct steampunk outfit, it's
variations
on a theme, which makes for a lot of fun and ingenuity for
participants.I saw photos of 50 or 60 steampunk cosplayers gathered together at this year's Dragoncon for a photo shoot, except there's no Jabba the Hutt and the costumes are CONSIDERABLY more varied, as are the wearers. (Of course there are some winks to traditions -- check out the steampunk R2D2 on this page). One of the things that is probably fuelling steampunk costuming's popularity is that it looks good on everyone, male and female, young and old, fit and not so fit, whereas metal bikini Leia costumes generally only worked for women who look good in bikinis, a considerably smaller subgroup.
Nattily
dressed young steampunkers watch metal bikini Leia walking away with a
hunky barbarian guy. Ain't it always the way?Every year there's some website out there saying that the most recent DragonCon has been utterly ruined by something or someone or other, and this year is no exception. (Nor will next year be, I feel safe in predicting.) My feeling is, so long as the center of DragonCon is the fans enjoying each others' efforts, DragonCon is just fine. All the rest is a side issue.
A
lone Star Wars stormtrooper in fishnet and a helmet stands at a
railing, while a steampunk lady sits to her left, keeping a vigil for
the other faithful fishnet Storm Troopers, and indeed, for all the
wonderfully wacky fans who visit DragonCon each year. Long may ye party! Link to DragonCon fan photo pages
Return to Planet Roswell's Home Page
Comment on this article