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Tekko 2014: Convention Report
8 April 2014 12:21 pmI hadn't been going to Tekkoshocon for a few years. They had moved from the Convention Center to a downtown hotel and there simply wasn't room for them. Far too many people packed into far too small a space so I stopped going. They returned to the Convention Center last year but I didn't go then either. I think I saved myself $30 and went to Steel City Con instead. This year I went with my RWBY cosplay in spite of being unemployed. More on that later.
Friday was a steampunk day in part because there were some steampunk panels.
Security took an interest in my sword but once I showed them that there was no metal blade but that instead there was a piece of wood just long enough to hold the hilt to the scabbard they left me alone. They thought that idea was the best cosplay prop they had ever seen, mostly because they didn't have to come up with some way to peace bond it. Not one of them said anything about my very realistic looking Peacemaker in the holster, mostly because none of them ever saw it under my frock coat. I had been concerned because the rules are that realistic weapons must have an orange tip. The best I could muster was an orange twist-tie wrapped around the barrel. I had my doubts that it would pass muster but it pretty much stayed in the holster under the coat so never became an issue.
I have plans to make a gun out of wood such that, much like the sword, it looks good in the holster but isn't even gun-like otherwise.
My steampunk costume is still mistaken for being something that someone recognizes from some other program. That is, in fact, by design. I had several opportunities to explain the 1980s manga “The Clockwork Chambermaid” and the Vitruvius Pike dime novel it was based on.
The people who didn't think they recognized me from something else still appreciated my costume and, most especially, my beard. I sometimes think that just walking around in a t-shirt and jeans would get as much attention if I also had my beard styled as it usually is when I'm doing steampunk or that I would not get half as much attention were I clean shaven.
“You can get further with steampunk and an awesome beard than you can with steampunk alone.”
I spoke to the guy cosplaying Professor Ozpin who had previously been on the Tekkoshocon board and he let me in on some concom stuff. Apparently after last year's convention, the Tekko board was disbanded and gave all of their remaining stuff to Pittsburgh Japanese Cultural Society. One of the things that had been going on was that the concom had been choosing guests and performers based on their own interests rather than the interests of the congoers. I don't think that would be enough to bring down a convention in and of itself but I could see how that could affect attendance. The steampunk community had seen something similar with the World Steam Expo. The con had booked Abney Park several times, hoping their popularity would boost attendance. It may have done that but it wasn't by enough to offset the added cost of bringing in the band. In the end, Yumacon, which had been helping to fund the con, decided not to fund the con anymore and they folded up with $20k in debt.
And now Steamcon in Seattle has folded after five years. I don't know that situation but I can see a number of other steampunk cons folding in the near future. Aside from the talk of steampunk being a huge thing, I'm not sure it's sustainable at the level people seem to think. But steampunk is a very young fandom, still undergoing its growing pains and trying to find its place among other science fiction conventions. Perhaps if Hollywood gets off its collective backsides and produces a decent steampunk blockbuster, the genre will get the boost it needs to truly hit the mainstream.
I saw the middle part of “Wolf Children.” Now on my Amazon wish list.
Given the popularity of “Frozen”, I saw at least five different Elsa cosplays. There had been an online meme predicting that this would be the big thing this year but I think that “Frozen” was still handily beaten out by “Attack on Titan” and “Doctor Who.”
The AMV (Anime Music Video) Room had steampunk on the program but I was disappointed in the block. There was one very good video with “Steamboy” and “Abney Park” that I had seen years ago and one with “Last Exile” and “Abney Park” but the rest really weren't steampunk. Where was “Sakura Wars”? Where was “Castle in the Sky”? A later search of the Internet couldn't find much more than that. Just as in Hollywood, steampunk hasn't hit the big time in Japanese animation yet.
Later was the “Steampunkify Yourself” presentation. I missed the very beginning but the presenter was reading off steampunk archetypes. I even recognized the website that she downloaded the information from though it seems that every website that talks about creating a steampunk persona uses the same general script; breaking down all of steampunk unto personalities such as aristocrat, scientist, adventurer, air pirate. Once she was done with that I wondered where she was going to go next and she ended up calling me up to the front to tell people about myself and my character.
I sort of took over. I started off by saying that I only recognized one person in the audience and since I was up to my ears in the steampunk community in Pittsburgh, I would be glad to answer any and all questions anyone had and that, after the panel, I would be available out in the hall by the water cooler. I then went on to talk about my persona and how it was developed (I didn't choose an archetype from an Internet website), where I got my costume, a some of my steampunk experiences. After the presenter moved on and I returned to the back of the room, I noticed that the room started to clear out bit by bit. By the end of the time slot, fully half of the people had filtered out.
In the hall by the water cooler I spent another hour and a half talking to a few people about steampunk.
Tekko tried to promote a steampunk theme this year, at least with their badge and program art, but they didn't do much more than that as far as I can tell. The full room shows that there is an interest in steampunk but the person doing the presentation couldn't sustain interest. Therefore, I intend to talk to the Tekko staff. If they want to have a steampunk presentation at next year's con, I will do it for them. Steampunk is so much more than choosing an archetype from a website.
Saturday was for Team RWBY.
In the middle of last year, I was beginning to recognize that the writing was on the wall concerning my employment and I decided that I really needed a nice suit for job interviews. The 19th Century styling of everything I already had wasn't going to cut it. I also decided that a henchman from the animated webseries RWBY was going to be my next cosplay. With the suit, all I would need in addition was red sunglasses and an axe. I had a pair of old glasses I took to the optometrist to be tinted and Cold Steel had a practice Axe Gang axe. The suit was delayed up until the point I was pretty much loosing my job but I got what I thought was a fairly decent deal at Men's Warehouse.
The henchmen in RWBY are based on the Axe Gang from “Kung Fu Hustle” which, in turn, are based on a Shanghai triad from the 1920s. I tried to learn the evil dance of the axe gang but, while I have plenty of rhythm, I cannot dance for shit.
On the Tekko facebook page I found that there were a number of people doing RWBY cosplay and I attached myself to them for their photoshoot.
That was a good thing. A guy in a suit with an axe just doesn't leap out as being any particular anime character. I had a few people take my picture but otherwise didn't get a lot of attention. Even when other RWBY characters were getting their picture taken, I was left out of the conversation, most likely because they didn't recognize the RWBY characters to take their pictures but just recognized them as some sort of costumed anime characters.
That's what happens when you are a henchman. Sure, the flamboyant madmen with capes, maniacal laughs and grand schemes for world domination get the spotlight but the professionals, the working class mook that rolls up his sleeves to perform everyday villainy just trying to keep a modest, city-wide empire of crime on an even keel, end up being overlooked.
At least John Woo shows us the love.
Hanging around after the Team RWBY collective photoshoot, I was asked how long I had been doing this sort of thing.
Almost thirty years.
Really. I have been costuming, cosplaying and attending science fiction conventions of one form or another for almost thirty years. I was at the first Tekksoshocon in 2003 and, as a Klingon, got my picture in the July issue of “Animerica Anime & Manga Monthy.” I was on panels at WorldCon in 2002. I helped to run my first convention in the late 80s on Pitt's campus which became Confluence in 1996. I've been running their video room program since 2000. And cosplay goes back further than that, I suppose. My first from-scratch costume was a Tuskin Raider for Halloween of 1977.
And I'm still finding things to interest me. My fandom is a constantly evolving thing and I see no reason for it not to go on for another thirty years.
Friday was a steampunk day in part because there were some steampunk panels.
Security took an interest in my sword but once I showed them that there was no metal blade but that instead there was a piece of wood just long enough to hold the hilt to the scabbard they left me alone. They thought that idea was the best cosplay prop they had ever seen, mostly because they didn't have to come up with some way to peace bond it. Not one of them said anything about my very realistic looking Peacemaker in the holster, mostly because none of them ever saw it under my frock coat. I had been concerned because the rules are that realistic weapons must have an orange tip. The best I could muster was an orange twist-tie wrapped around the barrel. I had my doubts that it would pass muster but it pretty much stayed in the holster under the coat so never became an issue.I have plans to make a gun out of wood such that, much like the sword, it looks good in the holster but isn't even gun-like otherwise.
Congoer: "Are you that guy from that first episode?"
Me: "No. I'm a different guy from that other thing."
My steampunk costume is still mistaken for being something that someone recognizes from some other program. That is, in fact, by design. I had several opportunities to explain the 1980s manga “The Clockwork Chambermaid” and the Vitruvius Pike dime novel it was based on.
The people who didn't think they recognized me from something else still appreciated my costume and, most especially, my beard. I sometimes think that just walking around in a t-shirt and jeans would get as much attention if I also had my beard styled as it usually is when I'm doing steampunk or that I would not get half as much attention were I clean shaven.
“You can get further with steampunk and an awesome beard than you can with steampunk alone.”
I spoke to the guy cosplaying Professor Ozpin who had previously been on the Tekkoshocon board and he let me in on some concom stuff. Apparently after last year's convention, the Tekko board was disbanded and gave all of their remaining stuff to Pittsburgh Japanese Cultural Society. One of the things that had been going on was that the concom had been choosing guests and performers based on their own interests rather than the interests of the congoers. I don't think that would be enough to bring down a convention in and of itself but I could see how that could affect attendance. The steampunk community had seen something similar with the World Steam Expo. The con had booked Abney Park several times, hoping their popularity would boost attendance. It may have done that but it wasn't by enough to offset the added cost of bringing in the band. In the end, Yumacon, which had been helping to fund the con, decided not to fund the con anymore and they folded up with $20k in debt.
And now Steamcon in Seattle has folded after five years. I don't know that situation but I can see a number of other steampunk cons folding in the near future. Aside from the talk of steampunk being a huge thing, I'm not sure it's sustainable at the level people seem to think. But steampunk is a very young fandom, still undergoing its growing pains and trying to find its place among other science fiction conventions. Perhaps if Hollywood gets off its collective backsides and produces a decent steampunk blockbuster, the genre will get the boost it needs to truly hit the mainstream.
I saw the middle part of “Wolf Children.” Now on my Amazon wish list.
Given the popularity of “Frozen”, I saw at least five different Elsa cosplays. There had been an online meme predicting that this would be the big thing this year but I think that “Frozen” was still handily beaten out by “Attack on Titan” and “Doctor Who.”
The AMV (Anime Music Video) Room had steampunk on the program but I was disappointed in the block. There was one very good video with “Steamboy” and “Abney Park” that I had seen years ago and one with “Last Exile” and “Abney Park” but the rest really weren't steampunk. Where was “Sakura Wars”? Where was “Castle in the Sky”? A later search of the Internet couldn't find much more than that. Just as in Hollywood, steampunk hasn't hit the big time in Japanese animation yet.
Later was the “Steampunkify Yourself” presentation. I missed the very beginning but the presenter was reading off steampunk archetypes. I even recognized the website that she downloaded the information from though it seems that every website that talks about creating a steampunk persona uses the same general script; breaking down all of steampunk unto personalities such as aristocrat, scientist, adventurer, air pirate. Once she was done with that I wondered where she was going to go next and she ended up calling me up to the front to tell people about myself and my character.
I sort of took over. I started off by saying that I only recognized one person in the audience and since I was up to my ears in the steampunk community in Pittsburgh, I would be glad to answer any and all questions anyone had and that, after the panel, I would be available out in the hall by the water cooler. I then went on to talk about my persona and how it was developed (I didn't choose an archetype from an Internet website), where I got my costume, a some of my steampunk experiences. After the presenter moved on and I returned to the back of the room, I noticed that the room started to clear out bit by bit. By the end of the time slot, fully half of the people had filtered out.
In the hall by the water cooler I spent another hour and a half talking to a few people about steampunk.
Tekko tried to promote a steampunk theme this year, at least with their badge and program art, but they didn't do much more than that as far as I can tell. The full room shows that there is an interest in steampunk but the person doing the presentation couldn't sustain interest. Therefore, I intend to talk to the Tekko staff. If they want to have a steampunk presentation at next year's con, I will do it for them. Steampunk is so much more than choosing an archetype from a website.
Saturday was for Team RWBY.
In the middle of last year, I was beginning to recognize that the writing was on the wall concerning my employment and I decided that I really needed a nice suit for job interviews. The 19th Century styling of everything I already had wasn't going to cut it. I also decided that a henchman from the animated webseries RWBY was going to be my next cosplay. With the suit, all I would need in addition was red sunglasses and an axe. I had a pair of old glasses I took to the optometrist to be tinted and Cold Steel had a practice Axe Gang axe. The suit was delayed up until the point I was pretty much loosing my job but I got what I thought was a fairly decent deal at Men's Warehouse.The henchmen in RWBY are based on the Axe Gang from “Kung Fu Hustle” which, in turn, are based on a Shanghai triad from the 1920s. I tried to learn the evil dance of the axe gang but, while I have plenty of rhythm, I cannot dance for shit.
On the Tekko facebook page I found that there were a number of people doing RWBY cosplay and I attached myself to them for their photoshoot.
That was a good thing. A guy in a suit with an axe just doesn't leap out as being any particular anime character. I had a few people take my picture but otherwise didn't get a lot of attention. Even when other RWBY characters were getting their picture taken, I was left out of the conversation, most likely because they didn't recognize the RWBY characters to take their pictures but just recognized them as some sort of costumed anime characters.
That's what happens when you are a henchman. Sure, the flamboyant madmen with capes, maniacal laughs and grand schemes for world domination get the spotlight but the professionals, the working class mook that rolls up his sleeves to perform everyday villainy just trying to keep a modest, city-wide empire of crime on an even keel, end up being overlooked.
At least John Woo shows us the love.
Hanging around after the Team RWBY collective photoshoot, I was asked how long I had been doing this sort of thing.
Almost thirty years.
Really. I have been costuming, cosplaying and attending science fiction conventions of one form or another for almost thirty years. I was at the first Tekksoshocon in 2003 and, as a Klingon, got my picture in the July issue of “Animerica Anime & Manga Monthy.” I was on panels at WorldCon in 2002. I helped to run my first convention in the late 80s on Pitt's campus which became Confluence in 1996. I've been running their video room program since 2000. And cosplay goes back further than that, I suppose. My first from-scratch costume was a Tuskin Raider for Halloween of 1977.
And I'm still finding things to interest me. My fandom is a constantly evolving thing and I see no reason for it not to go on for another thirty years.
