Pittsburgh Comicon
13 September 2009 12:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dime_novel_heroI went to the Pittsburgh Comicon in Monroeville on Saturday. My first objective was to farm out flyers for Confluence. I put several stacks at small tables at both the front a rear entrance and periodically through the day checked up on them. I needed to keep watch because someone at the front kept taking my stack and putting them in a box under the table. I would rearrange the table and find a space for them without throwing away anyone else’s promotional material so I don’t know my our flyers were getting treated so poorly.
My second objective was to meet with Henry and give him some leather and instructions for the creation of a holster. My replica LeMat is a big-ass pistol and you can’t just buy a holster for it. At least, not the kind of holster I want. I could probably attempt to do it myself, but wouldn’t want to screw it up. Better to hand it off to someone who knows what he’s doing to get it right the first time. Henry had wanted to come to the con but was a bit broke so, as partial payment for his working on the holster and as an incentive for him to come into town and get the stuff, I paid his admission. I showed up at the con at 10am but he didn’t show up until about noon. It wasn’t a big deal, it took me that long to work my way through the artists alley and dealer’s room the first time.
A lot of people paid attention to my steampunk get up. Yes, it is a pretty good costume but I also think a lot of attention I receive is because I am the only steampunk there. There is a LiveJournal group for the promotion of steampunk here in Pittsburgh but it doesn’t have a lot of members or a lot of activity. I would think that a con would be a prime opportunity for such an outing but I also guess that my perspective is colored by my sci-fi con going, comic book reading background. Someone who came into steampunk through an artistic or fashion background might not even think about comic conventions.
One little Japanese girl had her picture taken with me and then said, “I like your costume a lot.”
“Thank you.”
“Will you give it to me?”
“You’re cute. But, not that cute.”
I had a radio/podcast interview with some sort of Harry Potter group and had the opportunity to exclaim that I thought magic was “Poppycock!” I was interviewed by the Southern California Paranormal Research Society and was disappointed that I couldn’t turn the conversation to the same phrase. It was a bit odd, though. They asked me about whether I had ever had any paranormal experiences and I admitted that, yes, in college I had a few experiences that one might attribute to ghostly or supernatural causes but I was unwilling to go beyond “I don’t know” as an explanation. They asked what sort of proof I would require to accept the paranormal and I cited multiple, independent scientific confirmations and actual physical evidence. Eyewitness accounts do not qualify. Then he asked me about what sort of morals I had.
I was a bit baffled and asked what exactly he meant by the question. He didn’t explain but essentially asked the same question over. I said that I though I had good morals. And then he asked if I knew any steampunks with bad morals. I didn’t like where he was going with the questioning so I said that I though steampunks had the same morals, good and bad, that everyone else has. He persisted and I supposed that, yes, I might know steampunks with bad morals but it’s not something that has come up.
I really wish I had the opportunity to yell “Poppycock!”
I saw Stan Lee as he quickly walked by on his way from signing a gazillion autographs.
‘nuff said.
One dealer there, Specter Studios, was a costume dealer. I saw in the corner of their booth that they had foam props, baseball bats, sledge hammers, lead pipes. I asked one of the guys there if, by chance, they had cricket bats. Mark, the owner, was ebullient exclaiming to his partner that this is why he wanted them to make cricket bats. Yes, they had cricket bats, but none at the con. Their shop is in Sharpsburg and he told me that if I came by the store before the end of the month, they would give me their con discounted pricing. I said that they should do the whole costume, white shirt, tie, name tag. I turned to Mark’s clueless partner and said “You’ve got a little red on you.” He actually looked down at his shirt, which was entirely red, and didn’t get the joke. He needs to rent the “Shaun of the Dead” DVD.
I’m definitely getting out there this week to get a cricket bat.
My second objective was to meet with Henry and give him some leather and instructions for the creation of a holster. My replica LeMat is a big-ass pistol and you can’t just buy a holster for it. At least, not the kind of holster I want. I could probably attempt to do it myself, but wouldn’t want to screw it up. Better to hand it off to someone who knows what he’s doing to get it right the first time. Henry had wanted to come to the con but was a bit broke so, as partial payment for his working on the holster and as an incentive for him to come into town and get the stuff, I paid his admission. I showed up at the con at 10am but he didn’t show up until about noon. It wasn’t a big deal, it took me that long to work my way through the artists alley and dealer’s room the first time.
A lot of people paid attention to my steampunk get up. Yes, it is a pretty good costume but I also think a lot of attention I receive is because I am the only steampunk there. There is a LiveJournal group for the promotion of steampunk here in Pittsburgh but it doesn’t have a lot of members or a lot of activity. I would think that a con would be a prime opportunity for such an outing but I also guess that my perspective is colored by my sci-fi con going, comic book reading background. Someone who came into steampunk through an artistic or fashion background might not even think about comic conventions.
One little Japanese girl had her picture taken with me and then said, “I like your costume a lot.”
“Thank you.”
“Will you give it to me?”
“You’re cute. But, not that cute.”
I had a radio/podcast interview with some sort of Harry Potter group and had the opportunity to exclaim that I thought magic was “Poppycock!” I was interviewed by the Southern California Paranormal Research Society and was disappointed that I couldn’t turn the conversation to the same phrase. It was a bit odd, though. They asked me about whether I had ever had any paranormal experiences and I admitted that, yes, in college I had a few experiences that one might attribute to ghostly or supernatural causes but I was unwilling to go beyond “I don’t know” as an explanation. They asked what sort of proof I would require to accept the paranormal and I cited multiple, independent scientific confirmations and actual physical evidence. Eyewitness accounts do not qualify. Then he asked me about what sort of morals I had.
I was a bit baffled and asked what exactly he meant by the question. He didn’t explain but essentially asked the same question over. I said that I though I had good morals. And then he asked if I knew any steampunks with bad morals. I didn’t like where he was going with the questioning so I said that I though steampunks had the same morals, good and bad, that everyone else has. He persisted and I supposed that, yes, I might know steampunks with bad morals but it’s not something that has come up.
I really wish I had the opportunity to yell “Poppycock!”
I saw Stan Lee as he quickly walked by on his way from signing a gazillion autographs.
‘nuff said.
One dealer there, Specter Studios, was a costume dealer. I saw in the corner of their booth that they had foam props, baseball bats, sledge hammers, lead pipes. I asked one of the guys there if, by chance, they had cricket bats. Mark, the owner, was ebullient exclaiming to his partner that this is why he wanted them to make cricket bats. Yes, they had cricket bats, but none at the con. Their shop is in Sharpsburg and he told me that if I came by the store before the end of the month, they would give me their con discounted pricing. I said that they should do the whole costume, white shirt, tie, name tag. I turned to Mark’s clueless partner and said “You’ve got a little red on you.” He actually looked down at his shirt, which was entirely red, and didn’t get the joke. He needs to rent the “Shaun of the Dead” DVD.
I’m definitely getting out there this week to get a cricket bat.
