By: Laura Inglis
Awesome Con returned to Washington DC on April 26-28 for year seven. In some ways it’s your typical comic con with gaming, an exhibit floor, cosplayers, celebrity guests and panels. However, there are a few things that make it unique.
A section of the exhibit hall floor is dedicated to Awesome Con Jr, an area with activities geared towards the younger kids such as how to draw, creating superheroes and appearances by costumed characters like Captain Planet and Pikachu.
Another section is Future Con. With Awesome Con being in DC, NASA not only has panels but has several tables on the exhibit floor where you can find out about robotics, the latest on the space program, life on other planets and much more. The science fiction conventions in the area also have panel discussions lead by NASA scientists, but Awesome Con is the only one I’m aware of where they also have booths and some interactive displays. Did I mention the CIA also has a recruiting table? There area plenty of “non-spy” jobs and this year there was even a panel on librarians at the CIA.
Awesome Con also has an area called The Backlot. What’s in this area changes each year. They’ve had props/costumes from the Marvel movies as well as Star Wars props and costumes. This year it celebrated Batman’s 80th anniversary and there were a variety of costumes and props on hand as well as comic books.
In terms of size, you can probably fit two Star Wars Celebration exhibit halls into Awesome Con’s exhibit hall space. Much of that space is open, which gives people room to take photos of cosplayers without blocking someones table or a walkway. While conventions in general require a lot of walking, the walk from the vendors area to the autograph area seems really long at Awesome Con. Keep in mind that programming, similar to Celebration, is on separate floors.
Last year, Awesome Con had a really good lineup of Star Wars guests – John Boyega at his first (and I think only) convention and Joonas Suotamo. This year’s Star Wars guests included Greg Grunberg, Jason Isaacs, Greg Cipes, Phil LeMar (who is the only guest to have been there all seven years) and authors Timothy Zahn and Charles Soule. Artists alley also had creators who’ve worked on Star Wars projects including Cat Staggs.
I went on Friday as I knew that would be the best day to get autographs as many people are working so it tends to be the less crowded day. Greg Grunberg was only $40 for a signature. This goes back t so a point several people in the Facebook page made, autograph prices at Celebration tend to be more than at other conventions. Of course Celebration also has everyone at one event so you can think of it as paying extra for the convenience. I am a big fan of animation art so I picked up an autograph from Greg Cipes (Teen Titans Beast Boy, Zat from Clone Wars and Michelangelo in TMNT among other roles).
All in all it was a fun convention that continues to improve each year. It’s also fairly easy to get to if you’re in the MD/DC/VA area as the convention center has a metro stop.
You can visit Awesome Con’s website HERE and follow their social media accounts on FACEBOOK, TWITTER and INSTAGRAM.
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