You CAN con a con man!
by Noah Mason
March 29, 2006 

            The convention scene runs all year round, and among this season’s first conventions is MegaCon in sunny Orlando, FL. We started this year’s con tour with a journey down couth. MegaCon, based in the Orange County Convention Center, sports the most massive dealer’s room I have ever seen. This is also the most diverse convention I’ve attended, with more or less equal parts gaming, anime, comics, and artists. Based on the booths in the vendors’ room alone, I would say this was more of a comic book convention than anything else, with a healthy portion of the floor devoted to independent artists, but the other classic elements of nerd-dom were present in significant enough a portion to satisfy the diehard fans of any particular niche.

With me were my frequent traveling companions Joseph Valenti and Paul Brown, along with a few other friends. Ostensibly I was there to do interviews and research for this wonderful column, and Joe for business reasons, but in reality we all had our hands full manning the Nero International booth and answering the questions of the massive amount of con attendees. We were located directly across from the artists’ portion of the dealers’ hall, giving us a great view of the big posters and prints the various artists had on display. Much to Joe’s delight, we were also located within eyeshot of both the pretzel stand and the Haagan Daas ice cream stand.

The most popular gaming activity at the convention was the foam sword fighting competition being run by our good friend Jim Gasser of Barbarian Battles. Each day of the convention there was an organized tournament, with random sparring matches throughout the rest of the day. Although billed as “Foam Sword Fighting,” the Barbarian Battles product line is by no means confined to simple, straight-bladed weapons. They also sport a sizable array of axes, spears and pole weapons, and even their swords sport cross guards. These weapons are based on the bulky Amtgard/Dagorhir design and are fully compatible with those games. It is to Mr. Gasser’s credit that the aesthetic of his weapons suffers very little if at all from their large size. As the hundreds of fighting ring participants could attest to, the Barbarian Battles products maintain maximum safety without sacrificing any of the “cool factor” from wielding realistic looking swords and battle axes. Though MegaCon was the first convention he has attended in an official capacity with his company, Mr. Gasser was very pleased with his success, especially the enthusiasm of the attendees for the hobby.

Among the other interesting and entertaining events of the weekend were several panels and appearances by celebrities such as John Schneider of Dukes of Hazard and Smallville fame, as well as Marina Sirtis (Star Trek’s Diana Troy,) “The Crypt Keeper” John Kassir, “Space Ghost” George Lowe, and Troma Entertainment’s Lloyd Kaufman, as well as a variety of big names from the comic book industry. There was also a Star Wars themed costume contest which sported several quite fetching Twi-lek women and a multitude of Jedi, not to mention the ever-present 501^st Imperial Legion.

I was pleased to find out that our next-door neighbor was the creator of a short independent film based on The Punisher, which he submitted for the film festival and competition. I have always been an avid comic book fan, and The Punisher was always among my favorites, so I made it a point to sit down with Cory Sosner, the producer and star of the film, as I made my round of interviews. Mr. Sosner founded Get Me Out of Jersey Productions as a collaborative effort between fellow actors and other friends in the film industry essentially as an experiment to see if they could make a high quality film with a limited, almost nonexistent budget. I have a copy of First Round, and as anyone who been in my house for more than ten minutes can tell you, Sosner and company are off to an impressive start. With several undeniably Punisher-style gunfights, a brawl with Wolverine, and the scheming of both the Kingpin and Jigsaw all in less than fifteen minutes, I don’t see how you could go wrong.

There were a great many talented independent artists and comic book creators displaying and selling their work in the Artist Alley portion of the vendors’ hall. There were a couple artists I recognized from previous conventions around the country, but for the most part both the work and composers were new to me. Dozens of cartoonist sat poised in front of easels or sketchbooks resting on their laps, drawing both for commissions and for the sake of passing time. I had the opportunity to interview with two of, in my opinion, the best artists in the fantasy genre present.

First I spoke with Tracy Cornet, creator and proprietor of Fantastical Photography. Her dazzling pictures of faeries and other mythical creatures such as mermaids, unicorns, satyrs, and even a darkly unique rendition of Little Red Riding Hood drew the attention of everyone walking past her display. She is based locally in Orlando and has been selling her amazing photos and attending conventions for two years. Tracy has been known to play several different tabletop role-playing games and in the past has played the Mind’s Eye Theatre LARP based in White Wolf’s Vampire setting and is currently looking into playing Deleria, the modern faerie tales game.

Paul Vicenti, a creator and purveyor of oil paintings on canvas, was the second artist I interviewed. Although Mr. Vicenti works in many genres of painting including the more mainstream, he also does quite a bit of work in the areas of fantasy (particularly medieval fantasy,) horror, and most recently Greek mythology. His Lord of the Rings pieces immediately caught my attention, as well as some truly impressive dragons and other fantasy prints. The biggest draw for these conventions, for him, is the camaraderie shared by the attendees that comes from sharing some basic level of common ground. Although the major art shows and galleries may bring in more money, much like Ms. Cornett he enjoys the connection he gets at conventions by personally meeting the people who will take his work home.

Of course, several theatre style games were being run throughout the convention as well, including Paranoia and Call of Cthulhu. Several of their players stopped by our booth in the vendors’ hall and invited us to play, but unfortunately our own business had us far too busy to go visit.

All in all, MegaCon was a gas. Of course one would really have to go out of their way to not enjoy a weekend in Orlando in the middle of Pittsburgh’s bitter winter, but weather aside it was still a very enjoyable event. Look forward to another report from Florida in next spring’s issue!