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Dragon*Con: ‘The Joker’ and other sightings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jason is a proud “Trekkie” and Dragon*Con fan. He started watching “Star Trek” at four. His earliest memories are of Captain Kirk, phasers and green Orion slave girls. And, at seven, he watched “Star Wars” 19 times in one summer. “I was awed by the power and possibilities of the human imagination,” he said. His otherworldly interests include comic books, of which he has more than 4,000 spread over two states. He’s a graduate of Riverdale High School and Northwestern University’s School of Communication. After Northwestern, he moved to L.A. to start a film and television career. There, he worked as a writer’s production assistant on “Roswell” and other shows. Although back in Atlanta, Jason has worked as a writer and creative consultant on the non-fiction series “The Universe” for The History Channel. He hopes to move back to L.A. (another world to some) to create his own fantastic universe.
When you walk into a hotel lobby and the first people you see are Batman, the Spider-Man villianess the Black Cat and a dude spray-painted green to look like The Hulk, you know you’ve wandered off the beaten path.
If you are a mere mortal cruising down Peachtree Street, no doubt you do a few double takes. These folks are obviously not here for the Alabama-Clemson game.
But it’s a typical day like at Dragon*Con, which draws a multi-genre mix of sci-fi, fantasy and gaming fans. I ran into about a dozen Jokers from “The Dark Knight,” most obviously inspired by the late Heath Ledger’s take on Batman’s nemesis. Many Con-goers were walking around with real swords or battle axes looking like they were armed for medieval combat in downtown Atlanta.
The Con had everything from a space devoted exclusively to horror writer H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos to a stall specializing in imported Japanese video games (with Japanese packaging so it was kind of hard to tell what they were about) was open for business and being perused by eager fans. I was able to snag a 5-foot long carbon steel Batman sword that I had been looking searching for for three years.
Costume shops were a mainstay, with corsets being a popular item. And even Dragon*Con can’t escape politics. I saw several people sporting T-shirt featuring presidential candidate Barack Obama ripping open his suit a la Superman to reveal a stylized “O” underneath.
If you’re at Dragon*Con or just walking around downtown, what’s the best costume you’ve seen so far? As I walked around downtown I saw a number of Clemson and Alabama fans decked out in the schools’ colors. So, I just have to ask: Who’s more fanatical - the diehard football faithful who paint their faces every weekend in the fall or hardcore sci-fi/fantasy followers who go all out and dress up once a year?
Comments
By Fictional
August 30, 2008 2:55 PM | Link to this
Great title — all 3 are fictional, no substance characters who depend on others for their dialogue and actions…..
By isis
August 30, 2008 3:24 PM | Link to this
I don’t know the names, but I saw a whole bunch of women with a whole lot of cleavage. OOO! A lot of Wonder Women…
By rowdyguy
August 30, 2008 3:26 PM | Link to this
I’ll take a caped crusader any day. The convention has been pretty good. Not as many costume as I’m used to seeing but i figure the economy kept a lot of people away. But rock on, fans. Why take life so seriously. and fictional. chill out.
By Ronda
August 30, 2008 4:26 PM | Link to this
There goes another obama hater. I guess having 2 Ivy league degrees means you have no depth. I’m sure Obama has more in 2 brains cells than you have in your whole head.
By Chaz
August 30, 2008 4:33 PM | Link to this
Well, duh. Fantasy lovers would, naturally, looove Obama.
By Dan
August 30, 2008 4:40 PM | Link to this
Ronda clearly views comic books as literature. The irony is she is probably correct in assessing the big O’s intelligence. What she doesn’t get is his reliance, or even better the intentional exploitation of the public ignorance Drinking the cool aid, can you say Jonestown.
By JB StoneyWallJackson
August 30, 2008 7:25 PM | Link to this
Hey George Bush graduated from 2 Ivy league schools and has a MBA also Ronda. Liberals spew hate at him and consider him dumb even thought he few fighter planes so the rift is coming back at ya.
By Jason Coffee
August 30, 2008 10:41 PM | Link to this
Ahhh, looks like I went to Dragon*Con and the Democratic National Convention broke out. The T-Shirts were based on the paintings of Alex Ross, one of the definitive Superman artists, and I think they were just an artistic statement rather than a political one. But, this isn’t that ill advised “DC Decisions” mini-series (Superman: Red or Blue? Seriously?) so we can save the political debates for Super Tuesday, and debate super hero comics instead.
At the Marvel Vs. DC Jeopardy panel, which had its share of technical issues but was still fun overall, the moderator brought up the current “Secret Invasion” Marvel Blockbuster Event. While his main complaint was that he was still waiting for the war to start and for the characters to stop wondering who was shape-shifting alien skrull or not, I have a different problem with the crossover. I think the point is, this isn’t a war, it’s an invasion, and it’s already over. The Skrulls have already won. We’re just trying to fight back. My main problem is, the books are too talky, with pages and pages of dialogue, punctuated by that brief, incoherent nonsense Brian Michael Bendis likes to call “action”. This is a problem with all of the tie-in books he’s writing, and my problem with his writing style overall. He should really by writing TV, not comics.
By Jason Coffee
August 30, 2008 10:45 PM | Link to this
Ahhh, looks like I went to Dragon*Con and the Democratic National Convention broke out. The T-Shirts were based on the paintings of Alex Ross, one of the definitive Superman artists, and I think they were just an artistic statement rather than a political one. But, this isn’t that ill advised “DC Decisions” mini-series (Superman: Red or Blue? Seriously?) so we can save the political debates for Super Tuesday, and debate super hero comics instead.
At the Marvel Vs. DC Jeopardy panel, which had its share of technical issues but was still fun overall, the moderator brought up the current “Secret Invasion” Marvel Blockbuster Event. While his main complaint was that he was still waiting for the war to start and for the characters to stop wondering who was shape-shifting alien skrull or not, I have a different problem with the crossover. I think the point is, this isn’t a war, it’s an invasion, and it’s already over. The Skrulls have already won. We’re just trying to fight back. My main problem is, the books are too talky, with pages and pages of dialogue, punctuated by that brief, incoherent nonsense Brian Michael Bendis likes to call “action”. This is a problem with all of the tie-in books he’s writing, and my problem with his writing style overall. He should really by writing TV, not comics.
By Jason Coffee
August 30, 2008 10:49 PM | Link to this
Double Post. Drat.