I got back from DragonCon Sunday night.
DragonCon is like Mardi Gras for nerds… So it is Nerdi Gras, only bigger and more awesome. There isn’t anything else quite like DragonCon. Cram 45,000 official guests into 4 hotels in downtown Atlanta. That’s official purchased a ticket types. I don’t know how many thousand others just showed up and crashed the party. I’m guessing a lot.
Then figure a quarter of those are in costume, some of which are damn impressive. I’m talking, holy crap that is cool type of impressive.
You can say, “what kind of costumes?” All of them. Seriously, think of something that was in a movie, game, TV show, comic book, novel, or cartoon, and there was somebody dressed as that. And then sometimes a combination of two or more of those things.
And after dark, it was that, only in a g-string or pasties. You wouldn’t think that someone could pull off Colonial Space Marine in a g-string, but yes, it can be done. (uniform standards have changed a bit since my time in the Colonial Space Marines, I’ll tell you what)
I took 200 pictures over three days. Most of which didn’t turn out that good because I was using my camera phone. All of those photos were taken during my brief lulls of downtime while running from event to panel to event, so there were tons of others that I didn’t have a chance. And sorry guys, I didn’t take pictures of any of the slutty costumes, because I planned on showing all of these to my kids when I got back… And believe me, DragonCon costumes after dark are not like DragonCon costumes during the day. The day is PG-13. Night is in accordance with the minimum public decency law standards of the city of Atlanta… Mostly.
I did several panels, a couple signings, a reading, some parties, some dinners, some lunches, a brunch, general schmoozing, and assorted stuff. It was a very busy weekend. I was on 10:00 PM panels two nights in a row, and a few spread out throughout the day. I was on one panel with Laurel K. Hamilton and Sherilyn Kenyon with about 500 people in the audience. Obviously, most of them weren’t there for me. I got to meet a ton of other authors for the first time, some of whom I was already a fan of, like Jonathan Mayberry. (I think my readers would like his Joe Ledger books).
We did a Monster Hunter Nation flash mob on Saturday. Me and the Baen staff were handing out bright green MHI hats at all of my events and inside was a set of instructions on where to meet. (no, we didn’t sing or dance, I don’t think my fan base are the dancing types). We congregated in the lobby of the Marriott, and I used my range officer voice to get everyone’s attention over the hum of 10,000 people. I’ve still got it. (and apparently, my range officer voice saying MONSTER HUNTER NATION ASSEMBLE got all of the security guard’s attention too). Then we all put our hats on, took pictures, and handed out ads for MHI. Considering that I was competing for attention against sexy ninjas with laser whips, I’d say we got a pretty darn good turnout.
Thanks to Speaker to Lab Animals for his donation of a hotel room to serve as the Baen Barfly area. I got to hang out with John Ringo and talk about our upcoming collaboration. I’m really excited for this one, especially after John brought up some of the new supporting character ideas. We are going to get our kung-fu on and punch some giant ants to death, because my life is awesome.
DragonCon is now my favorite Con.
Entirely awesome … someday … someday … I keep promising myself.
When you said “There are fewer of them every year” are you referring to women at nerd conventions? That’s always been a problem. 🙁
Dude, you have no idea. There were more beautiful women in one spot than anything you can think of. Spring Break in Florida and Mardi Gras got nothing on DragonCon.
And you had dinner at the meat faucet.
Yes. I’m guessing I ate 4 pounds of meat in one sitting.
Regarding the “beats me, looked nifty while walking:”
It’s an alien race from the Warhammer 40k tabletop miniatures game called the Tau.
Or at least that’s what some nerd told me.
And looks like a candidate for the Carl Gustav….
Or whatever ACME Labs gizmo Milo can come up with.
My brother has the computer version of that game, and that looks like one of their units.
It’s a Tau Broadside Battlesuit. Warhammer 40K for life.
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1060320&_requestid=849474
I prefer the Forge World XV-88-2 variant myself.
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Tau/TAU-BATTLESUITS-AND-DRONES/XV88-2-BROADSIDE-WITH-SMART-MISSILE-SYSTEM.html
Upcoming collaboration with Ringo? Oy! You’re going to keep us busy making Amazon pre-orders, aren’t you?
I too cannot wait to see what collaborative madness springs from the twisted minds of Correia and Ringo, together again for the first time. Or something like that… 😉
…Concur with Jonathan Maberry. His Joe Ledger series is awesome – the first installment, “Patient Zero” reads like “24” with (horrifically plausible) biowarfare-created zombies – and he also wrote a very good straight-horror series, the “Ghost Road Blues” novels.
Homeland Insecurity must have been crapping their pants with all those extremest uniformed wackos running loose. 🙂
By the way I want the Combat Wombat Personnel Carrier.
Heh have to chip in. That yellow thing is a Broadside Battlesuit from the Warhammer 40k universe. I know because I own 9 miniatures that look a lot like that yellow costume.
There are different different types of nerds. 😀
Who would have thought you could put together a costume out of nothing but a g string an about 10″ of electrical tape.
I’ve heard that they have never yet equaled the ‘simulated’ sex show at the White Wolf party that spontaneously changed into an orgy due to extensive unplanned audience participation. That was early 90s?
heh…I’d have said the yellow thing looked a little like a transformer myself. 😛 That being said…reading some of the books I’m coming to love the Warhammer 40k universe
Larry, you need to see about collaborating with Jonathan Maberry. He needs a wee bit of assistance with his weaponology and tech.
Next year baby, next year.
Looks to have been a right proper fun time for all!
Larry, I must say I had a blast getting to meet you and loved the panels you did, and the reading. I posted more about my experiences so everyone can get to know you a little better here: http://lagomorphflix.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/larry-correia-at-dragoncon-it-was-good/