This weekend Garth and I will reunite behind a convention table as we exhibit together at AwesomeCon! We’ve been lucky enough to be able to attend this show for many years, though thanks to the pandemic not all of them have been consecutive. Regardless of when we’re there, it’s always a fun time when we are.
AwesomeCon is one of those conventions that has managed to retain its soul and its character despite it growing large enough to attract A-list celebrities. I’ve done shows that have lots of celebrity autograph opportunities and they’ve felt soulless and corporate. AwesomeCon has an atmosphere and a crowd that is not only eager to meet pop culture figures, but is hungry for comics both established and new.
On a personal note, I also get the chance to reconnect with several other friends of mine down in the DC area. If they’re available, that is. Or I have the energy to be social. Conventions are fun but they’re still a lot of work, and by the end of a day my Social Battery runs the risk of being severely drained. But I always cross my fingers that I’ll see our mutual friends, or in one case reconnect with someone I hadn’t seen in over twenty years. That was a good AwesomeCon.
This year, however, I may have bitten off a bit more than I could chew. The day I leave for AwesomeCon I’m also chaperoning my second-grader’s field trip to a science museum. It’s going to be tight getting to the train station in time. On top of that, my workload leading up to a convention weekend is higher than usual thanks once again to parenting responsibilities around my son’s school, trying to complete commissions from the recent Kickstarter campaign, and needing to do my usual monthly pictures and comic for my Patreon patrons. The only solution I’ve come to is to do work on the train ride, there and back again. Whee.
Workload aside, I’m still very excited to return to AwesomeCon this weekend. I’m eager to see Garth again, I’m excited to be among that crowd again, I’m hopeful that I’ll get to reconnect with old friends again, and I hope you can come see us at this thrilling and memorable show.