DragonCon was magical, and I mean that literally. There’s always something special about that weekend, but this year it felt like there was some actual magic in the air. Beautiful things happened across all four days; some were comedic and many were touching, but all of them made for one of the most memorable DragonCons I’ve ever been a part of.
Telling each of the stories in full would make for a blog post too lengthy to read, so instead of going into detail I’ll sum up the magical moments of DragonCon with just enough ambiguity to maintain that magic.
I saw a cosplayer dressed as a character Garth drew for his sketch cards. That cosplayer saw Garth’s art. Then Garth saw her seeing it. The whole sequence of seeing was magical.
Garth got his first cosplayers of his original characters! He was over-the-moon. I was so happy for him.
A reader didn’t expect to see me at DragonCon and expressed what my comic meant to her through tear-filled eyes. Her loyal dog proceeded to lick her tears off her face. What a good boy.
I reunited with my first-ever table neighbors from the very first Anime Boston from over twenty years ago. They hadn’t aged a day.
Two separate attendees bought a set of every book collection on my table.
The Macho Man had me covered for a plant-based version of “Snap into a Slim Jim!”
My badge ribbon train became the biggest I’d ever collected since coming to DragonCon thanks to my need to shout “For those who come after!” at every Expedition 33 cosplayer I saw.
Someone bought a set of books off my table for a complete stranger after becoming inspired by my talk about the magic of DragonCon. They wanted to create a magic moment of their own for someone.
A shitty A.I. bro that scammed his way into the Artist Alley and got his ass booted out. I’m sad that it took until the last day for it to happen, but attendees and the internet alike rallied around the news of his forced departure, and that made my soul sing.
The weekend began and ended with a magic of its own. As much as I look forward to DragonCon itself, I’ve come to look forward to my road trip to-and-from the convention with Garth. We may not be partners in comics any more, but we are excellent road trip companions and our drives are always entertaining. We somehow manage to make a ten-hour trip feel like it’s flown by, and that is a rare thing even among the closest of friends.
There really was magic at DragonCon this year. Here’s hoping for many more.