Pop Break Live: Awesome Con 2018 in Washington, D.C.
Words & Photos by Josh B. Taylor
This past holiday weekend, I attended Awesome Con, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The only conventions I’ve attended were the horror/monster conventions like Horrorfind Weekend, Monster-Mania, and Chiller Theatre, so this was exciting to attend my first comic con.
The only question is, does Awesome Con live up to it’s name?
When I first walked in, and got settled in the convention center, it was a bit congested to enter. Once they checked my book bag, and I got a program, to look at the map layout, it wasn’t as congested as I thought it would be. I purchased an autograph ticket before hand for Rider Strong, so he could sign my Cabin Fever poster. His line looked a bit long, but as soon as I got there, I was in and out of his line within ten minutes, and he couldn’t be any nicer.
Also attended several question answer seminars, like Count Gore DeVol, John Boyega, and Michael Rooker. They were amazing, and a lot of great questions asked by fans that attended them. I was fortunate to ask Michael about his fondest memories of George Romero’s The Dark Half, and he said filming with all of the sparrows at the end of the film. He was amazed with how the crew managed the birds for the film and final scene with them, and joked about how much of a mess they made after the shoot.
Walking around the show, there were a lot of incredible costumes that fans put together, and wore for the weekend. Some of my favorites were BobPool (Deadpool as Bob Ross), Walter and the dude from The Big Lebowski, Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers, etc.
As I took their photos, I asked them how long it took them to get their costumes together. Some said within the week of the show, and others said a month or two. It was amazing with all they did to put their costumes together, where it might put some costume designer’s for film productions to shame. There were arcade and board game rooms for people to play and try out, and many vendors that sold a lot of amazing items this weekend.
To answer the question in the beginning of this review, does Awesome Con live up to it’s name? Yes, yes it does live up to the name.
Awesome Con was an awesome convention to attend, and I strongly suggest to try and stay for the weekend, or two days. There were so many panels, guests, and vendors to see that it would be hard to check all of that out in one day.
The show was better handled than most of the shows I regularly attend, so after experiencing Awesome Con this weekend, I will make it to next year’s show!
