#cons were also where geeks went to *mate*

[epoxyconfetti]

Every thing Miz Haldeman says is true.

<start Walter Brennan/Old Time Prospector voice>

In the days before the internet, fandom and conventions were where geeks got to meet. Sometimes going to the nearest convention, hours away, was the only time in a given year that sci-fi and fantasy fans got to talk with like-minded folks for a year at a time.

<end voice>

I went to Balticon a few weeks back, and got to see Seanan McGuire, C.J. Cherryh, David Gerrold and a host of other creators I admire. I ran into a pair of friends that I met at a con in 1984, and we spent the rest of the day catching up, programming schedule be damned.

But it seems to me that the populations of regular sci-fi cons are aging. When I went as a kid, sure there were folks in their 50s and 60s, but there was also a huge amount of people my age, and everything in between. Now, the kids are fewer, and most of the younger people there seemed to be with their parents.

I don't know if I'll go to too many cons again. My wife hates them, won't go with me anymore, and hates if I go alone. I have a "some day" date with my college friend to go to Dragon*Con, which takes place in Atlanta near her current home. But we've been saying that for decades.

But I miss cons, and I'll be sad if they fade away.

[cosplayinamerica]

In 2014 I traveled around the United States photographing cosplayers in various cities. I spent a week in Nashville checking out the local scene and visiting around seven cosplayers. Pepper was one of them.

Hi Pepper, it’s been a long time since we spoke, why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself ?

I started out just being that shy weird redhead in middle school who loved anime and dressed weird, but as I grew and continued to watch anime and got into other shows one of my friends told me there was an anime convention in town called MTAC and asked if I wanted to go.

We only went for the day, but that was my first time ever seeing cosplay. It was back when you couldn’t find good wigs or patterns, and you just had to make it up as you went, but I absolutely fell in love with it and decided that I would do that too.

I definitely didn’t know that 18 years later I would still be doing it and still love it just as much.

So in 2014, I was in Nashville and you were kind enough to invite me to photograph some behind the scenes at your place. Tell me what you were working on ?

I was working on a Vaporeon dress for MTAC that year. Not for a group, but just because I love Vaporeon and was inspired by all of the Pokemon gijinka cosplays I had started to see pop up.  I believe I had just left college and moved back home to Nashville. I didn’t have any kind of plan for what I wanted to do yet so I was just going with the flow. I remember I had a terrible job that I hated back then so cosplay and sewing was a great outlet for me. MTAC was something that I looked forward to every year. It was my home con, and that’s where I made a lot of new friends and created a new con family.

Well, six years passed and it seems the world has changed. How has your experience in cosplay changed over time and what have you noticed different in the overall cosplay scene between say 2014 and 2019.

I feel like the con scene has exploded in popularity in the last 6 years. What used to be considered dorky and “uncool” is now looked at as amazing and super awesome which I’m definitely okay with. I love that our con culture is getting bigger and more accepted as “normal” society. But with the good also comes the bad. I feel that 6 years ago cosplayers were more open to complimenting each other on their work, and encouraging each other to do costumes. I remember being given tips and tricks openly and freely from cosplayers who had way more experience in sewing and crafting than I did.

Today I feel like some cosplayers don’t want to see others succeed. A lot of people are still very open and encouraging and welcoming to the cosplay scene, but there are a lot of “elitists” out there that think you shouldn’t cosplay a character just because you don’t look like a character, or don’t have the same body type, skin color, or maybe even mobility or because you have a lot of tattoos, and I hate that.

I truly believe cosplay is for EVERYONE who wants to do it. We don’t own the characters, but we love them. Every time you cosplay as someone from your favorite show (be it anime, comics, movies, books etc) it’s because you formed a bond with that character. It drives you to do the best you can with your skills and I think putting a costume that you worked on or bought and walking around a con is brave and should be something that everyone is allowed and welcome to do. Remember at the end of the day we’re all just geeks in costumes having fun!

In your time doing cosplay, what would you say is your greatest achievement ?

It would definitely be at DragonCon 2017, when I was chosen to cosplay as Gwen Stacey from Spiderman and ride in the DragonCon parade with Stan Lee as the Grand Marshall. It was the most spectacular moment of my life. I had never been able to meet him before, and I can’t believe how incredibly lucky I was to sit next to him for the whole parade. He was so sweet, and also super hilarious. He talked to me and my contest mate (Ginger Oh Snap as MJ) the whole time like we were people he just hadn’t seen in a while. I’ll never ever forget it. I will definitely never be able to thank everyone who voted for me to win that contest enough

What’s your greatest struggle now (cosplay or life-wise)

Well I guess just right now the struggle is not being able to see my con family because of the pandemic. I probably won’t get to see them until next year and I don’t think I’ve gone a whole year in the last 10 years without seeing them at least once. At the beginning of all of this I was getting very depressed with all the cancellations (though for good reasons) but, life wise I’ve been doing a lot of online stuff with my cosplay between Instagram, Facebook, and creating an Only Fans page with my best friend. It’s been a great way to have a place to show off the costumes we won’t get to wear out this year, and just get my creative juices flowing again.

Now with so many years of experience, what advice would you give your younger self about cosplay, cosplay scene or convention life ?

I would definitely tell myself not to take it too seriously. You don’t have to make every single thing for your cosplay. People aren’t going to call you out for not being 100% made from scratch. Don’t stress out that you can’t find the right fabric or the right wig. Don’t even think about not doing a costume just because someone else has done it really well and you think yours won’t look as good. And if anyone does call you out for having bought your costume online don’t take it to heart, because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. As long as you feel great wearing your cosplay and are having fun that is really all that matters.

[wolfsrainrules]

Could you rate your top five fandoms that you want to write for but haven't? And maybe your favorite headcannons for some?

WHY DIDNT I GET THE ALERT FOR THIS????? SORRY.

Hmmm…..This is a good one. Five fandoms I want to write for but haven’t….

1. One Piece 2.Yu Yu Hakusho 3. Percy Jackson (Book)4. Marvel Cinematic Verse as a whole really (I know I have like one thing over on FanFic for it, but I need to do more/write more/finish that)5. Supernatural (TV Series)

They’re not in any particular order, but these are five fandoms I would like to add to. 

 Edit- added about two secs after I posted it when I reread the ask- YOU ASKED FOR RATINGS SORRY- I’m gonna use the numbers next to the fandom for from first to last (4, 1, 2, 3, and then 5)

And headcanons for them:1. -Luffy is street smart rather then book, obviously. Not very good with math or anything he has to sit down and think about right? Well I like to think that the exception to this is math. Not in a conventional sense of course, but in a ‘hey Luffy I need you to hit this thing’ he could do it.It’s not that he could sit down and solve the thing, but that if asked he could figure out exactly how to set up A Thing and make it happen. Hitting a target, sling-shot a crew mate onto a tiny target with no room for error for a far distance, take out a group of 20 with no line of sight, and obstacles in the way in bad lighting without use of Haki?

Totally doable. 

-Chopper has no sense of shame when it comes to things that would usually embarrass a human to talk about. (Periods, attraction, certain habits, scents whatever) none of it bothers him. Partly due to being a reindeer with the enhanced senses to tell and mostly becuase He’s just super curious and will literally talk about whatever with whoever will sit down to chat to him

-Speaking of that last one, Robin is Chopper’s best source of info on things like that, she doesn’t mind teaching about it

-Due to his sense of smell, Chopper always knows when the women’s ‘cycles’ are coming up and he makes a point to let Sanji know so he can cook more iron/protein rich foods, and have a stash of chocolate ready to hand out

-Luffy is actually really good about having chocolate on his person for these times of the month, and makes a point to hand it out to the girls. When questioned, he just shrugs and mentions Makino and Dadan

2. -After Yusuke ‘awakens’ he has to deal with a sudden onset of pack related instincts

-They are intense and unexpected and this ups the fear factor when dealing with Yusuke by a ton when it comes to people messing with those Yusuke considers ‘his’

-Yusuke purrs when content and relaxed around any of his ‘pack’ and will murder anyone who says anything fight him 

-He also purrs to comfort distressed packmates. He doesn’t even think about it

-The purring thing is actually a demon thing and will in fact set Hiei and Kurama off. It’s the most relaxed Yusuke has ever been (also the safest he’s ever felt but will never ever say this)

-Yusuke becomes very touch oriented with everyone in his ‘pack’ and doesn’t notice it- it has something to do with ‘scent marking’ them as one of his.

-Hiei is intensely flattered about this, not that he’d ever say, due to his heritage making him such an outcast before. This also makes him very, very protective of his little pack

-If his sister had to pick anyone to be with, he….supposed it was better to be one of the pack rather than a fool stranger. At least he knows Kuwabara would literally fight whoever he had to for her. That’s more than most of the human’s he’s ever seen

-He is also aware that Yukina would like that Kuwabara is going into the medical field 

3. (to start with very behind in this fandom. I read the first collection of books as they came out and Son of Neptune but BEHIND OTHERWISE SORRY)

-the demigods have  a habit when out in groups of friends when they want to talk to each other about ‘Camp’ stuff or otherwise things that regular humans couldn’t hear, of talking to each other in greek

-passing notes to each other when out in ‘public’ is also done in greek. It makes the looks on people’s faces when they see it really funny

-Annabeth has what is fondly referred to by Grover as ‘Percy Senses’. She always knows when Percy is doing something Stupid without her.

-After Tartarus Percy sometimes has days where he just needs fight something. Not because he wants to fight, but because these new instincts of his are too much and if he doesn’t do something with them soon he’s going to go mad.

-The gods as a whole live in fear of Sally Jackson, who has and Will Do So Again, gotten up in their faces and lectured them before.

-Poseidon has never been so proud- even when she lectured him

-Percy and Annabeth are the only people that can calm each other down from flashbacks without getting attacked for it while the other is still caught in the flashback

-Percy totally and completely has accidentally proposed to Annabeth with an apple (as far as she is aware) but Percy did in fact know the history behind the apple and tossed it to her on purpose in front of the entire camp.4. -Tony Stark is a very ‘in your face’ celebrity- everyone knows this. He makes a point to make them do so. He never says a word about the millions he donates to things like children hospitals, or the time he went around for a month and revamped a selection of orphanages entirely.

-He likes to make stops in children hospitals as Iron Man, and will take other super heroes with him whenever he can swing it. (usually without telling the hero in question that’s what he’s doing until they’ve arrived)

-Hulk is actually the children’s favorite Avenger. He’s entirely gentle with them, and will go out of his way to protect them whenever they get swept up in villain messes

-Tony has a five min video in which Hulk plays with the kids- lets them use him like a jungle gym, tosses and catches them, takes them ‘flying’ via long jumps, or lets them ride on his shoulders

-After Tony has time to calm down from the Winter Soldier Assassination thing, he begins to associate the ‘brainwash a personal assassin of our own’ thing with his capture via Ten Rings, and goes out of his way to make sure Bucky gets the help he needs (why do you think no one caught on to Bucky moving around so long on his own followed by the move to Wakanda? No matter how good he was, someone would have seen something right?)

-Tony finds he does in fact get along with Bucky surprisingly well after the help. They get into a prank war. It’s a mess. It ends when Tasha gets caught up in it and decides she’s gonna end this one way or another. While in the ‘dog house’ so to speak the two bond over burgers and milkshakes in an old fashioned diner5. -Sam knows Dean is a Nerd, despite not admitting to it, and will always get Dean some kind of fandom related present for holidays/birthdays where he can manage it

-One year, Sam managed to swing Comic Con tickets and didn’t tell Dean they were going, only that they had a ‘hunt’ in the area. Dean screamed when he saw the tickets.

Like a little girl. 

Sam has it recorded.

-Cas was brought along to this, and Dean spent the entire time geeking out and introducing Cas to as much famdom and pop culture reffs as he could fit into the entire con

-Sam spent the entire time taking pictures and recording things. Best money he’s ever spent even if their last names were faked (like hell he wasn’t letting Dean get his autographs signed to Dean)

-Sam is actually a really, really good artist and draws fanart for some of Dean’s famdoms as well as the few that he liked (Star Trek and Doctor Who were favorites of Sam’s actually) and he sells some of it for easy money where he can

-Dean has no idea that a few of the really nice pieces of fanart he’s flipped out over were done by Sam. Sam is both intensely flattered and embarrassed by this

-Cas is the one to tell Dean, since he saw Sam drawing some of them.

Dean screamed.

Again.

[anoverseasadventure]

Sevilla, España- home ❤️

PSA: This post will contain a lot of "my favorite this and my favorite that" and it may get repetitive. But Sevilla has my heart and I had so many favorite things to do and places to eat and of course I had to visit them again. After two trains and a lot of anticipation we got into Sevilla in the early afternoon. We found our hostel easily, checked in, and set out to explore. I was BEAMING with pure joy and excitement to be back in my home. Everything was just as I had remembered and I did not even need to use google maps to get around. Our hostel is located close to my favorite market near the river which also happens to be next to the best churro stand in all of Sevilla. We headed there first and ate our churros con chocolate near the river with a great view of the Triana bridge. From there we headed down toward my school which was unfortunately closed, and then to avenida constitución to hit the cathedral. We waited in a short line to head inside. The cathedral was just as large and beautiful as I remembered as well. However it was much more crowded as it's peak tourist season. But we're running into that everywhere, Europe is crawling with tourists. After walking around the cathedral and climbing the Giralda we walked toward metropol parisol, and although the market under the parisol was closed, there was a small open air market next to it that we wandered around for a bit before heading up to the top of la cenas where we enjoyed free beers and a good view. From there we went down one of my favorite streets with the best dang cookies I've ever had in my life. We got a half dozen and walked around munchin and shopping. Walking towards where I used to live, we hit the alameda. Here we got the best mojitos in the world and they're still just €3 ❤️ With a few mojitos in us we headed out in search of dinner. Wanting a large greasy meal we opted out of typical Spanish food and hit the good burger, one of my favorite Spanish chains. Unfortunately they upped their Sunday prices but everything was just as good as I remembered- better even and we devoured them. After sitting on the free wifi for a bit, we pulled a local move and hit a corner chino for €1,50 forties of cruzcampo and botellóned by the river with a gorgeous view. The first day back home was amazing and by our second day I was already sad about leaving so soon. But we ventured out to continue to see the beautiful city. First we hit my school which was open! Things seemed a little quiet, but it was a random Holliday week in Seville so it was expected. I did see a few professors I knew and got to show the girls where I used to hang, and take class. It was a little surreal to be back there. Leaving, we walked to my favorite bakery I would hit between class and much to my surprise it had doubled in size! Pan y piú has expanded and I was so proud of them! Their pastries were still amazing so of course we each got a few. After breakfast we grabbed some supplies from the hostel before adventuring on. First we walked up toro de oro, walked through the university of Sevilla, gazed at the beauty of plaza de España and the Maria Luisa park and finally found ourselves in barrio Santa Cruz. This neighborhood was just as convoluted and twisty as I had remembered and we got lost immediately. After wandering around in and out of shops for an hour we found ourselves a Tapas place. After having our fill of tiny bites I took them to my favorite spot on all of Sevilla: The alcazar. Unfortunately, do to a meeting with my Spanish mama that evening we did not have much time to spend here, which was a shame because I could've easily spent 3 hours wandering around and I've been there more times than I can count. But I did my best to show them the highlights of the Islamic palace, focusing on the gardens because wow they're the best. A few amazing things happened that afternoon. First, it must be peacock mating season because one of the many peacocks that roam the ground was fully fluffed and cocked (sorry I don't know the proper terminology for this) but he was BEAUTIFUL. All the times I've wandered the grounds and hung out with those birds I've never seen one fully expand their feathers and it was gorgeous. Second, as some of you may know, the alcazar doubles as the water gardens of Dorne in game of thrones. While there we ran into a woman dressed as Deanerys Targarian (complete with baby dragon). Of course I completely geeked out and got some pictures with her and it was real rad. We left the gardens, running a little behind schedule, and went to the apartment I used to live in to visit my mom. I was SO excited to see her, and when we got there she was so happy to see me too! She look gorgeous per usual and had grown her hair out. She was skipping one of her dance classes for me so I felt really honored ✨ we chatted for a while, completely in Spanish and she even complimented me saying my Spanish skills had improved (no clue how considering I rarely use them). Eventually we had to leave and head back to the hostel and I was honestly so sad to have to say goodbye to her again but she assured me we would meet again one day. That night we went to my favorite tapas bar for dinner and I ordered all of favorite foods. Then we went to the international beer house, tried to see some flamenco, hit dilemma again for mojitos, and finally went home for a good nights sleep. Not going to lie I definitely teared up leaving Seville. It seemed like a tease to return back to my home away from home for only a short two days, but it reaffirmed my love for the small city in the south of Spain. I know I'm going back one day and next time I'm bringing my parents. It makes me sad to know that they've never been to my favorite city in the whole world and it's because of them that I was able to go in the first place. Pack your bags mom and dad let's plan our next trip :) Next stop: Madrid !!

[aion-rsa]

American Gods Season 2 Hopes to Move Past Behind-The-Scenes Drama

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Neil Gaiman and the cast open up about the many changes the American Gods Season 2 production has faced during NYCC.

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Interview

Books

Andrew Husband

American Gods

Oct 15, 2018

American Gods Season 2

Starz

Neil Gaiman

NYCC

NYCC 2018

While executive producer Neil Gaiman may have grandiose plans for three more seasons of American Gods at Starz, the television adaptation of his 2001 fantasy novel has endured a great deal of seemingly divine intervention since airing its first season last year.

Showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green exited the show after the pair had reportedly completed about half of the season two scripts. Cast members Gillian Anderson and Kristin Chenoweth subsequently left, and after stepping in as the new showrunner for a time, Jesse Alexander was asked to leave the series. Gaiman, who was already spearheading Amazon’s adaptation of his and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens, stepped in to salvage things.

Despite all of this, American Gods showed up at the 2018 New York Comic Con with Gaiman and the cast to promote its return in 2019. (Ian McShane was not in attendance because, as Gaiman explained, he was busy “zapping kidney stones that he will be pissing out.”) They debuted the first trailer for the new season and, among other things, confirmed which sections of the book would be adapted for its current storyline.

Aside from an allusive comment Gaiman made about the cast’s “not compromising” during the second season’s production, however, very little was said about the showrunner shuffle at the American Gods panel.

Pablo Schreiber, who plays fan-favorite Mad Sweeney, mentioned Fuller’s name, which elicited a small cheer from the audience, but that was it. Speaking to the press afterward, Gaiman and the cast were slightly more forthcoming (and optimistic) about what had happened, and where American Gods would be going next season.

“My metaphor for season two is basically we're back at the same school but we're in a different classroom,” Yetide Badaki, who plays Bilquis, tells Den of Geek. “We have some different teachers, but we still have mostly the same schoolmates, as well as a few new people who came in from out of town.”

Emily Browning, who plays the once-dead Laura Moon, speaks with far less metaphor, though not before joking about being monitored by drones operated by Starz executives.

“If you had have spoken to me about it a few months ago, I would have been in a very different place with it. To be totally honest, I think we were all nervous about it in the beginning. We all loved Michael and Bryan, and this was their vision, so losing them was terrifying,” she tells us.

Gaiman himself spoke about the behind-the-scenes drama, though largely from the perspective of simultaneously running two different shows whose productions were taking place in wildly different time zones. He also explained his process working with Alexander early on in season two, but didn’t dwell on the nature of his dismissal from the series.

“Everybody knew I was going to be the showrunner on Good Omens, which meant that I wasn’t left a lot of time for American Gods,” he says. “Jesse came out to New Orleans, where I was at the time, and I spent two days briefing him on exactly what American Gods means. Not just what it is and what the plot is, but where we could take it in season two and what parts of the book we would be doing.”

While Gaiman’s comments help make more sense of the timeline (he was able to spend more time on American Gods after San Diego Comic-Con in July, and Alexander was asked to leave the show in September), they don’t necessarily explain what had happened. He did call the initial reports of Alexander’s being sidelined “bullshit,” but that was the extent of any explicit remarks about it.

Instead, Gaiman praises the show’s cast who, as he frames it, succeeded in defending their characters as initially contrived in season one despite apparent issues with new writers trying to change things up.

“We have a fantastic cast. They know who they are and they know who their characters are. They care about them. They've researched them. This is especially helpful when you’re getting new writers coming in, who might be a little wobbly on things that characters would do or say. The cast absolutely saw it and said, ‘No mate, the character wouldn't do that because of this, this and this.’ So things would get rewritten and stuff would be fixed, thanks to them.”

Interestingly, Gaiman may have been referencing one of the more fantastic aspects of the initial report about Alexander’s removal, which claimed he and McShane would partake in “screaming matches” over the quality of the season two scripts. The finale was even totally scrapped. Talking about it now, Gaiman admits that he was more involved in the scripts for the final three episodes, but leaves it there.

Even so, the American Gods cast now seems quite confident in the work they’ve put into the new season. They’re also just as confident in Gaiman’s ability to steer the show out of its troubled water and into the much wider (and hopefully less dramatic) seas ahead.

“These characters were created by Bryan and Michael, so they're based on Neil’s characters, but they’re different,” says Orlando Jones, who plays the African trickster god, Mr. Nancy. “I'm a lot like Nancy in the book in many ways, and I’m also not like Nancy in the book at all. Shadow Moon never got lynched in the books. He's living in a different America today.”

“I think there's a nuance there, and Neil really is the person that comes in and goes, ‘Stay on the theme, guys. The theme is here. Stay focused here.’ He's a master storyteller, so why do anything differently?”

Browning is also quick to note that the loss of Fuller and Green after season one, and Alexander toward the end of season two, never really meant the end of the series. After all, so many other people were helping to make American Gods a reality.

“All of that went away after we saw a bunch of footage. We grew less worried after we saw a few rough cuts from the first few episodes, especially the stuff that Chris Byrne showed us,” she says. Chris Byrne, who served as the first season’s second unit director, is now the show’s producing director. He’s also, as Browning puts it, “the fucking hero of American Gods” and partially responsible for how amazing season two looks.

“He is the vision of the show. The way the show looks has always been thanks to him, and it's still him. He is an angel, he's our savior and he's incredible. Seeing the stuff that he showed me, I was like, ‘Oh wow, we did it! This is our show and it actually looks kind of incredible.' It was scary. We obviously had a huge road bump to get over, but I feel like we're going to give you guys something really cool in the end.”

American Gods Season 2 premieres sometime in 2019 on Starz.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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