DCon 2016

Over the weekend, I attended DesignerCon 2016 in Pasadena at the same venue used by PMX the week before. Both cons were established at roughly the same time (PMX, 2004 vs DCon, 2005), but there was a huge difference in attendance numbers.

It was a rainy day, so from the outside the event did not look very crowded, but it was a very different story inside.

DCon used the ballroom and three exhibit halls, whereas I think that PMX probably used only the ballroom.

There was a good turnout to give the event a lively atmosphere, but it was not crowded to the point where movement and photography became difficult. The con was also still small enough where you could spend some time to talk to vendors and artists without feeling too rushed.

Hip Hop Trooper at the DJ booth

The original reason I wanted to to attend DCon was because Junko Mizuno was going to be there. I was a fan of her work when it first came out in the U.S., but hadn't been keeping up with what she was doing of late.

An announcer on the PA informed us that Junko would be at the Poposition Press booth for signings.

I purchased a standalone blad page from her new TRIAD pop-up book, and got her to sign my copy of Pure Trance.

DCon is akin to a giant artist's alley, but the one thing that I noticed (compared to the AX Artist's Alley) was that these artists were more than happy if people took pictures of their creations. I found this particularly ironic since most of the DCon artists presented original work, whereas the AX artists typically make unauthorized derivative works based on the IP of other people.

One of the artists who I spent some time talking with was GMONIK who has started to move from paintings into more 3D work.

Trojan City

This booth was interesting as well, but nobody was around at the time.

Some cool toys that I found included World War Robot Rothchild Bertie Mk1s

Desert Rat

Dirty Deeds

Candidates for 2.5" gaming from Blizzard...

There was a huge display of Mechatro WeGo... In 1/35...

As well as some fantastic 1/12 DIY WeGo

Tyree Dillihay, director on the Bob's Burgers TV show mugging for the camera.

Rancor costume used at last years SDCC at the Adam Savage booth.

I really enjoyed DCon. I did not even know about the event prior to seeing their advertisement banners on the lamp posts outside the convention center during PMX the week before, but I think that this is an event that I will attend fairly regularly in the future.