2019 Cape-Con Recap

It rained off-and-on for about an hour during the drive to Cape Girardeau Saturday. Not terrible, but a little annoying. I wanted to try and be relaxed before going into a place where I'd be surrounded by lots of people.

Last year most of the comic retailers had their own room, but this year, Ken went back to having basically all vendors, artists, and guests in the main room, with a few people in a smaller room across the hall. The overflow space, I assume. I think I like that system a little better, since you don't have to keep going back and forth between rooms depending on which tables you want to check out. You can check some longboxes, then turn around and see what some artist across the aisle has, and then there's a person selling cupcakes the next aisle over.

They had a scavenger hunt going, with a list of things to try and find and different tables. I didn't participate because that would involve actually speaking with people, but there were several times I was standing at a person's table and someone would come up and ask if they were the answer to one clue or another. Although the answer was always "no", so maybe the clues were tricky?

I didn't actually spend much time looking through longboxes, though. I still have a list of stuff I'm looking for going, but very little of it is Marvel or DC, and that's the majority of what most vendors have. But I like to at least glance through the discounted tpbs.

The most popular guest during the time I was there was voice actress Veronica Taylor, which was a little awkward in that her table was the closest to the doorway to the main area. At times, her line stretched all the way back out the door, which led to congestion and confusion for people just trying to get into the room, or trying to get in line to see her. Eventually they stationed one of the people there to direct folks. It's not a complaint - I was in that state of mind where all the people around me turn into vague obstacles to maneuver around - just amusing.

I don't normally go in for woodwork, but I did buy one piece each from two different vendors. I liked the quotes on them. At least one of them is going to be a gift to a friend, the other is either going to a different friend, or I'm keeping it for myself. I haven't decided yet. Fortunately, both parties' birthdays are months away, so no rush. The one with the Harry Potter quote is definitely going to a friend. I've never cared about that fictional universe, and once I realized that's what it was from, I almost didn't buy it, but my friends are into the Potterverse, so it works out to the benefit of one of them.

I got my first commission sketch in a couple of years. Asked Chris Ebert, who previously drew Firestar for me, and that picture of Etrigan and Hitman smoking cigars for a friend of mine, to draw the Ray, in all his '90s white pants and black leather jacket glory. That turned out pretty well. Other than that, I picked up several other pieces from a few different artists. Most of them are regulars at Cape-Con, but there was a new one of those artist collectives, Invasion Media. Those are always interesting, just because the different artists can have a lot of wildly different styles. Really improves the chances of finding something I like.

I've figured out I'm a lot more open to artist interpretations of American comic characters than I am to anime/manga characters. I'm guessing because the latter tend to be done in just one person's style (even with different animators, they usually try to hew close to the creator's look). Whereas, I've read with comics starring Spider-Man drawn by dozens? hundreds? of different artists. So I have a lot more wiggle room in my mind for what's a "proper" Spider-Man than I do for Goku.

I did feel like there were fewer artists overall than in past years. Some of the people I'd grown accustomed to seeing didn't appear to be there. I don't know if they didn't reserve space in time, couldn't afford it, or have perhaps moved elsewhere. I wonder about those things, like when someone's blog goes silent and we have no idea what happened. Are they dead, or did they just lose interest? Reminder of the passage of time. Things change.

Anyway, it was a good time, as usual.