The first familiar face seen at AWA IV was Steve Bennett, Studio Ironcat art director who was last spotted at Neko-Con one week earlier. Bennett was one of several Ironcat people who attended AWA. |
He didn't know he was being watched: voice actor Michael Brady was spotted in the registration line, looking over the panel schedule to find where he would be needed. With the cancellations of fellow actors Juliet Cesario and Scott Simpson, Brady had more work to do. |
First costumers spotted: a tie between this schoolgirl-suited Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku, complete with the tufted hair and the power things that projected from the anime character's head... |
...and these girls who played a diminutive, but delightful Belldandy and Urd from Oh My Goddess. They were spotted in the line at the registration desk... |
...which was occupied by dozens of people who wanted to get into AWA IV at the very first opportunity. |
In the middle of the maelstrom was Lloyd Carter, vice-president of Anime Weekend Atlanta, sorting out the badges for the early arrivals. |
Those people in line gave off a lusty cheer when, in a loud voice, the big moment of Friday morning was announced: the opening of the AWA IV dealer room. Quickly the fans rushed down the hall... |
...to buy large amounts of stuff from people such as Dave Williams (left) and Matt Greenfield of ADV Films, who had a table loaded with the latest releases from the Houston-area company. |
Also in the dealer room: this collection of dolls, where Magic Knight Rayearth met Martian Successor Nadesico and Neon Genesis Evangelion... |
...and a group of models, with Iria from Zeiram the Animation being shadowed by a three-dimensional rendering of the famed "mecha breakout" illustration from Key the Metal Idol. |
James Dawsey, ready to publish his Shadowchaser comic in 1999, was one of the people who went to Neko-Con and AWA IV. At Dawsey's side was his mother , Teresa, the parent who saw nothing wrong with Dawsey's becoming a comics artist (his father wanted him to become a doctor, they said). |
Stan Dahlin, who handles AWA's guests, got his hands on the first box of the con's T-shirts. Last year they were in black and white: this year AWA moves up to color (one, red). |
Manga artists Reijiro Kato (left) and Mio Odagi, part of the group of AWA's first Japanese guests, made an early appearance on the convention floor. What did they do? They went shopping in the dealer room. |
Neil Nadelman (in the black shirt), who progressed from fansubs of Royal Space force to professional work on Gundam, was quickly surrounded by eager fans when he walked through the convention floor on Friday. |
This sign was spotted inside the hotel's bar, a neat mixture of Hispanic culture (the cocktail was named after a woman in 1963) and the Japanese ("midori" is Japanese for "green.") |
The purpose of this object, copied from Evangelion, in AWA's main convocation room must remain a mystery, like the rest of Eva. |
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