Convention Schedule Previous Reports Personality of the Week About this Site Search this Site Racing and More E-Mail the Author

C-Kon - Author's Notes - 2003 It's a Friday morning, and the author is sitting behind an artists' alley table at the Century Center in South Bend, Ind. Just outside is the St. Joseph River, decorated with a sculpture of steel beams befitting the city that was once home to the Studebaker car factory. Upstairs is an art museum. Across the street is the College Football Hall of Fame. And taking up a portion of the center, sharing the building with a computer conference and a wedding reception, is C-Kon. It's a lot drier inside the center than a few days earlier, when the author ridiculously stood in the rain and watched the U.S. Grand Prix. It's good to be inside, rather than in the wind that is whipping through the trees outside the building. And there's a lot of brick around. Nearly every wall of the Century Center is faced with brick, just like Huber Heights, Ohio, "America's Largest Community of All-Brick Homes." Or just like the facing of the rebuilt Notre Dame football stadium, a few miles northeast of the convention site. As of this writing, the Fighting Irish were on a long losing streak, so maybe South Bend deserved an anime convention as compensation. At least Notre Dame was on the road on the C-Kon weekend, sparing anime fans the traffic that clogs South Bend when the team is at home. The South Bend convention was a lot quieter than the previous weekend's Anime Weekend Atlanta, but it was also a lot busier than at the previous year's Indianapolis event. At the same time at the 2002 convention, the author was pretty much by himself. In 2003, there were plenty of people around, including the start of a line for the dealers' room and several costumers. The effort paid off in drawing attention to the A Fan's View cosplay book. The five posters created by the author, stuck on the center's brick walls (no way gaffers' tape will ever hurt that surface), got plenty of attention from passing fans. When the convention rolled into Saturday, the display pictures at the table switched, and the author was fascinated to watch how fans reacted. Placed at the front of the table was a picture of five Inu-Yashas who gathered at NekoCon in 2002. A remarkable number of fans walked by, took one look and said "Oh! Look at all the Inu-Yashas!" So the author dug into the picture library on his note book PC, and printed out a picture of another Inu-Yasha cosplay group from Otakon in 2003 - and that picture got the same sort of reaction. Fans also loved the picture of the young woman who turned herself into a Totoro catbus at Nan Desu Kan in 2002, and the best of show costumer from that Colorado convention in 2003. Friday was slow, but Saturday was busy with several costumers. It was pleasant to see the interest in the book and the picture-printing service, and the author will have to try it again in the near future. C-Kon had some interesting autograph lines. One was in the dealers room, where Fred Gallagher of Megatokyo fame could be found. Another was in the panel room where Amanda Winn Lee and Jaxon Lee were signing items for their voice acting fans - and explaining how Jason became "Jaxon" because of Screen Actors Guild rules. The loudest party over the weekend wasn't open to C-Kon fans, although they sure could hear it. A wedding reception was scheduled into the Century Center's big atrium, and the management erected white draperies to keep the anime fans and wedding celebrants apart. Those with long memories will recall that the same thing happened to the 1999 AnimeIowa, where one convention center room in Cedar Rapids had a reception whose music almost drowned out the costume contest. At C-Kon, the most heartfelt show of imagination among costumers was of a very special Speed Racer cosplayer. That person is confined to a wheelchair, so a friend made side covers for the chair that converted it to a Mach Five car, and then dressed his friend in Speed's blue jersey and white helmet. It was a wonderfully convincing result. The man who made that wheelchair into a Mach Five also turned himself into a Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2 (no idea if there are any Blue Creek Apartments in South Bend). That costume was judged one of the best in the C-Kon costume contest - and the author was one of the people who did the judging. As with so many things in the convention world, this was unexpected. The author was waiting for more picture and book customers when Casey Glanders, the convention chairman, walked over and asked if the author would judge the costume contest. "Yes" was the only answer, of course. That meant for a little more work during the contest then usual, mixing picture taking with filling out forms. Strangely enough, the contest judges (including Emily DeJesus, Greg Ayres, Tristan MacAvery and Chris Patton) didn't take long to reach a decision and agreed quickly on the awards to be given. The judging broke up just in time to watch Glanders whip the crowd into a frenzy as they bid on Fred Gallagher sketches, auctioned to raise money for the "A Better Way" facility for battered women. The winning bid for those sketches was $500, big money by C-Kon standards. One weekend earlier, the author spent a long nine hours each way traveling to and from Anime Weekend Atlanta. The highlight of the drive to Georgia, as always, was the I-24 mountain pass outside Chattanooga. The late afternoon view of the Appalachians, illuminated by the setting sun, is one of the great sights of the south and nearly was worth the trip. By contrast, the drive to C-Kon was a short three hours. Northern Indiana was plain and ordinary on the first weekend of October. Autumn had not yet progressed enough for the leaves to turn to their best colors, and the dominant hue was the muted yellow of corn ready for harvest. This writer spotted only one combine working in the fields, so the weather may have made for a late harvest. The non-interstate trip did have the advantage of taking the author past several roadside stands. A Friday morning stop outside LaPaz, Ind. netted two good-sized pumpkins for $5.37; the pumpkins were destined for places of honor on the author's table in the C-Kon artists' alley. Eventually, one pumpkin ended up supporting a rubber cat on Robert DeJesus' table, while the other pumpkin was destined for a neighboring artists' alley table, supporting a Vash the Stampede sketch. Odd event of the weekend: driving from the Century Center, the author spotted fire trucks in front of an apartment building down the street. Too tired and not curious enough to walk over to the flashing red lights, the author drove to his cheap motel a few miles away, where he turned on WNDU-TV and learned that the firefighters were on hand because a carbon monoxide alarm had sounded. Fortunately, it didn't affect the convention's headquarters Marriott hotel, one block away. At Saturday's end, when the author was packing to leave the Century Center, he was invited to a birthday party at the Marriott across the street. (Yes, the cake said "Monica.") Those who question the author's sanity will not be surprised to learn that he turned down the party invitation because he needed to make an early Sunday morning exit to get to Winchester, Ind. and the start of a big late model stock car race. The author rolled out of  St. Joseph County at 8 a.m. Sunday, and got to Winchester three hours and fifteen minutes later, just in time to see the pre-race parade featuring Santa Claus (no kidding). The trip to the race came because the author knew some of the racers from his Saturday night short track days and wanted to see how they did on a big track. For those who think knowing the author is good luck, think again. Before the race was 40 laps old, one friend's car had exploded into flames, a second friend's ignition had failed and a third friend had smashed into the wall. C-Kon Main Page