Con Report: Space City Con 2014, Galveston, TX

A fantastic photo of me
by Studio Five 0 photography.

This is a little bit of a difficult con for me to describe.  Space City Con is a general Sci-Fi/Fantasy con with a really broad umbrella.  I attended their last event in August and was impressed by their attendance, the cosplay, and the vibe.  This time they moved to January and Galveston, TX.  They had a cast reunion of Babylon 5 and several cast members of Game of Thrones.  I decided to vend this event.

Unfortunately it was a very unsuccessful vending experience for me and for a lot of the other vendors.  I did not end up covering the costs of vending.  Attendance was low on Friday and Sunday, and the people who were in attendance weren't buying.  In hindsight, it was perhaps predictable, being right after the holidays.  But the lack of sales was quite disheartening.  And it wasn't helped by having a fire alarm in the busiest part of Saturday followed by an evacuation of the building.  After that the vendors' room was dead the rest of the day.

Myself and two new friends in great outfits.
It's too bad you can't see their clear wings.

As for other aspects of the con the focus was mostly on the celebrities. I don't attend cons for the celebrities, so I don't really get into the panels and autographs and all of that.  I personally prefer cons with more focus on fan content.  There was a lack of variety in the panels, I felt, since they were almost all about the guests.  All my friends who did interact with the celebrity guests had awesome reports, though.  The Game of Thrones people were pretty much universally reported to be really nice and friendly.  It was pretty cool to run into them throughout the weekend, especially getting to find out just how freaking tall the actor who plays Hodor is when I bumped into him coming out of an elevator.

I briefly attended a panel on low-budget film-making by the makers of the film Frankenstein's Monster, which was filmed locally and which they call "light steampunk."  I couldn't stay for the whole panel, but I got to meet and chat with the costumer for the film, J'Nean Henderson, aka "The Victorian Lady."  I didn't get to attend the screening of the film late on Sunday because I was busy with finishing up in the vendor's room.

Otto and Victoria cosplay!  Her octopus
moved on it's own robotic base,
controlled by the attached remote.

The other event I really wanted to attend was Cherie Priest's panel.  Ms. Priest is only my favorite steampunk author, and I just finished reading her latest novel, Fiddlehead, and LOVED IT.  (Review coming.)  Unfortunately, when I went to the scheduled location at 1:30 on Sunday as it said in the program, there was no one there but other lost Cherie Priest fans.  When I tracked down con staff (on the other side of the building) to ask, I was told the schedule in the program was "completely wrong" and that the panel had been the previous day.  I'm not sure how anyone was supposed to KNOW that, since there were no posted signs anywhere about schedule changes.  So that was really disappointing, although I have met Ms. Priest before and had most of my books signed.

A very nice outfit.

While the con had a good presence of steampunk attendees, there was only one steampunk event on the schedule, a steampunk LARP.  I think it may have also been a victim of schedule changes, but I honestly have no idea if it even happened or how it went.  Once again I'm reminded that the steampunk community (definitely including myself) needs to be better at making sure we get something on the schedule.

So ultimately, I have to say the best parts of the con for me were the times spent with some of my con and steampunk friends, and not the actual con itself.  It was a reminder that I have to be more choosy about which cons I attend and vend in the future.

Love this couple, especially her ragged fabric details.