After putting on a successful convention for the Maryland/Virginia/DC area in 2013, Awesome Con turned to Kickstarter to make 2014 an even greater success. The campaign was fully funded in July of 2013 and, looking at this year’s activities, it’s obvious that the people behind Awesome Con have worked hard to deliver on that promise.
This will be my first local con, so here are the things I’m most looking forward to. Sadly, I’m a comics novice, so I fear most of the comics-centered guests are lost on me – except BOOM! Studios! I’m coming for that copy of Lumberjanes!
Guinness World Record Attempt
I’m cheating a bit with an event scheduled for before Awesome Con officially kicks off, but come on! A cosplay world-record attempt that they’re putting it on in conjunction with the Museum of Science Fiction? It’s pretty ambitious and I’m not sure they’ll break the record (currently set in China with 1,530 people dressed as comic book characters in one place) looking at the current attending numbers, but it’ll be a lot of fun anyway. There is a pre-approved character list that will officially count towards the world record total and I really can’t wait to see everyone cosplaying around the reflecting pool. Here’s hoping for good weather.
So. Much. Walking. Dead
All of the media guests are really on-point for Awesome Con, but I’m such a huge fan of The Walking Dead that I can’t help but be excited to see current actresses (and badass ladies) Danai Gurira (Michonne) and Melissa McBride (Carol) in attendance. Other actors from the show in attendance include IronE Singleton (T-Dawg), Madison Lintz (Sophia), Travis Love (Shumpert – or the Bowman), Vincent M. Ward (Oscar), Daniel Thomas May (Allen), and Jeremy Ambler (walker). There are some Q&A sessions planned, photo ops to be had, and various other opportunities to interact with the cast. As the resident zombie expert, I wouldn’t be doing my job correctly if I wasn’t all over these opportunities!
Science-Fiction Focus
Not only is Awesome Con partnering with the Museum of Science Fiction to attempt to break a world record, but they’re also offering a lot of sci-fi focused programming. Two of the panels are focusing on the topics of the rise and prevalence of dystopian science fiction in pop culture and defining sci-fi. There is also Sci-Fi Speed Dating (which Sam and Therese tried out at PHXCC last year and have assured me isn’t going to get me kidnapped and murdered). Pam Melroy is a former NASA astronaut who will be in attendance and on the panel discussing how science fiction has inspired careers and activities in space exploration. There’s a panel on writing fantasy that will also touch on sci-fi elements in fiction. All of these different panels lend to all of the different ways Awesome Con has found to cover science-fiction for the district.
Awesome Con is coming to Washington DC April 18 – 20, 2014. Programming can be found here, and for the most updated information download the Guidebook app.
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