My scariest convention experience happened at Anime Iowa last weekend. I had a table in the artist's alley and they opened it up to the sponsors for the first half an hour. There was a 50+ year old man that was dressed up as a unicorn (he had a horn taped to his forhead and wore a pretty sparkly pale blue robe) and he decided to stop at my table and talk to one of my studio members for a half-an-hour about Sailor Moon. I don't know about you people, but 50 year old fanboys in Unicorn Cosplay sharing the greatness of Sailor Moon scares me to death. It was just plain creepy.


What is your scariest/strangest experience at a convention?

I got shocked by a Mitsubishi Lancer, a Ford Mustang, a Mini Cooper, and the Volkswagon Booth at the LA Auto Show.

Carpets and metal, horrible idea.

(Hey, that's a convention, right. An automoblie convention.) :wink:

.: Myxomatosis :.

If we're talking about just any convention, then my scariest ‘Con experience was the North Texas Gun Knife Show. The whole thing. Lotta confederate flags. Not a good place to be Native American.

Aaaanyway, I’d have to say that my scariest Comic Con experience was being in line uncomfortably close to a fat, hairy man dressed like Ryu of StreetFighter fame. I'm talking about a guy who would have made a great E. Honda, and he was under the impression that he made a great Ryu.

Oh, another good one was a white kid dressed like a Samurai looking at a Black kid dressed like a samurai saying, “Whoever heard of a Black Samurai?”

The irony escaped him.

im scared of cons :smt044

I wish I had a personal scary experience at the Comic-Con that I could relate to you, but I don't. Everyone I talked to seemed sane enough (“sane” being a relative term at these things).

The only thing that came close to scary was when my dad and I were standing in line outside of the Scott McCloud panel. Suddenly, up walks this seven-foot-tall guy with a beer gut dressed up like Dr. Frank N. Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with someone who looked like his grandmother in tow. He was standing a good few feet away from us, but I had to try as hard as I could not to stare, because while this guy had a thing for scantily-clad transsexuals, he still looked like he could smash me through a wall. In my frantic forced ignorance, I ended up in this awkward conversation with some college kid from Burbank (or somewhere like that) who turned out to be an avid McCloud groupie, following the guy from seminar to seminar just as Deadheads used to trail Jerry Garcia and company from concert to concert. (And here I am with no knowledge of the guy whatsoever apart from reading his two books in the local library…) Suffice to say, I think both of us were relieved when the doors finally opened and we could take our seats. (Me and the college kid, I mean. Not the Tim Curry fan. I don't know what he was thinking.)

~IJ

A few years back I went to the first year of Anime Reactor in Chicago to meet one of my favorite manga artists. I didn't tell my parents I was flying there during MIDTERMS, or about how much I spent to go.

I had a layover, which ended up being about six minutes to get off the plane, across the opposite side of the terminal and catch the last leg of my flight to the con.

I could have been stuck in an airport for a weekend and no one would have known. I made it thankfully, but I drank a lot of those airline cocktails on the way there.

Otherwise, I don't think i've had too many scary experiences. I go to far too many cons a year to sell art, I'm jaded and just tune out freak, geeks and fangirls at this point.

I'll be at AWA in Spetember, if anyone wants to go drinking..:|

I've never been to a convention. One might say I'm…


(wait for it)


…unconventional.

lukee
I've never been to a convention. One might say I'm…


(wait for it)


…unconventional.

same here. :(
I sooo want to go to a convention, and dress up too!
I bet it would be so much fun!

stupid North Dakota, it doesn't have any remotely intersting conventions nearby that I could easily access on foot…

Aurora Moon

lukee
I've never been to a convention. One might say I'm…


(wait for it)


…unconventional.

same here. :(
I sooo want to go to a convention, and dress up too!
I bet it would be so much fun!

stupid North Dakota, it doesn't have any remotely intersting conventions nearby that I could easily access on foot…

You think that's bad? I live in Canada. CANADA. It's not even city-style Canada- I live out in the BOONIES. The INTERIOR. The NOT GONNA GET TO SANS DIEGO UNLESS I SPEND QUITE A FEW MONIES. AND THE MONIES ARE NOT EVEN WORTH AS MUCH AS THE MONIES DOWN SOUTH. GOD DAMNIT SOMEONE GET ME TO A CONVENTION ASAP.

okay rant over.

This popped up on the CG forums too, eh.

The scariest one I went to was the only one I went to. It was filled with nerds. I was scared. I had to run away. :/

Fuck Chasing Amy, for making me think that conventions were cool and exciting, and not, you know, places where people go to talk about comic books or whatever.

My scariest convention experience wasn't actually scary. My friend and I were in line for Piro of Megatokyo to sign the lithographs they gave out at the convention and it was a pretty big line.

I started talking to my friend about not being able to decide if I should get Peach Girl or the MT book. Then this guy in front of us started asking me if I like breathing or something (I forget if it's breathing or if I'm crazy.) I think I started stammering some reply but he kept cutting me off to repeat the question. When I finally gave in and just gave him the answer he wanted, he says that I should buy the MT book then.

I think it was more uncomfortable then it was scary.

.: Black Kitty :.

lukee

Aurora Moon

lukee
I've never been to a convention. One might say I'm…


(wait for it)


…unconventional.

same here. :(
I sooo want to go to a convention, and dress up too!
I bet it would be so much fun!

stupid North Dakota, it doesn't have any remotely intersting conventions nearby that I could easily access on foot…

You think that's bad? I live in Canada. CANADA. It's not even city-style Canada- I live out in the BOONIES. The INTERIOR. The NOT GONNA GET TO SANS DIEGO UNLESS I SPEND QUITE A FEW MONIES. AND THE MONIES ARE NOT EVEN WORTH AS MUCH AS THE MONIES DOWN SOUTH. GOD DAMNIT SOMEONE GET ME TO A CONVENTION ASAP.

okay rant over.

Well, at least you have your nationalized health system to fall back on, right? Right?

Black Kitty
My scariest convention experience wasn't actually scary. My friend and I were in line for Piro of Megatokyo to sign the lithographs they gave out at the convention and it was a pretty big line.

I started talking to my friend about not being able to decide if I should get Peach Girl or the MT book. Then this guy in front of us started asking me if I like breathing or something (I forget if it's breathing or if I'm crazy.) I think I started stammering some reply but he kept cutting me off to repeat the question. When I finally gave in and just gave him the answer he wanted, he says that I should buy the MT book then.

I think it was more uncomfortable then it was scary.

This only reinforces my previous statement: Hardcore manga fans tend to be kinda creepy. (Of course I exclude BK from this statement, because, as far as I know, she isn't any creepier than the norm.)

I mean, seriously. Out of seven posts in this thread that detail scary convention experiences, three of them involve anime/manga fans. Three! That's, like, almost half! We really need to do something about these people, people. At least we should know how to respond to them correctly:

BLACK KITTY: …I'm not sure. I mean, I'm really interested in the new MT book, but then I'd also really like to get the new Peach Girl volume. …Maybe I should–

MANGA FAN WHOM BLACK KITTY HAS NEVER, EVER MET BEFORE, EVER: Do you like breathing?

BK: Um…

MFWBKHNEMBE: Do you like breathing?

BK: Er…

MFWBKHNEMBE: Do you like breathing?

BK: Well…

MFWBKHNEMBE: Do you like breathing?

BK: Well, I did, but now that I'm stuck in a line behind you, I'm starting to reconsider.

MFWBKHNEMBE: Uhhh… Well, then, you should buy the new MT book.

BK: That was it? That was the punchline to that little psycho-killer ruse of yours? Listen, sir, I shall tell you what I will do. I will not, in fact, purchase the new MT book. I will, in fact, purchase the new Peach Girl book, and then use it to slap you repeatedly across the face while stomping my feet and snapping my fingers to the rhythm of the “Mexican Hat Dance”. Do you know why? Because you are not as cool as you think, and you need to be taught in a very literal sense the meaning of the phrase “public humiliation”.

MFWBKHNEMBE: Then… uhhh… do you like luxury?

BK: And don't steal from Saturday Night Live sketches, either.

MFWBKHNEMBE: sorry.

You see? Being ridiculously rude is the only way to handle these people. You won't gain any friends by doing it, but at least you'll make the world a better place.

~IJ

Never been to a Con. Want to go, can't afford it. Plus, I'd be scared to show up alone.

AnimeNEXT is pretty near to where I live, but I've always been away when it's been around, and now I don't really care anymore. I might go to Otakon one day because I know a lot of people who go there though.

But yeah, on the subject of how creepy hardcore-anime fans are, there's this one girl a grade above me in our Japanese class who watches, like, the weird kind of anime. You know which kind I mean. She creeps me out. :?

ccs1989
But yeah, on the subject of how creepy hardcore-anime fans are, there's this one girl a grade above me in our Japanese class who watches, like, the weird kind of anime. You know which kind I mean. She creeps me out. :?

Are you talking hardcore Yaoi, or tentacle porn. When people say weird anime, its usually one of the two. :shock:

Any sort of convention in the uk: the people aren't as fat compared to american nerds, but what the lack on obesity they make up for in bad complexions and uglyness.

I don't think I have anymore scary con experiences but I just want to say I spent a good five minutes just laughing last night when I read Ian Jay's post. :D

I only really go to one convention and that's CNAnime. I went to Anime North once but it just wasn't my thing. I mean, I had a good laugh at the schedule what with the how to get a girlfriend and making fake weapons panels…but I suspect I wasn't suppose to be laughing. :P

.: Black Kitty :.

I don’t remember anything specifically scary other than some people’s costumes. Mostly because they were the type of people that should not be showing that much skin.

Oh, and the fans of the person at the table next to us were kind of annoying and very hard core for that persons project (not really sure what it was, other than she seemed to sell a LOT of fanart type stuff of other people’s work). They kept coming back and hanging out for hours at a time, and blocking our table, so I had to ask them to move a few times.
People at cons often don’t seem to have any concepts of personal space or that they could be inconveniencing others. Other than that I always have fun at cons.

spambot
They kept coming back and hanging out for hours at a time, and blocking our table, so I had to ask them to move a few times.
People at cons often don’t seem to have any concepts of personal space or that they could be inconveniencing others. Other than that I always have fun at cons.

Yes, the person next to my table was like that. I especially enjoyed the fact that she had 50 people crammed around her table when I was sitting on the closest edge and one of the boys dressed up in GothLoli (with a VERY short skirt) stood only inches from me. I swore that I was going to turn my head one of those times and be eye to eye with a whole bunch of boyparts. I love it when some stranger's crotch is paralell to my head, and in close vacinity.

Honestly my scariest con experiance was Akon 16. I wont go into it much, a small part of it had to do with not haveing toilet paper :shock:

my scariest experience happened when i was six…..the day a nudist colony went on vacation to mexico…..SO many old men…..So many wrinkles o.e……

When I saw this thread and realized that I've never been to one.

My worst experience: YASUMICON MIAMI 2006

all of it… every single ounce of that con was…. the worst…
I'd like to smack those damn con planners a thousand times over for being so damn stupid.

More on another thread !!


And Skulldog, I may go to AWA since Katrina made me miss it last year and Ivan the year before, but the way airline prices are these days, I dunno.

kaminari
My worst experience: YASUMICON MIAMI 2006

all of it… every single ounce of that con was…. the worst…
I'd like to smack those damn con planners a thousand times over for being so damn stupid.

More on another thread !!


And Skulldog, I may go to AWA since Katrina made me miss it last year and Ivan the year before, but the way airline prices are these days, I dunno.

Awesome, I need more friends there, I'll be so bored.

I was cosplaying as a character from Samurai Showdown, I decided to do that costume because normally there were a lot of people cosplaying that character, but for that year, there were hardly any since it was the release of FF x-2 and a lot of people were doing FF themes. A lot of random girls (and men '') were rushing up to me and telling me how much they missed me and how they have been looking for me for so long. And basically, without my consent they were strapping me to the wall taking pictures with me.

.__. just kind of weird I Guess.

Conventions? Aren't they those thing that happen in every single damn capital city in Australia except for mine?!!

But yeah, aside from the requisite ‘old, grossly overweight guys dressed like schoolgirls’, I have nothing of my own to add.

Two things:

First, I was working at dragon con a while ago to get outta the fee. A great experience I must say, because I saved 75 bucks, to watch anime. But on the second day, we were supposed to have this “retro anime” theme in the morning, but the guy who had the stuff couldn't make it until the afternoon. So we're playing what we've bought/had. So I'm outside the room changing up the schedule when this woman comes up dressed in what could only be described as a bumble bee and Charz from Gundam combined, comes up to me asking about why we aren't showing Battle of the Planets. So I explain why, and I look up, I'm being filmed.

That was just kinda creepy, knowing I'm on film by this real big fangirl. To top it off, my friend and I see her again at the food court talking to a japanese girl about how her hair is cool, right after I told him the story.

The second, happened at the same con. Running the anime room, we were showing R.O.D before it came out here, so we had our room PACKED to the gills. People were watching from OUTSIDE THE ROOM. So, it gets done and people ask what's next, and we (for some reason) had to show this live action zombie student like film. It was so bad, I could use it as tools to settle the room down. Infact I did.

“we either watch this, or I put in the zombie flick again!”

“we'll watch it! Not the zombies!”

Last two conventions I seem to find people that like to draw hairy ugly dwarf trolls and talk about their role playing experiences as a hairy ugly dwarf troll. Yuck.

lukee

Aurora Moon

lukee
I've never been to a convention. One might say I'm…


(wait for it)


…unconventional.

same here. :(
I sooo want to go to a convention, and dress up too!
I bet it would be so much fun!

stupid North Dakota, it doesn't have any remotely intersting conventions nearby that I could easily access on foot…

You think that's bad? I live in Canada. CANADA. It's not even city-style Canada- I live out in the BOONIES. The INTERIOR. The NOT GONNA GET TO SANS DIEGO UNLESS I SPEND QUITE A FEW MONIES. AND THE MONIES ARE NOT EVEN WORTH AS MUCH AS THE MONIES DOWN SOUTH. GOD DAMNIT SOMEONE GET ME TO A CONVENTION ASAP.

okay rant over.

I've heard there are some good conventions in Vancouver B.C.