Geek Entertainment News and Commentary

Otadramas

Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 11:21 pm by Jami

Wouldn’t you know it. After having relatively little cons teh dramas the entire weekend, Sunday suddenly exploded with security calls and crisis. Here are the top three:

One of our artists displayed some parody spoilers of the new Harry Potter book, things like “Harry and Ron, oh yes they did!,” “Voldemort is a Nazi,” and “Hermione is a man!” The signs were fine with Ota-staff and security so there was no problem from our end. Heh, don’t tell that to raging otaku. Apparently, one attendee was so incensed that he threatened said artist with physical violence. Said artist is a former Marine and if you know anything about the Marines, you know that there’s no such thing as a former Marine. Yeah, we had to call security to calm that noise down straight away or we would have seen an artist represent the hardcore.

One of our gofers got a bit overzealous when he followed an attendee who went up the wrong flight of stairs to berate and threaten her. Said gofer lost his shit due to a chemical imbalance that might have been normalized had he taken his meds. We called security on him.

Twenty minutes before the closing of The Alley, two artists came up to us accusing another artist of selling work that was not his. They had proof and pointed us to a DeviantArt page whose author said that he was Chinese and had just come back from a trip to Japan. The man selling the print in The Alley was clearly not Chinese or any type of Asian other than Caucasian. A quick look at the work at his booth indicated a variety of styles from different hands with, get this shit, different signatures! We asked him to pull the prints in question, but with twenty minutes left in the show, the damage had already been done. He’d already made over three thousand dollars in sales. The only thing we could do is make sure he’s banned from next year’s alley. So yeah, fuck DeviantArt.

One final note of caution. If you travel the convention circuit, you’ll soon become fast friends with your fellow artists and con-goers. You will also run into the same people over and over. Should you choose to date on the con circuit, be aware that you do so at great risk. Should anything amiss happen in your relationship, everyone will know. And if you’re the one who fucked it up, everyone will hate you. And you’ll know. Businesses usually have policies against dating co-workers. You should probably treat the con-circuit in a similar fashion just to be safe. I’m not saying that con lurv isn’t a good thing. It’s just a very risky thing.

Overall, I had a great time. Cons are a lot of fun when you don’t have to pretend you give a shit about making money. Honestly, I enjoy drawing for people and hanging out and I had the chance to do that while being helpful. Well, trying to be helpful. I don’t know if I’ll go again next year, but I think this was a good way to end the con season for me. Who knows, maybe I’ll see you all next year.

11 Responses to “Otadramas”

Godai
Posted: Jul 24th, 2007 at 12:06 pm

I had heard something about Otakon (may have been another one of the bigger conventions) looking into starting sharing security/banning info.

I think it would be a great idea if the cons communicated the info between each other like that.

Not necissarily publicly, or requiring a ban to spread to other cons, but it would let the cons be forwarned.

Godai
– Ohayocon Registration something or other.

Taellosse
Posted: Jul 24th, 2007 at 12:59 pm

It isn’t DeviantArt’s fault the guy was a thieving dickhead. The site is far too large for them to catch every policy violation (and posting work that isn’t yours is a clear violation, as is downloading someone else’s work and then selling it), nor can they prevent people from stealing others’ work from it. If the thief had a DeviantArt page of his own where he was displaying things like that, then he could be reported on the site and have the offending works removed, or his account banned, but that’s really all they can do. I’m not, by any means, suggesting that the artists who post (of which I am one) to the site should feel responsible if someone unscrupulous does abuse DeviantArt, but posting art anywhere on the internet does come with a certain amount of risk precisely because of such people, unfortunately.

Kindless
Posted: Jul 24th, 2007 at 1:07 pm

Fucking marines think they are all that and a bag of chips. I would have threatened him with physical violence as well, and there wouldn’t be a human on that floor who wouldn’t support me.

BAMikeyD
Posted: Jul 24th, 2007 at 5:41 pm

Actually Kindless, had you threatened any one, especially a service member (former or not) for exercising his First Amendment RIGHT to free speech, I’m certain plenty of people on the floor wouldn’t support that concept. It’s called parody for a reason, and since the “spoilers” were obvious parody, and in no way that offensive, physical threats are a bit over the top.

As far as Jami enjoy the con, I’m glad you got to end your con circuit on a good note. Who knows, next year Erf World might be more well known and you guys can hit the cons big time.

Richard "Pocky" Kim
Posted: Jul 24th, 2007 at 6:17 pm

Actually, the former marine in question did not make it known that he was a former marine. In fact, he did nothing except stand there patiently. The reason Jamie brought up the marine thing is that we, as his friends, know he’s a former marine.

The gentleman who took offense to the parody signs had no idea that he was screaming at someone who was formerly in the military.

Katy
Posted: Jul 24th, 2007 at 8:11 pm

Con Lurv. *sigh. So many things to say on that topic.

Jami
Posted: Jul 24th, 2007 at 8:19 pm

Author Comment

Hey, you two don’t count!

BAMikeyD
Posted: Jul 24th, 2007 at 9:25 pm

I had a feeling that the Marine didn’t say anything about it, because most people don’t jump up and say “Well I’m [insert profession/martial art here] I’ll kick your ass buddy!” if they actually know anything about said profession/martial art, because why show your hand?