Dragon Con 2014 Recap & Review

The best thing about a con differs depending on the person. To name a few things, there are the cosplayers, the comic vendors, how big the convention area is, prices, guests, panels, and much more. I had the luck of traveling out to the city of Atlanta for my first visit to Dragon Con, and what I experienced was definitely a different but very satisfying take on a convention.

Judge Dredd

The first thing (since it’s what I have pictures of) was the cosplay. The cosplay was without a doubt the biggest thing this con was into. I got to see some of the most amazing cosplayers while walking through the streets of Atlanta, which made it feel like a city full of various fictional characters I loved since childhood. The costumes ranged everywhere from TV, comics, movies, anime, myths, music and much more. I’ve been to quite a few different cons, and I’ve rarely seen people from all over the world going full out with time and effort trying to make every detail on their costumes look authentic. And since the event is so huge, stretching across five hotels and two malls, it means there are tons of cosplayers roaming the streets of Atlanta. If you love to see different cosplay of your favorite characters done well, it’s every nerd’s fantasy.

Mr. Orange & Mr. Brown from Reservoir Dogs

The second thing that mattered was the vendors area.  The area that was used for the comic vendors area was called the Americas Mart. I for one think the venue was poorly chosen, as it was two very small floors with very narrow alleys that weren’t even numbered. So if you were shopping it was hot, and especially if you were in costume it was a sweat bucket, enough so that some of your costume may have slowly fallen apart. There were tons of vendors, but very few selling comics — not really a terrible thing, but if you’re a comic fan, there wasn’t a booth-to-booth hop you could do in comparison to something along the lines of New York Comic Con.

Walter White

As far as the convention prices, you should get your tickets as early as possible, as the tickets start at $75 then increase. The price is worth it, though, for the amount of different things they had going on at the con. Another massive thing that the con focuses on is definitely its panels. There was everything from James Gunn showing up to do a bit of a Q&A for Guardians of the Galaxy, to Ralph Macchio and a few other guys showing up to talk about the 80s, to a Godzilla through the ages, to the Marvel NOW! panel that fellow writer Matt Conner wrote about that you can read about here. In addition, the panel guests usually sign autographs, but just like any con, the bigger the guest, the bigger the price. When it comes to the panels and news with cool facts that every fanboy like myself would love, Dragon Con is definitely up on that.

Hancock

In addition, if you are planning to go next year, you might want to be prepared to be more than overwhelmed with how large an area the con spreads out to cover. As mentioned earlier, Dragon Con stretches across five hotels and two malls that are all within a certain area of the city. As you can imagine, this definitely does result to a lot of walking, standing, and waiting, which is very hard for the excitement as a fan! I know you want to be everywhere fast, and it may take you longer than you expect, as all the hotels are connected to sky tubes that do make you feel as if you’re walking in the air with glass surrounding you. It can get pretty confusing as to which hotel connects to which other place and what exit you take, so if you do plan to visit, have your map on you as much as you can. Four days wasn’t even enough for me to get used to the area while going everywhere I wanted to go, and time is definitely of the essence.

Gandalf The Gray

Dragon Con is a very much a unique experience for a con, and is worth it for the amazing cosplay, panels, guests, and various underground vendors and booths with really cool stuff to check out. On the comic book aspect, however, it seems as if Dragon Con neglects it a bit. From what different guests I spoke with have been saying, the presence of comic books did indeed decrease within the last few years, with the show moving the comic dealers and really narrowing who they brought in. Still, if you would love to experience something new, meet cool new people, see various amazing cosplayers and aren’t looking to spend much money on comic shopping ,Dragon Con is right up your alley. With tha,t I selected a few photos I thought were really good cosplays from the weekend for you to view below:

Emma Frost from X-men

Guardians Of The Galaxy

Black Widow

Gandalf The White

Female Jack Skellington