First, before anything else: Len Wein died. There’s nothing I can say here that isn’t already all over the news. Except thank you, sir, for how your work changed me personally. It’s shame he can’t read that I said that.
Lion Forge and Dark Horse are both donating money to hurricane relief funds. Lion Forge have put down $25,000 direct to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation; Dark Horse’s efforts are channelled through a limited edition fundraising print: five hundred of them were on sale for twenty dollars each at Rose City Comic Con this weekend. Lion Forge encourage other publishers to make similar gestures–let’s hope that they do.
Speaking of Rose City Comic Con, how ’bout them “ironic” nazis? Cosplayers wandering round in “satirical” (satirising what? This, as yet, remains unreported) Hello Kitty-branded Nazi officer uniforms. Our own Melissa Brinks, noting the stated policy quoted below, alerted con staff.
“Uniforms are great! Some of the coolest outfits are uniforms. But if you intend to wear a uniform that looks super-realistic, please distinguish that it is a costume. If your costume could lead to you being confused with local law enforcement, please don’t wear it.
Hateful symbols aren’t welcome at Rose City Comic Con. Historical costumes can be great, but reminders of unspeakable atrocities are not appropriate.”
These cosplayers are repeat offenders (pun not intended. Is that even a pun? Anyway-); Emerald City Comicon reports having asked them to leave when they appeared on their own con floor in 2015.
Hey – those cosplays were against our policy & they were removed from the show once we were aware. Here's our policy https://t.co/MlaNQcs0ca
— Emerald City Comic Con (@emeraldcitycon) September 11, 2017
So, here’s the lesson: nobody wants those guys around. Get a new costume, or go home, or, nazi cosplayers fuck off. Let’s sing!
More from Rose City, and a slightly less understandable decision. Artists in Artists’ Alley were being asked to remove non-paper wares, as pins and lanyards apparently register to the con’s guidelines and/or staff as vendor merch, not artistic craft.
https://twitter.com/amandalafrenais/status/906633904290799616
they told us that we could sell keychains, but w/o displaying the chain? like just say the chain "comes free with purchase of the acrylic"??
— almond? (@watery_day) September 10, 2017
Seems pretty weird! Seems like something to perhaps rethink, or at least better communicate prior to artists’ tabling, for next year.
The run up to big UK convention Thought Bubble has begun in earnest; Andy Oliver and his team at Broken Frontier have you covered with pre-con small press reviews, for that know-what-I-want shopper’s delight. If you’re coming up or down to over to Leeds, do be sure to drop in the the Q&A I’ll be hosting with Katie Skelly on the Saturday~! Two-thirty, Carriageworks, be there or be square ????
Today in Kickstarters, the fifth venture from Ladies’ Night Anthology has opened for funding. Theme? Sisters (as seen above). Cha-ching ching, right here.
