Name that dragon: Azalea City Con has successful opening in Mobile
The baby dragon is named Lumia, and it looks like Lumia has a bright future.
As Mobile’s inaugural Azalea City Con wound down Sunday afternoon, participants said the upstart event had made a good first impression. “It’s a lot like a homecoming even though it’s the first time,” said 13.Katz, one of weekend’s special guests. (The star cosplayer’s spherical black costume represented one of the soot sprites often seen in the background of animator Hayao Miyazaki’s films.)
Mobile-area comic-book artist Rando Dixon said the inaugural Azalea City Con impressed him, particularly when it came to the turnout of young attendees.Lawrence Specker | [email protected]
“They did very well for their first year,” said Mobile comic book artist Rando Dixon, on hand to promote his series “The Absentee” and other work. “I’m 100% on board next year.”
In the downtown Holiday Inn on Sunday, cosplayers still roamed the halls dressed as everything from pirates to HALO troopers, areas devoted to tabletop games and classic video games were still seeing some action and a vendor’s area offered a wide variety of highly specialized wares. If you were looking for needlepoint involving “Star Wars” references, this was a place to be.
“Thread Mistress” Stephannie Campbell of Baton Rouge was among the vendors at Mobile’s inaugural Azalea City Con.Lawrence Specker | [email protected]
“It’s been really steady,” said Martha Howard, one of the event’s owners and part of its all-woman board. “Yesterday we had wall-to-wall people.”
Howard had previously said that organizers had put an emphasis on making the event appealing to first-time visitors and families. On Sunday, she said the work seemed to have paid off in the number of young visitors. One particular highlight, she said, was the turnout of youngsters interested in a panel involving some local filmmakers.
“Their parents brought them specifically to meet the Fighting Owl Films crew, to hear them talk about making films.”
Dixon seconded that. “I’ve seen a lot of young folks, a lot of teenagers, a lot of anime fans, which is always good,” he said. “I’ve seen a bunch of families, too. There was one all in ‘Sailor Moon’ constumes, a mom and her daughters.”
The inaugural Azalea City Con was a chance for some local creators, including Amanda Rachels Flatline Comics, to promote their work.Lawrence Specker | [email protected]
A fan contest to name the convention’s dragon mascot raised $225 for Prism Youth, a peer support group for LGBTQ+ teens, Howard said.
With Azalea City Con in the books, the pop-culture action isn’t over: Mobile’s oldest such convention, MobiCon, will be held Sept. 22-24 at the Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza Hotel. For full information, visit www.gngcon.com.