It only took me 2 days to recover (man, I'm getting old!) but we had a great time this year wandering around the National Harbor in DC for this year's Katsucon.
Our cosplay themes this year included Fem!Disney Princes / Kingdom Hearts (we had the cutest Heartless in the world, look at her) and video game characters. I just barely got Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn together in time. By in time, I mean 3am the morning of. I did not get any pictures of her though because I was unhappy with the wig being too small. But I learned a lot this season about customizing store bought patterns so I plan on making another Aloy costume in the future.
This year the crew FINALLY got to do the Lord of the Rings cosplay we've been talking about doing for YEARS and quite honestly I think it was a runaway success. We had SO much fun and everyone looked so good. By the way, if you want pictures of your cosplay but have no idea who to hire, I really recommend Katsucon's Photo Suite. They usually have it at the back of the Artist Alley. They're really great photographers and apparently the best time to go is first thing on Friday morning. We got the entire photoshoot package and had a blast.
The Artist Alley was AMAZING this year by the way! The artists who had tables were all so super talented and there was so much merchandise to buy! We tend to spend the most amount of time in the Artist Alley at any convention, but unfortunately I only have so much room for art prints on my walls. This year almost all of the artists were also selling printed t-shirts, clothing made from custom designed fabrics, enamel pins, acrylic standees and keychains, etc. It was SO MUCH FUN to go shopping! I went way over my spending budget but I was so happy to do so.
I am so incredibly excited to hang this print of Merida from Elaine Ho in my house! Seriously, go follow her, love her. She's writing her own interpretation of Beauty and the Beast and I just love her progress so far!
We also had the additional delight of visiting Yaya Han's booth and talking with her husband for a short while. Yaya Han is someone whom I respect and look up to a great deal as a brilliant business woman. She's worked incredibly hard to build up her brand and is the reason that there are so many more resources for cosplayers in Joann fabrics now. (Seriously, her patterns actually have DIFFERENT CUP SIZES for busty women which is so helpful!). The group bought some Worbla and we're really looking forward to playing with it for Otakon this year.
I will say, though, that I was really disappointed with the panel offerings this year. Usually Katsucon offers a great selection of interesting panels but it felt like either I had already seen the interesting panels in past years or they were all 101 level. For example, there was actually a panel on "Shipping How-To's". WHAT?! It was sad. I didn't end up going to any and I did not hear great reviews about the other panels my friends attended.
However, I DID get Trina Nishamura's signature to add to my Attack on Titan signature collection! Some how I'm missing Josh Grelle's signature though, I'm not sure how that happened...
Overall it was a great time this year! We got to see some friends (including Momtaku who called me out for saying I'm going to post regularly again for 3 years now but haven't been. You're right! I'm working on it!).
Our plans for the rest of the year are a little dependent on if our panel submissions are accepted and if Firesighted gets into Artist Alleys (go love her too, she's the best!) but our current thoughts include:
I hope to see people there!
