Displaced comic book fan observations on Animefest taking place at the Sheraton Hotel in Downtown Dallas this weekend:
What’s a comic book fan doing at an Anime convention anyway? Because as my niece told me & my wife, comic culture and anime culture are two totally different beasts. I volunteered my chaperone services months ago, when I figured there would be at least one vendor who trucked along some Marvel/DC long boxes to dig through while the other two shopped the floors for buttons and trinkets.
Nope. Not a traditional American mainstream comic or TPB in sight. And the young lady was spot-on about the difference between the two. Specially now that comic conventions are overrun with “speed passes”, and with pricey celebrity autographs & photo ops. Animefest is a bunch of teenagers/young adults throwing a geek coming out party. It’s more about letting the freak flag fly via Cos Play, and making connections with fellow attendees and vendors than seizing this year’s STTNG scribble to add to one’s collection. In fact, I say this with all due respect, Animefest is closer in kinship to Warhol/Bowie than it is to Lee/Kirby.
For starters, hardly any character I saw this afternoon wore a mask. There were bizarre blouses & gowns, tight fitting leotards, and colorful make-up, and bright frizzy wigs…but hardly anyone tried to lose themselves within a mask, cowl, or hood. Not even those few whose gloriously wide buttocks were exposed on the opposite side. These were all proud kids who’d been waiting for this weekend to shine, dammit.
But yet the event’s major discovery for me, though I’m sure this is just my lateness to the party, and everyone else is aware….most of these Anime/Manga characters are androgynous. I people-watched for a good hour and would place my odds on correctly identifying gender of Cos Play participants at about 60%. Such a magnificent boldness on display via their attire and a refreshing disregard to communicate their sexuality.
I did scratch my head on some other points, however. Like I said, I’m brand new, but there was a vendor dressed like Gary Burghoff from M.A.S.H. Perhaps there’s an adaptation of the classic sitcom (???), because one guy looked just like a young version of a clipboard-toting Radar. I also asked my niece about the teenagers portraying Nazi footsoldiers, but she was confused by that as well. My guess is an Anime version of Sophie’s Choice.- Dale Beggars
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