For the second year, Unnatural Forces made the 28 hour drive to get from Colorado Springs, Colorado to Atlanta, Georgia for Dragon*Con which took place on August 29-September 1, 2008. We learned much from our experiences the previous year. This time, we arrived early to recover from our trek through seven states. We also took advantage of staying in a host hotel. It was pricey, but worth every penny! Especially since we were more than observers this year. Both of us had art work displayed in the Art Gallery and Print Shop, and the Lycan Knight dressed up as War Machine and participated in the Parade and Masquerade.
Our early arrival allowed us to scout the territory before the huge crowds arrived. Learning fast and efficient routes between the hotels was an important part of maintaining sanity amongst the chaos. We were also able to explore downtown Atlanta more, discovering some neat places within walking distance of the hotel...like the CNN Center, Taco Bell, Dunkin' Donuts, and most importantly, THREE Starbucks Coffee shops (the one in the hotel was overly priced).
As expected, the area was overflowing with rabid fans dressed in costumes and waiting in insanely long lines. If they weren't waiting in line to get into panels featuring the stars from their favorite shows, they were doing the pee-pee dance in the line to get into bathroom (another great reason to have a room in the hotel), chewing on bits of their costume while waiting in line for food, staring at their empty wallets while waiting in line at the ATM, sweating in line at the Parade, or any other number of the various line rides you will find at Dragon*Con. Unwilling to wait in line for hours, we were able to view some panels on Dragon*Con TV which was ported to all the rooms in the host hotels. The sound was something you had to request from the concierge, however... something we didn't learn until the second day.
Despite our physical absence from the star featured panels, we did get our share of celebrity encounters. The first day of Dragon*Con we got to ride the 'lift with Matthew Lewis (aka Neville Longbottom from the Harry Potter movies). RavynEdge hadn't finished her coffee, so she didn't recognize him at all. Sorry Matt! However, the Lycan Knight was geeking out just a bit. After the Parade, the Lycan Knight's keen awareness spotted Beau Bridges as he exited the Marriott elevators. It must have been the Bridges Brothers Celebrity Sensor in his War Machine costume because despite the completion of her coffee, RavynEdge was completely oblivious once again.
The Masquerade was held on Sunday night in the Hyatt. Ethan Phillips was the Master of Ceremonies for the event and we thought he did an excellent job. The Lycan Knight won Best Journeyman with his War Machine costume and got to shake hands with Ethan after the awards were handed out. James Hong made a cameo appearance backstage just before the award presentation. This time RavynEdge did see him and recognized him immediately thanks to the War Machine's Celebrity Audio Feedback Sensors. Since we were both backstage most of the time, we didn't get any photos of the actual show. The official Dragon*Con Masquerade photos are HERE.
Click the NEXT button above for the photo tour of our Dragon*Con 2008 Rampage or navigate the individual images by using the thumbnails below.
