The S & M Con

The McSoss team spent the last two weekends gallivanting around Pennsylvania for a couple of comic conventions: Wizard World Philadelphia in Philly and Sci-Fi Valley Con in Altoona. I'd say both were successes in that we managed to sell some stuff and more importantly, get the McSoss brand out to new readers and listeners.

We've done six conventions total in the last three years and one thing that each show has in common, are cosplayers. What changes between each one is the cosplay du jour. Pittsburgh last year was filled with Matt Smith doctors. Philly leaned heavy on comic book characters. Altoona this past weekend was a melting pot of pretty much whatever you felt like wearing that day. That included the gentleman in the above comic.

While his was the most outrageous male costume, there were plenty of other dudes lettin' it all hang out. Altoona is probably less than a quarter the size of Philly, but I don't remember seeing so much male skin in the City of Brotherly Love. Odd going from the big city to a humble hamlet like Altoona. If you brought your child to the show, I bet they had some questions on the ride home.

That said, we had an amazing time in Altoona. Got to meet writer John Campbell and his lovely wife Linda – two extremely cool folks with a great sense of humor.

We met artist Chris Campana, who is just as swell as his Twitter account indicates.

And we also got to knock back some (a lot) of beers with the Gearbox Union. This collection of generous souls are the unofficial ambassadors of the Sci-Fi Valley Con and really made the weekend feel like home. Huge thanks to these guys.

We had an amazing couple weekends and met a fuck ton of people, so thank you to everyone who is reading this space for the first time. We'll see you online and maybe in person again soon!

-Gint