Oh boy, what a year!
It’s been a good one all things considered for me, which was really nice for a change. It was also the year of spontaneous convention visits XD I made a few props and costumes and digitally painted the backdrop of our Owl House fan booth.
From top to bottom and left to right: Backdrop for Eda’s Human Treasures booth (The Owl House), Eda’s cash register & Steve’s mask (The Owl House), shark Nimona (Nimona), human Nimona (Nimona), Ex Altiora with flashing lightning page – we fried the chip T_T (The Magnus Archives), Mr. Bonzo (The Magnus Protocol), Catwell – still WIP (Elder Scrolls Online)
First con we went to was Polymanga in Switzerland because we couldn’t get enough of Kawaii action with Babybeard at last year’s Yunicon.
We then decided to visit the A1 E-Sports Festival on very short notice (like a day before xD), which took place on the same day as Conpact. But we did have the Owl House fan booth at Conpact led by Tsuya, which we already set up the day prior and therefore got the afternoon shift. I’ve made Lilith and Hooty for last year’s Dragon Con so I had time to make a Steve costume for Madness Creations. My work for the booth also included the graphics for the backdrop and Eda’s cash register. This weekend we finally had the opportunity to meet Sameer in person, who is a lovely person and an amazing crafter!
And this was also the weekend we decided to help Danny McFly with the cosplay contest at Austria Comic Con, so also just a week before the con took place. When our contest duty was done, we had a lot of fun with our small Owl House group with Elenya Frost and Martin.
After that we also joined DannyMcFly and Oni Levi at Level up Salzburg last minute, but again I’m glad we did because it was a lot of fun!
From left to right and top to bottom: Polymanga (with Ladybeard of Babybeard), A1 E-Sports Festival (with Tsuya, Sameer and Elenya Frost), Conpact (with Elif and Tsuya), Austria Comic Con (with Tsuya, Al-X, Danny, Elenya Frost and Martin) and Level up Salzburg (with ?, Levi, Felix, Stefi and Schlumpfine)
The chain of short-term decisions to visit cons continues with Dragon Con! We wanted to skip this year, but then there was a free space in Danny’s room at the Marriott and ehhh, why not. This was about 6 weeks before the con. I was in full Nimona hype at the time and this is how Shark Nimona came to be. There are two WIP posts on my Instagram about that costume, check them out if you want to know more about the construction process. And because this wasn’t enough I also needed human Nimona, though I bit off a bit more than I could chew, so Tsuya had to jump in and crunch with me those last two days. Thank you so much for that, I wouldn’t have made it without you! I had a blast at Dragon Con, I got to see my US friends (and Sameer!) again and met so many other talented people, I fetched a sport at the voice acting workshop and went to the Horror Cosplay group shoot as Jane Prentiss.
Dragon Con – from top to bottom and left to right: Tim Harrison, group photo with Jenn, Jojo from Brazen & Bold Productions, Neal and Danny McFly; group pic with Steven, Joshua and Jenn; Shark Nimona hitting the Marriott floor; human Nimona with Jojo, Horror Cosplay group photo; group photo with Michelle, Sameer, Sasha, Jenn, Matt and Jojo from Brazen & Bold Productions and Schrotty; group photo with Grace and Sasha; our Smooth-On! costumes with John (I think it was you???), group photo with Matt, Chad and Jojo.
Like, seconds before we hopped on the plane to Atlanta we (and friends and family *cough cough*) got tickets to the in-person preview premiere of The Magnus Protocol (a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill) in Manchester, which sadly was on the same date as Yunicon, so we couldn’t make that one this year. It was a very unique event though and I am very glad we were lucky enough to get tickets. My father in law joined us on that trip cause I had successfully gotten him to listen to TMA. It’s rare to be able to share these events up close with the generation of our parents, so this was something special!
A few weeks before this event we found out about our new lord and savior Mr. Bonzo in the Magnus Protocol ARG and when a discussion started to emerge about the background of this character in the ARG discord (“is Bonzo… alive or is he like a man in a Bonzo suit?“) the word “suit” triggered my “I can make suits!”-response which I promptly shared with Tsuya and Madness Creations, whose first reactions were a heartfelt “NO!“. I of course very much ignored their enthusiasm and started planning. Except for the fabric (which ended up being a jumper xD) I had everything at home and ready to be turned into a living nightmare. Making Bonzo was a lot of fun and the annoyance or dislike he inspired was the exact right amount to spark pure delight within me.
After we’ve found out about Bonzo’s detachable nose at the premiere’s “Making of Mr. Bonzo” clip from the upcoming Magnus Protocol documentary I had to make adjustments. You see, about 2 to 3 weeks before MCM Comic Con London tsuya and me decided to go and booked our trip. I count that as semi-last-minute because I’ve been talking about wanting to go to MCM for over a year at this point. So Bonzo got his detachable nose with the nose bone-shaped empty space and a suit starting to rip open to reveal gore and a single eye beneath and he made his way back to the UK. MCM was a blast, it’s amazingly well organized and such a comfortable con because of that fact. Tsuya and I got to spend an extra day in London afterwards and we were joined by Selen (who already kept us company while queueing at MCM) for some vampire times at Highgate.
Seeing the Magnus community this near and alive was truly special to me, so naturally these two weekends were definitely highlights of 2023. Bonzo’s in a better place now and I’m happy he found such a good new home. Best case scenario! But you have definitely not seen the last of Bonzo from me. He’s been a helpful companion to teach myself Nomad Sculpt and will therefore be revived in some form or another, hehehe.
From left to right: The Magnus Protocol preview premiere in Manchester (with Cast & Crew Sasha Sienna, Anusia Battersby, Shahan Hamza, Alex J Newall, Jonny Sims and Helen Gloud), MCM Comic Con London October + one day London (with Tsuya, Selen, Magnus fan meet-up group photo, Martyn, Jonny and Alex)
Okay wow, now, enough of this bonzo nonsense… bonzense…
VIECC was – again – a rather spontaneous visit. Very glad we went though, I got to take Shark Nimona for a spin. This meant that I had like a couple of days to make giant sunglasses for her. I wanted to make those for her for Dragon Con already, but cosplayers and time management, he… We got to see Dodo‘s incredible Caitlyn and met up with the podcast crew of Michael and Travis before we ended the day with a visit at the Artist Alley.
Speaking of Michael, he recorded an episode with Tsuya and me for his Drachentöter Podcast, which will be aired in 2024!
And then there was Mosticon, time to see Brittani Ginoza again! I didn’t bring a costume as it was another last minute decision. When we were already on our way I thought of my Hilda cosplay (like, we were watching it before we left the house), but it turned out a good thing cause this way I got a lift by Anna K.
From left to right: VIECC Vienna Comic Con (with Michael, Dodo and Travis), MostiCon (with Tsuya, Brittani, Anna K and Toni)
Last but not least I did participate in AnnitheDuck‘s essence charity cosplay contest and my Shark Nimona did win 2nd prize in the cute category! Continuing the streak of “I don’t have any costumes left which didn’t win something already”
Fun fact: 1st and 2nd place were my two favorites in this category!
Screenshot of the essence Cosplay Contest with judges Crunchy Cupcake, Kamui Cosplay and Anni the Duck and host Behaart mit Bart. 1st place goes to Salo.Cosplay, 2nd place to Bloody Baroness Cosplay and 3rd place to Shiaru_Ishihara.
There were a few downs between these very frequent ups, but in general 2023 was very kind to me. I feel lucky to have so many great friends and had the chance to meet so many more awesome people!