ConMunity Engagement: Bringing science to the con

Science outreach is an important part of all cons, whether convention or a conference. There should be different goals at each but both should have it represented somewhere. Outreach is a common part of science and in many cases there are ‘tried and true’ methods for outreach, such as the public lecture or the museum demonstration day. Unfortunately, these events involve the same thing as teaching a class, with the academic deciding the agenda and the pupils, or public, looking at them in awe. With the plethora of platforms for scientists to take advantage of now and the attacks on science at the Federal level, these are not enough for sciences to stay engaged with the public.

Therefore, I encourage scientific conferences, or meetings, to have outreach as an regular,n ongoing, topic of discussion. At professional meetings, I suggest scientists discuss new methods for outreach, what ideas or topics should be the focus of outreach, and identify the importance and/or value of outreach to the academic and to the field. These are important to explore amongst other academics because it allows whole disciplines to consider what aspects are the most important to convey to the public. It also allows us to explore the pros and cons of different outreach methods as well as tailor certain platforms to particular types of outreach.

I’m pursuing this through a forum I organized that will be held at the Society for American Archaeology meetings in April. Another group that is doing something is the newly established and first #AnthropologyCon that will happen at the American Anthropological Association meeting this year. Forums and events like these provide platforms to explore innovative methods for other academics to figure out what methods will work for them and their work. These interactions between academics also allow us to create networks of professionals that, after the conference or meeting, will be able to help navigate bumps down the road with particular methods and help to provide a group to workshop ideas with at a distance.

Of course, the goal of meetings, forums, and events such as those mentioned previously would be to do the actual outreach. One place that I highly recommend doing this is at conventions, comics or just “geek” ones in general. These are places where you can have panels of scientists or scientists and creators open to the public; hands on activities relating to your science (or the rest of the TEAM); and demonstrate new teaching materials like board games or other outreach platforms like video game visualizations.

Come see me moderate @geniusbeee @backthatelfup @syrrann @sarahmiyoko @GeekGirlCon In fifteen in Furiosa talking about mixed race characters

— Paulina the PhD Candidate (now w/ more character) (@punuckish) October 1, 2017

This is something I have already started doing. While anthropology makes this pretty easy, because conventions are cultural events, blending the expertise of creators and scientists of all types hold great potential for outreach. At comics or science fiction conventions, panels can be organized by anyone and can include scientists, creators, critics, and anyone else who is interested in putting people together to talk about a topic. Conventions represent a unique place to bring scientific topics to a willing audience and we can do our best academic public outreach by involving a wide range of stakeholders. Additionally, almost all panels have a dedicated time set up for questions and answers so dialogue with the public is more open, rather than just having one person lecture. While the topic is often up to the organizer, that person is not always the scientist and panels allow for more discourse to flow between the panelists who may be from different backgrounds.

It is important to have dialogue about science outreach at both conventions and conferences because often as academics and as professionals we’re put on pedestals. Primarily, our work happens “under the hood” or behind a curtain because of academic publishing paywalls. So, unless people enroll in college classes or buy much to expensive access to academic databases, the dissemination of scientific knowledge is rather limited. Conventions allow us to go beyond the classroom to bring our knowledge to a wider audience because it brings us to the public and puts them, to a degree, in control over what gets discussed. It is important also for us to develop better teaching methods to cater to new generations and take advantage of many ways of learning and as temporary events, they allow us to see if certain methods work and which ones don't.

Lastly, it’s important in these discussions to be aware of the representation that your group is portraying. This means remembering diversity in regards to age, gender, race, and regional knowledge when organizing forums, meetings, or panels. This is because when it comes to outreach at public events that those we are trying to inspire physically see themselves represented. For example, it may be hard to convince the public that you are “de-colonizing” an issue if all of your presenters come from colonizing backgrounds or on cultural appropriation if a majority of you participants are white. Keeping this in mind will help to promote diversity in whatever field is being discussed and help make sense more accessible to all.

ConMunity Engagement: Feminist Fandoms part 1

I like millions of other people went out on 21 January 2017 to participate in the Womxn’s March. Though I already had my feminist apocalyptic-chic outfit chosen my friend and I sat down to make a sign each and I chose the simple NC from Bitch Planet. I’ve started to use this as a sort of default for creating things now, aka there is only one Halloween pumpkin design, which seems both ironic and appropriate. If everything is non-compliant then it means nothing (there is no compliance bar) but it’s also a simple and powerful symbol. I knew there were probably many other non-compliant womxn out there at the march but I was not in a large city, so I got a few questions about what “my symbol meant” but that meant I got to share more about Bitch Planet.

I like the many other people with fantastic, empowering, and sometimes hilarious signs, I chose NC very deliberately. I chose it because I wanted to showcase my particular brand of Nerd-feminism and to highlight the simplicity behind the idea of non-compliance. One of the reasons I love Kelly Sue and Val’s concept is because non-compliance can be simple or complicated, many or one thing. It simply does not comply. And when I talked with people about the concept it made them think about the millions of things that women are taught that make them un-feminine or can feminize a man. That simple concept can apply to anyone and makes this comic-book-based-feminist idea so powerful. This is also why I chose to fill in the letters with pink and black. For me the use of the color pink is associated with femininity. I had growing up disliking pink and disliking many of the other associations with femininity that came along with it but as I have gotten older I’ve become more welcoming and almost fiercely attached to pink. I’ve taken it up again and paired it with black because it is a color of resistance and power. Black helps connect us to other, and greater, movements of resistance.

What I also like about the symbol is that Bitch Planet is part of a feminist movement in comics and in Fandoms, which have the potential to be feminist havens. For me the intersection between my nerdy interests and feminism was another way place that feminism has to be entrenched. For me, my nerdy interests need to be feminist. Not all fantasy has to help us to be better people but as tools for teaching, it is integral to making us our better selves. Also for so long being a nerd was almost exclusively coded as male and what more recent fandoms have done, by the increase in cosplay and crafting, is incorporate women and transform nerd-dom visually, emotionally, and intellectually.

More than ever at conventions, particularly at conventions like GeekGirlCon, I see people talking about mental health, inclusion, and a myriad of other issues that have made nerd communities more inclusive and cognizant of society’s problems. Before Nerd-dom has a history of being welcoming to women but it, like many professions, has gone through an anti-woman hump that only recently has had a fierce and purposeful restructuring. This has involved opening nerd islands of insolation and discussing how even nerd friendships were unhealthy. Controlling nerd knowledge was just a different form of bullying.

The increase in the number of women and women’s spaces in Nerd dom has meant a re-negotiation of these behaviors. While some have turned from bitter nerds into members of the alt-right, those same feelings of alienation can be used to unite people against the things that reject us. Being part of a persecuted group does not exclude you from negative behaviors but we have a common enemy and those are hate and feelings of loneliness. Additionally, so many works of fiction that create fandoms, whether or not they identify as nerds, are built on ideas of being true to one’s self, cooperation, and resistance to negative forces. Because of that intersectio-nerd-feminism is a must.

For me, nerd-dom is linked to my interest in science-fiction and “nerdom” because it has in many ways helped me formulate and understand my identity. It is a community I participate in and it must be held to the same standards that I require of the rest of the world.

ConMunity Engagement: Representation Matters

I love GeekGirlCon, it does amazing things by creating space specifically for women in the Geek conMunity. These past two years have demonstrated that and each year they are heading towards their goal of being completely inclusive. But (yes the dreaded but) this year I examined GeekGirlCon for how they demonstrate, with real humans, that people of color are part of the Geek community. Which means that the Convention left some things to be desired, though some of those things are out of their control.

I want to and feel the need to address this specifically because:
1. I sat through at least one all white (presenting) panel
2. After my panel someone approached me with concerns about another panel that spoke about their heritage but the person talking was not of that heritage
3. I had a question during my panel about the participation of PoC in Cosplay
4. The room my panel was in ended up being too small, so people were turned away

Everything I love is problematic. I definitely think that GeekGirlCon is moving towards fulfilling their mission of being, essentially, a third-wave feminist convention, but there are holes, which I assume they are aware of, but in case they are not I think should be addressed.

All White Panels (AWPs)

What is this? Panels with only white panelists. This is in no way, shape, or form a problem unique to GeekGirlCon, you could say it’s a Paneldemic at mainstream conventions. Mainstream conventions have an all-white and all-male panel problem regardless of the topic under discussion. As GeekGirlCon has very much progressed past the all-male panel, the next step is to avoid AWPs. In the same way, that in academia there is always a woman expert that could speak, at cons (and in academia TBH) there is a woman of color who should be on that panel.

Why does this matter? Well, it, fuck it just does. Ok you want reasons well here are some. It makes the default relationship to the topic the white relationship to the topic. The panels put together by all PoC groups were labeled as such (Asian, Black, or Mixed-Race experience). In contrast, all-white panels were not labeled even though the presentation would be limited to the experience of a single group. This becomes even more awkward when having an all-white panel talking about a non-American cultural property because race-is-always-a-thing and influences how and why you associate yourself with a product. For example, looking back, Sailor Moon and the rise of Japanese-cartoons were super important for me because at the time they were the only association I had to Asian-heritage in the mainstream. It wasn’t Filipino but it was Asian, the half of my identity that was not being validated or explored through any other medium. Obviously, things not from America are important for lots of people but we cannot accept, especially at GeekGirlCon, the white experience as the only/default experience. It’s also a problem because it reinforces the stereotype that nerd-culture is white culture and reinforces the idea that PoC interested in nerd culture are not allowed or are outsiders.

How can we fix this? There’s no good way to screen for all-white panels but consider putting it into the form to have panel submissions self-select. Something along the lines of “Do your panelists represent diverse experiences with the topic under discussion in regards to race/class/ability/experience?” Then you have to explicitly talk about it, and if you do find out a panel is all white, considering labeling it as such in the same way you would identify an all-Asian panel.

Panel Authority

What is this? I generalized this to the idea of “panel authority” but it’s the idea “do the people on the panel have the right to talk about the topic”. An attendee at my panel mentioned wanting to have more of their heritage represented on panels because they felt that someone on another panel had spoken on behalf of that community without being from that community. This is definitely not unique to GeekGirlCon, but it’s also not uncommon for people “in the know,” particularly progressive people, to assume they are informed when they may not be.

Why does this matter To paraphrase a previous paragraph, it just fucking does. On the one hand, it's great that people create panels with their friends, but on the other hand you need to consider who your friends are. This is particularly important because as much as we can empathize with people of different backgrounds and may be informed enough to speak for them it never makes up for actively having those people speak for themselves, particularly in regards to culture and beliefs. We all speak from experience and a love for the topic under discussion but sometimes it's better to stop and say, maybe I don’t have the authority to say that, and ask the audience for someone who might be able to speak for that group or on the topic. This also relates to the issue in the previous section in that diverse panelists in terms of race will make that more likely. For example, if you’re going to discuss Mulan, having someone of Chinese (or at least Asian) descent may be good to have on your panel. Obviously, you can’t cover everything and you don’t want to tokenize people, but considering the authority your panelists have should be an important reason why you select them.

How can we fix this? I think the same question I suggested in the previous section could go a long way. Additionally, asking moderators and panelists to be aware of their audience and acknowledge if they are not the authority on the topic would help as well.

PoC in Cosplay

What is this? So one of the questions I had during my panel was about the Cosplay competition asking about how to get more mixed/diverse people not just cosplaying but competing. She also mentioned that of the PoC represented, most were children. We suggested directly asking friends to compete, helping those friends finish their cosplay, and supporting each other to do that. GeekGirlCon actually had the panels such as “Black Cosplay Magic: Cosplayers of Color Talk” and “Here come the “Bla-takus”: Being Black/ POC in the Anime Fandom” explicitly talked about PoC as cosplayers. However, few adult people of color were in the competition.

Why does this matter? A lot of the imagery and room names at the con advertises women of color but public participation is just as important. It matters because it demonstrates we are real and active members of the community. It matters not only that you see yourself represented in media, as characters, but that you can be seen as a valuable creator of that media. There are lots of well-known PoC in cosplay but bridging the gap to competition is important as cosplay contests get heavily featured in the program, which influences who might participate in following years and who the con is projecting is the audience and community they are serving. This comes down to putting your money where your mouth is regarding inclusivity and considering the ways that unintentionally the con might be discouraging adult PoC to participate in contests.

How can we fix this I think this comes back to what we as a panel suggested to our attendee. It may be up to the con to search out and actively encourage adult PoC to participate in cosplay competitions. It may not currently feel like a space where PoC feel that they can participate, as cosplay is expensive and, honestly, intimidating, so maybe hosting cosplay intros in communities of color (geography matters, do not ever forget that) and workshopping them towards competition may be a type of outreach that GeekGirlCon expands into in coming years.

Packed audiences for PoC Panels

What is this? Again it was another packed house for my panel. This sounds extremely self-serving, but my panels fill rooms. This meant that there were people who were turned away from the panel. Can I say that we would have filled the room if we had been scheduled in a larger room? I have no idea, but I do know that last year my panel on cultural appropriation filled a bigger room.

Why does this matter? This matters because people who wanted to attend programming for and by PoC were unable to attend that programming. This is just shitty. It means that people want more programming and want the space to be able to participate. Personally, I’d like to get passed panels that are just about the experience of PoC in nerdom but until we are regularly integrated into the narrative of nerd culture, we will require our own spaces to talk about our experiences as our own because those experiences are considered “unique” rather than the norm. This matters because if we continue to assume the default nerd is white (and in other contexts male) panels and cons need to work against that narrative actively to build an inclusive community.

How can we fix this? Try to get more panels by and for PoC into your programming, as participants on panels and by having more panels with them. GeekGirlCon does have quite a bit of that programming specifically for different PoC groups (“Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Examining the Representation of Asians in Film, TV, and Gaming,” “¿Cómo Se Dice ‘Nerd’?”, and “#BlackWomenDreaming” to name a few) but it’s clear that people want even more. These groups should also have expanding presences and be actively recruited to explore the unique experience of nerds of from different cultures/races/backgrounds. This will also be helped by having PoC on all panels at the con (cycling back to the first point) but also having panels about non-specific topics also staffed entirely by PoC. It circles back to reminding us that white-nerd culture is not the default.

My panels are not perfect. I haven’t reached my goals regarding them yet but I’m trying to create the programming I want to see at conventions. I also want to be a role model for others interested in bringing similar programming to conventions. There is a long way to go and lots of shit that needs doing but the success of panels like mine and #BlackWomenDreaming give me hope for how great the future of conventions could be. It requires work and in some cases taking the space we need at the table. It requires reaching out and hoping someone will reach back (and sometimes reaching out more than once to people who may not notice for a while). But those contacts will help GeekGirlCon and the nerd-dom grow into an amazing and new community. In general, this matters because representation matters and that should never be forgotten.

ConMunity Engagement: GeekGirlCon a Feminist Convention

Another weekend and another whirlwind trip to in the Pacific Northwest. I may have been perpetually tired but GeekGirlCon did not disappoint. There was a great collection of artists and the panels were as impactful and important as I could have hoped. GeekGirlCon always leaves me with a lot of feelings. Most good but a few that make me want to push for more from the convention but I'll talk about that later.

GeekGirlCon is a unique convention held in Seattle for the last six years. As a 501(c)(3) (aka a charity) organization the convention is organized by volunteers except for their one paid employee, the executive director. They only were able to hire an executive director this year as what started as a small convention has grown over the years to fill more and more space in the Washington State Conference center.

Unlike many other conventions, it has the mission of inclusivity meaning “ALL ages, gender identities, sexual orientations, sizes, abilities, ethnicities, nationalities, races, creeds, religions, familial statuses, physical and mental abilities, alien species, earth species, education levels, science specializations, operating system preference, fandoms, etc., are welcome.” As defined by themselves. This definition for inclusivity means that their goal is intersectional feminism centered on a geek community.

Last year was a great introduction to the set up and so this year I was more selective. I attended only three panels, besides my own, and my favorite was #BlackWomenDreaming with some of the amazing writers from Black Nerd Problems. The panel was a fantastic introduction into creating your own working, supportive, and accountable creative community. Some of the highlights included: be honest when you give criticism and when you talk about your goals, reach out to people to create your community, and make sure to keep our eye out for opportunities to one another. There were a ton more great moments from the panel but overall it captured the best parts of GeekGirlCon by highlighting the voices of women of color and the outlining ways that we can promote a healthy geek community.

Besides panels, I got to meet up with some old friends and make some new ones too. Ran into my friend Hannah dressed as the awesome Liv Moore from iZOMBiE and caught up a bit. Was ambushed by my friend Carrie, who was a panelist for me last year and who was part of the #BlackWomenDreaming panel. Saw the amazing Tristan at their table and on my panel. I also got to meet Kiku, Symantha, and Sarah who were all fantastic on the panel I moderated (I’ll talk about that in a forthcoming blog). I also introduced myself to a few more people who I may tap for panels for Emerald City. Also my mom came and was at my panel. She was a very fantastic typical mom who is not versed in Geek stuff but seemed to enjoy it nonetheless.

GeekGirlCon is fantastic for being one of a handful of feminist nerd conventions around the world. It promotes girls of color in STEM by having them on their imagery and donating passes to organization such as Con or Bust, which helps People of Color / non-white folks attend conventions. The majority of their speakers are women, non-binary, or trans folks and the content of panels at the convention really brings that inclusivity home. It highlights professionals from those groups in gaming, writing, art, illustration, crafts, voice-acting, science, industry, and other fields. It shows not only women as characters but highlights the importance of women as do-ers and creators, demonstrating how girls and women can decide the narrative and their lives.

This con is extremely valuable in this regard as so often, conventions are coded as male-centered spaces and sometimes, even as extremely unhealthy male-centered spaces. GeekGirlCon contrasts that by specifically trying to build positive community and to highlight topics of discussion, through their programming, that would be considered a side-issue at larger conventions. However, GeekGirlCon is not perfect and I’ll talk about that in my next blog on why Representation at Cons matters.

Con-munity engagement: Building community at conventions

So I’m heading to my second convention within the last 30 days, to moderate my second panel of the year, Scion or Shafted: Being Mixed race in Science Fiction and Fantasy on Sunday at 3pm. This time it’s going to be at GeekGirlCon, which unlike conventions like Rose City, is organized around a central theme, the Geek Girl. Other cons like this, such as Flame Con, rather than being organized geographically, though that’s always a component, are organized around a particular nerdy community. Their mission is to promote intersectional nerddom, the promoting LGBTQA+ community, people of color, and especially women in nerd spaces. While the con is not perfect, with early years being dominated still by a white-girl-nerd narrative, the con has been evolving to better represent their mission statement.

It is also the convention that got me started down the road of “Con-munity” engagement because of their explicit focus on diversity and talking about issues that many “mainstream” nerd venues consider secondary.

So, what is a “Con-munity”?

Conventions, whether comic or centered around any other theme, are a type of impromptu-community. Large amounts of people descend onto a particular space for a limited amount of time, all to celebrate the them. It means that at any given moment at a convention you are probably near someone who shares an interest of your or will get that reference you know none of your co-workers will get. These even get more specific as people self-select to attend panels or other gatherings. This means that, while ephemeral, conventions recur and act as a reunion. Attend enough conventions and be consistent with your interests, you’ll probably find and make a couple of con buddies. These are people who clearly share your interest and probably live in your area, assuming you’ve seen them at geographical cons. So this is the con-munity, people aggregated together for that convention that over time might become part of your actual community.

So, how can they be engaged?

The great thing about the con-munity is that, conventions create a captive audience. Walking around the pop-up mall that is the convention hall is great, but tiring and at one point, you run out of money or credit. Additionally, the people who are interested in what you have to say about pop culture are already there as they choice to attend the convention. Like a conference, people are there to talk about and listen to topics related to the central theme, comics/nerd stuff, so they are looking for what you are selling. Additionally, comics are returning to being more socially engaged. This means the community who reads and creates them are becoming more actively political and engaging with social issues. They want to know how to be better at portraying culture, science, gender, etc. because they know it’s the right thing to do and that it creates better stories. This means if you are a socially-engaged creator having a table, or if you are a specialist in a particular topic organizing panels around that theme

My goal for engagement is to bring issues that I know and care about, discussions of culture and science, to the greater con-munity. Helping them find resources that they can use to make better creations.

Rose City Comic Con in review / What it's like to attend a Comic Convention

Last weekend I attended Rose City Comic Con (RCCC) up in Portland Oregon with the BF. It was super fun and it was a great reminder of how great conventions are for building community, so to ease into a series of blogs on what I term “CONmunity engagement” (community engagement at conventions) I wanted to give a brief description of what comic conventions are like. I assume the majority of my readers have attended at least one but even if you are invested in a fandom, it can be intimidating to go to one especially, if you don’t have a convention buddy.

Comic conventions involve a bunch of different “geek” or “nerd” fandoms. This means that in most cases there will be celebrities, artists, writers, video and board games, as well as all sorts of other meet-ups and opportunities for attendees. If you enjoy something considered “nerdy” or “geeky” you will find community at a comic convention. This also means that there are a variety of entertainment types to appeal to these different communities. For the purposes of this article, I separate these into panels, individual meetings, and shopping.

Specifically, Portland has a high proportion of comics writers and artists and recently Image comics moved their headquarters there to better serve that community. This means that RCCC ends up being a large enough convention to draw big names (from comics and elsewhere) but small enough to be unintimidating. It’s also still affordable to attend and you get a great cross section of the type of work going on in comics, shows, and video games.

Day One: Friday Cosplay: Saya from Deadly Class

Day ones are usually petty chill (assuming it’s a three-day con). They start in the afternoon and not all the special guests (artists, writers, celebrities, etc) are there. Everyone’s setting up and getting prepared for what the con will be like. If you are interested in seeing a big name and they are going to be there on Day One, go to Day One. Generally, their lines will be shorter as many people work on the weekdays, which Day One’s usually fall on, and there’s a tendency to wait until the last minute to do things like ask for a commission or get a signature. Early birds get well-rested creators signing and drawing stuff.

Panels: I attended one that day and that was the Bitch Planet panel. As a creation (comic, movie, show, etc.) specific panel, it included the all creators associated with the book, gave us updates about when new issues were coming out, and then opened the panel up for questions. Creation specific panels are a great way to be introduced to works that sound cool, for keeping abreast of the latest news specific to that work, and for getting any detailed creation-specific questions off your chest. It was a great panel (I love Bitch Planet) and we got to find out about when the new arc will start.

Individual meetings: As I said, Day One is great for meeting creators who might get busy over the next few days at the con as the crowd gets larger. This meant that well-known creators like Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky had short lines and so getting to chat with them didn’t mean a line of 30 people wondering why you are taking so long. For me, it meant that I got to ask if I could get my amazing ODY-C tights signed in the next few days. I also introduced myself to the awesome Yoshi Yoshitani, who was going to be on my panel on Sunday.

Shopping: If you are dying to grab a limited supply item and you do not think it is going to go on sale, grab it on Day One. This is generally the case with items produced by creators themselves, rather than shops who don’t want to carry lots of inventory back with them. Day one for me involved buying an awesome ODY-C pin from Matt Fraction.

Day Two: Saturday Cosplay: Kalliyan from Shutter

If a Day Two, is a Saturday, it will likely be the busiest day of the con. This means big crowds all day. They open early but that doesn’t mean getting there exactly as they open will be the best. They generally open in the morning but probably a little after the quoted time due to scheduling and other sorts of preparation. I’d recommend, if you don’t have an early entrance pass, thirty minutes to an hour after they open will mean easy and relaxed entrances. Day twos are busy, so if you want a commission try to be there early, and if you aren’t, be prepared to wait to meet any of your favorite big name creators. Also be very aware of their schedules, usually posted on a personal website, which outlines when they’ll actually be at their table, so you don’t wander by 80 times wondering why they aren’t back yet. Day Twos (especially if they are Saturdays) usually mean a lot of programming, panels etc., so be aware of when large rooms open and close so you don’t get caught in huge throngs of people.

Panels: There are usually more panels on Day Two/Saturdays as earlier openings and later closings means more time to having events. For me and the BF, we attended the Spotlight on: Matt Fraction panel and the Sex Criminals Panel. The Sex Criminals panel was a Sex Criminals version of the Bitch Planet panel and hilarious. Spotlight panels are different than creation-based panels as it will have only up to two people, a moderator and the spotlit person. These are great chance for attendees to get to know an individual creator better, inquire about their ongoing projects, and ask them about their process. I do have a request though: Please don’t ask about getting around writers/artists block. I have heard this question asked at almost every spotlight panel and the answers do not vary much between individual creators. Their advice usually is: keep writing/drawing/creating even if it is crap, change projects for a time, and go do something to get inspired.

Individual meetings: Personally, this was a great day for individual meetings. The cosplay I wore was from a great comic called Shutter that finished this year and both the artist and writer were there. It can be kind of weird to go up to people you have never met and be like “HEY I DRESSED LIKE YOUR CREATION” but it’s really great. Both Leila Del Duca and Joe Keatinge were awesome to meet in person and loved my cosplay, which was super humbling. Also while I was in costume, the amazing Kelly Sue said she loved my earrings (made out of pipe cleaners and attached to another set of earrings), which was hilarious. I also got my ODY-C tights signed by Matt Fraction, which was great. The pen slipped so he wrote “It’s me I swear” on them as well.

Shopping: I broke my own rule and bought a bunch of stuff on Saturday. I picked up a Bitch Planet Eleanor pin that will join my previous Bitch Planet Pin and a new print from Valentine De Landro that reads “THEY ARE ALL MY SISTERS”. I picked up the Legend of Korra graphic novel and got to meet the artist, Irene Koh, and Kris Anka current artist on Runaways who was manning Jen Bartel’s booth. I also picked up Jen Bartel’s and Irene Koh’s collaboration of Korrasami. I stopped by Chris Sebela’s table to pick up Coffee Shop Dogs and Leila Del Duca’s Afar when I saw her in my cosplay.

Day Three: Sunday Cosplay: None, but I did combine my “We are not things” shirt with my ODY-C tights

Day Threes/last days are also usually pretty chill. However, it’s not the best time to get things signed, especially from big names, because that's when everyone remembers who they forgot to talk to, aka It's Crunch Time. There are smaller crowds and sales at vendor/store booths, as they don’t want to carry product home with them. This means that if you want a bunch of back issues or some last-minute con-exclusives this is a good time to go and haggle for the thing you’ve had your eye on.

Panels: Day three was the panel I moderated on Adaptation versus Appropriation. The panel was great and I am so thankful to have gotten the chance to moderate a panel with the awesome Tristan J. Tarwater, Yoshi Yoshitani, and Marissa Louise. My panel also represents a third kind of panel, which is centered on a particular topic of discussion. These usually involve collecting a group of creators to talk about a particular topic with the aim of providing advice to other creators or to comment on the state of a particular issue in comics. It was a great experience and I was happy to see how many people were interested to see us all speak. The other panel I attended was the Bitch Planet games panel, which focuses on confidence and community building games. As far as I'm aware it's unique-to-Bitch-Planet, kinetic, and fun.

Individual meetings: Getting to chat with Yoshi, Tristan, and Marissa before the panel was great. Also watching the room fill up was crazy and amazing. I also got to meet Ibrahim Moustafa who is an awesome artist. I also stopped by to say hello to a high school friend of mine, Hollie Mengert, who I re-met at GeekGirlCon the previous year. I also said hello to the Jayme Twins who are doing amazing work with their Darkroom Series that is fanart combined with old photographic styles. I loved their work at GeekGirlCon and they contacted me for some information about old-school archaeology to make their works feel more appropriate to the times they were referencing.

Shopping: Although there were great sales, I didn’t take advantage of them. I grabbed the last print copy of Ibrahim Moustafa’s Jaeger , which was a necessary purchase because Nazi-hunting obviously. I grabbed a set of connected enamel pins that Yoshi had done based on the Three Wise Monkeys pictoral maxim, I opted for the See the Evil set. Personally, enamel pins are some of the best things to get at cons as there’s no shipping cost and people come up with such amazing designs that you can rock a pin with any outfit. The last thing I did was pick up a new Rose City meets Stranger Things trucker hat (as seen in the above photo) with a Hellboy t-shirt (as seen in the photo below) from the con exclusives booth. It was the last day, and I got the last hat, so I haggled a bit from the volunteer behind the booth.

Overall, RCCC is a great con for level of any attendee. While I don’t take advantage of everything it has to offer, there’s a huge diversity of things to do, buy, and people to meet. I recommend attending if you’re in Portland when it’s going on and on top of all its other goodness, they have banned Nazi-related costumes for some really good reasons. I saw a set of those cosplays and in today’s world we need more Jaegers and fewer Nazi Hello Kitties. Next blog I’ll go into more detail about Conmunity engagement, what I mean by the term and who is being engaged.

Where to begin: Getting into comics

Right off the bat: Comics are a Medium and Not a Genre

Don’t argue

If you argue about this point then this blog is not for you, because I’m going to ask you what genres you like and if superheroes are all that you want there are other “where to start” blogs that will probably be more your style. Also, I will not be giving specific book suggestions, this is supposed to be about you (the reader) choosing your own comics adventure.

Anyways, where to begin and how to get into comics. It can be intimidating to start reading comics especially if your goal is to feel comfortable and like you belong in a comic book shop. I will say this, no matter how many comics you read, stepping into a new shop can be intimidating. It’s like going into a new bar, you know a sort of what to expect but it’s still a different place with a new group of people. Anyways, I’m going to pose questions and give suggestions as this is not an absolute guide to getting into comics. Instead, it’s a way to think about what you want to get out of reading them and consider how and if you want to be part of a comics community.

First, what do you want to get out of reading comics? Expand the types of things you read? Get involved with a particular community? Know more about the heroes you see on the silver and LED screen? Know what people are talking about when they reference stuff?

It’s important to know the answers to these questions to understand what sort of commitment you are making. Comics do not have to be a commitment but it helps to understand what sort of “first books” you might be interested in, what sort of recommendation lists you should look for, and where you should be looking to get them. Knowing the answers to these questions helps to narrow down the infinite possible books to start with and the infinite places you might start to look for things. Also it's OK to pick up something and then not like it. That doesn’t mean that all comics aren’t for you, it just means that that particular book wasn’t for you. Comics are an infinite medium so unless you don’t like pictures and words together there is most likely a comic you’ll like.

My next question is what do you want to read? What genres do you currently read? Have you read manga (PS manga are comics so you already read comics!) or watched anime? Do you already read things like xkcd or PhD comics or Hark! A Vagrant? Are you looking for episodic works, stories that finish quickly? Are you looking for specific stories? Or do you enjoy never knowing with something could end?

These questions help you to decide what types of comics you are looking to get into as far as genre and length format. While we often think of comic books in their “floppy” single-issue form, many comics are published as complete graphic novels, single page web-comics, and digital or print strips. These are all valid ways to “get into” comics but each type has its own community and place to get those types of stories. And remember, manga and manhwa are comics too, they just have generally Asian-creators and the works are translated but that doesn’t make them any less valid than American style comics.

If short form, or very episodic, is your thing (aka you like comic strips or getting a new page of a story every week or few days) webcomics will be a good place for you to start. There are tons of great ones on websites like Tapas and on websites hosted by their creators. These are often more personal works and catered to the tastes of the creator rather than a particular market, as they are labors of love. This means you can find almost any possible story imaginable in this form. Also some of the more popularized ones (like Hark! A Vagrant) do have published compilations through Kickstarter or are being picked up by publishers like Oni press so you can get them in hard copy form as well.

You know what you want, now how do you get it? How much do you want to commit financially to reading comics? How quickly do you read?

My first recommendation in relation to this is once you know what you want out of comics and the stories you are interested in finding, search “comics” and those topics that you want to read about. You’ll probably get some Wikipedia entries, amazon ads, and maybe some blogs posts. These will all help you pick what you are interested in. If you have not selected web comics, or even if you have my next suggestion will always be your library, local or university.

Why? Because the library is awesome, librarians can help you find more cool stuff, there is a huge variety, and you can try everything with minimal financial commitment. Libraries are great places to be (they often have air conditioning) and allow you to browse what is available with no commitment to spend money. Once you know more of what you want you can ask librarians to help you find more stuff (comics or not) that you will be interested in. If you read quickly, like I did when I was reading manga, the library is a great place to churn through graphic novels. 50 volumes of Bleach? No need to drop $500 on all those graphic novels, especially if you don’t care to re-read or display them, get them from the library.

Lastly, while you might not be helping creators directly, book circulation impacts what libraries buy, so if a certain graphic novel is continuously checked out they will probably buy more of volume 2 of that graphic novel. Also as a patron you can suggest things for the library to buy, in case you aren’t sure about something but think others might enjoy it. I’ve done this for local comics as well, which boosts sales and can put diverse books on publicly available shelves. As a little extra too, many libraries have digital comics access as well as physical comics (generally graphic novels as those do not deteriorate as quickly but some individual branches may have a small collection of floppies). So, if you don’t want to carry fifty graphic novels home with you, you can check them out through apps like Hoopla. Also at no charge. Doing this helps to makes sure you are getting actually what you want and helps you explore in what format to help decide how much you might want to contribute financially to comics down the road.

Do you like having physical copies of books of things you own (cds/dvds/video games)? Do you re-read books?

If you think any of the above is a yes then get to know your local secondhand bookstore (like Half Price Books), Amazon.com, TFAW, and/or a local comics shop. TFAW and your local comics shop will have floppies and graphic novels, while Amazon and secondhand bookstores are better for graphic novels. If you are just starting out local comics shops can be intimidating but if you go in know what you want, and money's no object, you can get great recommendations from the employees. If you aren’t a people person, Amazon is great for graphic novels and has the added benefit of reviews, though I wouldn’t always trust them as they can be filled with old guard gate-keepers. TFAW is a great resource for floppies and graphic novels and during their sales is a great place to snag a wide variety of newer material.

What do you do if the library doesn’t have what you want but you don’t have much to commit financially?

If webcomics, which are generally free, aren’t your thing, but you don’t have tons to drop on graphic novels or floppies consider a subscription service such as Marvel Unlimited or Stela both of which cost $10 a month for unlimited access to their online library of comics. Also consider looking at second hand shops, which might have older or out of print graphic novels.

Do you have gobs of expendable income? Are you interested in having a direct relationship with creators you read? What if you are a bazillionaire and want to dedicate all your money to comics?

Well walk into any store that you want and buy all the things my big spender. OR be even cooler and do things like back Kickstarters and support creators directly via Patreon. Patreons allow you to support those creators directly so that they can keep living and creating cool work. Lastly, most of the time each tier of support (either one time things like Kickstarter or monthly giving like Patreon) you get something like a unique comic or digital version of something for your money so it’s just going down a black hole.

How do I start doing the subscription/pull/regular weekly floppies thing?

If there are individual issues that you want to follow that come out in physical form this is the best way to support that industry. Pre-sales orders (aka what you put on your “pull” or subscription list) are what get reported and influence what series continue and which get axed. It was the source of recent controversy over at Marvel and so pre-sales are a really important way to make sure the books that you want to read keep getting published. For me, this means books that star and/or are created by POC, women, and LGBTQA folks.

Once that’s figured out look around for what shop is closest to you, check out their subscription/pull policy, as they are not standard, and visit it to make sure it’s got the vibe you want. Try to chat with employees to see if you like the vibe, and after checking their pull box policy, ask about starting a subscription box. If you don’t like the vibe or their policy, there are usually multiple options in an area and try those out. If you aren’t in to going to a physical shop for many local shops will ship to people (for an added fee), you can get find an online only service like TFAW, and digital subscriptions through publishers are always a possibility.

What about protecting my comics?

There have been many recent articles and great twitter threads discussing the “value” of comics. Namely, that the collector market in many ways is made up. Regardless of what floppies you buy, get them because you want to read them not because of some assumed increase in value down the line. OLD comics are worth $$ now because they were trashed and so while lots of them existed, few survive. This is no longer the case. Comics are printed in huge batches and many people out there are looking for “perfect” versions. That means, if you want to protect your comics you should be interested in protecting them for your own pleasure. That means bags, boards, or both depend on what you want for your collection and always means an added cost to reading comics in protective supplies. These are better to buy in bulk and to shop around (online or at a variety of local shops) for the best price and if you want some tips on preserving home collection in general check out this.

I read the stuff, now what do I do?

I recommend, once you’ve found creators/writers you like, follow them on Twitter and Tumblr. They often post great art or story tidbits and make you feel part of the comics community, even if you don’t go to a local shop. You can see what new projects are going on and often get great recommendations from them for new books or artists to follow or kickstarters for unique titles.

I want to reiterate There is no “right” way to get into comics. Just like getting to music or print books, everyone gets there in their own fashion, Unfortunately, because of histories of gatekeeping, comics can seem more intimidating than they have a right to be. And remember, however you get here, if you are interested you belong anywhere comics discussions are.