GeekGirlCon’12 was pretty awesome. I’ve never really been to a convention on that scale before (other than the Supernova expo, which is not the same).

Basically, I have never met a more friendly group of people, and I haven’t had that much fun in a long time. The entire convention seemed to be wrapped up in this bubble of chill, intelligent and fun activities, speeches and discussions. The market was full of cool shit and I met some of my favourite authors! I cannot get over how generous everyone was with their time in offering to make sure this random Aussie girl who rocked up enjoyed herself.

Requisite dorky cosplay shot. The dork is me, the cosplayer the red Nightwing.

Some of the more exciting adventures bullet point style:

• Karaoke singing with Kyrax2, her family and a few other friends (Jason, Day and the two sisters whose names I have completely forgotten because I am way too tired).
• Getting compliments for my costume, when I wasn’t intending on wearing one. I wore my Nightwing shirt and blue armsocks and forgot my hair was blue until I got to the convention centre.
• Going to the epic panel on the treatment of disabilities in comics, which had Jill Pantozzi, Teal Sherer as well as Greg Rucka and Jen Van Meter. I knew most of the panelists were awesome, but I was especially impressed with Jen and her points, probably because I hadn’t seen or heard any interviews with her. Which is a shame!
• Meeting Van Meter, Rucka, and Simone on the Saturday and getting an embarrassing number of books signed (which are now mailed back to Perth). By the way, Gail Simone’s husband is a total legend!
• Meeting Byran Q. Miller and getting my Batgirl: The Flood trade signed (and getting the 3rd trade in the series).
• The Negotiating Ninja panel. Very good look at how to approach work as a freelancer.
• The coding and “maker” panels. I am not much of a tech or hacker nerd, but it was cool to be able to go learn and enjoy myself without feeling judged for being a n00b.
• Rucka’s amazing panel/talk on writing with a Y-chromosome.
• Discovering there was no Womanthology wikipedia article in the middle of the Womanthology panel. This is utterly bizarre and kind of terrifying, given the amount of information normally detailed about comic projects.
• Getting autographs from about six of the Womanthology ladies – including Renee De Liz – in my Womanthology sketchbook (because my copy of the actual book hasn’t arrived yet).
• Drinking with Jason (of ComicsBulletin) and visiting the Fantagraphics indie comic store, which was absolutely mind blowing with all the interesting stuff they had.
• Seeing that people had put How I Got My Boyfriend To Read Comics stickers on books, laptops and bags around the convention. So happy with how they turned out (I had some made for the swag bags).

The leftover How I Got My Boyfriend To Read Comics stickers.

Definitely worth it. I don’t know how but I’m going to 2013.