Bo and I felt so lucky to represent DC Insider Tours at DC’s first-ever Awesome Con this weekend!  And the Con did not disappoint.  Neither of us had been to anything like this before (although we always wanted to!), and it was an incredibly cool experience.  Comic book vendors, illustrators and artists, and a few off-the-beaten-path-but-still-totally-recognizable celebrities abounded.  But by far the best thing about Awesome Con was the people.

Everywhere we looked, there were people dressed as everything from Captain America to Na’vi to several different varieties of horned things we did not recognize.  In a city where most people walk around in fully buttoned suit jackets, it was so refreshing to see people show some color (and more than a little skin).   It is exceedingly rare to attend an event were people of all ages and walks of life come together to find common ground and share what they are passionate about.

Of course, we, too, joined the costumed crowd.  But as local tour guides, we decided not to join the leagues of superheroes and cartoon characters, but to venture back in time to some of DC’s real-life characters.  Bo, dressed in a 3-piece suit, slicked back hair, mustache, and a collar covered in lipstick, was the spitting image of Edward “Ned” McLean of the Washington Post fortune and Teapot Scandal fame.

I appeared as Ned’s much more famous wife, Evalyn Walsh McLean, DC socialite and the last private owner of the Hope Diamond.  We both had money stuffed into every corner of our outfits, including into the lining of my dress, and Bo even had a belt made of (fake) cash.  And of course, my Hope Diamond was hardly recognizable as the plastic pendant covered in aluminum foil and saran wrap and colored in with a marker that it was.

Our fancy 1920’s get-ups stuck out like glamorous sore thumbs among the spandex-laden and horned hoardes, and people’s reactions to us were extremely mixed.  Some people loved our outfits, wanted to hear all about the McLeans, and asked to take our picture.  Others, thinking we were dressed as TV show characters, responded to our explanation of who we were with silence and disappointed stares.  Well, excuse us for thinking outside the box!

Our favorite moment of Awesome Con took place Saturday afternoon.  You can imagine our surprise when we turned around once and saw a circle of people gathered around Spiderman and Sonic the Hedgehog engaging in some sort of duel.  You can further imagine our surprise when Spiderman bent over and we realized his costume was sheer.  It was a totally entertaining spectacle, and we learned that Spiderman has dimples on his Spidey-hiney.

We especially enjoyed meeting our new, masked friend, The Fugitive Critic.  He is very concerned about the people in Hollywood “dumbing down” the entertainment industry.  I got the feeling he was talking about Honey Boo Boo and The Housewives of Whatever.  He was a very interesting character, and we hunted down a YouTube video of him so he can explain his case himself.

We were thrilled to see in our programs that they have already confirmed the dates for next year’s Awesome Con, April 19-20, 2014.   Ben Penrod did an excellent job coordinating the whole thing and making it a success (and thank you for the press passes!).  We will be wearing our new Awesome Con shirts in anticipation for the next 11 months.. Check out the great shots Bo snapped, and if you were there, send us your thoughts and photos!

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