Dragon Con’s fan panel

ATLANTA – Of all the hundreds of panel discussions held over Labor Day weekend’s nerd-fest extravaganza, Dragon Con, there was one that not only included the audience in the discussion, but was actually comprised of members from the audience.

“Reading Wordless Comics” was slated to begin on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. When the time came to begin, the eight or so people in the audience noticed something very important missing: The speaker to lead the discussion.

So, being the enterprising group they were, the audience did what only came naturally – they held their own discussion. Not about wordless comics, or even comics in general. No, they instead discussed the ups and downs, pros and cons of the Con.

“The people watching,” said on fan, describing her favorite part of the convention.

“The costumes are amazing,” agreed another. There was general consensus that the costumes – or lack thereof – were what truly captivated the group of mostly Dragon Con virgins, that is, those whose first year attending was this year. The stormtroopers, the steampunks, the superheroes and the multitude of obscure or original costumes that one could only guess at were often overwhelming in their detail and complexity. Just in that audience of about thirty fans, almost a third were dressed as something, be it a Pokemon character, Team Fortress player, or even an obscure being from Doctor Who, The Valeyard.

Of course, along with the good comes the bad, and the barely-there costumes had their own Dark Side.

“There was one woman who was dressed as ‘Hello Titty’,” gasped one fan. The largely obese woman was described as wearing just nipple pasties that unfortunately left very little to the imagination.

“The lines are too long,” complained one fan, who, despite having preregistered, still had to wait in line for several hours to get his pass. His displeasure was increased upon learning that the line to register at the door was much shorter than for those who preregistered.

What was truly surreal was that the fan-led discussion actually had more members in the audience than the original “Reading Wordless Comics” discussion. And it was probably a lot more interesting to those attending, since people were coming in and sitting down as they passed in the hallway (although one go-getter volunteered to stand outside the door waving people inside).

By the end of the hour-long session, the room was mostly full and everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves and the discussion. A group photo was even taken to memorialize the event.

“This,” said another audience member, “this is what Dragon Con is all about!”