Another Dragon*Con is in the books, and thousands of gays turned out over Labor Day weekend to watch or join in the spectacle of one of the nation’s largest costumed conventions.
“It’s one of the largest events in the world and so it’s great to come down and see people go crazy in that regard. It’s like Pride and Halloween mixed together,” said Mike Dillers of Cobb County, who came down for the weekend.
The convention draws roughly 50,000 people from across the country for a five-day celebration of everything geeky. From sci-fi to fantasy to horror, actors, authors and producers mingle with fans who often show off costumes or hunt autographs.
Ah, it’s that time of year again, Atlanta: Dragon*Con.
Many who have never attended the convention see it as just freaks and geeks who like to dress up in elaborate costumes for a weekend. This may be partially true, but Dragon*Con happened to be where I realized something about myself that I had never known before: I have a reading disorder.
Besides parades and parties, Dragon*Con offers a large variety of sessions on everything from costume design to how to conduct a successful ghost hunt. Last year, I attended a session on graphic novels that included a panel of guests.
One speaker was a librarian who expressed his frustration at the difficulty he had in convincing schools and libraries to take graphic novels seriously. He credited these books with saving his education. As a child he had suffered from a learning disorder and the only books he could read growing up were graphic novels.