BoroughCon 2018 Thoughts

There are a handful of comic-book conventions that are well known, however, few have been as welcoming and successful as BoroughCon. In 2018 BoroughCon came to Brooklyn in a welcoming space. It featured panels on gaming, voice acting, the writers and artists behind your favorite comic-book characters, but most importantly the spectacle of cosplay.

Yes, the panels were insightful. Friday night’s most memorable panel was ‘Surviving as Womyn and Nonbinary People of Color.’ The panel showed up in cosplay, fielded questions and discussed the significance of cosplaying being a celebration of your fandom.

There’s isn’t anything wrong with cosplaying while being a person of color. You are not relegated to be Storm or Black Panther because of your skin color or gender. ‘Surviving as Womyn’ also went deep with their discussion of mental illness and how it’s stigmatized, particularly in the cosplay arena. Highlights of Saturday’s panels consisted of ‘Cospositivity’ where the theme was ‘cosplay is for everyone.’ Cosplayers Girl Who Waited and Lady J Cosplay talked about their love of cosplay, the work that goes into it and how brave cosplayers are in celebrating what they love. ‘Working in Anime’ was also an enlightening panel. It consisted of voice actors Bryce Papenbrook (Power Rangers, Final Fantasy 12), Cherami Leigh (Sailor Moon, Borderlands 2), and Jason Charles Miller (The Wonder Woman Animated Movie, Street Fighter X) discussing their careers and the ‘Hulk Juice’ they’ve used to save their voices from being destroyed. All three have also done live-acting and Miller is also an established musician and songwriter. The hour was filled with tidbits about the respective work they do.

Throughout the weekend you were able to take pictures, get signatures and hear from writers including, Jim Starlin (Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War), Ron Marz (Green Lantern, Silver Surfer), and Fabien Nicieza (X-Men) who talked about what it takes to make a great villain. These comic-book writers and creators encompass what audiences are enjoying what’s happening on the big screen now. It’s nice to hear from the people who were either in the trenches or were on the ground floor of groundbreaking storylines. Also, the vendors were stocked with merchandise to take home. From indie-comics to Funko-Pop and artists who had a large section of the space, BoroughCon was a complete comic-convention experience.

At times comic-cons are not welcoming spaces for originality, but BoroughCon brought it on Father’s Day weekend in 2018.

About Donna-Lyn Washington 641 Articles
Donna-lyn Washington has a M.A. in English from Brooklyn College. She is currently teaching at Kingsborough Community College where her love of comics and pop culture play key parts in helping her students move forward in their academic careers. As a senior writer for ReviewFix she has been able to explore a variety of worlds through comics, film and television and has met some interesting writers and artists along the way. Donna-lyn does a weekly podcast reviewing indie comics and has also contributed entries to the 'Encyclopedia of Black Comics,’ the academic anthology ‘Critical Insights: Frank Yerby’ and is the editor for the upcoming book, ‘Conversations With: John Jennings.’

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