In This Economy?

It’s time for another episode of Waste of Money.

Today I’m going to rant pointlessly about:

YuleCon 2009 and Other Anime/Manga Conventions

Even in this economy, there are certain items/services that we can’t give up. Food, shelter, gasoline, DVRs, iPhones, high-speed Internet and other necessities. But it’s times like these that we look for the best deals, shopping by store brands instead of the good stuff, or settling for just a 3G instead of the 3GS.

Now comes after Shelter, before Love

And if comic books are part of your necessities, you go to comic book conventions. Now let me make a distinction here: comic book conventions are not what I’m going to destroy in this article. Comic-cons are good and pure and well worth the price of admission. At a comic-con, you pay roughly $5-10 at the gate, see a few “celebrities” of the art world and walk by more than a few tracers. You get shit-tons of comics for 25 or 50 cents apiece and pick up bootleg copies of fan-made trailers like Grayson and the popular Batman: Dead End.

Yes, that's Batman fighting a Predator. Now go watch Batman: Dead End

These beautiful rooms full of not so beautiful people are not the object of my derision, nay, my hatred-fueled wrath. That insufferable gathering would be The Anime/Manga Convention, specifically this year’s YuleCon in Fort Worth. Now I’ve given you my reasons as to why Comic Cons are great. And in theory, Manga Cons should be exactly like that, but with weirder costumes, cheap manga comics, bootleg DVDs and, most importantly, smokin’ hot Asians:

The Dream

Unfortunately for anyone not living in a fantasy world of their own making, this is not to be the case. First off, it cost 25 bucks just to get past the gate. Let me say that one again: TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS (AMERICAN CURRENCY) JUST TO GET IN! Money that could be better spent on any number of things like: Movie night for two, a rather large steak for one, 100 comic con comics, 3 regular priced paperbacks, half a tank of gas, or, according to a very disturbed friend of mine, an hour with a one-legged prostitute in Las Vegas who goes by the name Ilene.

So what does this princely sum buy you? Is it lower prices? Hell no! The graphic novels, movies, boxed sets of anything, toys, plush dolls, costume pieces, crappy jewelry and “limited edition whatevers” were all either regular price or overpriced, because some jerkwad basically wanted me to pay for his rented booth. However, the sad, dead-eyed stares from creepy costumed people were free. I’ll admit that some of the homemade costumes were nice, but I didn’t pay to see what they could do with a needle & thread, a dream and more free time than they know what to do with. And most of the costumed were, let’s just say, not exactly cut into the mold of super heroism.

The Reality Sets In

And somehow, it gets worse:

I don't think this Princess is getting rescued

And sometimes funny:

Are you watching kids?

But mostly sad:

The Killer of Arousal for a Minimum of 6 Months

These are just a few of the denizens to be spotted at any anime convention. Other than that, you might get to watch some live action role playing:

Ummmmmmm....Pass

And other than grabbing a reasonably priced hot dog and chips, my tour of the SadCon/MoneySuck was over in about 20 minutes. So please, let this be a warning to all of you. Your money will be taken, your dreams will be crushed and your nightmares will feature garishly dressed undesirables. Stick to the Comic Cons and pray for a better world.

–

Previously on Waste of Money:

• The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
• Halloween Costumes That Accentuate Your Penis
• LivePrayer.com Birther Contributions
• Personal Urns from Cremation Solutions
• Axe Body Spray
• Olive Garden
• Creed Concert Tickets
• Harem Pants
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine
• Creed’s New Album
• Rollerblades
• The Beatles Remastered Catalog
• George W. Bush Commemorative Merchandise
• Fast & Furious
• Snugglette
• Truck Nuts

Tags: 2009, anime, comics, con, Fort Worth, japanese, manga, money, naruto, otaku, sailor moon, waste, waste of money, yule, yulecon

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 4:43 PM and is filed under Bad News, Human Encounters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.