Bronycon 2013-2019 debrief
Me and the boys at our last bronycon
It’s been a great run, and honestly, it’s been so transformative in my life, for all kinda of reasons. It’s just amazing looking back at 2013 and seeing how different I am now. As such, I will not be just making a post about Bronycon 2019, but actually going through every year one by one, and reflecting on what that con was like, and how I felt overall.
Bronycon 2013 (The first, the lonely)-
This was my very first convention ever, and the convention I felt the loneliest in. I was mostly a fanfic author at the time (by which I mean my only “contribution” to the fandom was a self-insert clopfic) and I hadn’t done more than dabbled in art. We all remember it as linecon, when getting a badge took 3 hours, and I really knew next to no one. I spent the first day panel hopping and telling Atryl how much I love his porn, and the next 2 days, again, panel hopping, and admiring the fursuiters. My writing on it is very happy-go-lucky, but in reality, I remember being sad and lonely, and in my hotel room desperately trying to find other people who are also at BC to hang out with. It was at this con that I decided that I will be like atryl and become an awesome artist and vend, and I will be on the tumblrpon panel. Then I will get ALL the attention!
One notable image is this badge:
It is autographed by both TJ Carson (Pirate Dash) and atryl. I still have this badge, but TJ’s autograph has since been scratched out and acetoned off, because I had big plans, and that will lead to some future drama between myself and TJ.
Bronycon 2014 (Google Chrome, rising star!)-
This con, in my memory, was a power grab. This was also the year I came wearing a Chrome wig.....
This was at the height of my thirst for more followers. In the year since bronycon 2013, I had amassed over 1000 tumblr followers, and I felt like the big man on the block. I tried to spend time with BronyDanceParty, Frigid Drift, DILeak (now Ralek), Brann, Siden,
BronyDanceParty (left), me (center), DILeak (right)
and I was really trying to wedge myself onto the tumblrpon panel, even at one point in the writeup stating that it felt more like the “TJ and friends” panel, because the only reason I wasn’t on it was because of nepotism. I went around giving out stickers with my tumblr url on them, assured all the vendors that by next year, I’ll be vending, and the drama with TJ had already begun. It says that I apologized to him for the way I acted, however, we certainly haven’t even hit our peak dislike of each other yet. At the tail end of bronycon, I talked to Jykinturah Sparkle, another person from tumblrpon, and we had a mini intervention, because, like I said, I was really focused on my follower count, spent the convention pretty much networking and leveraging more followers, and being pissed that I wasn’t on the tumblrpon panel. I apologized to TJ about it, but, not even 2 months later, at Ciderfest 2014, I applied to be on the tumblrpon panel specifically because I wanted to host it whether TJ wanted me there or not, although that dick move was mostly out of spite, because he blew up on me and started trying to turn my friends against me when he claimed that I called pirate dash a rapist, which I most certainly did not do, but that’s just some more bullshit drama that gets resolved later.
Some notable images:
I also tried to collect a bunch of Google Chrome merchandise. Surprisingly, I haven’t seen too much of it since tumblr went out of favor and my blog died :(
Bronycon 2015 (10art1, rising artist!)-
This was a landmark year for me, because this was the year that I got to vend for the first time!
I vended with Frist, someone who has helped me so much over the years, and who (spoilers) I’ll inevitably lose contact with, and it all goes downhill from there! 2015 was an absolutely massive year. I sold out of so many of my prints, because they were still fresh and popular. After the con, I will think I will do this well with stale old 2015 prints forever, and stock up on so many prints, that even today in 2019, many of my 2015 prints are still sitting in my closet, unsold. Also, I met this kid wearing the same wig as I wore last year!
Immediately after this con I saw him in a cringe compilation and felt bad :( but I will say that, in 2019 I got to see him again, and he’s all grown up now and has shaken off being in a cringe compilation, so I am proud of him!
Heck, I feel old now. There really isn’t much to say about this con. I just made a bunch of prints and dakis, they sold extremely well, and I had fun vending and I felt quite accomplished. This con also set me up to start drifting away from my Google Chrome tumblr and more towards being a vendor at cons.
Bronycon 2016 (The Vending Golden Age)-
This con signified the year that I spent the most effort on vending. My Chrome blog was pretty much dead at this point, and I had even abandoned tumblrpon. It was been there, done that for me. But also, while I vended with Frist, I had already begun to lose touch with a lot of people. I had stayed up all night trying to sort my shipfic cards and had them all laying on the floor around me because I didn’t know that literally everyone else was bringing the game back and had good suppliers to buy from and everything.
I was totally out of the loop as to what the other artists were doing, and that was leading to my demise. Print sales were down, except for my new stuff, and daki sales were down, except for my new stuff, and I still wasn’t quite sure how come my old stuff that everyone bought already wasn’t selling as well as my new art. It was also the year I came to prefer playing games and spending time with friends over vending, but it’ll be another year before it finally reaches the breaking point for me.
Bronycon 2017 (Everything was perfect, yet I was sad)-
This year... oh god, this year was the year that was so deeply troubling for me, even now, post-Bronycon 2019, though I now have an understanding of what went wrong, I am still working on rebuilding myself. Every year prior, the highlight of my bronycon was vending my newly created art. This year, the highlight was spending time with friends, and I didn’t want to admit it to myself, because I was afraid of what it would mean to my identity if I were to stop vending my old crap no one wants anymore, something I have done at every con since Bronycon 2015. Not much to say about it, just wish I could go back in time and slap myself that NO DUH new art sells better than old art, and NO DUH playing games with friends is more fun than vending all day! Not really much more to say about this year. On the bright side, the trotcon right before this con, TJ and I made up.
Also, this fucker bought a daki from me
Bronycon 2018 (Trying something different)-
2018 was the year I hadn’t fully realized myself, but I knew enough to realize that I felt bad vending, so I decided to take a year off from vending. It was a great year for me. I went back to hanging out with the tumblrpons, my fursuit was finally done so I got to wear that around, I met this fucker again
and I played card games and jackbox. I went to drawing panels that I would have missed had I been vending, and had a blast fursuiting and meeting other fursuiters.
The highlight of this con was all the time I spent with my friends, and while I am not sure if I had more fun than when I was vending in 2015 and 2016, I definitely had fun given what I was experiencing.
Bronycon 2019 (The end of an era)-
Alright, this is the present now, so I will do a full write-up, given that one deosn’t exist. Overall, my closing thoughts are that, while I am sad that Bronycon is over, it was also very transformational, and I grew as a brony punctuated by Bronycon, and now I transition into the furry fandom right as Bronycon ends. Since all things must end, this is the best time in my opinion.
Wednesday:
Wow, a con on a wednesday! That’s a first. Pretty much the most exciting thing was coming back to the shitty city of baltimore, and the first thing I see on the light rail is some crazy bitch attacking a cop before being tackled and cuffed.
Unfortunately, the convention center station was closed because the ground caved in.
Gosh, what a wonderful city!
Also, Fisher gave me a pack of chinese Mao-themed playing cards. I’m a fan of all things soviet, and chinese is pretty much the same, right? Gosh Fishy, you’re silly!
Thursday:
I started the day off with the annual tumblrpon pool party, and kicked everyone’s ass at breath holding with my tuba player lungs.
After the pool party, I went to brunch with some friends at Cornerstone Bakery. I finally got my badge, then fursuited around, and unfortunately discovered that I forgot my tail at home AGAIN! I never go to opening ceremonies, but I decided to go just because it’s the last Bronycon.
They were alright. Gilbert Gottfried sang horse songs.
I went to dinner at Pratt Street Alehouse, then went to art jam. It was pretty much a sketchbook swap between the artists. It got way too full, and the fire marshal kicked us all out, so we went to do sketchbook swaps at “the boats”, which is what we call the 2nd floor mezzanine at the BCC.
Afterwards, I went to Der’s hotel room with Gyro and Saewin until I got tired and went back to the hotel to sleep.
Friday:
I went to the vendor hall today, because yesterday the line was too long,
and, just like in 2015, everyone sold out of most of the good stuff the first day. I talked to some of my artist friends while they weren’t swamped, and just explored the vendor hall for hours. I wanted to buy something, but never was able to decide what exactly I wanted anyway.
After lunch at shake shack, I went to some panels where we were given prompts on what to draw.
I had chipotle for dinner with Fisher and Serious Rainbow, because I REFUSE to eat Jimmy John’s, then, since it was 6:00, I decided to go to an MA Larson panel from 6:30 to 7:30 because I had time to kill until the 8:00 tumblrpon game night. However, the line was so insane to the MA Larson panel, I didn’t get in until 7:15, and the panel only started at 7:30, so I decided to go back to my hotel room instead. Also... these fucking scooters are EVERYWHERE! I love it.
Saturday:
I watched the new episode today, something I hadn’t done in ages. Most of all, it had a problem that was very close for me: the realization that you’re not as interested in what you’re doing as you used to be. The resolution was trash and totally didn’t apply to me at all.
After the episode, I had breakfast with Spackle, the guy I met at Ciderfest several years ago. We both had finished school and are now starting to work. Also some weirdos got married to their dakimakuras.
After breakfast, I hung out with Rosa, Ember, and Barlowe, the people I stayed with at trotcon, until it was time for me to suit up for the fursuit photoshoot, then I took part in an unofficial fursuit parade.
After suiting around for a while, I relaxed in the hotel room, then went to Jackbox with the VAs, followed by the tumblrpon panel. The tumblrpon panel talked about so much history, that I didn’t realize how much I missed out, considering I came late to the party and left early (tho I’d like to think I was still the life of it). Finally, after the panel we ordered chinese food and then we all drew for the rest of the night at the boats.
Sunday:
This morning I had brunch with Spackle and Rosa at the cheesecake factory. Afterwards, I suited up and had a bunch of pictures of me taken. The line for closing ceremonies was insane,
and I would have just skipped it if it wasn’t the last Bronycon. I should have skipped it, though. It started with a random irrelevant dance number, and overall it was lame. Finally, all the tumblrpons gathered one last time to have our picture taken together, then we went to Dick’s Last Resort for dinner.
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