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Dragon Con 2016: Awesomely Bad Japanese Music Videos Celebrates the Best of the Bad

Posted on October 7, 2016 by Ashley Leckwold

When my Dragon Con roommate Kurt aka TheGreatSG told me about his panel for Dragon Con, I figured it was worth a look. I hadn’t been in the J-Music scene in a while, but I’m always down for weird music videos.

I was not prepared for how weird it was going to get.

While this was my first year attending, Awesomely Bad Japanese Music videos has become something of a staple of cons in the Southeast. Showcasing the best of the bad, the panel has grown to have its own in-jokes and expectations over the years. Starting with the glory of interdimensional being Daigo Stardust to the death of Tarako Kewpie at the hands of Chris Jericho. Don’t worry, where that strange red bean kewpie fell, what will rise in its place is an epic and mind-bending song about snack crackers composed by Yoko Kanno. No, really.

The thing I quickly learned between being swung back to the days of Kishidan and Supercar’s somewhat mortifying ‘Be’ video is that Awesomely Bad Japanese Music Videos is not really about mocking these videos. Which seems like it would be the main idea when you got videos like ‘Nande?’ and the bizarre, hysterical and cheaply made video for Polysics’ ‘Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto.’ However, as much as it is about comedy, it’s also about celebrating the weird. There’s something of an art in the weird and SG gets that. It’s fun because it’s weird and awesomely bad. Not in spite of it.

Of course, there’s even a few earworms in there. I had ‘Nande?’ and Complex’s ‘Be My Baby’ stuck in my head for days after the panel. And, of course, FISH FIGHT!

If you’re at a con where Awesomely Bad Japanese Music videos will be at, I implore you to give it a look. It will be weird and awesomely bad, but it’s presentation is the furthest thing from malicious. Being introduced to these videos in a crowd that was just as into it as I was was easily some of the most fun I had at the con this year. If have one complaint though, it’s that we didn’t get ‘Miira Killer’ on our playlist, but that’s only because I’m biased towards the current NXT Champion.

For the Dragon Con playlist and to find out when Awesomely Bad is coming to a con near you, check them out on Facebook or Tumblr.

Conventions

Dragon Con 2016: DCW takes over Thursday Night

Posted on October 6, 2016 by Ashley Leckwold

If you needed any more proof that the popularity of pro-wrestling is growing within nerd communities, Dragon Con was certainly the place to see that. Besides the fair amount of wrestling cosplay (myself as Bayley and Finn Bálor included), it was impossible to go around the con this year without coming across fellow nerds wearing wrestling shirts on the show floor. If I had to wager a guess, The New Day was easily the most popular with variations on and within the Bullet Club being a close second.

Knowing this, it isn’t a surprise that Dragon Con Wrestling saw its biggest turnout since it started 15 years ago this year. And on a Thursday, no less!

DCW pulls performers from all over the Georgia independent scene and beyond to put on a fun and somewhat nerdy tinged show for the audience. This was my first year getting to attend the show and oh boy, what a show it was.

First of all, the crowd was exactly what you’d expect from what happens when you mix a wrestling crowd with Dragon Con’s drinking habits. One guy even kept trying to get everyone in the front sections to do the wave, even though that’s a huge ‘NO’ at wrestling events. Having to deal with drunk and disorderly in my section tended to take me out of the show in some sections, but it definitely wasn’t a deal breaker.

As for the matches themselves, there was a fun and decent variety to be had. From the first ever match won by submission in DCW history by a crossface applied by Joe Black to Adrian Armour to an intergender tag match for the Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment tag titles, the competitors for the evening were no slouches in the ring. They had the crowd going hard too if the reaction to Why We Wrestle’s Billy Buck getting a very heel win over the Venom cosplaying Stryk Nyn was any indication. Don’t worry, Stryk got him back with a spear to keep the crowd happy going into the next match.

Since it is Dragon Con, there was a LOT of cosplay happening in the matches. Starting with CB Suave’s Rock cosplay, we got everything from dark lords of Satan, Venom, Harley Quinn, Team Rocket, She-Hulk, Mickey Rourke, an ongoing fight between a Peter Griffin and a Chicken, and even a delightful Cheshire Cat inspired wrestler named Manchild. The real cosplay highlight though came in the competition for the Dragon’s Cup where Sith Lord Mikal Mosley defeated the Star Trek inspired Amazing Darkstone with a move that can only be described as a “Force Choke Slam.” I’m surprised I still have eardrums after the massive pop that got.

The night also brought out the true emotion behind wrestling. Beginning with a certain Atlanta based YouTuber being inducted into the DCW Hall of Fame, the night also saw the final DCW match for veteran Tank. While I was not familiar with Tank before that night, the gruff man’s way of connecting with the crowd during his tag match with Iceberg against the “Genetically Superior” Logan Creed and Bobby Moore was undeniable, especially when he let a man in a wheelchair get in on the action by letting him land a few “hits” on Creed. Plus, it’s always a sad affair when a wrestler has to hang up his boots. He showed his love for the DCW crowd and his “brothers” in the ring and in the back, and the DCW crowd showed their love with a booming chant of “THANK YOU TANK.” Happy trails to you, Tank.

For my first year experiencing it, Dragon Con Wrestling was definitely worth my four hours on a Thursday night. It lives up to the spirit of the con in so many ways while definitely being its own exciting thing. Count me back next year, especially if Mikal and Azrael are facing off for the Dragon’s Cup. I want to see what they do next.

Special thanks to Georgia Wrestling History for their notes on the event.

Conventions

Dragon Con 2016: Come for the Party, Stay for the Music

Posted on September 25, 2016 by Ashley Leckwold

One of the most underrated aspects of Dragon Con is the diverse and fun music line up that manages to happen every year. Most people know about The Cruxshadows and Voltaire, for better or worse, but there’s a whole host of bands, singers and DJs that make their way down for the con every year and put on a great show.

Probably the bands you’re most likely to hear about are the ones who get to be on the main stage once during the weekend. I only got to see two of those bands in full this year. The first being Florida Steampunk outlet The Cog Is Dead. The Cog is Dead have been around for about ten years, but didn’t actually start touring until a few years ago. If you get a chance to see them live though, I highly recommend it. Much like a lot of other bands in the Steampunk genre, they play around a lot with their sound and songs. The Cog is Dead in particular, have a very rock sound along the lines of Automaton, The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing and The Extraordinary Contraptions, but weave in a certain folk and sideshow element as well. Probably the most fun part of their show was the extra video segments they used in between songs to help create the story of the band, one of which explaining why their usual bassist was gone for the weekend. Spoiler alert: he got sent back in time and was being chased by dinosaurs.

The other mainstage band I got to see was the fabled Here Come The Mummies, a funk band based out of Nashville composed of “5000 year-old Egyptian Mummies with a one-track mind.” They got to play Dragon Con last year, but due to personal issues, I ended up missing the show. I made it a point to see them this year and from the beginning where they entered in the Centennial Ballroom parade style with horns and drums until after the show where one of their mummified members was dancing on the merch table while signing people’s CDs, Here Come The Mummies were a funky awesome time to have at midnight. I mean, when a band dressed as mummies opens with a song that declares “you’re free to be a freak among freaks,” you know you and they are in the right place to play. After a more than an hour of funky undead grooves, innuendo, signs that say ‘wooo,’ beat box flute, and even an errant string of white confetti hanging from the ballroom ceiling, I think it’s fair to say that Here Come The Mummies are easily one of the best bands I’ve seen at Dragon Con.

Of course, the main stages aren’t the only places to see live music. The concourses are also a hopping location, with many of the smaller acts playing several times in a weekend or even some of the bigger acts playing smaller and more intimate shows. This year, the concourse brought the return of Unwoman, the gothic Bay Area cello player known for her haunting voice and looping cello. Performing several months pregnant this year, Unwoman didn’t miss a beat as she went from song to song about divorce, how Mr. Rochester is the worst, falling in love in Chicago, her song ‘The Heroine’ that was The Weather in Night Vale once, and even a fantastic cover of Peter Gabriel’s ‘In Your Eyes.’ For a couple of songs, she was joined by ex-Abney Park member Nathanial Johnstone on guitar, adding an extra layer of awesome to her set.

New to the concourse this year was Orlando outfit Geekapella, a cosplaying nerdy acapella group composed mostly of women. Out of all the acts I’ve seen at Dragon Con before, I had never seen an acapella group in the past ten years. They were super fun, picking extremely nerdy songs from Hikaru Utada’s ‘Simple and Clean,’ ‘Stronger Than You’ from Steven Universe, a mash-up of Danny Elfman’s Batman theme with ‘My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark’ by Fall Out Boy, and the ‘John Williams is The Man’ mashup from a few years ago. However, the real highlight of their performance for me was their rendition of ‘Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf.’ It was a song I would have never thought to work for acapella, but I enjoy being hilariously proven wrong.

Easily the most emotional moment on the concourse this year came with the final performance of the weekend. After nearly two decades together and playing shows at Dragon Con, Emerald Rose had their final concourse show on Monday. While they were a band I didn’t actively follow, there are still members of the band I consider friends of a sort, so it was still an emotional hour plus. With songs like ‘Urania Sings,’ ‘Caledonia,’ ‘Penny in The Well’ and ‘Summerland’ mixed with funny stories from over the years, it did really feel final for the elder statesmen of the Dragon Con Concourse. I was glad that I got to be there for it, remembering how reviewing one of their albums was my very first freelance gig.

While the live music of Dragon Con is always a good time, there are certainly no shortage of awesome DJs playing music to dance your butt off to. There are a lot of parties and raves to choose from over the weekend hosted by many different tracks, but for my money, the best one is The Mechanical Masquerade. Perhaps I am personally biased towards my friends and my years in Steampunk, but DJ Doctor Q and the Alternate History Track go out of their way to put on a party that is a never miss. With grooving mashups and fantastic go go dancers from the Atlanta burlesque community, it’s easy to lose yourself in this party and go all night long, no matter what your costume is.

If you ever find yourself at Dragon Con, take time to check out the musical performances and DJs at the con. There’s a huge variety and you’re sure to discover something or someone you like. Maybe even walk away with a new CD or two.

Conventions

Dragon Con 2016: Team “Motor Crush” Hosts Panel, Talks Bad Bitches on Bikes

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Ashley Leckwold

If you were at Dragon Con this year, you might have been wondering just who that lovely looking lady with the nail studded cricket bat on your badge was. The answer to that is Domino Swift, the protagonist of the upcoming Image Comics series Motor Crush! While Domino was all over roughly 77,000 badges this past Labor Day weekend, an even smaller number got an early look into Motor Crush on Saturday afternoon when the panel took place.

Fans of the Batgirl of Burnside will immediately recognize the creative team behind Motor Crush. Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher, and Babs Tarr are continuing their work as a unit with this new book that’s being released on December 7. In fact, this book has been in the works for some time, with the three of them starting to talk about revamping an old pitch Fletcher had done for Oni Press back in the early 2000s around the time issue 3 or 4 of Batgirl had come out.

In fact, the team admitted that one of the reasons they had started work on Motor Crush around then is that they were told that Batgirl might only run six issues due to impending cancellation. We know now that isn’t what happened, but the team did decide to walk away from Batgirl to work on this series. No hard feelings between them and DC though. They’re proud of their work on the series (even if Frankie didn’t get to be Oracle) and had nothing but nice things to say about DC editor Mark Doyle.

As for Motor Crush though, we’re about to see a whole different animal from Stewart, Fletcher, and Tarr. Described as “Bad Bitches, the comic” by Tarr, the story follows up and coming Domino in a world where motorcycle racing is the primary form of entertainment. However, at night, she’s running a great risk to herself, her family and her career by competing in illegal and violent street races for something known as Crush, a “machine narcotic” used to boost engines in races. At the start of the series, one driver has already died in a crash from it. So the main question of the series becomes why is Domino competing for it?

Fletcher, Stewart and Tarr hope to answer that question over the course of the series, which should run for at least 15 issues, if not more! The series is much more cohesive between the three of them, with Tarr contributing a lot more to the plot as well as doing her own colors while Stewart has been confirmed as the letterer for the series along with layouts. Tarr is also taking a more traditional route with the art this time, using a mix of traditional and digital art for the series along with hand lettering sound effects. She says being able to ink traditionally has helped her a lot in her creative process by allowing her to not spend all day on her computer noodling with one particular line.

What’s this more cohesive process between the three of them been like? “We argue a lot,” Stewart responded, only half-jokingly.

Still, that arguing must be paying off. As a special treat to the attendees of the panel, the three gave away copies of the #0 issue, which is technically the ashcan of the first half of #1. The setting of Nova Honda, which was inspired by both the good and bad parts of Rio de Janeiro and the colors of Miami, is lush and colorful and what little we get to see of the characters so far, they’re a delightful and intriguing bunch. The Willow Smith influence on the way Domino carries herself is especially felt.

As for the series itself, not only will it deliver set up in the first arc, but the first five issues will include a prologue to Fletcher’s other Image series Isola, which is also being helmed by Gotham Academy co-creator Karl Kerschl. Fletcher describes the series as being very Miyazaki-esque and violent, but in a different way from violence of Motor Crush. “It’s brutal to your heart and less to your face,” he said on the panel.

I’ve been intrigued by Motor Crush since its announcement, but the Motor Crush takeover of Dragon Con has definitely had me wanting more of the world of Nova Honda. Between the enthusiasm from the creators and the first ten-page bite given to us, I cannot wait to have more of this high energy, bad bitches on bikes book in my life.

As for the badges, I don’t know who was more excited: Tarr for seeing her art everywhere or me telling strangers about Tarr and Motor Crush.

Motor Crush comes out December 7 and can be pre-ordered through your local comic shop. (Definitely get on that because as he said on the panel, Stewart is trying to buy a house.)