Well, actually I came back on Sunday, June 22nd, but I've been so busy catching up on Gaia Online and updating my threads there that I'm just now getting to posting my journal entry about the con here XD. The convention was really fun overall ! There were a few not so good things going on before we left for the con, but we all still had a fun time at the convention. I attended the con with my friend Eryk, a.k.a. Axel, his freind Dante, and Axel's dad (his name is Lars, but we all call him Yoda .) I didn't really cosplay, but I did wear the Lucky Star Fanboy outfit that I posted about in my past journal entries, and I also wore my friends Akatsuki cloak with my "WILL STRIP FOR POCKY!" sign the last day of the con . Axel switched between what I'd call his "Random Samurai Cosplay" and "J-Rocker Cosplay" everyday of the con, and Dante wore his Joker cosplay each day. Since this was a comic book convention, Dante got A LOT of attention as The Joker from the upcoming Batman movie, "The Dark Knight", and everyone wanted his picture it seemed! His cosplay was just awesome anyway! Here's some pictures of all of us in our cosplays:

Me >>> [link] .
Axel >>> [link] .
Dante >>> [link] .

I didn't get much attention, but a few people commented on my sign... We met a group of girls the second day, and one of the girls was cosplaying as Belldandy from "ah! My Goddess": [link] . She actually made that cosplay, and makes and sells cosplay outfits . Her site is [link] if anyone is interested. Overall there really wasn't many anime-cosplayers at the con, but there were a few. I'll post a link to my HeroesCon 2008 Photobucket Album at the end of this journal that will have pictures of all the other cosplayers in it, and other pictures I took at the convention.

Mostly I just walked around and bought anime stuff from The House of Anime: [link] . I actually spent like ten or fifteen minutes the first day just standing there while the Japanese guy who ran the store was putting out all the little capsule figures in the display... I think that guy must LOVE me since I spent probably over $120 at his store store !! I asked if he had any "Gintama" merchandise, and he said yes. When he was putting out the "Gintama" figures, he asked me about the characters he was putting out figures of because he hadn't seen the anime. He seemed like a really cool guy. Go to my "Junkie-kun's Plushies 10" deviation to see all the AWESOME new addtions I bought for my collection: [link] !

I met a really awesome anime-fanartist named Kaysha Siemens . I bought some prints from her. One is a beautiful drawing of Sakura Haruno from "Naruto", one is an adorable picture of Orihime Inoue and Ichigo Kurosaki from "BLEACH", and the other is a SEXY shirtless Ichigo Kurosaki drawing! She's actually a user here on dA! Her page is here: [link] . Here's a picture I took of two of the prints: [link] . The picture of the other print I bought from her can be seen in my PB album. She said she's been to many anime conventions (Lucky her!), but this was her first comic book convention. She also commented on my sign saying she didn't have any Pocky ...

I also got to meet Ian Flynn, a writer for Sonic The Hedgehog (The Archie Comic series) which I collect ! I got MANY free issues of the comic, which was awesome of course, and I got him to sign one of the issues for me . I also got a picture of him: [link] .

Now it's time for my COUNTERFEIT REPORT! As I've stated in past journal entries where I wrote about HeroesCon, there are many sellers of bootlegged anime merchandise at this con. One of the biggest is a store called Neo-Otaku. It was horrible to look at their selection of plushies and see nothing but bootlegs !! The people who worked there were pretty cool at least. They all cosplayed everyday. (Pictures of some of them on PB) There was also another place there that sold nothing but bootlegged anime stuff. I actually bought 3 "Death Note" posters from there. They were counterfeit posters obviously, but the price of 3 posters for $10 was a pretty good deal, so I bought them for Axel for a late birthday present. Axel also bought a bootlegged copy of the first "Death Note" movie on DVD for himself from another seller that was selling bootlegged movies. He wants to believe the DVD is legit for some reason, but it's definitely bootlegged =_= .

I also had a really good time just hanging out with my friends. Axel always knows how to make me laugh . A few pictures will prove that! We walked around the area of Charlotte, North Carolina, near our hotel which was fun.

Like I said, the con was fun, but I'm more meant for an anime convention since I'm really not a fan of American comics, but I LOVE anime and manga . Hopefully I'll be able to go to an anime-con next year...

Here's the link to my HeroesCon 2008 Photobucket Album: [link] .