Anime Overload in Austin, TX, marks one year of me working the Texas convention circuit. It isn’t exactly a year since the con moved up a month from last year, but man, it doesn’t feel like I’ve been back here that long.

The Fake Lemonade Stand @ Anime Overload 2011

Now that I think about it, there aren’t actually a lot of cons I’ve hit more than once — just MomoCon and AWA, both of which I attended twice as an artist, and both of which were pretty inconsistent when I compare them year-to-year. AO this year was similarly bizarre. It was hosted at the same weird venue, the North Austin Events Center, but despite a bigger effort on the advertising front this year, attendance felt very, very down. Mel (Mistyibuki), the Artist Alley coordinator, said that 2010′s numbers were supposedly around 1,000. This year… well, maybe they hit 1,000, but it really didn’t seem like it. And when the whole con’s in one room, it’s pretty easy to tell if there are people around or not.

This report is 4459 words long, but surely you’re used to this by now?

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After the spring season of conventions ended, the only other con I was considering this year was Oni-Con, since it’s local and since I thought all other Texas cons had already passed (Ikkicon, Anime Matsuri, A-kon). Looking into it though, I found out about Anime Overload, Delta H Con, and Anime Fest. All were relatively small, but the former two were reasonably convenient and I knew a few local SCAD folks attending AFest. AFest, which is early next month, ended up not working out because it took management too long to get back to me about a table; similarly, I’ve decided to drop Oni-Con because their incredible lack of organization and information really turned me off. But after a bit of pestering, I was set for Anime Overload and Delta H Con.

Are you tired of seeing pictures of my table yet?

Anime Overload took place at the North Austin Events Center in Austin, TX, and was weird/interesting for a variety of reasons. It was the first convention I worked alone since I didn’t know anyone else going at all. Every other con I’ve worked I attended with a slew of schoolmates, so even when I was tabling alone, like at Kami-Con, there were still plenty of people around that I knew and that I was staying/traveling with. Also, after hitting the Southeastern US conventions for two years or so, there were usually a bunch of artists I knew from other cons. But while AO wasn’t my first con in Texas, it was the first one I was working, so I wasn’t familiar with any of the other artists. AO was also the first con that I traveled to alone, the first that didn’t take place at either a hotel or a college campus, and the first where I was crashing at a friend’s place rather than a hotel.

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