Superheroes, villains, and characters of a variety of comics were all crammed into the Crocker Art Museum on November 14, 2013. They called it the Crocker-Con Art Mix and it sure was incredible.
Upon walking into the museum we found a bunch of people dressed up in Cosplay. Artists had tables set up and were creating images on the spot. It was a very nice touch to be able to purchase some of their work and have a little chat at the same time. Comic stands were spread all throughout the Crocker and multiple comic book creators were proudly showing off their latest and greatest. We found some of our favorite folks hanging around including Eben Burgoon creator of B-Squad and cartoonist Eric Decetis.
Rika Nelson hosted the Cosplay contest, which was one of the highlights of the night. People of all ages took the stage with their extravagant personalities and costumes. The crowd determined the winner by applause. There was a lot of creativity to comb through however Kazran Spasojevich took the win with the Doctor from Doctor Who. We asked The Doctor how it felt to win. He responded with, “… it is quite exciting. I had some competition up there with (one of his friends) Captain America”.
After the contest we headed towards a smaller room full of artist displays and a photo booth by Giggle and Riot . The photo booth provided fun comic inspired costumes such as rabbit’s masks and POW! or BOOM! signs. Throughout the room people were purchasing art and meeting the artist.
Jill Allyn Stafford, a collage and mixed media artist, has been collaging for 8-9 years now. All of her collages are hand cut by the artist and arranged beautifully. Along with Jill we discovered a very talented illustrator, Daniel Thingstiner. When asked why he choose illustration as his medium he expressed that he was inspired when realizing that he had no limits when drawing.
Michael J. Dorman an illustrator for Dorway Studios showed some of his work and had a little chat with us.
TUBE: What inspires your art?
Michael: I don’t really have just one inspiration, I’ve been a comic book guy since I was about six years old.
TUBE: Do you have specific media you like to use?
Michael: These days I mostly working digitally. I mostly work in Photoshop and those types of programs. I still do traditional pencils and inks as well but mostly my sequential work is digital.
TUBE: Do you have a main theme you enjoy to use in art?
Michael: I wouldn’t say I have a theme at this point, you know I’m pretty much an adventure guy so I like superheroes and stuff like that.
Toward the end of the event a special musical guest Task1ne performed a live hip hop show. He wore a HULK shirt and told the crowd about how he worked at a comic book store and loved it. After a short introduction he free-styled lyrics to the Star Wars theme song. The audience was thrilled and began clapping and moving to the groove. A child close to three years old walked out into the front of the stage attempting to break dance.
The Crocker-Con was an absolute success. Between the Cosplay wandering around the museum, the artists booths, the comic stands, the photo booth and musical jams it was a hit . The event ended full of smiles and satisfied looking faces.
The Crockers next Art Mix will take place on December 12th. The theme is Festivus.
Heather “the intern” Uroff is a 15-year-old writer and photographer at TUBE Magazine.
Photos Heather “the intern” Uroff and Melissa Uroff