Hi all and welcome to a very special edition of Friday’s Feature as I share a bit about my weekend when I travelled to Brisbane for Supanova. For those who don’t know, Supanova kind of covers a bit of everything. Comics and gaming seem to be a large part of the focus, but there’s a lot of sci-fi, a bit of horror and quite a bit of anime thrown in just for fun. Previously I’d been lucky enough to travel to Melbourne for the event but that was a number of years ago and so I was super-excited when I managed to save up some cash, organise some time off work, and get to the convention this year.
Now, it does start on the Friday afternoon, but with travel I was only able to go on Saturday and Sunday, but I still found heaps to do and way too many things I wanted to buy. However let’s start at the beginning. Over four days (counting the Monday and the Friday travel time), I drove over 19 hours, spent nearly 5 hours on trains, and walked over 30,000 steps.
And I wonder why I was tired this week.
I also met some incredibly cool people, picked up some amazing merchandise, got to hear Dean Cain answer questions about whether or not there were ever any accidents involving his Superman suit and Bonnie Wright talk about what it was like to kiss Harry Potter so I’m feeling pretty happy with my weekend. I am a little bit disappointed that the panel with Julie Benz didn’t go ahead, but it did mean I had plenty of time to listen to the guys who rent out Darlek’s and a Tardis for charity and have operated a Darlek on the set of Dr Who, so again, not a lot to be disappointed about when so many things were so much fun.
And yes, I did dress up for the occasion (at least on the Saturday). I went as a gender-bent version of my very favourite anime ice-skater, Yuri Katsuki. For patrons, there’s a little surprise over on Patreon to check out.
Now, I spent a huge amount of time in the artists alley because some of the art work there was amazing (as were some of the key chains, dog collars, self-published books, and insect themed jewellery). Still, my favourite stand ended up belonging to an artist by the name of Andrew Law (and here is his website which links to pretty much everything else). I absolutely loved his art work. Lots of fairies and dragons and fantasy based work. Some was coloured, a lot just ink, and I’m going to be honest, it was beautiful. I ended up buying his art book and I will admit I couldn’t really stop looking at it on my way home. I really just enjoyed talking with him and looking at his work. A lot of the other stalls were more interested in just giving you their spiel or pitch or would more or less ignore you until you directly asked them a question, but he was really nice. If you get the chance, check out some of his work because some of it is absolutely stunning.
Outside of that, I did buy quite a few fan arts of Nyanko Sensei, the characters from Land of the Lustrous, and a poster from Yuri on Ice. The Sword Art Online posters came as part of a show-bag I picked up because, Sword Art Online (couldn’t help it).
If you follow me on Twitter you’ve already seen my gorgeous new Nyanko Sensei plush (oh my goodness I love it so much).
Look who is coming home with me. pic.twitter.com/dM1f62Hdvu
— Karandi (@100wordanime) 11 November 2018
And finally, my prize from the convention, I splurged a tiny little bit and bought myself a petite character box of the Black Moon Clan from Sailor Moon including Wicked Lady. I have tons of Sailor Moon themed merchandise, but almost nothing from the villains side and I absolutely love the villains from season 2, so this was a really fantastic pick up and one I’m glad I found.
So yes, an awesome weekend and I would absolutely love to do it again, though I’m not sure when that will happen. I’d love to say I’ll go next year but it was quite hard to fit it in this year so it may have to wait another year or so before I manage to work it in again.
On a final note, I got a few odds and ends (mostly fan posters and the like) that I’m going to save up and put together for a bit of a give-away next year when my blog turns three (I’ll hopefully add to the small collection I have now to put together a couple of decent prizes).
Thanks for reading.
Karandi James
Consider supporting the blog by:
Or use one of my affiliate product links:
glad you had fun. who doesn’t love a good convention? haha
And it was a very good convention. I couldn’t believe how fast checking in and everything else went. Very organised.
The commute sounds tiring, but sounds like it was worth it. Do gotta say I am jealous of that Sailor Moon merch you snag. It looks very nice! Hoping I’ll go to a con someday.
The commute was exhausting, but it was totally worth it. I do just keep wondering why Australia can’t have a functional rail network that actually runs with some sort of regularity because that would make the whole getting around the state thing a lot easier.
Glad you had fun and found some cool merch!
Thank you.
That looks like so much fun!
I had a great time. The only problem is that I couldn’t get many good photos because with so many people there was always someone or something in the way when trying to line up a shot of pretty much anything.
I love cons, but seldom get to attend due to scheduling conflicts. Glad you had fun!
Yes, work very much gets in the way, that and the sheer distance I have to travel even for one running in the same state. It makes it a bit difficult. However, I think it means I really appreciate getting the chance to go.