Okay, maybe one more cosplay pic: alternate shot of Envy, Joy and Anger from Inside Out who invited me into Rileyās head.
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
In 2019 my wife Anne and I attended our very first Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the longest-running science fiction conventions in America. We once again made the eight-hour drive from Indianapolis and returned for our fourth nonconsecutive Labor Day weekend at that amazing colossal southern spectacle. We canāt conscientiously afford to do D*C every year, but weāll see how long we can keep up an every-other year schedule before weāre too old or overwhelmed to handle itā¦
ā¦and it all comes down to this: everything else we did at the show across our 2Ā½ days that didnāt involve cosplay or actors. Comics! Shopping! Panels! Shrines! Et cetera!
For budgetary and time-saving reasons we combined D*C and our annual road trip into a single eight-day vacation, same as weād done for our first D*C in 2019. By the time we got into town Thursday afternoon weād already gone sightseeing in Huntsville and in central Georgia before we doubled back north to Atlanta. So our energy levels werenāt exactly at their peak. As an added complication, I didnāt book our hotel till April 2025 (a mere four months before showtime, like a FOOL), by which time all the nearest lodging was full or even more overpriced than where we wound up ā the Hilton Garden Inn Atlanta Downtown, which I think of more succinctly as the Other Hilton, over by the aquarium. (As opposed to the shorter-named Hilton Atlanta, which is one of D*Cās host hotels). Even if Iād booked sooner, the fact that we only attend every other year makes it next to impossible for us to nab a more convenient ālegacyā reservation in any of the host hotels or even their nearest competitors.
The Other Hilton was a perfectly fine stay, but its location at a remove meant weād have to start every morning with a half-mile walk through Centennial Olympic Park without shade just to reach the edge of the downtown-wide āshow floorā. In our favor, temps were unseasonably cool all weekend long. Meteorologically speaking, this was our most merciful D*C yet.
Downtown Atlanta welcomes everyone yet again.
Thursday afternoon the traffic up I-75/I-85 was as awful as ever ā as many as eight lanes in each direction and all of them backed up. We checked into the Other Hilton at 3:30 and Anne waited patiently while I took a much-needed shower (long story) before we walked the seven blocks over to the Courtland Grand Hotel, the traditional spot for badge pickup. The line wrapped around the building as usual, but also moved as quickly as usual. As if to help us transition into the right frame of mind, we passed a busker playing āDuel of the Fatesā on accordion.
We had our badges in hand by 5:15, picked up a few keepsakes from the conās own merch booth, and availed ourselves of the food truck party in the Courtlandās lot. I enjoyed freshly fried fish from SoFISHticated, while Anne ā still stuffed after a barbecue lunch in Pine Mountain ā contented herself with a peach mango lemon drink from Lil Rhodyās Frozen Lemonade.
Anne with her treat and her new Dragon Con badge. Note her single badge ribbon, which the merch store was selling for the benefit of NAMI Georgia, a mental health charity.
At 7 pm.. we attended our first panel, right there in the Courtland: āDragon Con 104: Tips & Tricks from Con Elders to Newbiesā. Sure, this was our fourth time, but we still donāt know every possible thing about the complete D*C experience. D*C is large, it contains multitudes.
We were so beat, the only pic either of us took was of their first PowerPoint slide.
We knew some of what they covered, but still had more to learn. Among the topics:
- The wise ā4-2-1ā baseline rule ā every attendee ought to get at least four hoursā sleep, two meals, and one shower per day. (At the LEAST.)
- Recommendations for useful health-related products such as ZBiotics (a hangover minimizer) and PartyLyte (for electrolytes).
- Quiet places to take breaks from the chaos ā e.g., the Art Show, the charity coloring room, certain eateries away from the main thoroughfares.
- The importance and availability of cosplay medics ā dozens of unpaid volunteers who wander D*C with supplies for helping cosplayers with emergency costume repairs on the go. (Every con needs to start encouraging these.)
- How to get āfast passesā to attend comic-book panels in Americas Mart 2, whose endless, singular entrance line is a discouraging obstacle.
- Pleas to avoid using the constantly clogged hotel elevators if you donāt have to use them, plus vehement reminders that the old āgo up to go downā elevator game that works well in some busier establishments (e.g., my own workplace) is now against D*C rules and can cost you your badge.
- The importance of rest over FOMO.
ā¦and more, more, more, informative and enlightening and fun. And Iām not just saying that because they were giving out badge ribbons. Afterward, in the spirit of the panel I had us try something weād never seen before: we crossed the street to the Courtlandās parking garage, took an elevator up to the seventh floor, and walked the skybridge that crosses high above the next block and connects to the Peachtree Center food court on the next block beyond that. Weād never used it before. It was a nice way of bypassing a stretch of downtown Atlantaās hilly streets, which can make long walks even more challenging.
Inside the Courtland garage skybridge, or habitrail, or hamster tunnel, or whatever term you prefer.
Down below, another food truck party set up across the street from the Marriott.
D*C offers a complimentary shuttle service that weād never used before, but those wouldnāt begin running till late Friday morning. The nighttime walk back to the Other Hilton was long, dark, and not the most charming. No one attacked us or even glared at us menacingly, though as we walked the parkās perimeter we were treated to the cute sight of two cosplayers as Dr. Strange and the Scarlet Witch entertaining a few local youngsters. Across the street, the World of Coca-Cola also looked cooler at night, but our attempted pics of it suck. I blame our exhaustion.
At Americas Mart 2, this was less than 10% of the total line before opening. 15-20 of them had already been there since sunrise. Later the line would wrap around the building a second time.
Friday morning we took our sweet time dragging ourselves out of bed. We overpaid to stuff ourselves at the hotel breakfast buffet, just in case we didnāt make time for lunch later. (And thatās exactly what happened.) Based on past experiences we knew weād need to hit Americas Mart 2 first thing ā the commerce center that hosts Artists Alley on the top floor and the official vendorsā hall that completely takes up the other three stories. Due to compounded lethargy we didnāt join the line till 9:00, behind some six million others. Weāre usually much better at early arrival at other shows. Sometimes weāre the ones who start con entrance lines. This timeā¦well, as we just learned, rest is more important than FOMO.
The line had looped inside the Martās parking garage before we found the end and could finally stand still and commence waiting. A badge ribbon swap-meet with our line-buddies helped pass the time. Badge ribbons are such a huge part of the D*C fan experience that this time we brought our own to trade with others. (Anne tried this first at a couple other shows last year, including Creationās big Star Trek to Chicago show and Galaxycon Columbus. She delighted a few attendees, but the practice hasnāt yet taken the Midwest by storm.) We also enjoyed chatting with a recent Trek convert, who in turn educated us in the ways of the hot new video game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which explained why we saw so many folks dressed in red berets and mime costumes. (If you donāt know, you donāt want me to explain it.)
The Mart opened at 10:00; we got inside surprisingly quickly at 10:15 and took all the escalators up to Artists Alley for what we rightly feared would be our only walk-through this year. Quite a few creators werenāt at their tables yet, but we had the pleasure of meeting a few folks.
Paul Jenkins! Writer of such works as Incredible Hulk (where he redefined the āProfessorā persona), Inhumans, Witchblade, and various Spidey-books, among many others. He co-created the Sentry, as seen in Thunderbolts. Note his cute sketch of the Void.
Cory Smith! We had fun watching him at a Sketch Duel at Galaxycon Columbus last year, and I was enjoying his art on Fantastic Four before its recent relaunch.
Mark Russell! This pic is from Fan Expo Chicago 2025, where Iād just met him two weeks ago, but I bugged him again anyway with thoughts about Second Coming.
Not pictured: artist Tana Ford! I met her at C2E2 2019 andā¦Iām annoyed to find just now that we failed to take a photo of her at that show. Back then sheād just wrapped up the Dark Horse miniseries LaGuardia with writer Nnedi Okorafor; this occasion was the launch party for the same teamās latest project, The Space Cat.
My Artists Alley buys, plus some bits of swag given to us by other con-goers throughout the weekend.
Also not pictured: an associate of William Shatner and You!, the Star Trek legendās next book, which will apparently be about his own fans. The associate handed out postcards inviting anyone who pre-orders it by December 31st to submit their story to him online (150 words max) about how one of his characters touched their lives (āwhether itās Star Trek or Boston Legal or even The Transformed Man!ā). A select few will then personally be interviewed for the book by Shatner himself. This means youāll have to pre-order the book before heās finished writing all this down, but still.
Not actually tabling at Artists Alley per se, I think: some guy with a slightly gym-teacher demeanor was offering badge ribbons to anyone who could do at least one push-up.
Anne, determined to earn a ribbon.
As youād expect, the vendorsā halls their share of sights and wonders and merch among the hundreds of purveyors of geek goodness. We took the most pics at the booth of Bricker Builds, a must-see for Lego fans.
Lego Marvel heads!
Lego Mandalorian helmets!
Lego Squirtle (the Pokemon), Lego Aku-Aku from the Crash Bandicoot games, and Dr. Strangeās Lego Eye of Agamotto.
Lego Boo, from Marioās universe.
Lego Captain Rex, Lego Deadpool in love, and a Lego Ice Flower a la Mario.
Lanterns above the table of Drunken Dragon Hotel, extremely busy sellers of merch based on various Dragon Con fandoms, in-jokes and running gags. (Anne wanted a specific pin of theirs.)
Among the Drunken Dragon Hotelās most tempting products: actual scraps from the Marriott Marquisā former yet still infamous carpet.
Crescent Creepers, whose booth always catches my eye but whose bizarre shirts are never stocked in my size at the show.
ā¦and we were done there by 12:15. We didnāt need to fill up our bags with that much new stuff, which weād have to lug around town for hours and on the long walk back to the hotel. As it was, the hardcover I bought from Paul Jenkins did my back no favors, though my brain looks forward to reading it.
Our next stop was the 1:00 opening of the Walk of Fame, what D*C calls their actorsā autographing area. After the two-block walk from the Mart to the Marriott we wound up in the Walkās second overflow line after the first overflow line overflowed, but were ushered through the doors at 1:20 after a reasonable wait. We already recounted our experiences with the celebrities in our first chapter, albeit out of order. At this point we learned Emma Caulfieldās flight had been delayed, which pushed her appearance back to Saturday, and Brandon Routh was at an Arrowverse panel one building over. But for now we were happy to meet Star Trek: Voyagerās Robert Duncan McNeill (with whom we gabbed about FDR State Park, which weād just visited the day before) and Star Trek: Discoveryās extremely friendly Oded Fehr. And I busied myself on my phone while Anne met her all-time favorite actor John de Lancie for the tenth time (by her own count).
We wrapped up our first Walk walk shortly before the Next Generation panel began at 2:30. Most of the line had already been let inside, so we didnāt have much of a wait and were happy to learn the Marriott Atrium Ballroom was huge and had copious seating. If memory serves, I donāt think weād attended a panel in that particular room before.
Crowd sightings included Statler and Waldorf ghost puppets in the style of A Christmas Carol.
Light wandering ensued after that panel. We took more cosplay photos. We rediscovered the bathrooms. We probably reentered the Walk of Fame to verify Routh still wasnāt back yet. We witnessed some of the shrines, which tend to pop up here and there around the con as fans develop bizarre fixations ā ironically or otherwise ā on various subjects.
A new shrine to Jon the Fed Ex Guy, the day before his cult marched in the cosplay parade.
A shrine to Jinu, the demon boy-band leader and love interest from Netflixās runaway smash KPop Demon Hunters.
Buddy Christ has fallen! Alas, this shrine appears forsaken as Dogma has faded from memory.
At 4:20 we agreed it was time for lunch/dinner at Aviva by Kameel, that lovely Mediterranean restaurant in the Peachtree Center food court thatās a favorite of many a D*C attendee. Weāve eaten there at least once every time weāre in town, and every time its ebullient founder Kameel Srouji has appeared in person to greet customers and announce, āHELLO, MY FRIENDS! I LOVE YOU ALL!ā Free samples are often handed out to those waiting in line, sometimes by Kameel himself. This time I got the lamb shawarma and Anne had the rosemary chicken. Once again we enjoyed our best meal of the weekend.
This yearās free sample: vegetable soup!
We always add an order of their pistachio baklava.
Some functions are being transferred to family members as heās gotten older, but Kameel was there nevertheless, as gregarious and welcoming as ever.
We returned to the Marriott Marquis for our 5:10 jazz-hands photo-op with Karen Fukuhara, and had the pleasure chatting in the short line with a British cosplayer couple about road trips, Niagara Falls and Southern history. Then we went up two floors for a 5:30 fan panel devoted to Andor, winner of multiple Emmy Awards shortly after D*C. Unfortunately we arrived three minutes late behind 150+ other people whoād taken all the seats, leaving it SRO for us stragglers. While Anne sat on the floor against the back wall, I found an empty spot where I could stand and lean against a side wall. I was careful not to knock down the Star Wars banner hanging behind me, unlike one of my fellow standers who had a bit of a dust-up with another banner behind him.
My view of the Andor panel. It was Jenny Nicholsonās Galactic Starcruiser dinner all over again.
Deprived of the presentationās visual component, it was like listening to a podcast, which is something I almost never do. Things got better forty minutes in, when a back-wall chair was vacated and a couple of fellow wall-huggers gestured at me, the eldest unseated listener in our corner.
The discussion was about as lively as one might expect from polite speakers trying to compliment a complicated, uncompromising work about the heavy cost of rebellion against tyrannyā¦in a social environment where many attendees were here specifically to think and talk about literally anything in the galaxy except politics. Each panelist talked about the parts of the show they liked best and kept most commentary about real-world allusions no more than ankle-deep, apart from the occasional fatigued wink toward The Way Things Are Going Right Now. The closest comment to ādaringā came from one panelist who in one aspect was reminded of āhow the GOP left me behind.ā No one directly responded to him, but a susurrus of snap judgments registered more than a few decibels among the crowd. And I may have winced visibly when a very nice audience member and probable feminist ally described Luthenās assistant/partner/boss Kleya (who, letās be clear, was an astounding performance) as a āstrong female characterā. It was cool to be around other Star Wars fans, but it wasnāt quite the Paley Center.
Afterward we retreated to the first floor to take advantage of its quieter, less populated bathrooms. Right before we left, saw a Major Trek Actor wisely take the same advantage. Then āround 7:00 we indulged in our very first Dragon Con shuttle ride, partly because we didnāt want to repeat the long walk back and partly, simply, because we could. The Other Hilton is the first hotel weāve every stayed at to have its own dedicated shuttle stop right out front. Weād have loved to take the shuttles all the time, but they donāt start running till 10 a.m. on Friday; on Saturday, not till after the end of the cosplay parade.
We learned each āshuttleā is an entire charter bus ā refreshingly comfy seats (especially after youāve been out-ānā-about for 10+ hours) but no āSTOP REQUESTEDā signal you can use to alert the driver youāre about to get off, like on our city buses back home. The driver zipped past the first stop at the Aloft without slowing down much, so I made a point of standing up as we neared ours. (I could swear I heard grumbling from another rider, who presumably doesnāt do city buses.) She passed the Shuttle Stop sign and seemed unsure where exactly to pull along the curb, so I tried to point out the front door, though she disregarded my suggestion to crush the SUV that stood between it and us.
We were back in our room by 7:30, after sharing an elevator ride with a newbie couple and giving them badge ribbons.
Anne waits for the cosplay parade to begin. Note the growth in her badge ribbons.
Saturday I woke up at 4:30 a.m. for no good reason whatsoever and waited another hour or so for Anne to join me. We hit up the hotel breakfast buffet again for lack of viable nearby options and the sake of keeping a tighter timetable. We were in position for the parade by 7:55 and thrived on lovely cool breezes, complemented around 8:30 by the scents of food trucks warming up behind us. (Mmmm, gyros.) Anne made herself comfy on the pavement next to a trashcan, which the city has someone Saran-wrap shut each year before the parade. She tried to avoid broken glass and an ant feast on one side.
Letās assume youāre well aware of our previous ten chapters about the annual Dragon Con Cosplay Parade (all linked below), during which we took over 800 photos and, in an unexpected setback on my part, inadvertently maxed out the memory card on my camera, which takes much better parade photos than my phoneās camera does for my amateurish methods. After the end of the parade passed us at 11:30, we immediately darted to the stairs across the street up to Peachtree Center in hopes that the CVS carried memory cards. On this day we learned the CVS has a second floor, where we never needed to venture to before. We gave badge ribbons to the nice employee who pointed us up there (sheād already garnered quite a few) and were relieved to find they carry them behind the counter. I havenāt carried a CVS card in ages, but Anne dug her beat-up old card from her billfold, only for their database to show her record hadnāt been updated in ages. It still listed her former last name and our address and landline number from 18 years ago.
After a desperately needed bathroom stop amid the post-parade crowd rush, we rushed back to the bottom floor of the Marriott for our 12:10 photo op with Simon Pegg, then adjourned two floors up to the Walk of Fame. Anne held my place in Simon Peggās growing line (for which weād prepaid for an autograph, so that was a must to get done) while I popped over and met Buffy costar Emma Caulfield, whose flight finally came in.
One of her several hair-trigger alternate takes. She took multiple tries to get the light just the way she wanted it so our skin wouldnāt look gray.
Back at Peggās line I tagged in and Anne tagged out, freeing her up in time for her 1:20 photo-op with frequent Star Trek guest John de Lancie. (Yes, again. Itās her thing.) Pegg had three handlers, one of whom handed me a black badge ribbon with a Shaun of the Dead quote in red letters. he was in quick-signing mode but managed just enough eye contact and responsiveness to mitigate the cattle-call sensation. In this moment, the only time Anne and I were on separate floors during all of D*C, reuniting proved challenging because Anne wasnāt used to locating the escalators without me. Eventually she managed in time for our 1:40 photo-op with the Voyager guys.
The quest to witness Simon Peggās 2:30 panel in the Marriott Atrium Ballroom proved more daunting than it shouldāve been. Our first-ever experience with that room Friday had been painless because the line had already been admitted in. This time we needed to figure out where the line was, but were a bit confounded at the sign that said it was āoutsideā with literally no elaboration whatsoever. Apparently āoutsideā was just one of those presumptuous things that āeveryone just KNOWSā, which aggravates me to no end and all but guarantees Iām about to learn a lesson the hard way.
A volunteer misdirected us as to where exactly to line up and vaguely waved toward a juncture thatā¦look, how ābout I cut whatād probably be a three-paragraph debacle that ended with me nearly getting crushed by a surging crowd that shoved hard enough to knock a button off my bag and sunglasses off someone else, leading to a frightening moment of separation from Anne, a bit of shouting before we made it in, and us eventually sitting toward the back 10-15 minutes after the Q&A had already begun.
Our next event, the Voyager guysā panel, was in the exact same ballroom. Now that we had been hazed and inducted into the Clique of Everyone Who Just KNOWS What āOutsideā Means, we headed out the nearest exit ā the glass door to a designated smoking area ā down a two-story concrete staircase and clear around to the opposite side of the rather sizable Marriott. We didnāt mind all the walking as long as itād take us to where we were supposed to go. Following unwritten procedures worked, and our seats were much closer to the stage than our Pegg-panel left-field seats.
5:00 Saturday outside the Walk of Fame, this was not another shrine. Imagine the passersby who looked at this and thought, āYes, it is okay for me to add my trash to this.ā (Itās also a perfect metaphor for todayās social media.)
Post-Voyager we took one last pass on the Walk of Fame and finally crossed Brandon Routh off my autograph want-list. By this time his line was pretty short. Sometimes waiting till the end of the day works; sometimes actors leave the con early and leave you hanging. Much love to him for sticking it out.
File photo from C2E2 2018, where I met Routh along with his Legends of Tomorrow costars Caity Lotz and Dominic Purcell. His and my hair is a tad grayer now.
We slowly trudged through hundreds of Marriott partygoers and retreated to Peachtree Center for lunch/dinner at Yami-Yami, which sells sushi and Asian dishes by the pound. It isnāt Anneās favorite thing, but we were too wasted to amble around and methodically evaluate all our food court options. After familiar desserts at Dairy Queen we returned to the Marriott for a bit more wandering and still more cosplay pics, in case 800 parade pics werenāt enough fun. When weād had our fill, we were chagrined to find the down escalator to the first floor was out of order, but cheerfully took the nearest stairwell instead and escaped.
This weird French mouse droid began beeping at me. I couldnāt stop its RC wielder, so I comically backed away.
At 7:10 we reached the same shuttle stop for one last ride. After a 15-minute wait we saw the next Green Shuttle approaching and began leading our fellow riders in a chant of āGREEN! GREEN! GREEN! GREEN!ā, which is ten times funnier when youāre delirious and recognize the resemblance to a a particular D*C in-joke. Our driver did just fine without any backseat input. Once again we were back in our room at 7:30 but already collapsed on the inside. We kindasorta wished we couldāve spent some extra time wandering those Saturday night parties like weād done in 2023, but it had been a long day and an even longer week.
We were tempted to stick around Sunday, but we had to check out by noon and couldnāt justify coughing up another $35-$40 for parking anywhere else nearby. (I checked ParkMobile and SpotHero.) But weād done so much already that we decided to leave on a high note. We took our leave of Atlanta once more, leaving this yearās reported 75,000+ attendees behind, and drove on to our next hotel near Nashville.
So yeah, we did a lot at D*C this year, but we still havenāt done all the things. Weāve yet to enter the secret food court at Truist Plaza. We have yet to find or browse the annual Art Show, which isnāt the same thing as Artists Alley. Weāve yet to stay out past 9, though itās just as well considering we donāt drink. (I didnāt figure out how to connect with the Dragon Con Sober group ā thereās a group for everything! ā till far too late to do anything with that info.) Weāre still over the moon with all that we did get to experience.
We got new pics for our jazz-hands photo gallery, new names added to our master list of all the famous folks weāve ever met over three decades of conventions, and countless new memories to keep us feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Thatās all helped me cope with the hardest part of post-con depression: saying goodbye to such a massive, welcoming community and coming back down to solitary dwelling in my tiny internet hidey-hole here.
Also high on the accomplishment list: our badge ribbon collections. We picked up a few in 2023, but this year the badge-ribbon passions were off the charts. It definitely helped that weād brought our own to trade with other fans. To an extent it helped just by wearing Trke T-shirts, which was all some fans needed to keep rewarding us on sight. And maybe it helped that the more we go to D*C, the comfier we get. I ended up turning my badge-ribbon chain into an asymmetrical sash by pinning it to the side of my shirt using an Atomic Robo button off my comic-con bag. It looked weird, but at least I didnāt trip over it. And Anne finally ran out of the Trek ribbons sheād been bringing to every con since last September.
Anneās final badge-ribbon standings.
ā¦and hereās mine, more than half of which are different from hers.
If you think those are a lot, you should see the extroverted overachievers whoāve made entire articles of clothing out of badge ribbons. Weāre nowhere near that level and might never be. Lord willing, weāll see what Dragon Con 2027 brings.
Weāre the Goldens. Itās who we are and what we do.
The End. Thanks for reading! Lord willing, weāll see you next conā¦coming in October!
Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:
Part 1: The Stars in Our Galaxy
Part 2: Some Cosplay!
Part 3: Slightly More Cosplay!
Part 4: The Cosplay Parade, Star Wars Division
Part 5: The Cosplay Parade, Video Game Division
Part 6: The Cosplay Parade, Marvel and DC Comics Division
Part 7: Pimp My Cosplay Parade Rides
Part 8: More Than Cosplay at the Parade
Part 9: Did We Mention There Was a Cosplay Parade
Part 10: The Cosplay Parade Is COMING TO GET YOU
Part 11: āBut Sir,ā You Ask, āWhat About the Cosplay Parade?ā
Part 12: The Cosplay Parade Marches Into the West5
For two days and two nights, I will step aboard an immersive galactic starcruiser experience and live MY star wars story.References and clip sources: https:/...
Jenny Nicholson (YouTube)
Dragon Con 2025 Photos, Part 4: The Cosplay Parade, Star Wars Division
The Dragon Con 2025 Cosplay Parade presents the greatest show on Earth! Screw you, ordinary circuses!
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
In 2019 my wife Anne and I attended our very first Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the longest-running science fiction conventions in America. We once again made the eight-hour drive from Indianapolis and returned for our fourth nonconsecutive Labor Day weekend at that amazing colossal southern spectacle. We canāt conscientiously afford to do D*C every year, but weāll see how long we can keep up an every-other year schedule before weāre too old or overwhelmed to handle itā¦
Same as our visits in 2019, in 2021, and in 2023, one of our favorite D*C features was the annual Saturday morning cosplay parade. Each year hundreds of cosplayers team up in appropriate factions or categories and march the streets of downtown Atlanta in their costumes, sometimes even driving their own geek vehicles. The roadside crowd lineup around the parade route is the best opportunity for the public-at-large to join the festivities and get a taste of comic-con life for free.
We amateur enthusiasts took nearly 800 photos (maxing out my memory card at one awkward point), from which I spent two nights culling maybe 200+ to post. Weāll be sharing batches of them over the next several chapters, time and energy permitting. If you or someone you know was in the parade and youād love to see them, pretty-please let us know! Weāll be happy to search our files and show āem if we caught āem. No guarantees, but weāll oblige if we can.
First up: lots of Star Wars characters, just because. Enjoy!
Pink Vader, a recurring D*C parader.
The first of many Mandalorians to come.
Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan and Mara Jade.
A Mina-Rau farmer from Andor.
Tracksuit Mandalorian.
Queen Amidala.
The Queenās handmaidens, a joint alliance of the 501st Legion and Rebel Legion fan groups.
Captain Rex and Anakin.
Darth Revan, introduced in the 2003 Knights of the Old Republic game.
Giant-sized Mouse Droid.
Friendly olā Ben Kenobi.
Lord Vader and his subordinates.
A TIE Fighter and its appropriately detailed towing car.
Emperor Palpatine lurking on the tailgate.
Right around here began a procession from the Mando Mercs Costume Club.
āI want YOU to come to Dragon Con!ā
Mandalorians turned up in nearly every color of the rainbow.
Neither of us got a decent shot of the flag.
The most fabulous Jawa of all, among the members of the Great Jawa Horde.
The Jawa accessorized with whatever they plucked from some circus theyād just looted.
Letās all go to the lobby! Letās all go to the lobby!
The Jawa tricycle stunt spectacular!
Full shot of the Sandcrawler in our lead photo.
One last on-topic mashup in under the wire: Darth Bender!
To be continued! Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:
Part 1: The Stars in Our Galaxy
Part 2: Some Cosplay!
Part 3: Slightly More Cosplay!
Part 5: The Cosplay Parade, Video Game Division
Part 6: The Cosplay Parade, Marvel and DC Comics Division
Part 7: Pimp My Cosplay Parade Rides
Part 8: More Than Cosplay at the Parade
Part 9: Did We Mention There Was a Cosplay Parade
Part 10: The Cosplay Parade Is COMING TO GET YOU
Part 11: āBut Sir,ā You Ask, āWhat About the Cosplay Parade?ā
Part 12: The Cosplay Parade Marches Into the West
Part 13: A Conclusion of Convivial Concatenation
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: In 2019 my wife Anne and I attended our very first Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the longest-running science fiction conventions in America. We onceā¦
Randall A. Golden (Midlife Crisis Crossover!)
