Month: September 2019

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The event of the year took place this past weekend at Comic-Con Africa 2019 from Saturday the 21st all the way to Heritage day, Tuesday the 24th of Septemeber. It was a super awesome experience and I had a great time at the event.

If you know me, after the success of CCA2018 my world revolved around Comic-Con Africa – It was like waiting for Christmas or my birthday and has become a huge part of my identity. This year I planned to soak up the geek at CCA for only 3 days out of the 4 day weekend but I had so much fun on day 1 that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to attend every single day!

CCA2019, saw the con in a new venue Gallagar Convention Centre that was a lot bigger than last year. This year we got more; a dedicated kids section called KIDSCON, and designated halls for gaming (tabletop and electronic), the artist’s alley, and the main stage area with lots of stalls and other areas in between. We also had some pretty rad international personalities such as William Shatner, Nolan North, and Troy Baker as well as Daniel Gillies to name a few.

There was so much to do and see at CCA2019 and despite making it to all 4 days I did not manage to see enough! There were times where I wished my superpower could be splitting into two people just to cover more ground. Though the things I did see were super cool and the friends I made through the year leading up to CCA added to my experience.

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At the start of each day, I got to hang out with the Friends of Comic Con Africa at the FOCCA Meet-up. Finally seeing friends I had made from behind a computer screen – chatting to them and having fun made the experience worthwhile. I must have spent the majority of the time at the con just bonding with others that like the same things as me.

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Another highlight was meeting Ziyaad from Awali Comics. I have been fangirling over Awali for months and it was awesome to meet him and just chat about art and comics. I got my hands on issues 1 – 6 of Siri Watu with each one signed of course. I also saw the legendary Bill Masuku (who was hard to catch) and picked up my pre-order of Captain South Africa also signed. I saw these guys as well as some other local artists at a panel I caught which was one of my most memorable con moments. These guys are inspirational and maybe one day I will be up there with the greats!

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It was awesome to play Boet Fighter again (I attended a beta test a few weeks ago) and was pleased with the improvements such as health and life pick-ups which were not included in the beta testing. I didn’t get much time to play anything else – the gaming area was massive and I wished I had taken the time to test out some other games but this is something I will improve on next year.

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Like I said earlier, I did not plan on attending all 4 days. I had a hiccup with my contact lens on Day 2 and couldn’t see or do much. The Cosplay Hospital was an amazing idea and although I wasn’t cosplaying I was able to use the saline solution that was available in the kit they had to fix any cosplay mishaps. With Day 2 – not going as I had hoped, I wanted to attend Day 3 but didn’t have any tickets. At this point, my CCA Fairy God Mother (Thank you!) came through for me and helped me out with tickets so for my come back I decided to bring back Budget Mermaid from last year.

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The night before, I attended CCA2018 I made a triton and painted shells on a t-shirt for a bit of Disney Bounding. I didn’t plan on wearing this again (as I often wear it to the gym: triton not included) but I ran out of clothes so I thought it would be fun! And it was, I still received compliments from people on my outfit and the triton even though the paint is chipping one year later – So, I think budget mermaid is here to stay. I also picked up a dinglehopper bow to match my outfit at Frockabilly by Cherry Lisa and a pin that reads ‘mermaids don’t have thigh gaps.’

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For the most part, I scoured the stalls looking at the cool things that were on offer. With my teeny tiny student budget, I made the decision to only get what I absolutely wanted and that was the CCA19 exclusive Funko Pops. I first went in for Wonder Woman and Thor but ended up also buying a Kakashi for Player 2. By the end of the last day, I still had some money burning in my purse and the SSGSS Goku [Kamehameha] on my mind so I ran over to GammaTEK SA and grabbed the last one.

There was a lot going on over the 4 day weekend and I really loved hanging out with friends, taking pictures at the F.R.I.E.N.D.S couch or at the WWE stand and KFC stand. I also got a cool new CCA mug and was gifted a Daenerys Funko Pop and Joker cushion by my two awesome friends to add to my haul. I also met my favorite Lord Beerus (Gene Daffue,) my fellow mermaid Enslien Erasmus and Leigh-Anne Knipe who did an outstanding 3 cosplays (this girl’s my inspiration!) I also met my fellow admins from the FOCCA group which was lovely and got to spend time with my favorite admin Jonathan Harding (Fandom is Awesome.)

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I didn’t have much time to see everything and I was sad to miss the cosplay competition. You might also be wondering why I didn’t mention much of the international stars – well for me I really found that I was starstruck by local artists and cosplayers I met at the event and that’s what made it special for me.

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CCA2019 was a success in my books I had so much fun and even though I live down the road it was like a mini-holiday for me. A much-needed break. Of course in no way was it perfect some of my gripes were with the ventilation and walkways which were super narrow especially in Hall 3 (which Jonathan also talks about in his post on CCA19: Comic-Con Africa 2019 – in Review.)

Living in JHB and frequenting other conventions has also left me familiar with many of the vendors so to an extent I would have wanted more awesome hard to get merch obtained by CCA themselves (if possible). This is a minor though as my broke ass could probably not afford anything but still, some friends expressed frustration with the offerings.

As an artist and someone who spent most of her time in the artist alley, I would have liked a place for us to draw and purchase some epic art supplies. So maybe, if CCA is reading this – this would be an awesome a place to chill for a little while and draw. Like a play area for adults with booze, art supplies and drawing paper!

Other than this the con was great! I made a lot of memories and had an awesome time and am so freaking pumped for next year – I have even started watching cosplay tutorials to up my game. I will also like to personally plan my strategy better – Jatin Dayaram was the happiest person I saw after he got his PS controller signed .

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To end this one-off I would like to say thank you to the organizers and the people who made this so special! Even if you weren’t mentioned by name you made my weekend.

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