Tales From the Con: Zenkaikon 2012 [Review + Photos]
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The last time I attended Zenkaikon it was at the Valley Forge Convention Center, but since that is now a casino, they have had to relocate to the Expo Center at Oaks. You might remember Oaks as the site of GameX and Too Many Games; two gaming cons one sadly now defunct .
I am just saying I have been to cons there in the past, that made really effective use of the space, I mean you went inside and could tell there was an actual convention going on.
Zenkaikon… not so much.
What staff described as a “transitionatory space” was essentially a dark empty warehouse that was not really setup as a convention space at all. I had a few problems with this as both a con-goer and a parent. There were no real boundaries telling con-goers where they could and couldn’t go. When I first walked in honestly I didn’t know where the convention was until I was told sarcastically, “right here.”
This made for a really strange con experience, because folks just seemed to disperse unsupervised throughout the space, which was very badly lit. There was of course a dealer’s room that seemed normal. It was just badly setup for con traffic, as there was more space in-between the tables than in walkways for the actual foot traffic.
While the experience was far from optimal the con-goers as I have seen them do in the past made the best of the situation. I think my personal highlight was all the great Adventure Time cosplay I saw. Sadly since Zenkaikon is moving now to Lancaster, this will probably be the last time I attend this convention. I wish them luck with their new space and with that I leave you with some of photos of the con and some of the cosplay I came across.



One of my favorite new series to come along in a while has been Zenescope’s Myths & Legends, the companion book to their flagship title Grimm Fairy Tales. It has done a great job of taking story elements from early issues of Grimm Fairy Tales and expanding upon them, fleshing them out while moving the entire narrative of the Grimm Universe forward. In the second Myths & Legends collection, The Little Mermaid, they do exactly that and still manage to scare the crap out of the reader at the same time.








