ayA Con: Day 1

This was the first year of ayA Con. I had heard of indigenous cons in other states, but due to my current limited ability to travel for cons they were outside of my ability to experience. Because of this I had not yet gotten to experience an indigenous version of a comic con. Even though I had been to many different other indigenous events and had traveled during my younger days to reservations across the country I was not sure how this would play out in a comic/art con. Needless to say, I was really looking forward to this experience.

Opening Ceremonies

Opening day was super small in the amount of people that were there, but that is normal for most cons. The con started of with a indigenous dance presentation outside the McNichols Civic Center Building performed by Danza Azteca Grurpo Huitzilopochtli. As the audience stood amidst the bustling city, a captivating spectacle unfolded before their eyes. The performers were adorned in elaborate costumes that feathers, beads, and vibrant hues, took their positions. The rhythmic cadence of drums reverberated through the air accompanied by the soft jingle of ankle rattles, setting the stage for a mesmerizing journey into the ancient world. A hypnotic melody was created and when the performance paused between songs the audience would break out in applause. 

From there the crowd followed the dancers inside for a shrine offering ceremony. 

In the small room the drums felt a bit overpowering.

After the performance the guests were invited to a small reception.

The treats at the reception were made by a local bakery, Cultura Chocolate,  and I'm looking forward to checking them out to see what other products they have at a future date. To drink they also had Death Water.

Dealer's Room/Artist Alley

After the shrine offerings and reception guests were invited to go around to the other floors in the McNichols Civic Center Building. The 2nd and 3rd floors housed the dealer's room/artist alley. While walking through it I loved seeing how different cultures could build and play on each other. Many artists that I will focus on had some of the most interesting blending of cultures or other aspects that stood out.

This vender goes by Esvars. He was talking to me about how these ponchos were a combination of a South American common form of dress with Japanese art. I have seen these at other cons for about a year now and I never really thought about the deeper cultural blending. (You can find more on his website: https://esvarsanimeandmanga.company.site/?fbclid=PAAaZ_o9qnVgS41SgIIsnVGdHPZ0H4i2LglLQCBliZ_vu6P-gDq7UtCYxVr7M).

This is Jorge Garza who specializes in blending different fandoms into Aztec art forms.

This is a close up of some of his art. For me what was amazing was the Star Wars art. For those that don't know, many of the styles of clothing in the Star Wars universe was influenced by Asian culture, specifically Japanese culture. So when it comes to these pieces of his art they are both Japanese and Aztec at the same time. I highly recommend people look up his art to take a detailed look at it. On Instagram you can find him as qetzaart. (His website link is https://linktr.ee/qetzaart).

So, even though Grogu was not original art, using him as a prop in this way made me laugh because of how cute he was helping them to display their jewelry. This is not the first time I have seen Grogu dressed up in indigenous gear. Awhile back there was an article that highlighted all of these Native American memes using Grogu.

These comics are created by The Boom Association. All of the stories deal with mental illness. The artist (only one artist behind the association) talked about how each one was done in a different style of art. He even joked about  how he nearly got carpal tunnel while working on The Rider, which is understandable considering how intense the line art was in it (pictured middle row far right). You can find more on his website theboomassociation.com .

This was another booth that pulled me in laughing. One of the projects of Todd Jones was turning sharks into classic movie monsters. This idea and carry through was just brilliant.

For each shark there was a little story in the book.

If you know someone that loves shark movies these would be a great gift. In my case Mommy Geek is a huge shark fan and I got her the book, the Godzilla shark shirt, and a werewolf shark poster. 

Being a combo table, there were also other groups such as this. This picture is of our friends at Colorado Festival of Horror. Their con will be coming up in a couple of months and they also do their special beer release.

One of the things that really stood out for me was that most of the indigenous representation was focused on Mesoamerica and South America with very little representation from North American groups. Also there were no panels on Friday, and once you went through the dealer's room/artist alley there wasn't anything else to keep you there. At least on Saturday they have much more scheduled for people to do.