FANcon - an expression

FANCON is an ongoing comic book and popular culture convention based in Cape Town.
This is unusual because events in Cape Town hang around for 2 years then fall out of the public eye. Fancon has been around for years longer than two, and despite being the most niche-niche of events still manage to be somewhat diverse and representative of the comic book reading community in Cape Town - students, old persons like myself and people who have watched Marvel movies who decided to check this weirdness out.

And it is weirdness. Fan is after all a truncated form of fanatic, and there were many of those.
They were easy to spot, wearing their homemade costumes of their favourite comic book or TV characters, hidden behind masks, cardboard, fabric and lots of tape.  Bespoke wish fulfillment worn on the skin like a totem to demonstrate your passion and your belonging. 

I wore a costume too. A Lord of Time and Space: 
No wish fulfillment there.

My highlights were the Highest of Highs, and my lows were the Lowest of Lows: 

Mainstream comic book artist for DC and Marvel, Yanick Paquette provided an astounding context to his collaborations with Grant Morrison and Alan Moore. Grant is notoriously mercurial in his scripts and often depends on his artists to interpret an evocative phrase or idea into an integral story element. 
Alan Moore is meticulous in his scripting, giving the artist leave to venture from his script only on his own terms. Yanick graciously allowed me time to ask questions and make inane comments. In hindsight I should've made a list. I expected queues of artists and fanboys wanting to bend his ear but Cape Town's ignorance was my boon. 

There is a hunger inside our comic book creators in South Africa but it's tempered by resignation and caution. Rightly so - South African comic book artists and writers have day jobs that demand their attention, so their works are true labours of love. However it is a creation that no one can afford except for those who have the means.  South African comics as I was told by a creator is a "niche-niche" endeavour that cannot pay the rent until there is a seismic shift in the physical production of books, and a release of the stranglehold that one bookselling monopoly has on the selling of books. 

The Lowest of the Lows is not what you think.(If you're thinking it involves a wand, a temple priestess, masking tape and a Deadpool impersonator - you're wrong.) 
Fancon being over - that's sad. Food being extremely expensive was downright heartbreaking. No, the simple sad truth of the Lowest of the Lows at Fancon lies in the past, on a well walked pavement in a coloured neighbourhood in the Southern Suburbs. Where three coloured comic book nerds walk the distance from Grassy Park to Blue Route Mall circa 1998, talking about comics, books, science fiction and one day, sometime far in the future, attending a comic book convention. The Lowest of the Lows is that only one made it to Fancon. 

...and a good time was had by all.