I’ve put all my photos from the dealer room on August 8 in this separate entry.
Our fellow hordes flooded the dealer room on Friday, making navigation through the aisles difficult because clumps of people stopped dead right in the middle of the aisle, clogging everyone else up. The first time I went to the dealer room, I walked quickly, just trying to scope out what was there in the artists’ alley. Where possible, I went up one side of an aisle and down the opposite. I usually don’t pay much attention to the companies’ booths taking up the other half of the dealer room, but I was on the lookout for another t-shirt, so I did a speed run of that section. After hours of quick pacing on bare cement floors, my feet hurt. D:
Many artists favored pastel palettes and cute cartoon nonhuman animals in chibi form. Saturnbears [the first three pictures below] was one that I particularly liked, Oshkico [the last three pictures below] another, though I didn’t purchase from either artist.
Two other artists that I liked but did not purchase from were Tania Minacca [the first three photos below], creator of Ponto, an online comic strip about the eponymous traffic bollard making gentle fun of the city’s endless construction projects, and the Seventh Station [the last two photos below], whose prints of vegetables were wonderful and bold.
I really liked the Borb Emporium’s little black cat and humorous stickers last time I went to Otakuthon, so I repatronized them again [next three photos].
Mystic Leo caught my attention with Tarot-inspired imagery featuring women of color! [“Yes!” we screamed joyfully at each other. “Representation!”] She also gradiously posed for a photo and showed off her fabulous ensemble in warm earth tones, from locs to shawl to bangles to top and jeans!
Spooky Sparkle Party had been mentioned in earlier panels as a source of clothes for fat people, so I sought them out on the company side of the dealer room. It was staffed by two enthusiastic people who showed off their pastel Goth merchandise in sizes up to 3XL. The artist explained to me about their sizing [e.g., “This skirt would fit you because you’re about my size but you have less butt than I do”], assured me that the t-shirt I selected in 2XL was the right size, and showed off some items [example in the second and third picture] that she had sewn using a front center panel based on her own illustration.
The last picture in the group below gives a sense of the cavernous gymnasium-like room where the dealers were…and also how many people invaded the space!
After running around and identifying my favorite vendors, I purchased a small print and some stickers from Borb Emporium [first picture below], three Tarot-inspired prints from Mystic Leo, and a t-shirt with moths and a matching pastel moth pin from Spooky Sparkle Party. I then swore I was done buying stuff!
Spoiler: I was not.
