Southern Fried Pop Culture & ComicCon - Recap

This past weekend, several of the Memphettes and I were on hand at the Southern Fried Pop Culture and Comic Con in Jackson, Tennessee. Our mission was supposed to be helping out Toy Robot Photography, the official con photographer, but it ended up with us mainly paying dress-up and running amok like kids hopped up on Nerds and Mountain Dew.

For those of you who are not familiar with Southern Fried Con, it is a relatively small comic convention, but they have mastered the art of bringing the big con atmosphere. This is their second year at the Jackson Fairgrounds and we have to give them a huge “attaboy” for working so hard to build the geek community in the area.

There were several interesting celebrity guests in attendance, Sonny Shroyer (Enos from Dukes of Hazzard), WWE wrestlers, Rikishi and Grandmaster Sexay Brian Christopher. Rounding out the list was Santiago Cirilo from The Walking Dead. There were also several prop and movie car exhibits featured.

The cosplayer interaction at this convention made the whole event worthwhile for me. As always it was nice to see the more familiar faces but also nice to meet a few new ones as well. If you are a newbie to cosplay this is a great event to “get your feet wet”. You will see all levels of expertise from purchased Halloween costumes to elaborate hand built creations. SFCC hosted a number of community oriented cosplay groups which allowed for some terrific tip sharing discussions and opportunities to present the art of cosplay to the public.
 

On Saturday there were two cosplay contests, one for kiddies which is always adorable, and one for adults. They offered cash prizes for Best Overall, Best Male, and Best Female. I did notice the absence of a Best Group category. Maybe next year (nudge, nudge).

On Sunday, a HILARIOUS lip sync contest allowed participants to strut their stuff on the main stage while living out their rock star fantasies. Now that was a SHOW! Performances by Tennessee Blues Brothers & Big Daddy Cool and presentations by Dr. Mary Barrett, Psychic Medium and Phantasmic Ghost Hunters made for a weekend full of entertainment.

They only negative I can offer is minimal attendee participation through panels. This con was more vendor focused than many I have attended in the past. That's not necessarily a bad thing since the vendor area did have a great selection of items for even the pickiest geeky collector and the price points were very reasonable. I left with my share of goodies including several Bettie Page items from one vendors personal collection (yay me!) which made it worth the trip in my opinion. 

On a final note, I have to say I have been to a fair number of cons, both big and small. While the big ones have huge celebrity attendance and more to see, they also charge a premium price and cram as many people into a small space as they can because their motives are clearly mercenary. They don't care about the fans, they just want their money. On the other hand, smaller cons tend to suffer from lack of interesting guests and stagnant content, but have a more personal connection. Southern Fried gave some of the same opportunities of a bigger con without the price, while leaving me feeling sad that at the end of the weekend I had to leave it in the rear-view mirror and go back home to the real world.

So, Southern Fried, until this time next year, thanks for the memories.