Blog – REVENANTS

It’s taken me a couple days to get round to this one, my bad! But as many people I spoke to at the con heard, I was juggling a few things this weekend, so I kinda popped in and out to man my Dealer’s Den booth on Friday through Sunday.

Also, the bloggiest blog post I’ve written in literal years.

Also also, I am terrible with faces and names. Even though everyone has con badges on, I’m having the worst time trying to remember who I talked to about what, my apologies! Please say hi wherever I post this!

Reminiscing

So SAFC 2024 was my first official furry con! And for me at least, it had the vibes of some of the cons/expos I used to go to in my college days.

Back when I was a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed university student who had the time and energy, I used to make a go at the Legion Ink Artist Alley at rAge on a semi-regular basis. Back then (2007-2012ish) Artist Alley’s in South Africa were pretty rare, and big nerd culture events were limited. Certainly ones in Jo’burg that a broke student like me could get to. Pretoria and Cape Town’s few events may as well have been on Mars.

*Legion Ink’s stand at rAge in 2010. I think I was helping in the booth, rather than exhibiting anything that year. Bonus TF2 Demoman, who a friend of mine was cosplaying.*

rAge itself was also kinda the only “geek con” event I was even aware of at that scale, certainly in Johannesburg. Its focus was mostly gaming, but that meant it was the only major event where I even saw cosplayers and events like international. In general from my position in the Alley, it always had a more friendly and chill vibe.

After a few decades of MCU movies and Comic Con Africa finally taking hold after a few failed attempts, nerd culture has a firm foothold locally, and rAge/CCA among others are MASSIVE events every year.

As a consequence, for me at least, the stress of being involved went way up. I’ll be the last one to turn full neckbeard and gate-keep nerd culture (please, more people read comics!), but the tone and audience changed a lot. Those events lost their community feel in my opinion, and just became a (more) massive marketing event, wall to wall with major brands tangentially involved. CCA had some weird exhibitors when I last made the trek.

And me, I’m a home body. I ummed and aahed about exhibiting at CCA for ages and it was always an intimidating event in attendance, investment and requirements, so that’s never come together.

Which is all a long winded way of getting to the point of, hey, SAFC just felt like a bunch of passionate geeks hanging out again. A vibe I haven’t really gotten from a con/expo in years!

By international standards, SAFC is still a pretty small event. By SAFC standards, I’m told 2024 was a massive jump up in attendance from previous events. Enough that the hotel hosting the event (Valverde Eco Hotel) hit capacity fast enough that rooms were booked to meet demand at a hotel nearby (surprising amount of accommodation in The Cradle!). It all led to a con that was to me, very chill, very welcoming and a lot of fun!

Day One – Friday 13 September

Unlucky for some.

Registration and Dealer’s Den setup was on the Friday, after registration. So my anxious ass got me there on the strike of 14:00, as per communication from organisers. Turns out through technical difficulties, there was a delay getting registrations started.
So, again, my anxious ass walked in on a courtyard of strangers waiting for registration to open. I hid in the car for a bit. My excuse was getting out of the sun on a 33°C day. Great idea!

The aircon in my car is currently busted…

Anyway while I was hiding I realised Mandy Watson of Brainwavez, had put together a roundup of events, and included SAFC! And they wrote such nice things about me! I rode the high all the way through my anxiety to the now newly formed registration queue.

In the queue, the people around me lived up to the furry reputation of being very welcoming. I quickly got chatting with those around me, and before I knew it, registration was done!

As a weekend pass member I didn’t get one of the fancy con badges for those staying over (I live like 20 minutes from the venue, so booking a hotel room was a little out of the budget this year). I also didn’t get the wristband for access. But I had the impression I was clocked by those organising as the more-than-a-little-high-strung-Dealer-from-the-Den, and they knew who I was for the course of the weekend without identification.

Weeks of perfecting my stand layout in my garage paid off, and I was set up in no time! I did have a minor emergency of my custom 3D printed display clips melting in the aforementioned 33°C day in a car with no aircon. So I’d be printing more of those that evening and the following morning.

Setup complete, Dealers had to leave the den so it could be locked up. And again, that welcoming furry spirit came to the fore. I was quickly adopted by a nearby group who saw me looking more than a little lost. I even got to meet SudanRed after many years of purely digital communication. If the name is familiar, Sudan did the cover for Chapter Five of Revenants!

I was also completely blown away by the quantity and quality of local fursuiters that evening, and that was only a sampling of what was to come. Having seen some of the early cons (pre-covid even) photos, the step up on the local scene is mind-blowing. I’m honestly kinda coming around to the concept of my own a little bit!

We all chatted into the evening, had an excellent burger braai (barbecue to the rest of you), and originally intended to attend opening ceremonies. Unfortunately, technical difficulties struck again, and the start was looking to be late enough that I had to hit the road.

Day Two – Saturday 14 September

Day two! My anxious ass got there early again, and most attendees were having their breakfast from the hotel. So I ended up talking to others who were hovering waiting for events to start. The Den opened at 12, and for the next two hours, there was a steady stream of patrons in the hall.

Me Disney-bounding my own comic. I think it might be time to add some wild dog ears to the ‘fit. Photo by Thabz, aka @Man_Of_Talent on Telegram. Thanks for the company this weekend!

And in general, the response to the comic was surprising and overwhelming! Some people had seen my lurker-y posts about it on the Telegram/Discords for the event, some had found it before that. Most were seeing it for the first time. And yet almost everyone was equally amped! Usually the conversation was
“Oh, YOU wrote and drew this book?”
“Yeah! I-“
“I’LL TAKE ONE“
*insert Take My Money Gif here

So a major lesson from my end. Books are a hot furry commodity! Feels obvious in hindsight. I was so anxious that people wouldn’t splash out on an unknown book from an unknown writer/artist, that I made a bunch of merch that I though would have broad-ish appeal. The book was my most expensive item, and it far and above outsold my cheaper merch.

Although I will have to be on the lookout for any of my stickers in the wild.

The Den closed at 14:00, and while there was going to be another Den session at 18:00, I had to flee again. Did I mention the following weekend is going to be my sisters wedding? Yeah I was juggling responsibilities! So I rushed to join the evenings Bachelor Party festivities while the furry’s partied without me.

Day Three – 15 September

So… knowing I had to be there at 12:00, I could manage juggling once again… So after breakfast and bowling with my dad and sister before her kitchen tea, I flew into the den as it opened at 11:30, half an hour earlier than scheduled. So that was lucky!

My co-driver for the trip to and from the con.

And it was a good time chatting with people about the comic. Hype around it continued to be high and I had more great conversations with attendees. Helped that a few people who were contemplating a purchase on Saturday came back to follow through!

But I’d made a few sales, so I made a couple of my own from the likes of Furswag and Aven/Witchkitty, who might show up at cover artists in future if all goes to plan…
I’d have supported everyone if I wasn’t financing an imminent Eurotrip, so maybe next year I do some concerted budgeting…

The furriest thing I currently own… for now.

After a long farewell chat with Sudan and a couple others I left for more responsibilities that needed seeing to at home after what was a crazy busy but very good weekend!

The Comedown

So lesson learned, maybe next year I won’t balance a furry convention with a siblings pre-wedding festivities. Just as well it’s just my one sister. The odds of doing that again are incredibly low. I’m thinking I’ll be a little more all in for next years event!

Again, I am just blown away by the enthusiasm and support of the comparatively small local furry scene. Thanks so much the staff, organisers and crew of SAFC 2024. I will be back with Book Two next year!

I’d love to share more photos, but I really want to get the permissions of the photographers and subjects before I do. I’ll hopefully be able to add some of those here in future.