COLLINSVILLE - Costumes, collectibles, artwork and more filled the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville for the 46th annual Archon Science Fiction Convention last weekend.
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Erin McFadden, co-chair of Archon, described it as a “science fiction, fantasy, media, everything convention.” She said Archon started in 1977 as an author and literary convention and has since grown to include “something for everybody.”
“We have grown since then and have been developing into this place that is perfect for everybody,” McFadden said. “If you have a fandom, if you are an author, if you like science fiction … we really have something for everybody here.
“People have been coming for a very long time because they find something here that speaks to them.”
Brad Roselli, founder of Top Tier Figures, brought several of his Star Trek figurines to the convention - he’s been working to expand the 190 figurines that were “already out there” with over 600 extras of his own creation. He also creates “mashup” figurines combining characters from different franchises and accepts commissions, one of which he received at the convention.
“I actually got a commission about two hours ago from a customer that wants me to make a figure of his father who died a month ago, because the father helped him get into Star Trek and enjoy it,” Roselli said. “He’s now having me make a likeness of his father, then he’s going to have me put it on a Star Trek figure and have it as a memory of his father.”
Artist Kayliegh Hartmann brought several pieces of artwork, including bookmarks, postcards, and previous commissions featuring drawings of characters frequently cosplayed at conventions like Archon.
“I absolutely love doing these things because of the connection with people,” Hartmann said. “I love being able to share my artwork with people and hear their own stories about their own artwork as well.”
Chase Koppenhofer carried an oversized prop sword around the convention as part of his cosplay of Cloud Strafe, a character from the Final Fantasy video game series. He said the event was full of knowledgeable and passionate individuals, calling it a “nice little break from reality.”
“You go into that game room and those people know what they’re doing. You go look at these authors and writers, they know what they’re writing about. You go look at these people who are doing reenactment stuff, they know what’s going on,” Koppenhofer said. “It’s also been nice just to dress up and be in a cosplay, it’s just a nice little break from reality. I get to be a character that I’ve always liked and I get to show off a cool costume I made.”
McFadden said Archon has a “sense of acceptance” which welcomes anyone and everyone to be themselves (or their favorite characters) without judgement.
“You can be the person that you are,” she said. “You can be the strange, you can be the weird - you can like whatever you want to like, and be who you want to be, and wear what you want to wear, and you will be accepted.”
A video with more from this year’s Archon convention is available at the top of this story or on RiverBender.com/video.
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