ConnectiCon 22 - 07/18/25 & 07/19/25 - Connecticut Convention Center, Hartford, CT
By John A. Wilcox
Back to ConnectiCon! This year I was able to make it up to Hartford for 2 days! Each day with a different friend to accompany me & help push my wheelchair as they also enjoyed the con. Each day had a very different vibe as well. I'm going to cover them day by day here! Let's go!
DAY 1: 07/18/25
My friend Pete drove to here in Westport from NY state. Quite a haul to begin with! We got to Hartford pretty smoothly with only a few slow downs along the way. We had to park in the lot directly across the street as the main Convention Cent lot was already full! We got inside at about 12:30 and headed over to get our "industry" passes & lanyards. That room even had a free coffee slushie machine, so Pete availed himself of a cup or 2.
As always, I headed to the main vendor room first. Pete was very impressed by the sheer variety of things he had never seen nor experienced before. This was his first anime/cosplay/gaming-based convention. He was full of questions about characters & such and I was happy to fill him in as best as I could. He was drawn to a vendor selling hand-blended teas and accessories - Tea & Absinthe, I believe. He came away with a hazelenut tea blend & a very cool teapot as well! I took a gander at Modern Artifice, Louisa's Knit Knacks and The Crow And The Cat where I had a long, lovely conversation with the vendor. She was quite a treat to chat with! Channel Divini-Tea, Corset Punk & Kilts, Mythical Fair, Orchard Works Magic Wands, and Kittyslice were just a few of the fine booths we stopped by. So many choices! There was a booth that had a basket of buttons that drew my eye. $1 per button or $5 for a scoop of buttons. I went for the scoop & came away with 16 buttons. What a deal!
For me, my greatest joy is meeting & interacting with cosplayers. Pure joy to see all the unbridled creativity. I was not disappointed! Once again, lots of One Piece folks and plenty of Hatsune Mikus. I talked with lots of folks of all ages - everyone was enjoying themselves. unlike most other conventions, the overall aura had nothing to do with money, greed, or "investment." I mean, of course people were purchasing lots of merch. It was a vendor room. But the vibe was love and community. Old friends meeting new friends and sharing commonality and passion. Touching, really!
Pete & I made it over to the adjoining room. Lots of anime voice talent there. I said hi to Emily Bauer & asked to snap a pic to go with this review. She said Sure! Great person with a resume that includes lots of work on Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and countless others. Table after table of TVs with seemingly endless screens of freeplay for pretty much every game system. Lots of Japanese arcades & vintage US ones as well. Rounding it out was WWE-style wrestling with the wrestlers dressing as comic book characters. I spotted Bane & Static Shock at various times! After a long day full of sensory overload, we headed out back down 91 to 95 to conclude a hugely fulfilling and adventurous day!
DAY 2: 07/19/25
Friday evening, my friend Suzanne checked in to her hotel after driving all the way from Indiana just to spend the day with me and help me with my wheelchair at the convention. It was well beyond sweet and it meant a lot to me. Let me interject that being a 6 foot 3 1/2 inch fat disabled guy means that it is very often painful to get in & out of vehicles built for hale-and-hearty folks. As chance would have it, both Pete's ANS Suzanne's vehicled we a breeze for me to ride in! Cooly-cool! Suz had to leave me out front with my stuff while she found a garage to park in as the surrounding ones were totally packed tight. I went inside and immediately started taking pics of cosplayers (Always with consent, I must add). For 2 days in a row I photographed the wonderful Kitty Monk & we had a delightful conversation.
As I had spent all my time in the 2 main rooms with Pete on Friday, I told Suz that this day was hers & we would go where she would like to go. Funnily enough, she wanted to go to the same 2 rooms! So that's exactly what we did! Suz also hit up Tea & Absinthe for some well-spiced tea. We both got Pokeballs at Mad Moxx Models. Nice visits with Pyropen Art/Bunny's Resin Art and Duck And Cover. Nico's Fan Niche and my pal Paoh's Sentient Art both put smiles on my face! I had a great talk with Brion Foulke of Flipside Comics about pursuing your dreams and visions. Time for a break!
We went to the center area between the 2 sections that had a cafe with a long line. Suzanne sat down ( I was, of course, already in a wheelchair) and we looked at a few of the things she bought. A fabulous art book, a great-smelling handmade perfume, we smelled the spiced tea as well. Then Suz took out 1 of the 2 Hokkaido pan breads she bought and split it in half. It tasted like a dream. Soft, airy, buttery, elegant. It tasted lime the word "yes." I had conversations with several furries who were sitting down to take off their heads, relax & recharge. Fantastic folks! In the videogame console area, i even played a vintage Donkey Kong Jr. machine. I have always sucked at it, but it was fun!! I chatted briefly with the C0splaygirlz who i believe were in from Massachusetts. We went off to a room in the building across the courtyard to just unwind. Were shared a table with 3 guys who were caught up in a game of Scrabble. They all had great senses of humor & were fine company!
As we headed out, I ran over my days there. The staff were all just brilliant. They made everything run smoothly & I thanked pretty much every one of them that I came across. Each day I met & petted wonderful, friendly service dogs. So many awesome folks opened doors for my wheelchair and I thank them all! As always, it's a truly disabled-friendly place! Shout-outs to Taylor The Wolf, Ryan McCarthyGoro from the Yakuza games who made me an honorary pirate! I was humbly honored to pose for a few pictures for folks that knew me from my Marvel days. The biggest honor goes to all those attending. I had an soul-rejuvenating 2 days full of love and inspiration. We all bring in different things to conventions, and take what we each need individually. That's as it should be! I've just related mine for you all! Eventually Suz & I drove off for a fantastic dinner at Carini's in Wallingford then back on the road. Let us all repeat this next year, please!!
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