Fandom and enjoyable achieved Y-Okay fashion at Bethel’s first-ever KuskoCon

At KuskoCon, Bethelites launched themselves to one another as characters from their favourite comics, motion pictures, or video games. Many dressed the half too — sporting wigs, capes, and 3D printed equipment.

The three-day occasion was constructed round a line up of workshops led by locals and visiting professionals that included all the things from learn how to sketch dinosaurs to a Dungeons and Dragons live-play.

In one session, Bethel native Rachel Erbaugh even broke down learn how to construct a pc.

“Okay, so what we need in power town is our motherboard,” Erbaugh mentioned to an viewers of engrossed teenagers beside her.

KuskoCon is the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-Okay) Delta’s first ever comedian conference, a sort of occasion the place folks come collectively to attach over video games, fandoms, comics, books, and artwork. It was placed on by the Kuskokwim Consortium Library and unfold out between Bethel’s cultural heart and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Kuskokwim Campus subsequent door. In addition to workshops for all ages, KuskoCon featured a lineup of comedian e-book and sport distributors, a cosplay contest, karaoke, and a KuskoCon ball.

And it was all very particular to the Y-Okay Delta — and the individuals who name it residence.

Visiting illustrator Lee Post ran a workshop referred to as “Comics and Community: Drawing the best of Bethel” He lead a classroom filled with Bethelites of all ages by way of drawing workouts that pulled from environmental inspiration.

“We’re gonna think about what is great about Bethel, but also what’s unappreciated,” Post mentioned to the category.

Participants drew scenes of spring snowmachine tenting, free village puppies, and the annual cross nation run by the dump.

“I drew a fishing rod, and then I drew a fish that said ‘What? I’m not fat, be quiet,’” 12-year previous Gloria Jones mentioned.

Jones is difficult at work sketching the Bethel they know.

“And then there was camping, because I drew a tent next to the river. And then there was the Cama’i dance things, like dance fans, and a headdress, and a drum,” Jones mentioned.

Post mentioned that it’s enormous to see folks notice how inventive they are often, and what they are often inventive about. The connection within the room between folks making artwork about a spot all of them share is what retains bringing him to Alaska’s small communities.

“Here in Bethel in February, when it’s locals only, and you get to see kind of the best of the community,” Post defined. “Where it feels like you’re going in somebody’s living room where they’re like, ‘Oh, we’re all a little weird, but we love it,’ and it just is endearing.”

Post mentioned that when he heard Bethel could be having its first-ever KuskoCon, he knew he needed to come. So he simply booked a ticket. He mentioned occasions like this, which are bringing one thing new to a spot, have the ability to maintain giving.

“It just is this explosion that carries on from this weekend through the next year and hopefully their lives,” Post mentioned.

Gabby Hiestand Salgado

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KYUK

KukskoCon featured comedian artists who’ve labored on Godzilla and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, builders creating Alaska-based video video games, and a lineup {of professional} voice actors, illustrators, and writers.

The keynote audio system created the Chickaloonies graphic novels. It’s an all-ages motion collection rooted in illustrator Dimi Macheras’ Ahtna Athabascan heritage and Ya Ne Dah Ah mythology.

“I see the potential in a place like Alaska for telling very unique stories,” Macheras mentioned. “Not for people leaving their communities to go on to create stories, but to create stories in their community and draw people to come to them to share it, where it’s from.”

Macheras mentioned that he grew up illustrating tales his grandmother would inform him on the kitchen desk. Now, he’s instructing different folks learn how to deliver these tales to life on the web page in a workshop. Macheras attracts a cartoon character that the viewers builds with him.

They ended up with an apa — or grandpa — mafia lion who runs a on line casino the place the primary sport is mice who sumo wrestle with one another. And that lion? He’s sporting bunny boots.

Macheras and co-author Casey Silver repeated throughout workshops you could inform tales about the place you’re, as you’re, and higher but – collaborate.

Gabby Hiestand Salgado

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KYUK

“We are all products of our environment,” Silver mentioned. “And that can be anything from the landscape, the weather, to the pop culture that comes through here, to the food. All of these things are stories.”

At KuskoCon, the group acquired to attach with individuals who had turned these tales right into a profession.

Zuly Pitre — dressed because the Mario universe’s Princess Peach — ran a sales space within the distributors part along with her husband, the place they bought 3D printed figures and fidget spinners.

“This is just absolutely amazing,” Pitre mentioned. “Business owners that are here taking what you love in showing our kids in our entire region that they can make a career out of it and not be limited to what they know, think outside of the box.”

But Pitre mentioned additionally simply to have this occasion — to take workshops, gown up as a favourite character — has been a optimistic factor for the group.

“I think it’s amazing for our youth to be able to experience things that people outside of our region have had the opportunity to experience for years,” Pitre mentioned.

Head organizers on the library, Theresa Quiner and Miklayla Miller, mentioned it is an occasion they hope will proceed sooner or later.

When it was lastly time for the KuskoCon ball, native band Velmatron 3000 took to the cultural heart’s stage absolutely costumed. Characters from Dune, Star Trek, and the Green Lantern universes grabbed guitars and drumsticks. Volunteers handed out small blinking lights lately used to mark the Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race path.

The crowd started to wave them collectively in time with the music. The room become a type of spacey, musical gentle present. Outside, it was a blustery February night time alongside the Kuskokwim. But inside, characters and creatures of every kind swayed to the music.