This year’s MomoCon was amazing. It lived up to its slogan “ Atlanta’s version of Comic Con” with over 50,000 attendees this year and it was a blast. It felt as though this year the con was more geared towards content creators because they are becoming the norm. There were many of them there: Frantasticfrankey, Afrococoapuffs, Sixth_raikage_6, cloudiemcdoom, helloomcfly, msnikiarenee, animerenee, and prince.trunkz. There were countless creators there for sure, but these were the ones that I came across. Content creators can get a content creator pass, which is similar to a press pass.
As for the guests, I didn’t get to interview the guests I wanted to interview like Steve Blum, the voice actor of Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop, Beau Billingslea the voice actor of Jet from Cowboy Bebop, and Jodi Benson the voice actress of Ariel from The Little Mermaid. But I did get a chance to interview Afrococopuffs and Sixth_raikage_6 who got engaged at the con. I think they are the first couple to get engaged at MomoCon or possibly the first Black couple to do so.
I did ask Afro what inspired her to make her song “She’s gonna be black today” and if she thought the song would be an internet sensation. “I like to sing, so I would sing about anything from cooking, to going to the grocery store,” she said. “So when I made the song it was more for someone trying to troll me on social media saying that the character Hinata from Naruto isn’t Black and that I can’t cosplay her”. So instead of going back and forth with the troll, she made a song and video about it. She didn’t expect it to become so popular but was glad it helped give other Black cosplayers the confidence to cosplay their favorite characters (regardless of what their race appeared to be). She appreciates that it is boosting everyone’s confidence and people are re-sharing and reusing her video and sounds.
When I asked Sixth_raikage_6 what he liked about MomoCon, he said, “It’s a safe place and there are a lot of people of color here. Everyone is so uplifting, fun, and always commenting on others’ cosplays. That’s what I like most about this con.” He’s right about that, MomoCon is a very positive place where everyone is helpful and uplifting.
Frantasticfrankey is a comic book, TV show, and movie reviewer. She’s always on point and extremely funny. I was shocked but happy to see her at MomoCon. Cloudiemcdoom is a comedy content creator. He does parodies of games like Red Dead Redemption and Final Fantasy. Both Hellomcfly and Msnikiarenee do comedy content as well and are both on TikTok and Instagram.
The vendor area was huge this year. They took over the whole lower level of the con. Usually the area is housed near the gaming and Hall of Fame, but this time you had to walk a little further to get there. They shared the same space with the Hall of Fame, but it was bigger and better and had loads of things to choose from. In the gaming area, they also had a VR section and that was pretty big as well. If you’re a streamer on Twitch, Kick, TikTok, or any other platform, they have a space where you could stream for a handful of hours. That’s something I’m looking forward to next year.
But all in all, this year’s MomoCon was a lot of fun and boy has it grown. Seeing the con’s growth from being a small convention held at Georgia Tech with free admission to being a huge con that’s held at the Georgia World Convention Center (GWCC) with over 50,000 people is an awesome thing to be a part of.
I hope this con continues to grow.
-Titus ‘TBZ’ Rowell
Photos: Jon Jones