Dragon Con has taken over Atlanta, and the VOX teens are caught up in the chaos, again.
In case you didn’t know, Dragon Con is one of the Atlanta’s biggest events. It also happens to go down in the heart of downtown Atlanta, home to the VOX headquarters. So, that pretty much means that our teen staff gets (willingly) trapped in the mix each year. Comics and cosplay are some of the more popular topics among VOX teens, and they have been covering it for some time now.
VOX Media Cafe journalists Assiya Abdul-Malik, Jonah Singer and Nya Anderson produced a package on the “Rise of Anime” this summer and told readers just why it has become such a phenomenon.
“Cosplaying is a primary way at various conventions to delve deeper into anime culture as a whole,” their story read. “Rather than being a fan of a character, people are now becoming these characters. They develop new relationships with those who admire the effort put into their work, and share the experience of building cosplays.”
Back in 2016, Eli Leary attended MomoCon and talked with some of the teens on the scene:
VOX video editor and self-proclaimed “geek culture” enthusiast Kenneth Franklin has covered many of Marvel’s projects in his writings, especially his piece “Where the Black Women At?” where he challenged the comic giant to add more diversity to their films.
Kenneth wrote:
While, yes, I am ecstatic about black women finally being canon in the MCU, I can’t help but feel that there have been multiple times where the insertion of a black woman would’ve made perfect sense. Couldn’t Marvel have at least given James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) a black girlfriend or thrown in a few high-ranking black SHIELD agents?
I don’t know, man, the exclusion of black women in these movies sometimes feels intentional, and I can’t just overlook that. You know it’s jacked up when a movie set in high school has more diversity than 15 movies encompassing various parts of the world and outer space. Come on Marvel, do you really expect me to believe that there are no black women outside of Wakanda and Peter Parker’s high school?
On the heels of this summer’s “Wonder Woman” movie, VOXer Maya Martin recently published a piece titled “Hypersexualization and the Paradox of Female Superheroes,” in which she also issued a challenge to the comic movie industry.
“Women superheroes should be written with depth that transcends their appearance, because women have depth that transcends appearance,” she said. “In a better world, we can celebrate women superheroes — and women — first and foremost for that depth.”
During our 2017 VOX Media Cafe, Kaylynn Parks, Krystal White and Nyah Peebles collaborated to bring attention to the women making moves behind the scenes.
To see more of what VOX teens have to say about comics, cosplay and anime, and Dragon Con related material, click here.
This teen-created content was compiled by VOX’s publishing manager just in time for Dragon Con 2017.
