At KuskoCon, Bethelites introduced themselves to each other as characters from their favorite comics, movies, or games. Many dressed the part too — sporting wigs, capes, and 3D printed accessories.
The three-day event was built around a line up of workshops led by locals and visiting professionals that included everything from how to sketch dinosaurs to a Dungeons and Dragons live-play.
In one session, Bethel local Rachel Erbaugh even broke down how to build a computer.
“Okay, so what we need in power town is our motherboard,” Erbaugh said to an audience of engrossed teens beside her.
KuskoCon is the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta’s first ever comic convention, a type of event where people come together to connect over games, fandoms, comics, books, and art. It was put on by the Kuskokwim Consortium Library and spread out between Bethel’s cultural center and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Kuskokwim Campus next door. In addition to workshops for all ages, KuskoCon featured a lineup of comic book and game vendors, a cosplay contest, karaoke, and a KuskoCon ball.
And it was all very specific to the Y-K Delta — and the people who call it home.
Visiting illustrator Lee Post ran a workshop called "Comics and Community: Drawing the best of Bethel" He lead a classroom packed with Bethelites of all ages through drawing exercises that pulled from environmental inspiration.
“We’re gonna think about what is great about Bethel, but also what's unappreciated,” Post said to the class.
Participants drew scenes of spring snowmachine camping, loose village puppies, and the annual cross country 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 old Gloria Jones said.
Jones is hard 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 said.
Post said that it’s huge to see people realize how creative they can be, and what they can be creative about. The connection in the room between people making art about a place they all share is what keeps 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 explained. “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 said that when he heard Bethel would be having its first-ever KuskoCon, he knew he had to come. So he just booked a ticket. He said events like this, that are bringing something new to a place, have the power to keep giving.
“It just is this explosion that carries on from this weekend through the next year and hopefully their lives,” Post said.
KukskoCon featured comic artists who have worked on Godzilla and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, developers creating Alaska-based video games, and a lineup of professional voice actors, illustrators, and writers.
The keynote speakers created the Chickaloonies graphic novels. It’s an all-ages action series 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 said. “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 said that he grew up illustrating stories his grandmother would tell him at the kitchen table. Now, he’s teaching other people how to bring those stories to life on the page in a workshop. Macheras draws a cartoon character that the audience builds with him.
They ended up with an apa — or grandpa — mafia lion who runs a casino where the main game is mice who sumo wrestle with each other. And that lion? He’s wearing bunny boots.
Macheras and co-author Casey Silver repeated across workshops that you can tell stories about where you are, as you are, and better yet – collaborate.
“We are all products of our environment,” Silver said. “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 community got to connect with people who had turned those stories into a career.
Zuly Pitre — dressed as the Mario universe’s Princess Peach — ran a booth in the vendors section with her husband, where they sold 3D printed figures and fidget spinners.
“This is just absolutely amazing,” Pitre said. “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 said also just to have this event — to take workshops, dress up as a favorite character — has been a positive thing for the community.
“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 said.
Head organizers at the library, Theresa Quiner and Mikayla Miller, said it's an event they hope will continue in the future.
When it was finally time for the KuskoCon ball, local band Velmatron 3000 took to the cultural center’s stage fully costumed. Characters from Dune, Star Trek, and the Green Lantern universes grabbed guitars and drumsticks. Volunteers passed out small blinking lights recently used to mark the Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race trail.
The crowd began to wave them together in time with the music. The room turned into a sort of spacey, musical light show. Outside, it was a blustery February night along the Kuskokwim. But inside, characters and creatures of all kinds swayed to the music.
