Steel City Con's new layout made December's show best of the year

A new layout, more space and quicker lines made attending Steel City Con’s December show at the Monroeville Convention Center enjoyable for most vendors and guests.

The last pop culture and comic convention of the year at 209 Mall Plaza Blvd. featured more than 30 celebrities and 100 vendors.

Parking lots were packed Dec. 10-12 as tens of thousands packed the 100,000+ square-foot event space.

Organizers made some adjustments from conventions earlier this year, particularly mid-August when horror icon Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger) was in town.

Many attendees complained about long lines, issues with VIP packages and pro photos. That was not the case this month as attendees took to the convention’s official social media fan forum page to commend promoters on the changes.

“The pro photo op area, in my opinion worked so much better,” said Dusty Fausnight.

Attendees John Staus and Karen Sagel agreed.

“I liked having the photo op in the new location,” Sagel said. “The virtual tickets made things much better, just have to find a better system even if it is a system where you send out the first text then call over the announcements … You are never going to please everyone, but you are doing a great job trying. I wish I knew all of the names of the people, both volunteers and staff, that helped make this such a great weekend.”

The new pro photo section was by the loading docks. It was previously used as a seating section for cosplayers to rest and people to eat.

Plum resident Derick Harper has been to several conventions through the years.

“The new spacing out in the aisles and moving the food vendors to the end was a good idea,” he said. “The convention was fun and well-run overall.”

He said he looks forward to seeing actor Jon Bernthal (Fury, Netflix’s “Punisher”) at Steel City in April.

Violet Bish-Hawkins of Ohio-based DHD Designs started out as a Steel City fan and decided to join in this year as a business.

“I absolutely love this comic con,” she said. “It’s actually pretty awesome. This is one of the first ones I ever came to besides the one that was Pittsburgh, which was Wizard World. Didn’t particularly care for Wizard World. Loved Steel City, so I decided to keep coming back and now I am a vendor.”

She showcased tumblers, epoxy pens, glitter wine classes and other works of art.

Bish-Hawkins said aisles were widened compared to the August show making more room for setup and interacting with customers.

Cartoonist Joe Wos of Oakmont was one of the celebrity artists at the convention.

The Emmy-nominated star of WQED’s “Cartoon Academy” said he usually travels to other states and countries for conventions, and felt this was a good opportunity to reconnect with local fans after more than a decade.

“I generally don’t do local conventions,” he said. “This is my first time back at Steel City in probably 12 years. I’ve been touring around. Pre-covid I was doing mostly traveling conventions. I thought I needed to reconnect with that local audience.”

“It’s weird for me to wrap my head around the concept of ‘celebrity artist,’” Wos said. “All I do is I draw funny pictures, but it’s been great.”

He and other artists participated in Quick Sketch, an activity in which they created works of art on the spot and raffled them off to raise money. They raised about $1,650 for Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh in just a few hours.

Convention officials said they had 100% renewal of vendor tables, a first for the immediate wrap up of a convention, but not a surprise to host Mike Devine.

He said businesses, agents and celebrities talk about their experiences at the convention, and many want to come back.

Devine runs the costume contest as well as the celebrity Q&A sessions and trivia contests in the event room toward the back of the convention center.

“I always make sure whenever a celebrity gets in here they get a standing ovation the minute they hit the stage, and they remember that stuff,” he said. “I make sure these people are on their feet making them feel like a million bucks. you get a great Q&A that way. I’ve been at this 10 years. I’ve seen this grow from begging celebrities to come here. Now it’s one of these things where agents are saying, ‘When can we come back?”

Costume contest

One of the classic activities at the convention is the costume contest on the final day of the three-day weekend. Children, teens and adults participate.

Awards range from best in craftsmanship, best concept, best in show and host’s pick.

Amanda Johnson, 21, of Clairon won best concept in the adult division with her recreation of the tornado in the “Wizard of Oz.”

She said it was made with a repurposed laundry basket, lots of poly-fil, cotton and mesh netting as well as plastic horses, cows and other characters that were swept up in the wind.

Johnson also wore long striped socks and ruby red slippers.

“I’ve loved the ‘Wizard of Oz’ since I was 2 years old, and I came up with the idea because I didn’t want to just be Dorothy or anything like that,” she said. “I wanted to do something different. So, I created the tornado because I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

Nearly 60 teens and 71 adults participated in the contest, just a few shy of a contestant record.

Johnson said she loved seeing everyone’s creativity on display, and being around others who share her passion inspires confidence.

“It makes me feel accepted,” she said.