The Ancient City Convention – Anime, Sci-Fi and Roller Derbies from Joey Marchy on Vimeo.

The Ancient City Convention, held at the Hyatt Regency Riverfront, was literally an underground event. So little was done to advertise the event, I didn’t hear about it until a friend of mine asked if I would come check out his booth.

It’s an unforgivable sin for an indie loving geek girl like me to not know about an all out convention for games, role play, cosplay, anime and manga, fantasy, Sci-Fi, Star Wars, horror, and roller derbies. I chalked it up to being incredibly busy and out of the loop 95% of the time. After finding my fellow geek buddies (I have plenty of them) had no clue this was going on, I knew some inadequate marketing was used to promote this event.

As I expected, the convention was sparse on visitors. Quite a shame, since it was packed with cool stuff to do and see. Before you even entered, there was a bright yellow Pikachu VW Bug to gawk over.

Inside were role-playing tables galore. A large section of the room was partitioned off for those interested in playing video games with the other convention goers. You could get your picture taken with Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, a number of anime characters, The Dread Pirate Roberts, and a smattering of lovely Lolitas.

There was a spread of booths for amazing, mostly local vendors and other groups. I had the pleasure of interviewing several of them for Urban Jacksonville.

Don Myers is the owner of Tshirtbordello.com, and a good friend. He’s working on some incredibly fun t-shirt designs with local artists.

Cari Wells is from St. Augustine is new to the convention scene. She creates ears, horns, and the like for cosplay. You can order via paypal on her myspace page.

Kevin Pettway is a comic book artist and writer who lives in the Riverside area. He has a twice-weekly comic about role-playing that you’re sure to get a good chuckle from.

The Jacksonville Roller Girls are looking for a few good women and men to help them with roller derbies and charity events. They need skaters, refs, EMT’s, hydration specialists, and bodies for their promotion team. What could be cooler than hanging out with a group of tough, stunning women?

The 7th Squad of 501st Legion of Storm Troopers was impossible to miss. They were all suited up and posing for photos with everyone. They even had a podcast (or should I say squadcast?) going live with Truffle and Mongo, the self-proclaimed Lex & Terry of storm trooper radio. This group dresses up for fun, the love of Star Wars, and charity.

All in all, it was incredibly fun and I was surprised to see what a wealth of talent we have in our town. Hopefully, next year the convention will be better advertised. Jacksonville really jumped up in my approval after attending the Ancient City Convention.

Audrey Keith, Urban Jacksonville’s most colorful contributor, is an Internet and TiVo addicted quirky suburban mother of two girls, Madeleine and Penelope. She loves to travel, write, delve into the arts of all types, and put together clothing of her own design. Her blog is roaringtulips-audrey.blogspot.com and her Twitter name is @roaring_tulips.