At 7:30 AM on this Sunday morning, Steve Mason gathered his 221st Southumberland Waffleers for another expedition into the wilds of Georgia Waffle Houses.
"I was up until about 1;20 AM," one said.
"I made it to 2:30 AM," another said.
And then Northern Erica arrived.
"How late were you up?" I asked.
"4:30," she replied. This, my friends, is 221B Con.
After waffles, the con proper started at 10 AM, and the Sherlock & Co. fan panel is my first stop. Jones, Ace, Coat, and Madeline take the stage. In the past year, Jones went from one of the most visible Sherlock & Co. fans at con, and since then has become a part of the podcast's team. Coat is cosplaying John, even though he's a podcast character and none of us really know what he looks like. But she's ballparked the general image, just as Jones's art has come to be a part of my mental image of the characters.
As they point out, Sherlock & Co. has the most involved fandom, which is partly because John H. Watson is not only producing his own podcast in the world of the podcast, he interacts with fans in our world on Discord and Patreon. It's a new level of what old-time Sherlockians called "playing the game," and really bringing that fact/fiction meld into the current moment. Once the discussion gets rolling, folks in the audience start sharing their appreciation for the characters and what makes this Holmes and Watson special among the legions of versions of the characters.
Since Sherlock & Co. is adapting the whole Sherlockian Canon, we get to see fresh versions of so many Canonical characters beyond the typical Irene/Mycroft/Moriarty thing, and consciously doesn't rush to get to those key, but over-used players.
The minute that panel is over, we head over to "Brother Mine, How You've Changed" -- perhaps the third panel on Mycroft Holmes at this year's con, with Johanna Draper-Carlson running it, and I had to tease her a little about it. The room fills up fast, and latecomers are still wandering in, including Max Magee and the purple demon who has been silently attentive at panel after panel. (I'm not being metaphoric. She's totally purple and has horns and wings. Excellent costume commitment.)
The Sunday panel schedule is jam-packed from 10 to 4, and I have a feeling I'm going to have to miss some things to do things like eat and get to the dealer's room one last time. Johanna is rolling through all of the ways Mycroft has been portrayed on TV and film. Christopher Lee comes off a a more definitive portrayal from The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. I have to slip out of this panel early to hit the dealer's room for something I missed before the "Watson, Is That You?" round table.
Sometimes, when a panel doesn't get enough people to sit up front, it turns into a round table, where everyone gets to speak on the subject (which often happens anyway), but this time the chairs are placed in the round and the question "What makes a Watson?" really gets a good working-over, actually making it better than some of the more planned out presentation-based panels thanks to Rabidsamfam's attentive moderation.
Next, it's off to "Sherlolly: The Little Ship that Could" which is going to be very Molly Hooper focused on this time, which is great because Molly Hooper is the Sergeant Wilkins of BBC Sherlock, except that Wilkins came along before shipping, otherwise I'm sure there would be "Sherkins." (And if you don't know Sergeant Wilkins, Inspector Lestrade's right-hand man and caretaker whom Holmes seems to like better than Lestrade, get thee to some Ronald Howard Sherlock.) Okay, I'm rambling, back to Molly time.
Molly Hooper, who got 48 minutes of airtime throughout the series, has gotten a lot more than 48 minutes of discussion over the years, with her relationship with Sherlock thoroughly analyzed, and it's getting a lot more here. Molly is key to so much that happens off-screen. While this is going on, I'm actually playing with a Blue Snowball microphone that Johanna gave me when I walked into this panel. So, let me paint a picture -- at this point, I'm wearing a 221B Con t-shirt from a previous year with eight con badges (seven previous, one current) with about fifty or so badge ribbons between the lot of them, carrying around the Blue Snowball microphone and cute little stuffed dolls of John and Sherlock from Sherlock & Co. This is my life now. Meanwhile, Mycroft's interaction with Molly comes up.
Is this enough reportage for the moment? I think so, as I'm going to take things to the room and get food next, in the hour gap until the Curtis and Ashley show.
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