Plenty of people have heard about Dragon*Con, the fan-centric geek convention that doesn’t get nearly as much attention as Comic-Con. With a stacked guest list and decades of culture, it’s more than worth the price of admission.

But if you still need convincing the Geeks of Doom have provided a list of reasons why you should attend Dragon*Con, which starts today in Atlanta, GA.

Once you read the list, be sure to check back here at Geeks of Doom, as a bunch of us rowdy geeks are down here and we’ll be providing coverage of Dragon*Con 2009 all this weekend.

Costumes
If Dragon*Con and San Diego Comic-Con ever got in a knife fight over who had the best costumers, San Diego would end up wincing in a pool of blood and crying next to a gathering of Twilight tweens. Seriously though, every extended Labor Day weekend, downtown Atlanta transforms into an alternate reality where you can find Batman pissing in the urinals next to Cookie Monster and multiple Iron Man armor suits from every comic book story arc ever published by Marvel. The amount of obscure character references will astound you. [Editorial Note: I just walked out and looked over the balcony from my hotel room and saw Tinkerbell, Namor, Ryu from Street Fighter, and an orange tuxedo-wearing Jim Carrey from Dumb and Dumber. The Con hasn’t even started yet.]

No one seems to find this the least bit odd because the costumers are the majority. What Dragon*Con lacks in star power and major announcements, they definitely make up for in the realm of ridiculously cool ass costumed Con goers.

Slave Leia Is Everywhere
George Lucas can almost be forgiven for Jar Jar Binks when you look around the four convention-center-sized hotels for Dragon*Con and see Slave Leia costumers. They are quite abundant and matter of fact, they also tie into our next reason to attend Dragon*Con, as you’ll see in the accompanying picture below. So, I’m going to stop typing now because there are pictures… (we will post plenty of them soon).

Heavy Drinking
If there’s one thing Dragon*Con sucks horribly at, it’s daycare. Children do not belong at this convention. If you need more of an explanation, ask the girl wearing duct tape (only…duct tape) or better yet ask the drunken members of the Colonial Fleet. Actually… ask anyone after 9 p.m. because there’s a good chance they’re getting completely shitfaced. If however you are looking for this kind of geek debauchery, the excessive alcohol consumption is a definite plus. And to add it it, at right is an image of a lovely lady in Slave Leia garb drinking it up. [Editorial Note #2: The Moonshine tastes like pie. PIE damnit!]

Dragon*Con TV
Perhaps more than amusement parks, large conventions mean waiting in lines — lines for exclusive movie clips, panels, bathrooms, Starbucks, and basically everything else you could possibly think of wanting or needing to do. At least Dragon*Con has D*CTV, a channel comprised of geek shorts, parodies, and Adult Swim-style captioning. Check out “TFC: Tigh’s Fried Chicken” below to fully understand what I’m talking about…

[Video – Dragon*Con TV]

All the Cool Space Captains and First Officers Are Here
This year’s guest list is stacked with a slew of Captains and First Officers. While Edward James Olmos had a last minute scheduling conflict, Michael Hogan and Mary McDonnell will be attending in full force as well as many other Battlestar Galactica cast and crew members. For the Trekkers, there’s Patrick Stewart, Kate Mulgrew, Star Trek Voyager), and Leonard Nimoy, who will share the panel with the greatest performer of all time (ever) William Shatner — his first convention appearance in seven years (apparently). Other notable guests include ultra geek Adam Savage from Mythbusters, Felicia Day (The Guild, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog), James Marsters (Angel, Torchwood), and host of Tekzilla and Qore, Veronica Belmont.

Photographs by Derek Deweese / dwrd.net.