Flame Con 2026 Sees Aspirants, Admirers, Insiders Meet & Merge 

BY CHARLI BATTERSBY | I attended the very first Flame Con in 2015. Back then, the check-in table had three kinds of pronoun badges: “Him,” “Her,” and “Just Ask.” Oh, how times have changed. In fact, in 2015, the mere idea of a LGBT nerd con was a revolutionary notion. Nonetheless, a group of scrappy upstarts crowdfunded enough money to rent the Grand Prospect Hall in Brooklyn for their crazy idea, and it has been a staple of NYC’s con circuit since then. Years later, the two-day con is big enough to take up three floors of the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square.

And it did, on August 15 and 16. Five rooms dedicated to panel discussions had content running throughout both days, plus workshop rooms for cosplay and makeup classes. Much of the content was for people hoping to enter the entertainment industry; portfolio reviews where pro artists would evaluate the work of aspiring and early career artists, panels on how writers can find an agent, and first steps for people who don’t even know where to begin.

There were also voice acting lessons for fans who want to dub anime and video games. However, Flame Con has a special twist on this: Many voice actors are also transgender, and trans people also benefit from voice coaching to find a new voice that matches their gender identity. So some of these voice panels were designed specifically for trans performers.

A particularly interesting panel was Queer Magic: Tarot and Divination. which was about tarot cards and the intersection of the LGBT community. Margot Atwell, Director of Operations at Beehive Books, moderated a panel, whose tarot designers Cristy C. Road, Fyodor Pavlov, and Kevin Jay Stanton, spoke about gay and trans influences in this niche genre of art. Artist Fyodor Pavlov mentioned transgender trailblazer Rachel Pollack, who comics fans know from writing Doom Patrol. But Pollack was also, as Pavlov said, “The Godmother of Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom,” a book that helped launch the modern tarot revival in the ’80s. Gender and sexuality aside, Pollack’s book remains a definitive guide for tarot history and divination.

Our reporter asked Atwell about Pamela Colman Smith, the artist who drew the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck (arguably the most popular 20th Century deck). Atwell told us, “I have not been able to find firm confirmation about this but, from reading the tea leaves between the lines, it seems like Pamela Smith was potentially queer herself. I think she spent her last few years with a female bestie. And I think she traveled in very queer circles.”

Recalling a time spent at Kickstarter doing publishing outreach Atwell said, “I noticed that there was a huge rise in artists creating their own tarot decks… Kickstarter ended up facilitating the creation and publication and distribution of a whole new set of tarot decks that seemed, perhaps, like they weren’t marketable to the mainstream.”

As one might expect from such a fabulous con, the cosplay was abundant. At times it was hard to tell who was cosplaying as a blue-haired catgirl from an obscure anime, and who was a blue-haired person who dresses like a cat every day. Vendors on the show floor sold clothes, cosplay accessories, and makeup. There was an extensive cosplay repair department, which was quite busy when we stopped by. The cosmetic company Neutrogena was providing grooming and makeup supplies free of charge to attendees (with ample supplies of moisturizer up for grabs).

Both days had cosplay contests taking place on the Main Stage. Just as competitive as one might expect from With a noticaBLY less formal structure and , which played to packed crowds. These contests foster a more informal and supportive create and convey a more laid back and supporting attitude than many of the bigger cons. The big cons require contestants to apply in advance for the competition, and only a handful of finalists are selected to compete. But everyone at Flame Con could participate in the “Cosplay Runway” and have their moment in the spotlight. It was a welcome change from the “Cosplay Drama” common at big cons.

A cosplayer dressed as Supergirl won the Sunday contest—and has anyone noticed how our reporter, Charli, is never around when Supergirl shows up? You don’t think; nah…

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