Chili Con Comicon

Hello.


When I was younger I was a big comic book fan. I would go to Zanadu Comics in downtown Seattle weekly to see what was new for me to purchase and read. And through that I learned of comic book conventions, or as they are known as, comicons. The first one I ever attended was actually a Star Trek/ comic book hybrid convention. I don't remember how I did it, but I convinced my then roommate and his fiancé to go with me. It seemed like an interesting idea... shits and giggles more than anything else.

We got there and two things became apparent: 1- There were people who were even bigger fans than I was; so much so they actually dressed up as Star Trek characters. 2- people were selling items there I had never thought were available. I spent a good deal of money there, particularly at this one booth. Said booth was filled with a variety of VHS tapes. These tapes featured different cuts of movies (Mainly released as international versions), unreleased screeners, TV shows from my childhood that I had not seen in ages, all sorts of visual goodies. I bought several tapes and other odds and ends that day. I was hooked. (My biggest regret of that trip was not buying an actual prop M-41a pulse rifle from the movie Aliens. I had the money, but just couldn't bring myself to do it...)

When I showed my haul from the event to my friends, it was decided that next time they would join me, so we could pool our money together and buy more tapes and copy them amongst ourselves. My tape collection became gigantic. It seemed like I could do this forever.

Soon, though, DVDs arrived on the scene, and shortly thereafter, high speed internet. Shortly thereafter, I stopped going to conventions. The main reason I went- to find obscure media, and old school toys and collectables- were now being satisfied by the likes of Kaaza, Suprnova, and EBay. I also stopped actively buying comic books. To be honest, I wasn't really a collector of them, I just liked to read them and wouldn't throw them away. Comicons and the like just didn't do it for me anymore... until 2007.

In 2007, for reasons I do not need to go into here, I took a trip to Las Angeles to participate in Celebration IV- a gigantic Star Wars Convention. And it was like my first trip to such an event, but more so. There were cosplayers, presentations, droid builders, and celebrities. And the merchandise they offered was vast and varied in selection. It went beyond just the Star Wars theme. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and a new seed was planted...

After a couple years of near misses with big local shows (DAMN YOU PAX!!!), I finally got a bit more proactive and advanced tickets for the Big Kahuna: The San Diego Comicon. Unfortunately I wasn't proactive enough, and only got 2 of the 3 days I was trying for. So, in preparation for this spectacle, I thought I would go to some of the bigger local events. I wasn't gonna take pictures or participate in any major events, this first event was just to get a basic feel for the environment to prepare for the next one. (A decision I regret making after the fact...) The first one came up: The Emerald City Comicon.

The overall event size was impressive, but it just didn't really work for me. For such a heavily advertised event with celebrities attending (Leonard Nimoy, Thomas Jane... Wil Wheaton) it overall felt very amateurish to me. I think that mainly had to do with the vendors. I went to the convention hoping to find a couple worthy collectables to add to my geekosphere. What I got was more like a bad swap meet. Instead of vendors bringing out their more unique (or at least cooler) wares to peruse, it seems they only brought the stuff that had been gathering dust on their shelves. Instead of something like a signed copy of Kingdom Come, I found X-Force 4 from the 90's with all 23 holographic cover variations. And while I know I should expect comic books to be the main focus of a comicon, the genre itself has evolved beyond merely the printed page. I had hoped to find items like a sonic screwdriver, a Disney's Gargoyles Goliath statue, Metroplex... whathaveyou. I didn't really want anymore comic books. (Although I WAS tempted to get a Ghost Rider V2 issue 1 signed by artist Mark Texeira, but since he was at lunch when I was there, no such luck for me. SO I really dig Ghost Rider... SUE ME!) So I ended up empty handed, except for a small Cloak and Dagger figure I got for a coworker. (I said if I found one, I'd pick it up.)

As I mentioned earlier, they had several celebrities at this event. Most were from the sci-fi/comic book genre. Among them were Erin Grey (from the TV show Buck Rogers. BTW- a quick aside: she seems to have aged better than Carrie Fisher. Just an observation.), Lou Ferrigno (TV's The Incredible Hulk), and the ones I mentioned earlier. The had almost all of the cast from the web series The Guild... except for the one I WANTED to meet, Felicia Day. The also had a lot of comic book celebrities there, the biggest being Stan Lee. The problem there was since I have kinda fallen out of reading comic books, I didn't really know too many of them. There were some I did (Mark Texeira) but timing was the problem with that. I would have liked to get my picture with one or two of the celebrities, but because of the time I went, I had missed out on most of the scheduled photo ops. (And I REALLY wanted to get one of me and Wil...)

For me the biggest draw was the people watching. Not the average goer, mind you. Last thing I want to see is a crowd consisting entirely of me. Nope, I am talking about the cosplayers. And they didn't disappoint. Yes, a good number were horrible. Most of the horrible ones were the people who just bought a Halloween costume and really didn't try. A smaller number of bad ones were those deliberately going for bad. The rest, an even smaller group, were those that you can tell REALLY tried, but their ambitions were far greater than their skills. I gave them A's for effort. I REALLY wish I had taken pictures to show off what I saw, but you will have to do with some descriptions of some of the highlights.

-A LOT of Star Trek. While most likely due to Leonard Nimoy (and Wil Wheaton), it MIGHT have been because of

-A LOT of Star Wars... particularly Jedi. (BTW, a brown bathrobe alone does NOT a Jedi make...)

-Several Ghostbusters

-Mario and Luigi

-Some Firefly love (particularly this one dressed up as Zoey... wow)

-A lone, depressed-looking Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four. This was most likely because of

-Susan Richards and Doctor Who (She likes them smart guys. BYW, 10th Doctor- still no love for the 3rd...)

-Mr. Incredible. The costume was meh, but the guy looked physically EXACTLY like him.

-A couple Cobra Commanders (W/ face shield. Comic book, not movie, thankfully...)

-A regular Jean Grey Phoenix (in green) and a Jean Grey Dark Phoenix (in red). The amazing thing was they were not together, but both looked spot on. (I wish I had gotten them together for a picture...)

-An assortment of Alice in Wonderland characters. Fortunately, Tim Burton's vision hasn't affected cosplayers yet...

-Thor and Daredevil. These two guys fell under that third category of bad costumes. You could tell they tried really hard...

-A female Robin. Oh Great Jebus, that female Robin... (I SO wish I had taken a picture...)

So what have I learned from this little excursion to prepare me for the next?

1: Wear shoes already broken in.
2: Get in better shape for all the walking (and possible carrying.)
3: Take a wingman who can spot what I may miss.
4: Pictures, pictures, PICTURES!!!

Next up is Seattle's Sakuracon- a Japanese animation festival. For this one I shall be going with someone from work. (He is thinking of cosplaying, but that is not for me.) Not only will I be taking pictures, but I am going to set up a Twitter account for a live stream of conscious review... but I SHOULD warn you:

Knowing me, most of the reports will be of the 'OMG- I am in LUUUV with this hottie dressed like Yuri from the Dirty Pair.' variety.

Just giving you the heads up...