One of Red Dot Diva's twitter friends Lindsay, decided to dip her toes into her first comic con recently. She attended the Phoenix ComiCon on the USA Memorial Day Weekend of May 26-29, 2011.
There was a really good list of guests for the convention including Aaron Douglas (best known for his role in the "Battlestar Galactica" reboot), Kristin Bauer ("True Blood"), Nicholas Brendon ("Buffy"/ "Criminal Minds") and Star Trek luminaries like George Takei, Leonard Nimoy and fan favourite Wil Wheaton. Plus many comic-related guests like David Petersen (creator of the Mouse Guard series), Michael Golden, Eisner award-winning artist Rob Guillory and yes, even Mr. Stan Lee!
And with that fantastic guest list was the record-breaking turnout of about 25,000 attendees for this year's Phoenix Comicon.
A definitely appropriate weekend for Lindsay to pop her comic con cherry.
Here's what she recounts from that weekend:
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The Phoenix Comic Con was interesting - fascinating to me since it was my first.
I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it initially. There was a barrage of images unfamiliar to me, since I'm not up on current comics or anime or whatever Manga is. It didn't seem very organized, which can set off my alarms. Misinformation about when what opened. I couldn't find out how to buy an autograph from Leonard Nimoy - none of the attendants seems to know where or when. Hmmm.
But everyone seemed cool with the confusion in details and the sheer diversity turned out to be the most fascinating thing about it - so very much was going on!
One mezzanine of the hotel was taken up with people playing board games. Off to one side of the exhibit area people in costume were practising sword fights. Apparently costumed role plays were going on somewhere else ("cosplay").
There were many panels and talks going on simultaneously - and the ones I attended were fascinating. Several rows of the exhibit hall were artists and writers promoting their own comics. I ran across the booth for Mouse Guard from Archaia and was captivated by the art work. Detailed, charming, innovative - wow! Not at all the comic books from my youth.
I soon realized that was the point of all the costumes - try for a good enough, unique enough presentation that people wanted to take your picture or pose with you! And it wasn't just the costumes - there was a Jack Sparrow I would have run away with if asked!! He had the look, the swagger, the charm. Imagine Depp's Sparrow but with blue eyes. Yum!
I see what people meant about being able to rub elbows the way you can't at at a Star Trek convention. I ran into two of the guys from the mould-breaking web-series "The Guild" in the elevator and said hi. They seemed to like being recognized, though the room for their panel was packed - lots of Guild fans here! I later got a real autograph and DVD and got to chat with them a bit.
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| Lindsay w/ Sandeep Parikh and Jeff Lewis from "The Guild" |
Will Wheaton, for example. As a trekkie, I wanted to hear the former "Wesley Crusher" of STNG, now reknown blogger. I squeezed into the room, into one of the few empty seats. I could tell from the crowd reactions that they were "his kind of people". Wil read his story "The Last of the Unicorn Pegasus Kittens" - I whooped and hollared with the rest. I won't tell you about it. Google it. That in itself will be an experience. *grin*.
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| Lindsay with Wil Wheaton |
I'm ready now. SDCC 2012, here I come!!
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Red Dot Diva is glad Lindsay had so much geeky comic con fun ;)
Maybe they will bump into each other at SDCC 2012!
Credit: All pics belong to Lindsay R.
Thanks for the remind. I was there and had fun, if a bit disappointed there was so litle to spend money on in the dealer's hall.
ReplyDeleteAw Linds got a pic with Wil.