Sci-Fi Expo 2013 in Dallas: Where Fans Got To Meet Comic and Sci-Fi Faves

The city of Dallas, Texas gets its fair share of pop-culture and comic book geekery too. There are a few conventions held in the big city, and one called Sci-Fi Expo took place on February 9-10, 2013 at the Irving Convention Centre.

From what Red Dot Diva heard, over 12,000 fans attended the convention over the weekend.  And the organizers OfficialPix have taken delight in seeing a growing number of attendees from year to year.

A Twitter and Facebook pal and resident Texan, Natasha Stroud was one of those fans. Here's her report on that awesome weekend:

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When most people think of February they think of chocolates and flowers. For me, February brings to mind Stormtroopers, Superheros and zombies!  That's because here in Dallas, February is when the annual SciFi Expo is held each year.

We have three annual shows in Dallas put on by OfficialPix – Fan Days in October, SciFi Expo in February and, of course, Dallas Comic-Con in May. Of the three, SciFi Expo is by far my favorite. It's not quite as crazy as Comic-Con but the guests are always amazing and the crowds are a little lighter.

The guest list this year definitely did not disappoint. Some of the guests in attendance were Morena Baccarin, Kevin Sorbo, Avery Brooks, Sam Witwer and William Sanderson along with stars from AMC's "The Walking Dead"- Laurie Holden, Danai Gurira and Emma Bell. And for Battlestar Galactica fans, Tricia Helfer, Edward James Olmos and James Callis all appeared together at this year's Sci-Fi Expo.  The event also included a "Back to the Future" reunion that included Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, James Tolkan and Claudia Wells. And for comic fans, we had Joe Eisma, Adam Hughes and George Perez amongst many others.

My first stop on this trip was to meet George Perez. Perez came to Dallas Comic-Con last May and I was pleased to see that he had decided to return for this year's SciFi Expo.

At these types of events one can often end up waiting in line for hours as the artist works on commissions and signings, which is to be expected. However, it was nice to see that no one in line seemed to mind, and, in fact, were all chatting with one another and comparing items that they had brought to be signed. The gentleman in line behind me had brought an issue of "Crisis on Infinite Earths". I, on the other hand, decided to bring one of Perez' more recent works – "Superman #1" from DC's The New 52.

When I finally got to the front of the line, I was pleased to see just how friendly and kind Perez was. He was smiling and laughing, paying compliments to folks and genuinely taking the time to talk to all of his fans. As I moved up to meet him, he said “another pretty lady!” Oh Mr. Perez, you sly-talker, you!

Pic by Scifi-Expo

My next stop was Tricia Helfer's table. Once again, another friendly and down-to-earth guest who was taking the time to answer fan's questions and take pictures. One fan asked about her hair, as she is no longer sporting the platinum do that cylon Number Six does, and she proceeded to tell us about how the constant dying resulted in all of hair breaking off and she ended up having to wear a wig during filming!

Pic by Scifi-Expo

Of course, I think that the guest with the largest crowd was Danai Gurira, which I thought was awesome, seeing as how this was her very first convention signing. Guests waiting in line had everything from posters to toys to severed zombie heads for her to sign. And, once again, fans had nothing but wonderful things to say about how gracious and amiable she was.

Besides meeting the guests, my favorite part of any convention is checking out all of the amazing costumes. This year the folks that put together the Expo decided to add something new – The Costume Red Carpet. At a certain time all those in costume were told to head to the area where they could walk the red carpet and show off their looks. I saw everything from Ghostbusters to Bane to things that made me say “what the heck is that?” but they were all amazing! My favorite this year had to be Queen Amidala – I can only imagine how long it took her to put that together!

Overall, the SciFi Expo was put together so well, ran so smoothly and was just plain awesome. In fact, I think this show gets better and better every year.

Next up for me – Dallas Comic-Con, which has already confirmed William Shatner, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, LeVar Burton and "Fringe"'s Jasika Nicole and John Noble as guests.

All I can say is, is it May yet?

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Thanks, Natasha for the lovely report! Natasha has her own blog called Wild for Wednesdays. She's currently on hiatus right now but who knows? she may be back writing again soon! :)

Photo Credit: Unless indicated, convention pics used in this article belong to Natasha Stroud.

Another convention from the same organizers is coming soon! The Dallas Comic-Con will be held 17-19 May 2013. Check out their website and Facebook page for more announcements!