I was (this) close to getting a booth at this year’s Wizard World Arlington Comic Con. At the last minute I decided to just go an observe rather than participate. This turned out to be the right choice.
Comic Con’s are an interesting animal to be sure in that they have less to do with comic books and more to do with “I made a Taun-taun costume, do you want to sleep in my stomach?”
Josh, Eli and I loaded up and trekked to Arlington last Saturday the 17th. Almost immediately we realized no one brought a camera. The heinousness of this error was immediately evident when, as soon as we arrived, we were greeted by a young man in a Hank “Beast” McCoy costume. It looked like he had killed Cookie Monster and a dentist then combined them into a suit. I applaud his efforts because I was able to recognize him immediately. There’s a somber quality to seeing someone draped in Muppet fur then simultaneously feeling excited and remorseful. It’s sort of a “man that guy is… only 5% geekier than I am…(cry).” You think, “Dear god, it could have so easily been me in his place. A few dateless nights, a few more LAN parties and that could be me with blue clown makeup sweating off my forehead. There but for the grace of frequent sexual intercourse go I.”
It’s humbling.
Also, there were Ghost Busters, which fucking kicked ass. No Winston though. Racists.
Wizard World is VERY small compared to medium to large sized Cons. You can walk the whole thing and see everything you need to see in 45 minutes or so. There were some fantastic artists and some not-so-fantastic-more-so-depressing ones as well. By contrast this one guy had these amazing paintings of The Joker, and another guy had Sexy Naughty Bugs Bunny Characters as X-Men. No joke. That’s a niche fetish if I ever saw one. Its a niche within a niche… a “nested niche” if you will.
I ran into DJ Coffman at the Drunk Duck booth. He was pimping his new book “Hero by Night” about a kid who finds a super power ring and tried to sell it on eBay but gets sucked into super heroism. Check it out. I used to read his webcomic “How To” blog. He stopped a while back to go pro. You can read his old webcomic here.
He gave me some great tips on getting the most from Project Wonderful. Thanks, DJ! You are now my third favorite DJ next to him and her.
Regarding extreme sadness at Cons:
- I saw a furry. A real live (if you call that living) fury. That is all.
- Dermot Crowley from Star Wars: ROTJ was there. Who the eff is that? He’s General Madine. Who the effing ess is that? Exactly. No One talked to him. He stood near Mark Hamil at one point in time (oh shit, I want his autograph). At one point they came over the PA to remind people that he was there. I got so sad.
- Herb “Non-hot-Asian-Boomer” Jefferson was there. Original BSG sucked and the con goers seemed to agree. See #2.
- Lou Ferrigno was there. This was only sad because he was awesome and the line was too long and he wanted money for pictures. Fail.
- Saddest of all, Noel Neil was there. She played Lois Lane back when TV’s were powered by coal and coal was powered by steam. She is 240 years old and looks every bit of it. I made Josh take a picture over my shoulder with my phone. I think I may have removed a bit of her life force because she seemed to age while the picture was being taken.
The ghost of Lois Lanes passed
This guy was VERY serious about hitting people with foam swords.
Very Serious.
I didn’t see Beast! I’m sad now but your description of him was so beautiful (cookie monster + dentist) that I don’t feel I missed out on too much.
This blog entry was perfection perfected. Congratulations. You might as well quit now, it’s all downhill from here.
Wow. A furry. Actually, you know, come by the Animecon and you’ll see many! And tons of cosplay… yikes!
Number 2 on the list is just really, really funny. XD Sad…
@Denise
I quit. Done. over.
@kat
I’ll be at A-Con in dallas next year. I definitely wont forget the camera then.
Trust me, sad only begins to describe it. It was more like sorrow.
I remember being so excited the first year they announced that they were doing a Wizard World Dallas (in Arlington thanks to fucking plano-con). Then I saw the list of who was going to be there. There was a collective guffaw and we promptly forgot about it. It seems to only get worse every year. THere’s a strangeness to it that Wizard does not put effort into what could be a major event in the south. Pretty soon CAPE will be bigger and more known than WWD.
@Jamison
i really did expect a LOT more. I bet it fizzles out after a while.
oh man. wow.
i too, wonder how close i came to being one of those chicks that dress up as princess leia or xena or willow.
it's such a fine line right? i mean, i joined the SCA in high school, i made a boffer and spent my after school hours having boffing fights in the hills behind the school. i actually played D & D, before maturely 'graduating' to Cthulu. which, let's be honest, i totally would still play if i had the chance with a few friends and a couple bottles of wine.
but dressing up and going to a convention? such a fine, fine line.
is it like being super gay and also being ragingly homophobic? am i embarrassed and demeaning of my inner geek, and that's why it's not something i flaunt to the public? i dunno.
@Sharon
I hear ya. I pitty and envy these people at the same time. It says more negative about me than it does them. They are so comfortable with themselves they can dress like crazy mutants and feel super great about it. Im not that brave.
My wife and I decided to go to a comic-con on our honeymoon for the hell of it. Well, it was actually the first stop on the road to our honeymoon destination. We decided to get pictures of all the has-been actors and the cosplay weirdos. Best honeymoon pic? It would either be the fat black guy in a Spider-man suit caught in a candid moment without his mask or the one of me and my buddy Carlton from the Fresh Prince, Alfonso Ribeiro.
Wow, Noel Neill! She looks ancient.
She was a great Lois Lane. There hasn't been a Lois Lane I didn't like until Kate Bosworth came along…
I thought Terry Hatcher owned the part but I was a middle school boy at the time. I probably just liked her boobs.