Comic Con

November Writing Challenge Day 8: L.A. Comic Con

I’m blogging every day this month. Some will be game-related, but this challenge is different than my most recent play-a-game-and-blog-about-it challenge. I’m writing a single post every day: no topic guidelines, with some posts being a collection of random thoughts. Click here to read yesterday’s post.

Last month I was on the Play More Games: A Tabletop Discussion panel at L.A. Comic Con. Moderated by Chelsea Schwartz, I joined some of my fellow tabletop gaming industry folk as we talked games and more for an hour. It was an honor to be included and I’m excited to see board games making their way into non-gaming conventions.

I have more to say about L.A. Comic Con as well as Nerd Expo in Pasadena, but I’m saving that for my expanded articles that I’m writing for other websites.

The one thing I will share, though, is how much I love the cosplay at conventions these days. It’s come a long way from when I’d go to the con in San Diego (before it become Comic Con). From anime and manga characters to obscure pop culture references, there seems to be a cosplayer for everything.

In fact, the cosplay is so good now that I don’t recognize half of the costumes.

Years (decades!) ago I’d see the standard superheroes and villains, along with various Vulcans and Klingons. Today’s cosplayers have taken things to the next level, with serious attention to detail from head to toe. As I told my wife while we were admiring all of the amazing costumes at the con: today’s convention cosplayer is tomorrow’s Hollywood costume designer.

Pictured above is one of my favorite cosplayers last month, right outside the convention center while my wife and I snacked on all of goodies from the street vendors. The piano worked and, yes, he did play this song.

Long Beach Comic Con

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Although I won’t be attending this weekend’s Long Beach Comic Con, I highly recommend the event. For me it’s a throwback to the experiences I had at the San Diego Comic Con during my youth, before it transformed into the overwhelming beast of today.

My brothers and I grew up with comic books. Our parents encouraged reading and when we weren’t spending hours on end at our local library, we were buying comics at our local used bookstore. The store had a friendly exchange policy, which allowed us to trade in our mom’s used books (mainly romance novels by the insanely prolific Barbara Cartland) for store credit.

That credit was immediately spent on issues of Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, and many others. We started off as Marvel kids for no other reason than that’s what you did back in the day: you were either a Marvel or DC fan. As the years passed, we added Batman, Superman, and even the occasional independent book, like an up-and-coming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

During our Saturday afternoon visits I’d wander around the store, soaking in the smell of yellowing paperbacks and listening to the creaking of the old wooden shelves that held them. But most of the time would be spent up front amongst the racks of new comics and cardboard boxes of back issues.

My experience at last year’s LBCC was special for me since one of my brothers and his children attended. Hanging out with my niece and nephew and introducing them to this former world that their father and uncles once inhabited (and still do to some extent) was a blast.

Of course, the cosplay scene of today is mind-blowingly better than what we had in our day. Upon seeing the first few Deadpools and Stormtroopers walking around, my nephew brilliantly observed, “Boy, I’m underdressed!”

We hung out for a few hours, soaking in all of the comics and pop culture. We made buttons, thanks to the wonderful Long Beach Public Library booth. We operated remote-controlled robots at the Space Expo area hosted by the Columbia Memorial Space Center. We perused some of the cardboard boxes of back issues found throughout the convention center floor.

And we took pictures with some of our favorite characters.

The photos in this post were taken by my niece, who I was proud to have by my side as part of the press coverage. I hope she and her brother continue to explore the many facets of geekdom, just like their dad and his brothers did in their day.

The Long Beach Comic Con is September 2-3. More info here. 

All photo credits: Kaya Gaviola

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San Diego Comic Con 2017: Cosplay Friday

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I’m constantly impressed by the cosplay at modern comic conventions. From the carbon copies of superheroes, to the wacky hilarity of pop culture fun, to the imaginative mashups of two (or more) genres: people’s ingenuity never ceases to amaze me. This is the second of a three-part series highlighting a few of the cosplayers at SDCC 2017. Part one is here. 

Pictured above: The Watchmen, minus Ozymandias and Nite Owl.

Friday

After Preview Night on Wednesday and the first official Con day on Thursday, Friday was much busier. Cosplayers were everywhere at the Super Bowl of comic conventions.

I started going to the Con in the ’80s, so it blows my mind to see how ginormous the event is these days. Not only is it the entire convention center, but the surrounding hotels and Gaslamp Quarter as well. While it’s entirely overwhelming, it’s also cool to see the entire city all geeked out.

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Who wore it better? (1 of 2)

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Who wore it better? (2 of 2)

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Family cosplayers are the best!

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Even when one of the family members is over it …

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Next up: Cosplay Saturday

 

San Diego Comic Con 2017: Cosplay Thursday

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I’m constantly impressed by the cosplay at modern comic conventions. From the carbon copies of superheroes, to the wacky hilarity of pop culture fun, to the imaginative mashups of two (or more) genres: people’s ingenuity never ceases to amaze me. This is the first of a three-part series highlighting a few of the cosplayers at SDCC 2017. 

Pictured above: the fantastic mashup duo Wonder-Woman-Xena and Supergirl-Gabrielle.

Thursday

I love how the whole city is overrun with all types of geeks during Comic Con and it was a blast running into cosplayers on the trolley to the convention center.

Pro tip: take an early trolley from The Murph (sorry, but that’s what the stadium will always be to me; shout-out to my friends and family in San Diego). There’s plenty of free parking and it’s easier to get a seat since the trains fill up in no time. 

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Once inside the convention center, a few of my favorites were there.

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Of course, you never know who you’re going to run into at the Con.

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Inside and outside the convention center, cosplayers were everywhere.

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Next up: Cosplay Friday

San Diego Comic Con 2017: Gone Viral

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So, the video I posted of the kids in the mini landspeeder yesterday went viral.

My tweets typically get a few likes and, if I’m lucky, a retweet or two so this was totally unexpected. This particular tweet has deluged my phone with nonstop notifications and as of Saturday 7/22/17 at 4pm it’s been liked over 4,000 times and retweeted over 1,200 times.

Whoa.

It’s been interesting seeing how people have reacted to the video. Obviously, cute kids in their Star Wars costumes will usually generate lots of likes. Kudos to them (unfortunately, I didn’t actually meet them) for being good sports and to the Radio Flyer company for making such as amazing vehicle.

One cool thing about the video going viral? Getting a Twitter like from the man himself, Mark Hamill (shown above).

I’ll say it again: Whoa.

This has been the Best. Comic. Con. Ever.

San Diego Comic Con 2017: Conival

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I got to spend some quality time at Conival, the big bash hosted by Legendary Entertainment’s Nerdist, Geek & Sundry, and Alpha. The lounge was outside on the Marina Terrace behind the Marriott and it was an ideal location overlooking the water.

Even though San Diego is known for its mild weather, it can still be pretty tough being in the sun all day and thankfully there were plenty of shaded areas, misters, and two huge fans to keep everybody cool.

I loved that Conival was outside: it made for a nice change after being engulfed by the sweaty masses inside the convention center. And what better way to enjoy the great outdoors than by playing board games?

My friends Marlon and Julla met me at the lounge and we played FUSE and Wits and Wagers. We shared a loss and a victory in FUSE and were awarded some terrific freebies: books and a book bag.

In Wits and Wagers I eeked out a single-point victory, thanks to the final question, which couldn’t have been more perfect for the setting: “What year did Superman first appear in comics?”

While you Google the answer to that (here, I’ll help you), I’m going back to the con for more gaming and what-not.

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San Diego Comic Con 2017: The Story So Far

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Wednesday (Preview Night) and Thursday at SDCC ’17 were fantastic. I’ve met some people on my Must Meet List and I was fortunate to connect with friends from back home and an old friend from across the country.

(Pictured above: the cutest FULLY WORKING mini land speeder outside the convention center. Seriously, just stop the con now. That was the best thing ever.)

Crowds tire me a lot more now than when I was a younger man,  but like so many of my fellow attendees I feed off the energy of the crowd. It’s fun being among so many fans of so many different geekdoms. Admittedly I’m not up to date on all of the latest trends (still haven’t seen Rick & Morty, despite hearing how great it is from everyone I know), but I dig seeing everyone’s respective obsessions.

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While the first day and a half were spent exploring all the different nooks and crannies of the main exhibit hall, I also managed to briefly check out the Conival put on by Nerdist and Geek & Sundry. I’ll be revisiting it later today and will post another report soon.

I also checked out the board games area on the mezzanine, where my buddy Oscar and I got to play the new Potion Explosion expansion, The Fifth Ingredient. CMON demo-er Kimberly explained the changes and we got into a game, which was a blast (fans of the game will get that pun, ha!).

To be continued. If you’re here and want to meet up to play a game, tweet me!