OttoinGrotto
2023-24 Iggy Award Most 3 Pointers Made
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So yesterday the Mrs. and I attended SLC Comic Con. We had never attended a comic con before, but my wife is hooked and now wants to go to the biggin in San Diego some day.
This was Salt Lake City's first comic con. From a news report that we saw an attendance of 3-4k is pretty good for a first time convention. It's believed that SLC Comic Con is the biggest 1st ever comic con in a city, as some 35k+ tickets were sold. Celebrity attendees included Adam West and Burt Ward, Lou Ferrigno, Henry Winkler, Ray Park, Kevin Sorbo and Stan "The Man" Lee among many others.
As soon as we started approaching the venue my wife commented that we should have gone all out and done costumes. That made me laugh, but for all I know she was serious and next time we really will get all nerdy. Some of the costumes were really good, including a really good Mystique (my wife commented that thank goodness she had the body to pull that one off), a really good Nova and Cable, and a really impressive Nightwing that absolutely looked capable of dispensing vigilante justice. By far the most popular female costume was Poison Ivy. For the most part, the women in costumes were pretty attractive. The same cannot be said for the menfolk, although I really enjoyed seeing Fat Hellboy, Fatter Deadpool, Fat Batman, and Morbidly Obese Flash, as they brought a different kind of visual aesthetic to things that was comparably entertaining.
I was surprised by how few comic books were actually for sale given that it was a comic book convention. As a lad, I enjoyed collecting some lesser known comics including Darkhawk and The New Warriors from Marvel, and the !mpact line (side note, !mpact was a nice response for kids like me that were turned off by the really gritty stuff Image was doing at the time. The !mpact line had some really cool characters, like the Black Hood and Comet. The line didn't sell well and was only around for a few years, sadly.) in addition to some of the more popular Marvel comic book staples. DC, other than Batman and Green Arrow. Anyway, I was hoping to add some to the collections of those books I still own from when I was a kid and thought this would be the perfect place, but had a very difficult time finding anyone that had them, and came away with just 4 new !mpact comics that I found in one guy's bargain bin. We did pick up some art for our son and a few gifts for family members that we'll tuck away for the holidays, including a book for my huge Twilight Zone fan Uncle by Anne Serling, Rod Serling's daughter, which she was very gracious to sign.
We didn't attend any of the panels even though some of the topics seemed interesting. People watching and shopping seemed like a better use of the time than waiting in line for panels we weren't super interested in.
The highlight for my wife was meeting Dean Cain and getting a picture with him. We initially had hoped to get a picture with Adam West, but getting that set up was pretty crazy so we decided to pass. Dean Cain was friendly and engaging and seemed to really try to relate to the fans. My wife had a Batman belt buckle on which he made fun of at first but excused basically because she's smoking hot. Need proof?
Other random notes - the swag bags were extremely disappointing and only included a program (which was horribly organized) and a poster for the event. I'm hoping that they had bigger plans for these, but the huge and unexpected attendance made them bare bones. One of the celebrity guests used to be the Yellow Ranger, and she was unexpectedly gorgeous. My wife said she didn't think she was the original Yellow Ranger. I told her that didn't matter. Henry Winkler seemed to be having a good time with the fans, and did this funny thing where he would give the female fans back rubs. That probably sounds creepy, but it was hilarious to watch. Manu Bennett also appeared to be a hit with the ladies. The pictures women were taking with him were hilarious - think overly touchy prom photos of middle aged women with a guy that pretty much looks like a Greek God. His facial expression really sold it, and I'm sure the sun shines brighter today for some of those women. Artist alley was really cool, especially seeing some of the guys crank out sketches that they would sell for a couple of bucks a pop. Some stereotypes about these events sadly hold true - hygiene for some of the male attendees was appropriate for basement dwelling, but should be improved for public appearances. It was also a little odd to see how content people were to sit down and play board games or video games during the event, but to each their own.
All said, we had a good time and are interested in doing this again, maybe even on a bigger scale if we can do some costumes right. When our son is a little older I think he'd love going to this kind of thing. I'm interested to hear stories from other people that have attended Comic Cons.
This was Salt Lake City's first comic con. From a news report that we saw an attendance of 3-4k is pretty good for a first time convention. It's believed that SLC Comic Con is the biggest 1st ever comic con in a city, as some 35k+ tickets were sold. Celebrity attendees included Adam West and Burt Ward, Lou Ferrigno, Henry Winkler, Ray Park, Kevin Sorbo and Stan "The Man" Lee among many others.
As soon as we started approaching the venue my wife commented that we should have gone all out and done costumes. That made me laugh, but for all I know she was serious and next time we really will get all nerdy. Some of the costumes were really good, including a really good Mystique (my wife commented that thank goodness she had the body to pull that one off), a really good Nova and Cable, and a really impressive Nightwing that absolutely looked capable of dispensing vigilante justice. By far the most popular female costume was Poison Ivy. For the most part, the women in costumes were pretty attractive. The same cannot be said for the menfolk, although I really enjoyed seeing Fat Hellboy, Fatter Deadpool, Fat Batman, and Morbidly Obese Flash, as they brought a different kind of visual aesthetic to things that was comparably entertaining.
I was surprised by how few comic books were actually for sale given that it was a comic book convention. As a lad, I enjoyed collecting some lesser known comics including Darkhawk and The New Warriors from Marvel, and the !mpact line (side note, !mpact was a nice response for kids like me that were turned off by the really gritty stuff Image was doing at the time. The !mpact line had some really cool characters, like the Black Hood and Comet. The line didn't sell well and was only around for a few years, sadly.) in addition to some of the more popular Marvel comic book staples. DC, other than Batman and Green Arrow. Anyway, I was hoping to add some to the collections of those books I still own from when I was a kid and thought this would be the perfect place, but had a very difficult time finding anyone that had them, and came away with just 4 new !mpact comics that I found in one guy's bargain bin. We did pick up some art for our son and a few gifts for family members that we'll tuck away for the holidays, including a book for my huge Twilight Zone fan Uncle by Anne Serling, Rod Serling's daughter, which she was very gracious to sign.
We didn't attend any of the panels even though some of the topics seemed interesting. People watching and shopping seemed like a better use of the time than waiting in line for panels we weren't super interested in.
The highlight for my wife was meeting Dean Cain and getting a picture with him. We initially had hoped to get a picture with Adam West, but getting that set up was pretty crazy so we decided to pass. Dean Cain was friendly and engaging and seemed to really try to relate to the fans. My wife had a Batman belt buckle on which he made fun of at first but excused basically because she's smoking hot. Need proof?
Other random notes - the swag bags were extremely disappointing and only included a program (which was horribly organized) and a poster for the event. I'm hoping that they had bigger plans for these, but the huge and unexpected attendance made them bare bones. One of the celebrity guests used to be the Yellow Ranger, and she was unexpectedly gorgeous. My wife said she didn't think she was the original Yellow Ranger. I told her that didn't matter. Henry Winkler seemed to be having a good time with the fans, and did this funny thing where he would give the female fans back rubs. That probably sounds creepy, but it was hilarious to watch. Manu Bennett also appeared to be a hit with the ladies. The pictures women were taking with him were hilarious - think overly touchy prom photos of middle aged women with a guy that pretty much looks like a Greek God. His facial expression really sold it, and I'm sure the sun shines brighter today for some of those women. Artist alley was really cool, especially seeing some of the guys crank out sketches that they would sell for a couple of bucks a pop. Some stereotypes about these events sadly hold true - hygiene for some of the male attendees was appropriate for basement dwelling, but should be improved for public appearances. It was also a little odd to see how content people were to sit down and play board games or video games during the event, but to each their own.
All said, we had a good time and are interested in doing this again, maybe even on a bigger scale if we can do some costumes right. When our son is a little older I think he'd love going to this kind of thing. I'm interested to hear stories from other people that have attended Comic Cons.
