Comicon?

Maybe my expectations were too high because of my experiences at Anime Expo, but Phoenix Comicon was such a bust. Half of the panels were unprofessional, felt thrown together and unplanned, so we walked out. A quarter of them were cancelled or the panelists just never showed up! We were really looking forward to the Cosplay Drama 101 panel Saturday afternoon and were so disappointed by this time with having one event cancelled, another one ending an hour early because they failed to plan, and now panelists just not showing up altogether, we left the convention never to return. But with all of this, we did have some highlights.

Highlight #1: Tips, Tricks and Etiquette for the Cosplayer panel by Banzai! Productions! Seriously, this made my convention. If it weren't for this group I would have felt like I completely wasted my husband's money. I was never aware of their work before, but I feel okay in that considering they've only been around for a year and I haven't had internet for a year and a half. I will certainly be keeping track of their work now. What made them and their panel so amazing? It was so clean! There was no offensive language, no offensive behavior, no innuendos. The room was packed full so obviously they don't need it, and really, nobody does. That's what people need to understand. No one is going to complain that you don't swear enough, but people will leave if you are too offensive. If you need to swear like a sailor and joke about explicit behaviors to get an audience, maybe you suck and shouldn't be performing. The true performers are the people like these who are highly entertaining without the trash. Thank you.

Highlight #2: Red Cross Blood Drive! Wow, was the convention so bad that having a needle stuck in my arm for half an hour made it to my top 3 highlights? Yes. And I'm type O-Neg so I know how important it is to give blood and am really giddy about any opportunity I get to do so. I'm usually really timid but the people there were such a joy to talk to, and I'm sure they felt the same about me. Any time I feel good chatting with complete strangers is a highlight for me.

Highlight #3: Cosplaying as a Family! I don't care how cool my cosplay is, cosplaying alone is depressing. It was so much fun going with Caj and Jac and people took so many pictures. Being able to bring a smile to you, the convention-goers, is why I cosplay. That and it's good fun dressing up.

It was also really cool to see Bruce Boxleitner, he seemed to be a pretty cool actor. If it weren't for Caj's favorite movie being Tron (at least until Legacy, which changed his favorite movie to Dune), I wouldn't be familiar with him. Now I intend to keep a closer watch on his work.

I've never been real big into American comics, so I didn't know much about Stan Lee either, other than he is Marvel Comics. I'm so glad I went to his panel though because that man is a hoot! I love funny old men. I'll probably follow his work more closely now, as well.

So that was my convention experience. I hope Caj wasn't so disappointed with it being his first con that he never wants to spend money on another one again. I may volunteer for SabotenCon this year to see if it's worth going to, otherwise we'll have to save our money and go to Anime Expo in a couple of years.