![]() The top competitors are more than static presenters since full skits almost seem to be required nowadays. It's hosted by Kaja and Phil Foglio, the geniuses behind the Girl Genius franchise. That brings the size of the live audience to over 6000! The Masquerade is a major celebration at Comic-Con and as I understand it (I've never been directly involved with the competition) competitors pretty much have to plan on spending the day getting applications, dealing with judging, and whatever pre-show engineering and production needs to happen (and of course, all the associated Line-Cons). But it's also simulcast to two other large conference rooms and to the Sails Pavilion, a large open area on the upper floor which was also catered with free food. The event takes over Hall 20, the second largest room in the convention center and seats 4,000 people. It's the cosplay contest at Comic-Con, and this year is its 40th anniversary. Technically, the Masquerade is also a panel, but it's an event all to itself. I'm not sure I'm ready to dive in and spend the time they do, but I was inspired! Seeing what they were able to do was fantastic. I recommend seeing the clips on their website, or at any convention you can find them. This made the footage into something magical! It was delightful to see these cosplayers, at conventions I know, suddenly have their character's special abilities come to life. But in addition to talking with cosplayers, they took video in 3D of the cosplayers at conventions, and then added a variety of special effects. Cosplay Dreams 3D is a pretty cool documentary that's a real love fest for cosplayers. There were several cosplay oriented panels, although the only one I made it to was about adding special effects to cosplay photos and videos. You can feel the impact of a big ol' sword smacking onto a shield or armor helmet. It's one-on-one dueling, and looks great. But the big draw for me is the live medieval combat demonstrations put on by the SCA Iron Brigade. ![]() They vary from the Legion World (a fan group for the Legion of Superheroes), to Califur (the Southern California Furry Convention), the IKV Stranglehold (discussed later), and so many more. There's an area set aside for fan based organizations, and there are a lot with tables and information. I've heard that there are other, better artist conventions, but I've always found Comic-Con to be a great time to interact with artists. Prices are reasonable and many will still do free sketches. An amazing range of artists are in Artists' Alley and most are more than willing to chat about their work or just about any geeky topic. ![]() Most of what you see in the photo comes from small publishers that I got to sign their work. I love talking with the publishers and creators. Add to that all of the behind the scenes meetings between the creators, editors, and publishers discussing deals, projects, and future plans and you have the industry's main convention. A third of the panels are about comics, the Eisner awards take place at Comic-Con, the Artists' Alley is amazing, and there are organized meet and greets between publishers and would be creators. Every major publishing house, all the secondary publishers, and more indie and small publishers than you'll find anywhere else in the US. When I mentioned that C4 was coming up, one of the fathers suggested we make it a group outing, and so we drove down on a Saturday morning with two cars, four teens (two girls and two boys), two fathers, and me.Ĭomics are the heart of Comic-Con. I try to redirect that kind of interest towards starting with smaller conventions, that way they can get some experience and decide whether they even like going to conventions. This group had heard me talk about San Diego Comic-Con and they all wanted to go some time. I think my favorite was Saturday when I served as a guide/chaperon for a group of teens attending their first comic convention. ![]() I went all three days and enjoyed each day for different reasons. Everyone I know who attended this year had a great time (although I did hear a few grumbles from vendors). We need a local convention, and now I have no qualms about recommending this one. Last year was pretty disappointing for a lot of reasons, and so I'm really glad the organizers learned from all of that and came back with a much stronger second year. There were lots of vendors, a significant and well publicized set of panels, games of all types, a reasonable attendance of celebrities, several scheduled events, and a lot of cosplay - all of it taking place over two and a half days. This is the second year for Central Coast Comic Con (C4) in Ventura, and as an attendee I consider it a success. ![]()
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