To kick off this quick Planet Comicon Round-Up, there are two* things I should point out: 1) I love comic book conventions. 2) I never get to go to them.
* – Third thing. My wife & I woke up at 7am to head up to KC, spent the whole day at the con, hit up some key KC food haunts, and drove home. When we got back at am-whatever, I started working on this article. There will be typos, missing words, and totally wrong words. I’ll fix them in the morning. -Lots of Love, Noisy!
The first one is funny to me. I rarely buy anything at a comicon. Occasionally, I will find an older gem, or some old toy I’d forgotten about, but in general, I don’t go to a con to spend money. I’m not that big on getting autographs, or sketches, or even meeting celebs. I don’t dress up. On paper, I don’t even know why I’d go. But there’s just something fun about being there. Walking amongst fellow fans. Seeing the hard work put into the costumes and the crafts on sale. Marveling at rare comics or toys (and sometimes seeing one that just came out marked up for double, but I digress). They’re a blast. I’m reminded today, fresh off returning from Planet Comicon Kansas City, but I tend to forgot how much I enjoy being at cons.
That’s mainly because I never get to go to them. It’s really my job’s fault. It’s very difficult to take off a good chunk of time to travel to farther off conventions. And local ones? Well, a member of my staff is an artist that sells her wares in the Artist’s Alleys of more local conventions. I support her in her efforts – she’s fantastic, but if she needs the weekend off… well, you get the idea.
This year though, something had to give. Planet Comicon rounded up most of the principal cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, Levar Burton, Wil Wheaton, John de Lancie, and… William Shatner? Hey, I said most. I’m a huge TNG geek. Huge. And before you cast any aspirations about that, let me point out two things: one, my wife is a huger TNG fan and we don’t disparage the wife here at IAT. And, two, Playmates Star Trek line is heavily responsible for giving me the collecting bug – so without TNG you’d be reading some other sorry excuse for a blog instead of this one. So TNG is directly affecting your life today as well no matter what you happen to think about it. Fancy that.
We had to go. So, at work, I promoted one person, hired two more, and finally the next thing you my wife and I were KC bound! Now, I don’t have any pictures of the Trektacular Panel or even of the actors around the convention. The ushers were both very hostile and very good at their jobs at protecting the actors from my wife’s otherwise all-seeing camera. But, my wife and I had a blast all the same. Watching all the actors together on stage, cutting up with each other, and just seeing their “real” personalities was amazing. I hope that there’s some video posted soon because I can’t even remember it all. Wil Wheaton impressed – that guy can work a room. Brent Spiner is hilarious, but also had the most touching moment when an autistic fan thanked him for Data’s portrayal and the effect it had on her. Michael Dorn was quiet, but when he did speak – he came across as very sagelike. Marina Sirtis is crazy. And I’m not just saying that because I’ve now seen Troi & Crusher kiss, but also because I’ve now seen Troi & Kirk kiss, Troi & Data kiss, Troi & Geordi kiss, Troi & Wesley kiss, in addition to Worf & Riker one more time for good measure. She nearly stole the whole show and that was with William Shatner on stage. It was amazing. My wife took some empty pictures of the stage for everyone’s perusal:
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On the con floor itself, my wife & I kinda forgot to take a lot of pictures. Maybe next year. We saw a ton of fun stuff though. There was a 501st Trooper that stood as still as a mannequin waiting to scare people. He was great at it too. There were tons of great crafts, from fun chainmail to outright recreating lifesize R2 units (the wife said no to that one, but I swear I’ve got room for it… somewhere). I got a kick out of seeing some replica 1:1 cars from Dukes of Hazzard, Smokey & the Bandit, & Back to the Future. The KC Lego User Group was also on hand with some fun creations with everyone’s favorite building bricks.
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Continue to Page 2 for
MWOTR, Kabuto Mushi, True Cast, & Cosplayers!.
Aw, the exclusive Crayboth picture’s link is bad 🙁
Looks like a good time! I love getting out to conventions but never do as well.
Of all the things to mess up! LOL All fixed now, thank you!
Also, not sure what the yellow heads on the bottom row are here:
But I want to put one on a MOTUC figure.
Those are… I want to say Scribe…
Yes! Those are from a great sculptor, Don Scribe. You can see more of his work here: http://scribeswalk.com/
I took some pics there as well, though there are only a few cosplayers. I would have taken more but I’d never have gotten anything done! 😀
Here! I have six pictures of cosplayers strewn about my art. Please look at my art! 😀
(Do go look at her art!)
I was too lazy to separate them. And also too shameless… But everyone must see Kreger!
The yellow sculpts are Scribe “Cupcakes”
Thanks, Mark!
ah, con coverage… how i do so love con coverage. why you may ask? cuz THIS is where geeks of all breeds unite to defend the clans! i like seeing the serious geeks, the guys who leave the house without bathing, and the sexy chicks dressed as imaginary sexier chics, mixing and co-mingling with the small local wiccan who hits the cons to sell the best friggin snacks you’ve ever put in your maw. love cons.
glad you guys had such a great time. the only thing i don’t get about the reporting is the odd defensiveness over the star trek love… why? i don’t think anyone that reads this website would give you or sil the business over TNG, we’re all geeks here too. my only question is, did you where the “wesley crushers” t-shirt from BBT? cuz really… you should have. and at least one geek in the crowd should have shouted WHEATON! as they left the table. just cuz… but the role of loud geek is usually one only i get to fill.
Trek feels divided right now. It’s come a long way from TNG days and while I love nearly all of it for it’s various differences, I’ve run in to some fans that only love the newer stuff or even the later shows that were darker or more dramatic in nature. Even some of the questions at the show had that tenuousness. TNG is tops though.
DS9 > NG TOS > ENT > JJ
😉
I don’t know.
dude, WHAT? I had no idea this was going on, esp THIS wkd!
St Louis is pretty much wiped out for cons, and at this point, I’m expecting them to cancel Archon any second!
Contamination – Dave cancelled due to various issues, presumably NOT due to a personal one.
Project: ComicCon – I missed out the first couple, but got to see George Perez and Phil Jimenez, among others, last fall. (and money was VERY tight at the time!)
apparently cancelled due to logistics and such?
….can’t think of the third, but it wasn’t MidSouth in Louisville, which Keith cancelled due to health reasons. (we weren’t going, anyway. same wkd as Contamination is.)
not sure about Wizard’s StL ComiCon, but that is Very Expen$$$ive.($75-80 for 4 hours on Friday night? NO THANK YOU!) I just talked one friend into PCC this year as she was going on about Wizard’s CC, and then PCC got bumped. oy.
and dammit, if I find out THIS is was Sgt Grump was up to this weekend to celebrate his 50th last wkd….thumping WILL occur!!! grrr…..!
also, totally jealous you got to met so many Trek cast. Grump’s wife was a dead ringer for Marina when we met her in early 90s, but they didn’t have a baby sitter that day. Marina gave us weird looks because we were giggling so much about it.
[goes to buy rred hair dye and that wheelchair…]
aspirations = hopes
aspersions = false or misleading charges meant to damage reputation
You did read the second italicized paragraph, right? 🙂
My ability to exchange similar sounding words while writing is annoying.