Comics and Cons

Amazingly, to me anyway, I’ve only ever been to one, JUST ONE, Comic Con, What up with that?

My cousin Gary and his fabulously stunning wife Dawn both used to work at Marvel -- he was the director of publicity and she was the head of the Bull Pen.  Yes, mammothly impressive!

They left all this awesomeness for the idyllic beauty of Boothbay Harbor, ME and their own design/marketing agency, Atomic Studios. Marvel’s loss, their gain.

In any case, they still have loads of pals in the comic biz and pop in at Comic Cons as often as they can.

What is a comic con? The only definition I could find was for the San Diego Comic Con but, I suppose, this covers many, if not all:

Originally showcasing comic books, science fiction/fantasy and film/television, and related popular arts, the convention now includes a larger range of pop culture elements, such as horror, animation, anime, manga, toys, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, and fantasy novels. According to Forbes the convention is the "largest convention of its kind in the world"; it is also the largest convention held in San Diego. In 2010, it filled the San Diego Convention Center to capacity with more than 130,000 attendees.

A few years back they popped down (Boston to Boothbay Harbor is actually a pretty long drive so ‘popping‘ is woefully inaccurate) for the Boston Comic Con -- one they’d never been to. Yeah, it’s small relative to the NYC con and SanDiego but still fun.

I expected to see loads of cosplayers,

(What is cosplay? A translation of Japanese コスプレ (kosupure), which is a contraction of コスチュームプレイ (kosuchūmu purei), a Japanese borrowing from English meaning costume play),

and I wasn’t disappointed. More would have been better but, hey, there’s always next time!

Gary and I had been out of contact during our younger/less old, adult lives. Spending the day at a comic con was a good way to get to know each other again We both drooled over the Jack Kirby original art boards at one table, we pointed out costume malfunctions (most notably the preponderance of VPLs), they talked with old friends and I gawped about like a ten year old off the farm for the very first time.

The next Boston con is in August.

Coming to the 2014 BCC: James Marsters!
American actor, singer and songwriter James Marsters first found international fame playing punk-goth Brit vampire Spike in the critically acclaimed American TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the equally popular spin-off Angel.

Oh yeah, I’ll DEF be there!

The next NY Con isn’t until October. Quelle douleur!

I want to go, take pics, maybe see if I can snag a small Jack Kirby drawing and, just generally, soak up the fun. I sincerely doubt that I’d ever dress up but I get a wicked charge out of those who do.

What brings all this up?

I found Wookie tweets on my Twitter feed the other day.
Chewbacca! The pics are fab and, owing to Chewy’s captions, mega full of brill win.

Mayhew took to Twitter on Tuesday night under his handle @TheWookieRoars, and started things off with the hashtag #nostalgic. Over the next few days, he tweeted photographs of himself along with "Star Wars" creator George Lucas and co-stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fischer. Darth Vader, Yoda, C-3PO, Obi Wan Kenobi and some memorable sets and props are also seen.

More pics here.

Which led me to Screenrant and their 16 Favorite Cosplay Costumes of the '13 San Diego Comic Con.

Hmmm, maybe, just maybe I’ll hit Million Year Picnic on my way home from museuming with Hillel today.