Rhode Island Comic Con 2018

I went to Rhode Island Comic Con this past weekend for the first time and had a blast.

If you're a regular reader, you might recall me having gone to several Boston Comic Cons in the past. The last time I went was before they moved it to the new location so I don't know how it now stacks up now compared to RICC. But I will say RI seems to work much better than where Boston used to be.

The main drive behind checking out RICC this year was that celebs from Mrs Dex's favorite show, Smallville, were making an appearance. Not that I wouldn't want to go otherwise. Who doesn't love a good comic convention? We got to the con about an hour after doors opened and although there was still a line, it went very quickly and we basically walked through the queue area and right in.

After getting in we checked out some cosplay and herded ourselves to the autograph area to check them off our list to make sure we didn't miss them. The auto area was pretty well laid out but there were some congested areas. We walked around to see all the celebs. You can see the guest list here. The "headlining" guests were in a different building altogether and I didn't even try to sneak a peek at them fearing the crowds.

We got autos from Tom Welling (Clark) and Michael Rosenbaum (Lex). Laura Vandervoort (Supergirl) was there also. Tom was a lot taller than I expected and when I mentioned that he said thank you. He followed that up with something else which all of us were laughing about when the photo was taken. We didn't do a selfie with Michael (although he was super fun) because it's all about the money. I can understand having to pay for a selfie if you don't get an autograph but having to pay extra just for a photo taken on your phone is crazy to me.

I don't want to rant too much on the whole pricing thing but I'm interested to see where celeb con appearances go in the future. Between autographs, selfies, and pro photos I can't see the prices some people are asking lasting.

After the Smallville peeps, I wanted to meet John DiMaggio (Bender/Futurama, Jake/Adventure Time) but his line was capped because he had a photo op going on. We got lunch and went back to wait in line for him. It was still going to be about 30-45 minutes before he came back but I was second in line when he did.

Well, make that third in line. There was a group at the front of the line with service dogs. John not only took photos with the people but also the dogs!

He was also genuinely nice and took time to chat with everyone. We then had a little bit of time to explore until we had to get in line for the Smallville panel.

The person that made these was never at their table which is too bad because I would have loved to chat with them about the Labyrinth stuff they did.

We got in line for the panel about an hour before it started. A lot more people that I expected ending up showing up so it was a good thing we got there early! After the panel, we headed to the photo op area for our scheduled time.

The people before us had to take a couple photos because the flash was reflecting off their glasses, so Michael is playing with my wife's glasses lifting them up and down during the photo. Usually these pro photos are a blink and you miss it thing and while we were only with them for a minute or two I didn't feel like we were rushed through like other times I've done these.

With the last of our scheduled things done by 5:30 we finally had time to walk the vendor floor. Of course there was a ton of cool stuff and lots of artists but I only bought one thing.

A Creature from the Black Lagoon Buddha! The photo isn't fuzzy, this "statue" was 3D printed. It looks a little better in person. The guy selling these had a ton of different ones. Pretty much whatever your fandom is, he's got something. This was also the smallest one but it was the best shade of green so I went with it. Definitely check out MuckyChris to see his 3D printed stuff, inlcuding a couple of light switch plates that are pretty neat.

The local Star Wars costuming and droid builder groups were there and had quite the crossover happen when they got a visit from another franchise.

These guys are amazing to see in person. Yes, the eye moves and makes the sound! I'm presuming these are the same guys I see at other local cons because how many of them could there be?

Normally this would be the part of the post where I send you to Flickr for the rest of my pics but there were so many great costumes I have to show off a few more.

Left is one of my favorite group cosplays. There was quite a bit of crossplay (gender swapped characters) going on at the con which is great. The dude on the right was rockin his Wonder Woman outift like nobody's business. Unfortunately, I was only able to catch him while going up an escalator and didn't get  his sword in the shot.

How awesome is that Red Fraggle?

This Gravity Falls group wasn't even together. The girl dressed as Mabel saw the other guys and rushed to get her photo taken with them. The wizard on the right goes by Brandon the Shapeshifter on Instgram. If you like incredible costumes, go check him out. It's hard to tell from the photo but the spell book lights up too.

And that's a wrap!

Even though we probably spent close to half our time at the con in line for something, be it autograph, photo, panel, or food, I still feel like we had a good day and got to see a lot. I know there are areas we didn't get near but I'm good with that. I'd still like to check out the new place where the Boston con is held and would definitely like to go back to RICC again.

Here's all the pics from the day.

2016 Haul-iday Report

Wow, remember when 2017 seemed like the far future? Damn, I'm getting old.

Anyway, hope everyone had a great holiday season with friends and family. This is the annual somewhat-braggy post showing off some of my holiday gifts.

First up, some Strange things...

Those calendars may look like they've come to bargain with Dormammu, but they actually have different art inside. Also, one of them came with the set of buttons on the left. I didn't even think to look for playing cards when the movie came out. I"ll probably feature them some day when I get the comic based cards. Another thing I didn't know about was the Walmart exclusive Funko Pop "spell casting" Strange figure. Pretty cool!

From other dimensions to other galaxies! The Falcon speaker was a total surprise, which is good. While wish lists help the holiday shoppers, they kind of take away the surprise for the giftee. The ESB Topps book is fantastic. I got the Star Wars one last year. It showcases all the original trading cards from ESB, front and back. The dust cover is made from a waxy paper, just like the card packs.

The magazines were also a nice surprise. I've seen them on stands but couldn't bring my self to spend the hefty cost for them. The People one comes with a pull out and assemble VR viewer to pop your phone into. If you already have a VR viewer, go to the app store and grab Life VR. It's got a brief video where you're an X-Wing pilot. It's not a game, you can only look around but it's a fun experience. The app also has you standing in the middle of a 360 degree view of the Rogue One Jedha set where they're filming the tank ambush. You can also watch them in non-VR so you can still have the 360 experience on your device.

I was so thrilled to get all three of these! I was very sad when I found out Gravity Falls was coming to an end. Ever since the show started I was hoping we'd get a replica of the journal and here it is! It's done like the 'actual' book. It looks like someone wrote and drew in it. There's also a section that Dipper has put in his own notes.

Flipping through the Labyrinth book is amazing. So many behind the scenes photos! There's quite a few smaller pages inserted throughout the book that make it look like someone put them in there featuring drawings or script pages.

I'm almost done with Dr. Strange already. It's on par with other similar DK books. It doesn't get too in depth on anything but it does cover a good amount of his history.

New cars! I have an Ecto-1 from a previous release but I'm going to keep this one carded. A few other random Halloween rides including a Rigor Motor I don't have. On the right is a Treasure Hunt from the new Fright Cars series. I have been looking for this one for a good month or so. Very happy to finally get one...but do I open it?

Finally, a couple of neato things Mrs Dex got for me at a holiday craft fair that are right up my alley. A Creature light switch and a sparkly Labyrinth ornament.

Did you get anything killer that made your holiday season?
Let me know!

Boston Comic Con 2015

This weekend was the annual Boston Comic Con. The organizers did a pretty good job this year but I still think they need to relocate to a larger place. I know it's a con and maybe if you go to SDCC, you expect the aisles on the show floor to be packed from side to side, but this ain't San Diego. A lot of people packed in = a lot of heat.

Last year I had several posts covering different aspects of the con. This year, it's all jammed into one. The biggest reason being I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked. Mainly because I was miserable for at least half of the day due to being overheated and light headed. Not the best frame of mind to make me want to take photos. The second reason being sometimes there were just too damn many people to be able to shoot what I wanted.

We got there a couple hours after the doors opened and had no wait to get in. Unless you count having to walk around the convention building. They have it set up so that you check in in the front left corner, then walk all the way around to enter in the front right corner. I can appreciate this as a good idea when crowds are waiting for the doors to open but it seems a bit excessive to force people to do this when there's no line.

Stan Lee autographed guitars

We trolled the con floor until it was time for our 3:30 photo op with Billie Piper. I have to give them serious props for relocating the photo area this year and despite the length of the line, it went super quick. After picking up our photo that was nearly instantly ready, we went to the autograph area. Billie was scheduled to come back there at 4:30 and with it only being 4, we thought we'd get a jump on the line. The good news is, we did. The bad news is, for whatever reason, she didn't get there until 5.

It wouldn't have been such a huge deal, but also at the con was Elvira. I'm not talking just Cassandra Peterson, but full-on Elvira! Figuring Billie would probably arrive the moment I left the line, I wasn't able to meet Elvira. She had started, and finished, her signing time while I was waiting in line. That kind of bummed me out.

Other celebs included the a lot shorter than you'd think Robin Lord Taylor, (Gotham's Penguin). Marvel stars Brett Dalton (Agents of SHIELD, Ward) and Haley Atwell (Agent Carter). Oh yeah, Stan Lee was there too but there was no way I was getting anywhere near him at those prices!

Speaking of Agent Carter, the Carter cosplayers were out in force in a variety of outfits and she was probably the most popular costume I saw. There were also quite a few Age of Ultron Scarlet Witches, a number of Gravity Falls, and Supernatural characters among the usual assortment of comic characters.

There was even a whole family (parents included!) that dressed up as the gang from Gravity Falls, the dad was Grunkle Stan and it was great. There definitely weren't as many Deadpools as last year. I did spot a couple of Netflix Daredevils and even a Kingpin.

After I took this photo, Foggy handed me this...

How's that for going the extra mile?

Not only does this guy look like Peter Griffin, he does the voice and everything!

I also picked up a few things, because what's a con without shopping, right? I hemmed and hawed at a few booths that had LEGO bootleg figures but I didn't like how shiny they were and ultimately passed on them.

But I did snag this book because Halloween! The Pumpkin Wizard is about a kid that stands up to his bullies with the power of his imagination and a pumpkin army. The creators say it's going to be a six book series so I guess I've got some waiting to do to see how it all turns out.

And I also got these buttons from Monsters Are Good. 

They have some pretty rad shirts, check out their site!

There was one booth I didn't get pics of but I really wanted to share. It's called Gilded Dragon Designs. This woman handmakes some very cool stuffed dragons inspired by different characters ranging from Star Wars to classic Monsters to superheroes.

I think that about wraps it up!
If you want to check out the rest of my photos, head over to Flickr.
 

Boston Comic Con 2014 - Celebs & Cosplay

Welcome to the second post all about Boston Comic Con 2014. 

Today is all about the celebrity guests and cosplayers!

First is Sam Witwer. You might know him as Doomsday on Smallville, the voice of Starkiller in the Star Wars: Force Unleashed video games, Darth Maul in the Clone Wars animated series, or his current role on Almost Human. He didn't have a huge line so we got to speak with him for a few minutes. Not only was he super cool, but he's also a fan.

When I mentioned I was a big Star Wars fan, he started talking about working on the Clone Wars series and how big of a fan he is himself. I said it's great when you have people that are fans working on something they love. He said everyone at LucasFilm is like that. He said Dave Filoni calls him sometimes just to talk Star Wars after he's been working on Rebels (the new animated series) all day. As we were finishing up, I asked him if Dave had mentioned anything to him about doing voice work on Rebels. Sam kind of cocked his head and said he had no idea what I was talking about while giving me a look that said he totally did. So we may be hearing more from him in the Star Wars galaxy!



The main reason we went to the convention was to see John Barrowman (Doctor Who, Torchwood, Arrow). We had a professional photo-op with him and then got in line for an autograph. After finishing his photo ops, he sat down and told us he was going to take a little break and laid his head on the table. He got in either late the previous night or early that morning and hadn't gotten much sleep. When the crowd gave a sympathetic "aww" he started hamming it up for a bigger reaction. If you only know him from Arrow, you probably wouldn't have any idea just how funny he can be.

Sitting next to him, was his Torchwood co-star Eve Myles. She snuck over while he had his head down and gave him a playful spanking.

They chatted for a few minutes and then he got to the meeting and greeting.  Also present were James Marsters (Buffy, Torchwood), Jewel Staite (Firefly), Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones), Sean Astin (everything), and Run DMC's Darrell McDaniels. We didn't get autographs from any of them but we did see them while in the autograph area. Jason walked by us on the con floor and let me tell you, he's a big dude!

There were a ton of cosplayers at the con, which I always love. There were so many Doctor Who and Supernatural costumes that I actually ended up not taking photos of any of them. There were even a few Welcome to Night Vale cosplayers! Also present were a lot of Deadpools. I don't know if they have a club or what but there had to be at least 20 of them, one of which was a female Deadpool in a wedding dress.

Here's a few of my favorites. You can see all my Con photos on my Flickr page.



This guy was a huge hit, which is no surprise. You don't see Orko everyday! He had some kind of light up rods on his left hand to simulate magic.



Carl from Up! He even has the grape soda bottle cap pinned on his left lapel. We saw him later in the day and he was still holding those balloons. I wonder if his arm got tired from doing that all day.



These were the only Gravity Falls people I saw all day. I don't know what's cooler, seeing younger people or older people dressing as Mabel and Dipper Pines.



I caught this Agent Venom in a little park outside the convention center. I had to chase him down but it was totally worth it! He's one of my favorite newer Marvel characters and was the only one I saw all day.



Kasima from Orphan Black! Before getting her pic, I conferred with my wife to see if she also thought this was a cosplay and not how she normally looked because I didn't want to come across like a weirdo for asking this girl to take her photo if she wasn't dressed up as someone. So I asked her if she was supposed to be Kasima and she said yes but she forgot her lab coat. I told her if I knew who she was supposed to be without it, she didn't need it.

I saw this group as we were leaving and what a gathering! Archer and Lana on either side. Harley Quinn, The Flash, an unmasked Deadpool, and Thor behind Leonardo. And the Red Hood next to Lana. The TMNT costume was pretty impressive in person.

And the award for best parent ever goes to this guy! You can't see it too well in the photo, but little River is doing her split fight pose. They were so cute! Dad also had a couple of dinosaurs just in case the outfits and oodles of guns weren't enough to sell it.

And the last one I'll leave you with is Spider-Man dressed as the Fourth Doctor. Why? I have no idea but there you have it! There's more to see over on Flickr, so stop by!

Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party 2013

And now, the post you've been waiting for!Before we get started, you may want to grab a drink and snacks, this is probably going to be a loooong post!

On the days that Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party takes place, there are huge inflatable pumpkins at the entry gate to Walt Disney World.

Boston Comic Con 2013 - Cosplay

This past Saturday I was able to attend Boston Comic Con, thanks to winning tickets from forcesofgeek.com. If I hadn't won tickets, I probably would have passed on going. It's been a few years since I've been to BCC, mainly because the last time I was underwhelmed. Comic conventions across the country have taken to altering their name to include "Comic Con", even if they're not run by the same people that do San Diego, to grab more attention.

The con opened at 10am and I got there around 2pm. There was a very long line outside the building of people that had pre-ordered tickets still waiting to get their passes. On the other side of things, if you were just wanting to attend for a day you could walk right up, buy a ticket and go in. The con was at a much better location this year with a lot more room but unfortunately they didn't utilize the potential of the space.

Upon entering, I decided to start on one side, go up and down the rows and work toward the other side. I picked the wrong starting side. The local 501st, Rebel Legion, NH Ghostbusters and the NE Brethren of Pirates were all in that first row. As you might imagine, large groups of people in costume cause a people jam! It was like standing in a very slow moving line.

The con (as far as I know) was held in one large room which accommodated all of the vendors, artists and celebs. Usually the celebs are what draw me to the cons but there wasn't anyone I had to meet. I would have liked to have met voice actor Billy West but the cost of autographs (and sometimes even photos with the celebs) can get too much. There were some big name artists there but it's rare that I get excited for artists.

One of my favorite things about cons is the cosplayers and they were out in force! Interestingly, comic book characters seemed to be in the minority. The most prominent groups I noticed were Doctor Who and Adventure Time. There were even a few times I spotted characters from Gravity Falls, which is awesome because that means other people love the show too. Don't screw it up, Disney!

Where else would you see Daenerys showing her dragons off to a very young Doctor? His stroller was made up to look like a TARDIS. He rides in a stroller now, strollers are cool.

Left are Chris and Beth from Bravest Warriors, the other cartoon created by Adventure Time maker-upper, Pen Ward. Check it out if you like Adventure Time.
BMO, on the right, had an iPad inside so he could change facial expression.

And in the "play to your strengths" department, we have Marvel Comics' Blade and Blob.

And while we're on B, here's a pretty kick ass Batman with Harley Quinn

And this is my favorite cosplay photo of the day...

I've still got a handful of cosplay pics you can check out on Flickr.
Stay tuned for more pics & posts from the con about the artists!