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!

Kickstart(er) My Heart

I'm afraid Kickstarter is starting to become an addiction for me. When I see something cool that's $20 or less, I rarely pause to think about it. Boom, pledged! Before I start looking for a support group, I wanted to shine the spotlight on a couple of projects.

The first one is from a series I'm sure many of you are familiar with...

There are some things from your childhood that much such an impact on you that you never grow out of them. I have a very strong memory of sitting on the cement steps outside my apartment building and showing my friend this amazing book I got at the library. It was The Cave of Time, the very first CYOA book. I've loved reading ever since I can remember but having a book where you could not only change the story but go back and re-read it to make different choices was mind blowing!

I checked out a lot of those books over the years. Eventually I "graduated" to gamebook series like Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf  which had basic game mechanics that involved rolling dice or choosing a random number to test your character's skills and make it feel more like a game. The Lone Wolf series is a particular favorite of mine as you played an evolving character throughout a continuing story.

This Kickstarter is aimed at a much younger audience and is mostly animated. I know some of you out there have kids and probably have fond memories of CYOA books. I think this is a great first step to get kids hooked on the idea of interactive fiction. And when they get older, the can move on to the books, or the iBook versions if they can't put the iPad down.

Check out Choose Toons!

The second project, called Mystery Box, I only found out about today thanks to a banner ad on the Axe Cop site. Also, if you're not watching Axe Cop Saturday nights, do it!



If you've frequented this blog long enough, you know I love posting vintage mail order ads from the comic books of yesteryear. The book Mystery Box supposes those ads actually deliver on the promises they made. But it turns out not everything is fun and games.

This project has some really neat bonus stuff available. Not only can you get the book itself but you can also get a copy of the fictional comic the kid in the book finds the mail order ads in. Whoa, meta! There's also some spiffy t-shirts with ad inspired artwork. The book, and comic, are available in print and digital format. If you've got an extra $95 burning a hole in your pocket, you can even get yourself drawn into one of the comic ads!

They've already hit their goal, if they make another $500 everyone that gets their reward shipped to them will get a free hovercraft schematic poster. And if they do another $500 on top of that, free Alien Eye t-shirts!

Fighting Fantasy Hits the Big 3-0

If you're a nerdy kid of the '80s/'90s you were probably introduced to the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. I know I couldn't get enough of them when I discovered them in the local library. That's what we did back in them pre-internet days, we rode our bikes to go to a big building with lots of books that you could borrow.

In 1982, the Fighting Fantasy series of  solo RPG books made their debut and I was hooked. It added a simple dice-based combat system to give the story more of an interactive gaming feel. I dont' recall exactly, but I suspect these books were the bridge that got me to check out D&D while still in middle school.

Over the years, some of the books have been turned into computer and board games. In 2002 and again in 2009, Wizard Books began republishing the original books alongside new stories to keep the line going. To keep up with those mythical Joneses, some of the books have been turned into apps for your mobile device as well.

The entire series has fantastic covers like this in the US

August 27th marks the 30th Anniversary of the release of the first book, Warlock of Firetop Mountain. As part of the celebration, original series co-creator/author Ian Livingstone has just released his latest entry in several years: Blood of the Zombies. It will also be e-released on August 27th as an app for iOS and Android. Unfortunately for us Yanks, Blood of the Zombies is only currently available through Amazon UK.

While it looks different, it does resemble the original series covers that were published in the UK

I'm very happy to see something I greatly enjoyed in my childhood is still going strong. In a time when kids are more likely to pick up a control pad to get immeresed in a story, it's nice to see the series make the jump into the 21st century in e-format.

The site MCVUK has a great  interview with Ian Livingstone.
I also highly recommend the You Chose Wrong Tumblr.
May Your Stamina Never Fail is doing series book reviews.

Visit the Official Fighting Fantasy site and follow them on Twitter and Facebook for updates.