Mormon Geeks Goes to the Salt Lake Comic Con!

You know what's great about blogging?  The title of your blog post can be as long as you wish.  Though it is probably best to have a concise title you don't have to worry about how much money you're spending on just the title of the post like with newspaper articles.  I love to blog.  I love Mormon Geeks.  We have a great community here and it's only going to get bigger and better.  I think part of that can be seen in our recent adventure to...

Yep!  That's right.  A few of the contributing authors were at the first annual Salt Lake City Comic Con.  I was the only author to go all three days but I did enjoy Friday with Joe and our close friends.  So, how was it?  It was exciting, like going to Disneyland!  It was awesome.  It was exhausting.  It was exhawesome!

Thursday

I got up and made my way to Joe's house where I dropped my stuff off since I was going to be living at his place for the next few days.  The first day I dressed up as Scott Pilgrim. I took the TRAX up to the Salt Palace Convention center.  I was pretty excited and was already seeing people dressed up.

When I finally made my way through the Nordstroms and got to the convention center, I was confused.  I had no idea where to go but followed signs to registration.  I noticed a lot of people were just waiting around.  The main event where all the vendors were was just opening up to the VIPs.  After making my way to registration, I got in line for my first panel.  I decided to see Nicholas Brendon.  I waited in line for an hour but it didn't feel long at all.  I asked Nick what he liked most about working with Joss Whedon.  He said it was like they knew exactly what the other was thinking.  Nick was very funny.  Two mothers actually introduced him to their sons named after the character he played on Buffy.

After the panel with Brendon, I got in line for the main event.  It was a good thing I made friends because they saved a spot in line for me.  :D  The main vendor event was what I was looking forward to the most.  Who would have known I'd get a cupcake there from my friends at Badali Jewelry?!

Badali Jewelry does fantastic jewelry based off fantasy literature and other nerdy stuff.  They had Cthulu pendants, Miskatonic University stuff, LOTR stuff, Mistborn stuff, etc. I got a necklace of Thor's Hammer to celebrate my nordic roots.  (The vikings intermingled with a lot of Danish.  I'm about 96% certain I have viking ancestry.)  After my stop at Badali Jewelry I decided to look around the vendor booths.  There was so much to see and so much to do.  At first I was so overwhelmed I thought, "I can't believe I signed up for 3 days of this."  Once I got to see more stuff and form a plan I realized, "Man, I'm going to need 3 days to do everything I'll want to do!"

Love this thing. Yes, that's my chest hair, relax.

One of the really awesome booths I went to was none other than Weta Workshop!  When I found out they were going to be coming to our comic con in Salt Lake City, I was ecstatic.  Weta has come to the San Diego comic con but not to anything else.  For them to come to us was a real treat!

  

Azaug the pale orc!

Later in the day I went to a panel about the Lord of the Rings mythos. It was informative and really fun to see some experts talk nerdy.  Of course I'm going to have a soft spot for Lord of the Rings.  My dad read the books to me and my siblings growing up.  My friend David Powell was one of the panelists.

After that, I went back to enjoy the sights and sounds of the vendors and took a lot of pictures with some cosplayers!

Spider-maids!

Friday

The next day I was really excited for because Joe and I were going with friends!  I couldn't wait to show them all the stuff I knew about.  So we woke up early.  Joe put on make up and his awesome costume.  (A lot of people wanted a picture with him.)  We grabbed breakfast at Amber's, a favorite of ours, and then headed on our way to the TRAX station for another trip into ultimate nerdom.

 

I showed Joe and the others where to register then I got in line for the main event.  While waiting for Joe and the others I did some gesture drawings and made a new friend.  That was probably one of my favorite things about comic con.  You got to meet some of the coolest people.  There's nothing better than being among people just as weird as you are.  While in line, we got pictures with awesome cosplayers of course.

Being there with friends made the experience that much better. Joe had this to say about what he loved about Comic Con:

All I have to say is that I LOVED Comicon! I loved the costumes. I loved the displays. I loved the celebs. I loved the art. It was a place you could go and whatever you were into be it Legos, DC, Marvel, Disney, Steampunk, Dr. Who or whatever was going to be there in some form or another. I cosplayed as a gender-swapped Harley Quinn and had to get pics with all my fellow Harley sisters! Not once though did I get a rude comment or an off-color joke about getting inspiration from a female character. I highly recommend picking up tickets as soon as they become available next year. Do it, and your inner geek will love you forever for it.

-JOE

Speaking of Legos.  The Lego booth was nothing short of amazing.  I could describe it to you but these pictures say it better.

I'm not sure if Joe went to any panels but I went to a few.  I found pretty quickly to pick which panels you want to go to ahead of time.  Some of them have some pretty lengthy lines.  In addition to going to a panel I also went and saw a short film.  It was really cool to see local film work done here in Utah.  I love seeing independent stuff because it amazes me what people will do on such a short budget.

Unfortunately I got a really bad stomach ache so I wasn't able to do everything that I had wanted.  Still, I was looking forward to finishing Comic Con strong!

Friday

Friday, my friends Adam, his brother, and Chris all went for the last hurrah.  It was the busiest day yet. Lines were packed to the brim.  I was really looking forward to a panel with Christian Jacobs, the lead singer of the Aquabats and creator of the Yo Gabba Gabba and Aquabats Super Show tv series.  Unfortunately, I waited in line for about 30 minutes only to find that Christian had cancelled.  Although I was sad I did get to see a friend of mine from Ogden who dressed up as Bat Commander himself!

After that panel I met up with another friend of mine with Atomic City Tees who gave me some special Mormon Geeks t-shirts!  (Will be come available for order soon!)  I then started handing out Mormon Geek t-shirts to friends and random people.  I wore one myself of course.  Chris and I ended up going to the end of the line to get in.  It wrapped around the entire building!  Thankfully, the line was very quick to get in.  Despite the humongous crowds, it didn't feel like we had to wait long.

Amon took my bending!

There was some great artwork all over the place!

Comic Con wasn't very organized. We waited in line for a panel and ended up being in the wrong one.  The panel was still awesome though.  The creator of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax did a great panel.  Despite the poor organization  I'm not worried about next year.  This year was a first for them.  They did great for a first year for sure.  It will be amazing to see what they'll do next year.  Just be sure to get your tickets in time, request off work, and plan ahead.

It may have been exhausting but it was worth every penny.

-Stephen