Phoenix Comicon Amazingness!

It was a great weekend at Comicon because I knew I would have a lot of geeky things to do there, but little did I know that I would meet two celebrities! The first night, I was walking with Ando (my camera man), Anais (awesome friend), and Tim (Anais's boyfriend and my new friend) because we really wanted some coffee. Who would have known that most coffee joints (even Starbucks) would close at 4pm on a Friday when there's a convention. Though I should be thankful! We passed by Bruce Boxleitner (Tron himself!) twice and we kept looking at him and thinking he looked familiar, but it was actually Anais who realized it was Bruce Boxleitner. I must say that he was very friendly, down to earth, and he let us take a lovely picture with him.

I think it's a lovely photo. Anyway, there really was a lot to do. There was amateur voice acting, but I didn't get called. Then, we checked out the Hentai/Yaoi showing out of pure curiosity. However, the guy was rude and interrupted the scene right when the two guys were about to do something? I'll never know now! There was a big game room that was normally packed, making it really hard to be able to play any games at all, but I did get to play some Dance Dance Revolution for about 10 minutes.

Perhaps my favorite thing on the first night was the zombie walk, which we just missed, but we still got to catch some of the zombies. Their makeup was really well done. Here's one picture where we got some of the 'undead' to pose for us. They look good!

There was a lot to do Friday, but Saturday was the day that everyone decided to come and participate. The very first event we caught on Saturday was Max Brooks's talk on his books World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide. He was a great speaker and I just had to go buy WWZ and get an autograph. Yeah, we stood in line for about an hour but it was so worth it! I also got a pic with him and got to shake his hand. This was heaven, since I love riot grrrl and feminism and whatnot, but I also really love zombies! I think the pic came out nice.

Then, Stan Lee spoke, but I didn't get a really good picture of him. He's also an incredible public speaker. From there, we caught musical performances by Mega Ran and Mini Bosses. Both performances were really awesome! Mega Ran raps about what he sees and gave props to game sidekicks like Luigi. Mini Bosses really performed some mind-blowing rock. Their versions of Nintendo songs totally pwn.

There were also lots of panels on women in anime, female voice actors, representation of women, etc. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to most of these events but would love to hear from someone who did! I did make it to hear the roller derby grrrls speak about joining the league and what it's like to be in roller derby. It was a good panel because I've been considering joining a league. Unfortunately, my town is small and doesn't have a league and I would have to drive an hour away. Maybe when I live in a bigger city!

There was so much to do, but the convention center was so huge and we all had to do lots of walking. It was all worth it. The cosplayers also make it so much better because some of the costumes were right on and steam punk is really neat. Even if I'm not in Arizona next year, I will make every effort to go back and visit just for Comicon. I'll post some more photos for your viewing enjoyment.

Props to anyone who remembers Quail Man from Doug!

Awesome zombie!

Overall, Phoenix Comicon made the grade and I am just hoping that it'll get even better next year! Check out www.phoenixcomicon.com for more about the event and maybe you'll go next year. The pass was 35 dollars for the full event this year! Fellow riot grrrls should feel welcome in this environment. I'm hoping there will be just as much, or more events exploring issues women face in the comic, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, etc. businesses.