My local library puts on a comic con every year. I am not sure if this is normal library behavior or not. Either way, the locals love it. It is a highlight of early fall which people start planning for in early summer. You have to have time to get your costume together! Or, you can do what we did and, with all best intentions, run out of time to get a costume and just go as yourself.
I have only ever been to my local comic con. I have never been to any other cons, ren faires, or anything like it. So I can’t say if what they do is average comic con stuff, or totally bizarre and different. I can only tell you what I saw and experienced.
First of all, I am obviously out of the loop. The amount of costumes I recognized I could count on one hand. The age of superhero’s is over in this corner of the world. And I can’t even tell you what has arisen to take its place. Some knowledgeable person told me lots of it is anime, so we are going to go with that. The costumes were all great, and some were so fantastic we could only stare with mouths open. I wish I had known more about who they were, but I loved them just the same.
As a side note, more than one person asked if I was Sophie from ‘Howl’s Moving Castle.’ No, I just put on my favorite dress. But I will take the compliment!
My favorite part of comic con is all of the art. Local artists set up innumerable booths in comic con. Some of them are in the same place every year. Some of them are new. I often get a print or two while I am there, a small corner of my house is exclusively dedicated to art prints. This year I got two. Both feature books, go figure.
My husband and I loved seeing the difference between an artist who has done it for a long time, and artists who are still getting up and running. There is a certain friendliness to new artists, ready to strike out and make connections, that I appreciated. I also liked seeing the poise and professionalism of artists to whom this is all old hat. The mix of both is part of what I love about the vendor hall. Every artist and personality is unique, a slice of life all in the same room.
There were not many people selling books. There are always a few, lumped together in the same row, presumably so they can keep each other company when the crowd slows down. They are always overshadowed by the colorful prints and cute hats. But there they stand, a gentle reminder that funny pictures and beautiful costumes are possible because of story. The stories of the written word, the stories of the silver screen, and the stories of comics, passed through innumerable hands and imaginations become the squealing fans at a comic con.
Do you have a comic con in your area? Have you ever gone to a big one? I want to, but I am also a little afraid of the size.
Have a wonderful day.
Shaina Merrick
The Beauty of a Story 