Dallas Comic-Con Review
Report By Mathew Bredfeldt
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The Dallas Comic-Con (DCC) was last month and while not as big and popular as San Diego, it is the biggest comic book convention we have here in Dallas. I have not been to one of these in several years (I think the last one I went to was something like late 2008) so I decided to go as a member of the press this time around and actually work the con for the Collector Times instead of just going in and being on my own. I have also decided that I was going to do this convention on a budget. You see, right now I am in the process of saving up to take the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board test some time in August so I can start a new career as a Pharmacy Technician. I'm doing this by taking classes through Richland College's Continuing Education Department. Saving for the test and the externship is not leaving me a lot of cash during the month to spend on fun things. I had saved enough to pay for the test this month and that left me fifty-eight dollars to spend at this convention. That pretty much left me high and dry in terms of getting an autograph from the likes of Summer Glau or any of the other media guests and having something left over to spend in the dealers room. That and I also got Ms. Glau's autograph several years ago so I don't need it again. This also left me high and dry in the comic art department because commissions range from expensive to "You want how much?" depending on who you want commissions or sketches from. I have saved up fifty-eight dollars for this convention and that is my budget. The last time I went to this convention it was being held at the Plano Civic Center and that was a pretty roomy place. It was kind of far away from me, but weekends on Central Expressway are pretty light and I got there with plenty of time to spare. This year though they have moved to the brand spanking new Irving Convention Center which is a heck of a lot closer to where I live and even bigger than the Plano Civic Center. The convention center is just down Northwest Highway at the 114 freeway in Irving which takes me about fifteen to twenty minutes to get to versus the thirty it would take me to get to Plano. The first thing I did when I was planning to go was that I submitted my information for my press pass several months ago and had that all lined up so that saved me a bit of cash in the admission department. They did have $5 off admission coupons in the Dallas Observer; an independent, local, free weekly newspaper, and as part of fliers that you could get at local comic book stores. The thing is the five dollars you save from the admission price is going to pay for your parking for the day at the Convention Center lots. So that is five dollars spent right off the bat from my fifty-eight dollars bringing me to fifty-three. I had a sleepless night, like I do before every convention so I am going into this with maybe about five hours of good sleep and about three of a briefly awake/asleep cycle. I get up early and charge the battery for my camera, gather up note taking material, a pen, a sketchbook (I'm an optimist on this whole sketch thing) and fill my wallet with the cash for the experiment and business cards for the Collector Times. Breakfast is a bowl of frosted flakes, two cups of coffee (keeps me awake) and some leftovers from last night's dinner. I checked Google Maps for directions last night and wrote those down for the shortest way to get there. Of the three routes offered, one was 9.0 miles, one was 9.3 and one was 9.4. I also looked up the directions to the Plano Civic Center and that is roughly twice the number of miles in about the same amount of time, but I would have to contend with traffic and road construction there and back. I'm in the car and on my way at 10:00am. The convention does not open to the general public until 11:00am so I have plenty of time to get there and not such a long wait if I have to wait to go in with the public as a member of the press. I get there about 10:30 and find that there is tie up in traffic because the parking garage is already full and the overflow parking is going to be in the fields next to the convention center. I get in a flow of cars after getting behind a guy in a Geo Metro who is asking about handicapped parking, and I get a decent parking place just outside the center that I can easily walk to and drop my stuff off when things get too heavy. The line of people waiting for admission tickets outside the building is astounding. It wraps around the building at least one time with some people up on the second floor terrace waiting to get in that already have tickets. I cross the street perilously and find someone who looks like they are in charge and ask them about getting my press badge. She tells me and I go to the nearest entrance and make my way in. The ladies at the media booth were very nice and I give them my Photo ID and they check my name off the list and hand me my badge with a lanyard and everything. I throw that on and hit the con. In the lobby on the first floor they have things set up for places like Game Stop and the group The Wounded Warrior Project. The wounded warrior folks are having an auction later on in the day of original art and are also selling limited edition prints of Captain America and some soldiers carrying out the body of a fallen comrade from a combat zone. The cost for the print is ten dollars I keep that in the back of my mind as a possible purchase before I leave for the day, but I'm sure they will sell out of them by the end of the day because they were so well done. I then hit the dealers room. It is quiet in there because they have not opened the show to general admission (GA) yet so I can enjoy some freedom of movement. I also should have taken that time to get in line for the autograph of George Perez and maybe get a sketch from him as well, but I wanted to go see what all the dealers have. I find one dealer who has set up just table after table of boxes of fifty cent comics. Woo who! I look through them, and they are somewhat in alphabetical order. I look under the 'F's for the one series I am looking to complete, Further Adventures of Indiana Jones and they have some there. I'm going through picking out the issues I need and they have a good chunk of what I need to finish off the run. I pick out a few extra things to bring me up to twenty comics, and give it to the man to count and take my $10. We get to talking after I pay and I finally look at the shirt that he is wearing. It says 'Duncanville Books' something clicks in my head and we talk for another couple of minutes and then it is off to look more before the GA crowd gets let in. I walk past booths with lots of toys for sale and I am tempted, but comics are my thing now not toys. There is a traditional Artists Alley at this show, but it is up on the fourth floor, and getting to the escalators is a hassle. I like the artists that are independent and selling their comics and original artwork at tables around the dealers room floor. When I finally get in line for George Perez, there is some woman in front of me that seems to think that she knows how to run the line better than the people at the convention. She's calling them dumb and things like that, but not to their face. After listening to her while standing in line for about 10 minutes, not knowing if I am in line for Perez or not and the line not moving I say, "it's not worth it" and walk off. I find a dealer called Stan Lee Comics who has an island of tables in front of his booth that have long boxes full of half price trades. I thumb through a couple boxes and find two trades that I have been meaning to get for a while and for half-price I can't beat it with a stick. Those trades are Essential Iron Man volume 1 and Essential Man-Thing volume 1. I have always been curious about the past history of Iron Man and getting the Essential of the first issues he was in was just good thinking. The Man Thing on the other hand was just sort of an impulse buy mostly because before I quit getting Thunderbolts Man-Thing was their means of transport. I know the back story is probably so mixed up by 40 years of different writers that continuity is out the window so I think I just got it to read and leave it at that. The total for those two was $17 and I have exact change. He asks me if I want a bag and I say "yes please" and he goes looking for them. He asks the guy who's working with him where they are and there appears to be no bags. I say "If you don't have any that's okay." I walk off to look around more. Not wanting to leave without some sort of original art in my mini sketchbook I wander around the dealers room and happen upon this booth set up of an artist by the name of Chris Fulton who has a friend of his selling the color prints he's (Chris) made up for the show. Samples of the prints are spread out on a wall behind them and they also have various folders of his artwork as well. The friend says that the 8" x 10" prints are five dollars a piece and are buy two get one free and the 11" x 17" prints are ten dollars a piece and the same deal as the smaller ones. Mister Fulton does some amazing work. I purchased two eight by tens (a Thundercats from the 1980's group shot and the other a TMNT group shot) and got a three quarter body shot of Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars The Clone Wars as my free one. While I was studying the wall of art I noticed that he had a sign that said that he would do small head shots of your favorite character for $10. Having the money left and wanting to start a sketchbook I paid the ten dollars for a sketch in my mini sketchbook. I told him to do a plain Spider-Man and left my book there as he was finishing up a John Constantine 8" x 10" sketch for someone. I wandered the show floor some more and then went to take notes on what I had spent so far and my thoughts. The line for tickets was still around the building twice when I was taking my notes. I worked my way to my car and dropped off all my purchases into the trunk and got out my digital SLR camera to take pictures of some people in costume. As I was leaving the dealers room I saw a kickass Dr. Manhattan from The Watchmen walking around in a suit. I guess you can't go around a convention with your blue wang hanging out if there are all ages there. I manage to get some pictures of people in costume as well as some of the dealers that had their own art for sale. The "Bazinga!" t-shirt was a big player at this con as well. There was a black and white picture that someone had done (I think I have a picture of it) and was selling of the Linda Carter Wonder Woman topless with little round florescent labels where her nipples were. I could not help but laugh. I go back to Mr. Fulton's table and he has my sketch all set for me. I take a picture of him holding it and thank him for it. I find one dealer in my final wanderings of the room that has a box of comics not for fifty cents or a quarter, but for ten cents. I go through there and pick out ten of the books that I have been meaning to try and give the nice man in very patriotic top hat a dollar. He asks if I need a bag, I say no, and go about my day. By this time it is about noon and I wanted to go spend a couple hours in the panel room listening to Kevin Conroy for an hour and Summer Glau for an hour. By the time I make it out of the dealers room and get up the crowded escalators the ballroom they are speaking in is full. Not wanting to take any more time and to get away from the chaos of the convention, I take off for my car, pack up my camera and drive home.
A special thanks to the following people: The people helping to run the parking at the convention center to make it as smooth as possible when I was trying to park and cleared me a way to get out when I left. You all are the unsung heroes of this entire show and deserve more credit than I can ever give you. The nice ladies at the media registration booth who had everything ready for me when I got there. It was painless and for that I thank you. The Irving Police Department Traffic Division for helping keep traffic running in a timely manner without having to wait for people to make up their mind and go. There is not enough thanks in the world I can give you for making things go so smooth. It was also a hot 90 degree day in the baking sun so you all should get overtime pay for that.
Random Thoughts: It appears that if you really want to get a crowd to your Comics Convention then you should have a lot of popular media people there so people will show up. They had Peter Mayhew, Jeremy Bulloch and David Prowse of Star Wars fame there as well as Patrick Stewart, Stan Lee, Adam West and Bert Ward. There were also some others like I mentioned from the Whedonverse like Summer Glau and James Marsters. For a comic con, they really had a lot of media guests. If you are like me and want good art at a reasonable price, look at some of the independent artists that are at the convention. That is how I got my sketchbook started and got some really nice art prints as well. You may not get someone in the same league as George Perez to do one for you, but you will get nice art none the less. A good variety of costumes. I mentioned the Dr. Manhattan I saw, but I also saw a couple of Rorschach's from Watchmen, a family of Star Trek cosplayers, individual people in Star Trek TNG Uniforms with the toy phasers and communicators and possibly the best cosplayer you could have at a show; a guy who dressed up like Admiral Adama from New Battlestar Galactica that had the face for it and everything. I wish I had my camera with me when I saw him because it was uncanny. A pair of Link and Zelda cosplayers and a Phoenix and Dark Phoenix pair of cosplaysers that were either sisters close in age or twins. While taking notes outside, I saw a Sonic the Hedgehog costume on a kid of about eight years old. About the only cosplay I am tired of seeing is the Heath Ledger Joker. I must have seen five of that version of the Joker in the short time I was there. I wanted to go up to each of them and say, "He died after playing that role, and this is the Joker you want to be?" There should be an area of the convention where the people in costume can come and pose for people with cameras for them. At least press people anyway. That would help on the dealers room floor immensely because there is nothing like being stopped in a line of people because someone in the very front wants a picture of someone in a costume. I think the Fan Expo is going to be very busy in October because they are having Bruce Campbell as a guest and it appears that everyone on the internet wants a piece of him. Me not so much on Bruce Campbell, but I would like Ed Asner's autograph on my Disney/Pixar's UP DVD. I think the Fan Expo is also going to be Horror themed because it is so close to Halloween and they are having Robert Englund at the show as a guest. If it is horror themed I may not take a VIP pass and instead hold out for the Sci-Fi Expo in February 2013. Overall I had an okay time. It was just way too crowded, and I don't like being in a large crowd of people with only limited ways out. When I left at about 12:45 there was still a line around the building for admission and I hope the Irving Fire Marshal did not shut down the show at any point because there were entirely too many people. I have this feeling that they may be going to an all online ordering system to get tickets for next year and not have any on site. Granted that would help put a cap on things, but would take all the spontaneity of taking a day and going to the convention.
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