Mahoning Valley Comicon
New year! New con!
So what’s my first impression? This is a small convention. I mean a really small convention. For a show that’s trying to get off the ground and actually advertising D list celebrity guests… they sure are trying to pack everybody into one tiny hotel room. The dealers room was tiny and cramped, and while they did have a second one around the corner That thing was even smaller. You could do the first dealers room in 10 minutes and the second in 5… And boy am I glad I didn’t bring a Lego costume with me. That had been the intent until I discovered That thing was even smaller. You could do the first dealers room in 10 minutes and the second in five… And boy am I glad I didn’t bring a Lego costume with me. That had been the intent until I discovered The costume contest was going to be on Sunday, instead of the Saturday we were going to be present at. One of my Lego costumes literally would not have been able to fit through half of the dealers room. On the other hand, I only got to wear the McMandalorian once… This was a great opportunity. Maddie had her my hero academia gender 
bend ready as well so off we went.
I know I say this a lot, but this is one of those that I wish was closer to home. 100 miles away and an hour and 45 minute journey is a bit much for a show the small, on the other hand… They really are trying. We sat in on a couple of the panels, and they had some really interesting stuff. 40 years of collecting Spider-Man… As well as a paranormal investigator, And a cosplay panel. All ran, all were engaging and interesting, and those first two especially, we’re different than what we’re used to seeing a lot of these shows. They both really captured my daughters interest… Something I thought was really cool. I particularly enjoyed the paranormal investigator, as he approaches it from a biblical perspective. He references scripture constantly drawing parallels and comparisons to modern phenomenon that investigators encounter. When the panel was complete, Maddie and I looked at each other. “I think we need to get a copy of his book.“.
It was a good day, with some really interesting photo ops. They had a lost in space robot as well as an R2-D2 set up, and I really dig this kind of thing. It seems to becoming more popular and I’m glad they made the space for it. It really adds value to a small show like this. Like I said, they tried real hard. I think if they opened up double the dealers space, we’d really have something here. I’m actually genuinely interested in seeing how this develops. It had initially build itself as Warren comicon, but then had to postpone… And during the hiatus, a lot of things, including the name and the guest list changed. It makes me wonder if this was really the show they wanted to put on, but in any event, I think this was a genuinely good first year and I hope to see great things from this show in the future.
View Maddie’s review below, and then photos after the jump!
Argo City Comics 