Star Lord in space
Star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy has become one of my go-to costumes for comfortable cosplay. Simple stuff, muscle pants, t-shirt and the jacket with baby Groot on my shoulder. (Rocket Racoon puppet optional)
Great Lakes Comic Con
“Dude! What do you have going on here?” The fellow looked me up and down as I was shuffling into my blue armor. “Skeletor? That’s cool! Hey, check this out!” He pulled up a large Batmobile on a platform. It was a massive model, about two feet long, and meticulously detailed.
“Guess how much I paid for this?”
I noted the $150 price tag still affixed and ventured a guess that he had paid less than that.
“$25! These guys will totally haggle if you just talk them down! And it’s RC too!” He admired it for a moment before declaring that this was going on his desk at work. “We’ll see you guys later!”
Maddie walked up to me.
“Um, Dad? Who WAS that?”
“I have no idea.” I smiled, then pulled my skull mask on. We were ready to head in from the parking lot.
We’ve been going to Great lakes for a long time, since what I believe was their second year back in 2016. Maddie and I had to duck out early last year because we had a funeral the next day, but this year, we were there on Saturday for the main event. Last year I had decided to try and go a full year without repeating a costume. I managed to do it, but MAN I missed Skeletor. I was happy to bring him out and bring back Masters of the Universe to Detroit (Funny, the first time we hit Great Lakes it was also MOTU!). Maddie on the other hand decided to bring out Kitara from Avatar and her ride-able Appa, and spent the day with children swarming around her. (“He’s so SOFT!”)
One of the things I noticed about the show this year is just how FRIENDLY every one is. I mean more so than usual. Everyone wants to talk. Everyone wants to hang out. I always talk about how the line for the costume contest is my favorite part of any con, but serious biz, the dude behind me not only wanted to chat, he never shut up! And it was so cool, hearing about his other con experiences with his group of friends. I noted he was really the con mom of the group. Indeed it seemed like he though this might be my first cosplay competition and he was giving me tips and encouragement. Later on, one of the Genshin Impact girls
who had been giving me thumbs up fro across the line sidled up to me in the photo lineup to talk about what were were doing with out costumes respectively. Earlier, as I wandered the aisles, I ran into a skeleton monster. We both stopped in our tracks, pointing at each other spider-man style, before connecting and talking about the origins of each of our outfits. in the background a dance circle made up of furries broke out.
One of the big draws for me this year was Bob Budansky. I’m a fan of his work on Ghost Rider and Transformers. I snuck into his panel and tried to hang out in the back. I never want to take away attention for the speaker in the panel. However, that can be hard when they notice you and want to point you out! IT happened constantly in the Turtles panel where they wanted questions from Skeletor, and even in Bobs, there was a moment. One person wanted to ask a Ghost Rider question. Budansky replied that this was really meant to be a Transformers based panel, and there probably were not a lot of people who wanted to hear about ghost rider. Then he gestured to me.
“Well maybe him….” he said as he pointed to my skull face. “Nah, he’s just security!”
Speaking of Security, there was one moment as I was wandering that Security gestured for me to come over. I’d recently had a strange run in with security at Steel City Con where I’d been falsely accused of some criminal 
mischief and now my heart dropped straight into my heart.
Nope. The cops just wanted a photo with Skeletor.
I actually ran into several friends at Great Lakes. Always a surprise to see people I know this far from Cleveland. Of course, this deep into costume, no one realized it was me and It was a lot of catching up after the show “That was YOU????” Still, as I say every year, this show is always a good time and well worth the trip to Detroit. Great kick off to con season too!
ZipCon 2024
I was looking at some of my old posts to prep for this blog, and noticed I’ve been going to Zip con starting all the way back to thier second year! From those humble beginnings as a smaller, student run show the convention has emerged as staple in the area and possible arrived at it’s best form.
It remains program driven as ever, with the presenters really taking those panels and entertainment seriously. The dip in quality from 2020 seems to have been cured by the pandemic and it’s years spent absent. With five panel rooms , the dealers room and game room on the third floor, as well as the stage and food vendors on the second floor, there’s always something to do and you have to plan your day between any of the three or more choices at any given time.
We kicked the day off with Lightsaber training “Hot to take the high ground”. Standard fencing choreography, with volunteers from the audience, while the large slide of the judgemental kitten stares at you. After hitting up the pop idol show (Dances and lip syncs) We’d pop over to pokemon jeopardy after lunch – a version of the game show with it’s question focused only on Pokemon; games, tv, movies ect. (Fun considering Maddie and I had just watched Detective Pikachu earlier in the week). From there, maddie and I split up, with her heading to a panel on one of her shows while I went to see one of the guest panels. Unfortunately, the guest had chosen to wear a mask which muffled her so much I couldn’t make out anything she said. Defeated, I went next door to “A Brief History of Lunch” which was a p[anel on bento boxes, covering history, culture and prep. It was actually one of the more interesting panels of the day, learning about portions, 
styles and my favorite part – revenge bento. We finished the day with the Confused Greenies – an improv troupes that tends to be Maddie’s favorite part of these events.
While the programming aspect has always been there from the beginning, it’s cool to see where things have expanded and improved. The dealers room has about doubled in size. In the past I’ve criticized them before for cutting that space in two, and using the extra room for panels or dancing. It’s never made sense to me and they obviously had NO trouble filling the entire space, all the way to the hallway where vendors set up by the windows.
The game room was a nice surprise as well. in the past, they’ve ha
d the local retrogame clubs set up a couple dozen consoles, running certain games on the big screen. We saw a similar setup last year at Animarathon. This year however, they went all out and set up a proper Japanese arcade with coin op machines set to free play. It’s a set up similar to what we have gotten used to over at Hazard Con.
I’m not sure if the addition of voice actors is really increasing value here. Natalie Hoover and Jackie Lastra are perfectly nice people and when I looked over thier IMDB, they’d done a few roles that I recognized. Usually supporting characters. A lot of background voices. But neither had a packed panel room. There was never a line for either of them, and the $30-$40 charge for autographs and upcharges for selfies really doesn’t thrive in a microeconomics environment like this kind of show. I know this is one of the ways the show is trying to compete, but I’m not convinced this is an actual improvement. And stuff like this (and let’s admit it, also that game room rental) are the kind of things that make this admission keep creeping up. $12 is just on the edge of what I’m comfortable paying 
for this show, as much as I like it.
Still all in all a good day. Maddie was excited to bring out her Hatsumei again – this time to a show where she would probably get the most exposure. I’m out of anime costumes, but wanted to stick with animation so I went Masters of the universe and brought out my new Trapjaw suit. It was the wrong crowd for it to get recognized, but I frequently got comments like “I have no idea what you are, but that looks awesome!”. Getting there was a challenge with closed streets, and Maddie breaking her Hatsumei goggles as soon as we got out of the car! (Luckily I always carry a repair kid. I fired up the hot glue gun and fixed!) The line was long as well. They were smart and brought it inside as the skies were threatening to burst with rain (We drove through storms on the way there). But the delays kept us from our first panel or two (Seriously, stop scheduling things before 11:30. No one is making it through that line in time to get to the 10:00 panels!). Still, we made up for it and whenever there was down time we had plenty to explore in the dealers room. Maddie came away with amazing stickers and I found the food plushies I’ve been collecting from these shows.
It was a great start to con season for Maddie. Feb and March look like they are about to be busy! We’ll se you on the road.
Youngstown Comic Con
With the busy schedule I’ve had this summer, something was bound to slip through the cracks. I’ve been behind on a lot of my convention reviews, but waiting 2 months to talk about Youngstown Comic Con is actually pretty unforgettable!
This is a new one for Maddie. After the government lockdowns, and we really weren’t sure if it was coming back or not. In the meantime the promoter sold the show, and that’s always a cause for worry. You never know if it’s in good hands or not, but it appears at this time, things worked out.
That’s not to say that there’s not differences. It almost feels like between the change and ownership and the log absence, that the show is starting from scratch again. It feels a lot more to me like it did back in the days when it was still AllAmeriCON and Being held at the alternatively dreary and charming Packard Music Hall. This time we’ve moved to a fairgrounds, but they’re putting every inch to its 
best use, with a sprawling dealer’s room taking up the entire space.
I was actually a little bummed because most of the people I knew were heading out on Saturday. I had checked the schedule, and noticed that the adult costume contest was going to be on Sunday, so that’s when we went period I still managed to run into 1 or 2 familiar faces. Neither of them recognized me in my Skesis costume, until I actually spoke! I even got wished a Happy Birthday!
I’d like to see more programming going forward. Youngstown was always fairly good about this, doing occasional panels and talks with comic book guests in side rooms. This time around we had Bruce Wechtenhiser, the guy who’s doing the growing up with spider man lecture… we’ve seen him at a couple of different shows and it’s pretty much the same presentation every time. They also were doing a costume contest so between those two things you had some programming but I’d really love to see more.
The dealer’s room on the other hand was very good to us. I found some amazing $5 bins full of figures I really wanted. A lot of good and old McFarlane stuff in there. I could have actually put together a entire set of KISS figures if i’d been so inclined, but I did try and restrain myself a bit. Especially considering the one treasure I was really excited to find.
I’ve been waiting for McFarland toys to release the silver age Batman in their super powers line. I haven’t seen the figure at any stores, and I’m getting the impression that I probably won’t. But I just can’t pull the trigger online. I need to find it in the wild! Well, Youngstown Comic con did me one better and found me a vintage super powers Batman in the wild… packaged alongside a martian manhunter for a ridiculously low price. Less than that McFarland figure would cost me new ! I looked at it, put it down, started to walk away and decided I’m not even gonna hesitate on this one and immediately pulled the trigger. They both need capes, but I can do that. In the meantime, my vintage super powers collection is pretty much complete now! I’m never going to find a Brainiac that’s affordable, but then again, I never thought I’d find a Batman either!
Maddie found an amazing poster, and we had a really good time hanging out with the other cosplayers. There was a large Meca who, to his credit, stayed in costume the entire show. He won the costume contest and rightfully
so. I appreciate the fact that he didn’t just show up an hour ahead of time and jump into this… he was taking pictures all day and I got one of the best and most confusing ones with him, bumblebee, and absolutely stunning Vasquez from Aliens. By the time it closed its doors, Youngstown Comic Con had established itself as a solid cosplay show, and I’m glad to see that they’re trying to lean back into that as they return to the scene.
Overall, the show still has an enormous amount of heart, and it drew a more than respectable crowd. I could move around, but sometimes there were aisles that I skipped by for the moment because things got a little tight. That’s what you want to see. I like the new digs a lot better than I liked the Covelli Center, and I’m really interested in seeing how Youngstown Comic Con reborn grow. It’s a good bet that will be back next year!
Geekfest 2023
“Is long distance free on weekends?”
The Doctor popped his head out of the phone box.
“It depends on the area code. none of that 330 garbage!”
My teenager, who has never seen a land line, just looked on in confusion.
Geekfest has become a regular stop on the con circuit for us again. Maddie in particular loves it because of the heavy emphasis on programing rather than just filling up a dealers room full of glitzy and expensive guests. It’s also an anime heavy show so that fits right in with her current interests.
Maddie decided to bring out her Hatsumei again and is getting used to balancing the goggles on her head. She also found that shoes work better than sandals in the boots (You never know – it goes either way sometimes). I had originally intended to bring out God Skeletor from the Masters of the Universe movie (Not the Revelations dreck) and had it about 80% finished when I suddenly pivoted to the Doctor and the Tardis. It’s a better fit for this show.
We both had schedules planed for the day, but barely kept to either of them. There’s just so much to see and do across the three floors of the library. I did make the stage fighting demonstration by the Ohio Shakespeare festival, and it was amazing. Fun, humorous and great action. Maddie also made her authors panel, but we both missed the improv show while we were exploring the dealers on the lower level and the video games and manga on the top level. I snuck into a competitive gaming panel while Maddie hit Monster vs. Monster – a debate panel on randomly selected matchups.
It was great to see some familiar faces there, not the least of which were the Addams family group – one I had hung out with last year when I was in my Borg and the daughter was in a Doctor Crusher outfit whil Mom wore Doctor Who garb.
My new Tardis held up fine and was a big hit. I’ve been wanting to do a Tom Baker costume ever since my wife got me the scarf, and this was the sort of place that would appreciate it. I filled a brown bag with Sour Patch Kids and so I could hand out “jelly babies”, and spun through the library for six hours. It was a great day and Maddie and I can’t wait to return next year.
You’ll find Maddie’s video review below, then keep scrolling for photos!
The Tardis
I was walking through Ollies Discount store when I spottedthis. They call it “Magic Mesh” and it looked like the dumbest thing ever. Like a glorified pop up mosquito tent I guess? They suggest that it’s great for sitting in at sporting events, or camping. I don’t do either of those and quite fraknly I’d rather sit in my home, rather than a weird isolation booth! I walked away.
Then I walked back. Could I make something out of this? I mean it’s only $20. Nah. It’s too stupid. Even if it does sell for $60 on Amazon. I walked away.
Then I walked back. How tall is this? You know, If I blew out the bottom….could I travel in it? What if I paint it blue and cover it in foam? I checked my wallet. Yeah, I have $20 to spare.
So the original idea was to cover this thing with foam walls. I figured I’d connect them with rope or tape and hangthe walls over it rather than altering the pod itself. I measured and cut all the foam pieces I’d need.
Then I layed them all out on the pool table, getting the shape right while I got ready to glue them all together.
I noticed a bunch of it was curling and could tell that would make it hard to hang. I grabbed some long wooden kebab skewers and pushed them in. I had already been planing on using toothpicks to help connect slats, this works just awa well, and being longer, straighten the natural curve out of the foam. I’d pop some posterboard behind it all to plug up the holes and attempted to hang the doors.
It was a disaster.
Despite the light wight materials, it still made the pod sink. the walls sagged and pulled everything down. It wasn’t even worth it to figure out how to connect them on the sides (the plan had been velcro BTW). I discovered I’d have to start over FROM SCRATCH.
Did I mention that my deadline to get this done for Geekfest was now about one week away? Con crunch in the worst way.
The first step was to apply some even THINNER foam directly to the pod. My friend Selina hooked me up with a bunch of this this stuff with adhesive backs that they were throwing out at her factory. They were perfect for this. Four on each side, then some while 
foam pads from the stock where I bought out the local craft store during their going out of business sale just before lockdown. I printed out the instruction sign and filled up an entire 8×11 sheet. It was a bit big and I shrunk it down about 15% and tossed it on another piece of foam before gluing it on.
I cut out the bottom of the tent, and then went over the openings with duck tape to make sure it didn’t fray further. I hit the entire thing with blue spray paint, inside and out. You have to do the inside as well as the outside because of how transparent it is. When you look through the first layer of blue, you want the eyes to hit a SECOND layer of blue, whether it’s solid or just more netting.
Finally, after all the accents are glued on, I added ropes inside so I can carry it from the inside. One side of each rope glued to the foam square on each side of the door. One set on the bottom of that square, one in the middle and one at the top, so I can lift the tardis up higher or lower depending on where I am and what I’m doing. Grabbing the lower ropes to lift the pod higher works well on stairs. Holding on to the upper ropes makes standing still with my arms at rest easier.
Our Mailman loves coming to our house.
The entire thing came together a mere twelve hours before we had to be at the convention. It still collapses and folds up to fit in thecar and was WAY easier to move around in than I had expected. The biggest problem is keeping the doors closed, but discovering that taught me to turn around and show the back of the Tardis for photos, and reserve the door just for popping in and out.
It’s WAY more opaque than I expected. You can se there’s someone in there, but perhaps not which Doctor it is. On the other hand, from inside I can see everything. The collapability and flexibility means I can actually squeeze through doors that are too small (It’s tough, but possible). It still sags a bit when I park it (I try to find a wall or corner – it works better) but it’s easy enough to get in and out of and just the sight of it walking down the hall brings a lot of smiles to a lot of faces and that makes it all worth it!
Monster Bash Summer 2023
“So, what are you doing here?” The daughter of Dracula asked the large gorilla.
“I’m hunting tomatoes. “
“Oh that’s so interesting,” she replied. “You see, I grow tomatoes. My father as you know, he drinks blood, but I don’t like all that violence, it’s karma so I grow tomatoes to drink their juice instead!”
“Sadly, the tomatoes I’m hunting very much like violence.” Tracy indicated the one that was trying to chew through the goggles on top of his head. “I hope yours are much better behaved.”
Man I’ve missed MonsterBash. And I can’t believe it’s taken me nearly a month to recap it.
When I wasn’t looking, the bash actually changed hotels so I was a little bit confused by my map when I headed out last Saturday. Still, I was excited to finally be getting back. Still, I was excited to finally be getting back. They took a little while to reopen after lockdown, and since bash is one of those all day type of conventions with constant programming and hanging out…. I wasn’t gonna go while Pennsylvania still had its mask mandate in effect. Last year, I was already to head back… and then gas prices triplede. It just wasn’t something I could justify. This year, while they’re not great, between my discount card and some good luck, gas was reasonable enough for me to blow a tank on a round trip in-and-out of Cranberry Pennsylvania. I was so hyped for this that I even skipped Toyhio to make it out. I was bringing Tracy with me. He’s the gorilla ghostbuster from the 1975 filmation series, and would reappear in the animated version that would compete with the real Ghostbusters in the early eighties.When I had originally put Tracy together, monster bash was one of the shows I’d had in mind for him. Just like Pinhead and his Lucifer armor,my actual plans for him got delayed. However, monster bash is the perfect venue. Usually, I’ll get some questions as to what the deal is with the gorilla ghostbuster and at most comic book or horror conventions, there’s almost always someone with an earshot who is happy to come up 
and actually explain it to the person. At bash, everybody gets the joke. Everybody understands it. I literally had one person to ask if this was a tribute to Bob Burns… at monster bash that even know the name of the guy inside the monkey suit. It’s amazing.
I had some troubles getting out to the new hotel, and between that and unexpected detours, I missed Beverly Washburn’s panel. Still, I got there in time for the Bigfoot talk. I was particularly interested in the researchers contention that these creatures may be interdimensional rather than strictly terrestrial. I had only finished a similar book on the subject My Encounter with the Aberdeen wild man, an account that takes it from a strictly Christian perspective. I was curious to see what kind of overlap we’d have with the more cryptoscientific approach.
Another one of the other things I was coming out for was their screening of of mice and men. My daughter had just read it for school, which means I had just read it as well. Getting to watch it translated to film was a really interesting experience, especially since just about everybody in the movie looked exactly as I had pictured them in my head. The fact that it stars Burgess Meredith and Lon Cheny jr. was a bonus. It was also enhanced by a panel preceding the screening, buy an author who’s writing a book on it. Really interesting to see and hear about the behind the scenes drama trying to get this movie made.
The other reason I was really intent on getting out to this convention this time, was the inclusion of guest Daniel Roebuck. He’s not one of those really big names, But hes got such a long list of work and hes been in just about everything. He was visiting monster bash 
because he just got off a film gag doing the Munsters. Hes good in it, but that’s not what I really wanted to see him about. After I got my grandpa monster photo signed, I proceeded to explain to him just how amazing his impression of Jay Lennon he asked. Hes part of a film called the late shift… all about the rivalry between Leno and Letterman. It’s so much better than it has any right to be common and Roebuck is a big part of that. He mentioned that he’d just run into Leno a couple weeks ago, while they were both stuck in traffic In LA. Jay shouted hello over to Daniel, and Daniel replied back… “I’m pretty sure one of us is talking to himself!”
While he was telling the story he motioned over to his handler and she passed him over a still from the late shift which he signed and handed to me as a gift.Absolute stand up guy. He remembers people who have seen him before, and he genuinely wants to hang out and talk. Also, for this convention he had suspended the up charge for taking photos with them. I don’t know if his manager was on vacation or just didn’t want to shut out the Pennsylvania… but I appreciate this period especially at a smaller con like this where you’re in the middle of a very different micro economy. It’s just class.
I wandered through the dealers room and spotted an autograph booth. I immediately grabbed a Victor Jory – he’s the actor who was the Shadow in the serials (the single best portrayal in film EVER.) Then I stumbled on a Robert Downey Jr. The guy next to me nodded and sighed.
“I knew I should have grabbed that earlier!” he laughed. I chuckled with him.
“If you’re still interested , go ahead,” I proffered.
“No, no. I didn’t grab it before – I know the rules!,”
“Seriously,” I insisted. “I mean, I’ll get it if you don, but I’m already spending too much today! Do me a favor and give me an excuse NOT to buy it!”
He acquiesced and the dealer put it behind the counter as he finished browsing. turns out it was going to bea birthday gift for a friend who LOVES Iron Man.
I share this story, NOT to toot my own horn or anything, but to really illustrate how shows like Monster Bash are family. It’s instant camaraderie, and a good time hanging out with like minded folks. That’s what’s kept me coming back to place like this and NEO Comic Con and Cinema Wasteland.
I noticed something this time out though. The crowd is noticeably smaller. I want on a Saturday, at peak time, and even with the bulky proton pack, I could move freely. I have to wonder whether this is damage done to the show from lockdowns, or if it’s just that the older crowd the con draws is starting to die off. Perhaps both. Everything felt smaller. The crowds, the dealers, even the programming. I headed home shortly after dinner, not even trying to make it to the cake ceremony later that night.
Monster bash has always been a semi-regular stop for me. I’d like to think it still is, but I have to admit, I’m reconsidering my October trip. We’ll see how the month treats me. In the mean time, let’s look at some photos!
Animarathon 2023
“Is this the line for the dealer’s room?”
“No, we’re just hanging out here for a moment… the line is over there. Follow the dinosaur. “
Even for me, it’s not really one of those things you get to say all that often.
This year, Maddie was still wanting to focus more on anime conventions. We’d looked at and considered Animarathon last year, but they were still enforcing masking, so we passed. This year those particular regulations were gone, and we were eager to give this one a shot. I was actually a little worried about attendance. Both Horrorhound and fan expo were going on the same weekend, and I had friends at both. I needn’t have worried. Animarathon at Bowling Green University was overflowing with people. It’s a respectable size convention, taking up 2 floors of the student union, three if you consider the registration table on the 1s
t floor to be it’s own thing. Maddie had convinced one of her friends to go with her, but since it was the young woman’s first time at a convention, her father wanted to tag along with us as well. That was fine, I opted for something simpler than that Mazinger Z costume I planned on, and instead threw together the 9th Doctor Who out of my closet. We caravaned over to the show and found parking, ready to go.
As we were walking across the parking lot, we were intrigued to find small robots rolling around. A fleet of them were in front of the local bagel shop, and these were delivery drones. They rolled up-and-down the sidewalks to and from the dorms delivering food. It was absolutely adorable, and fascinating to see. Suddenly Maddie and Lauren looked up and pointed to another girl in a green My Hero Academia costume. The young woman dressed as froppy, ran over and both all 3 girls hugged each other.Lawrence father leaned over to me, a little confused.
“Do they know each other?”
I shook my head. “Nope, they’re just all from the same anime series. You’ll see a lot of that!”
After getting our lanyards, we headed upstai
rs to figure out layout. We found ourselves in a game room, with big screen televisions set up all around the room. 6 or 7 of them, each attached to a different gaming console. I traded my driver’s license for some PS4 controllers, and we settled in to a couple rounds of moral combat 11. We also tried out the Marvel versus capcom game as well, but couldn’t make it into a Mario Kart tournament for a while. That’s OK, because the original character panel was about to begin shortly and Maddie wanted to find that.
We passed a sword demonstration as we made our way downstairs and Found ourselves in one of the conference rooms where the moderator what’s describing original characters and their effect on fandom. He then handed out markers and paper and asked everyone to create their own characters. Whatever genre, whatever series, just put something together! Afterwards, we went around the room and anybody who wished to share their character could describe what they had made. 
One young man had created a dragon who had been raised by pirates. He strapped 2 cannons to his arms, and because he’s a dragon, he could light them himself. Another one came up and showed a half finished drawing.
“The marker didn’t really cooperate for me, so instead, I made my character out of balloons!”
Indeed he had. He twisted balloons just like a clown at a kid’s birthday party does. He had created his own Pokemon trainer from these balloons and described his journey. Next up was Maddie’s friend Lauren showing her drawing, which had been influenced from the Nightmare Before Christmas. Oggie Boogie was always her favorite character, and this was her idea for the daughter of Oggie boogie.
“Does anybody else want to share?” the moderator asked. Lauren pointed to Maddie “SHE IS!” Maddie looks shocked.” what??”
“That’s good enough for me!” said the moderator. He and Maddie both chuckled as she got up and described her My Hero character.
The day was beginning to wear on, and we were almost ready for lunch, but not quite. We decided it was time to get in line for the dealers room.
That’s right, I said line.
The dealer’s room set up is really strange, I’ve never run into this before. well it’s easily as big as the one at wasteland or Or at zip, the entrance was strictly ratio. A bouncer stood at the 
door, letting small groups of people in at a time, much the way You’d see the worker at an amusement park let groups onto a ride or into a haunted attraction at Halloween. Earlier in the day, the wait had been over an hour to get into the dealer’s room. This time, it was still about 20 minutes, but that’s manageable. We talked to people in line and took photos, and finally made it in to this anime mecca. It’s an interesting variety of vendors, with artists and plushies and toys and movies. The food vendors are a perpetual favorite of ours, trying out new types of candy and chips that we don’t get in the US. I finally got to stop by my friend Dirk Manning’s table, and grab one of his new action figures while chatting about the last few conventions this month. We keep missing each other this year, like ships in the night. I plundered the 25 cent basket for buttons and magnets and croc charms (I safety pin them to my backpacks), And finally, the girls were ready for lunch. Lauren and her dad had taken my advice and packed a lunch, as had we. We retreated to the cars to eat before returning just in time for the anime physics panel.
It wasn’t what I had expected. A little heavy on the math and the science
. On the other hand, I can’t imagine where else you would get a discussion about what happens when a human suddenly transforms into a smaller animal… say a rRat, while hes running. The momentum would increase velocity and you’d shoot off like a bullet. Fun stuff like this or calculating the massive, near infinite amount of energy you would take to stop time provided a really interesting bit of entertainment for this panel.
Lauren and her dad had to be off, but Maddie and I stuck around a little while longer, finally getting into a Mario Kart tournament and playing some Donkey Kong Country on the big screen. Super NES should never be projected on a television that big! One more pass through the dealer’s room and we were finally exhausted and ready to go home. We dodged small robots as we walked out, tired but content. All in all, Animarathon was a pleasant surprise and we’re definitely planning on returning next year!
Why I won’t be returning to Cleveland Concoction.
I was very excited to see that Cleveland Concoction was returning. This has been one of my favorite conventions for a long time, and I’ve written extensively about my previous trips there. Even as recently as zip con, we were waiting for registration to open up so we could get tickets. I literally had this discussion with my friend Rose there – we’d actually both won membership to the next show back in 2019, but then covid hit and they shut down for 2020. And then again for 2021, even 2022. Honestly, you couldn’t expect them to keep rolling over the free membership for that many years and I absolutely did not 
want to be THAT guy. Once I finally saw that the link was active, I purchased my weekend badge. This was on March 1st.
It wasn’t until March 6th, that they posted their covid guidelines. Concoction this year will be a masked event. People will either be required to mask and all areas unless actively eating or drinking… or will be required to show proof of vaccination at registration.
That is not the show I paid for.
As a general rule, I don’t attend any event that requires me to show my papers like a refugee in the movie Casablanca. I also don’t attend masked events (and skipped Great Lakes Comic Con last year for this very reason, as well as passing on several Anime events), particularly now that we find ourselves in 2023. Sure, you may be scratching your head and pointing out “I’m sure I’ve seen you at a masked comicon or two! That’s true. Back in the early days of the pandemic, when the govern
ment lock downs were finally opening up, I absolutely headed out to shows like Toyhio and Jeff Harper’s Cleveland Comic Book and Nostalgia events. The truth is, we have small shows like this to thank for the return of conventions in a lot of ways. They kept the dealers going, they kept the habit up… and somebody had to go first. I wanted to support whoever that might be.
We’re now well past that. The moment vaccines became widely available, any question of restrictions should have been moot. Moreover we are now living in the wake of the Cochran study which showed that masking did not effectively stop much in the way of transmission Still, it’s a security blanket that many people simply will not let go of. That is your prerogative. I won’t make fun of you (to your face anyhow. But my wife and I will probably chuckle to each other about it in private). If you wish to run you show like that, it’s also your prerogative. I would have just passed on it. I still plan to skip it, but had I known in advance, I wouldn’t have bought a ticket. That’s my real issue here.
I have been fully vaccinated. It’s som
ething I did to be able to move more easily around my job which involves visiting a variety of remote locales. Not only am I vaccinated, I’ve had covid… after my vaccination. That means I’ve also developed natural antibodies which science has shown to be a much more durable form of immunity. I am done wearing a mask. And if you ask me to show my card, it better be in a professional capacity otherwise the answer will be no. Very possibly a colorful no.
We attended Hazard con last year, also a masked event that didn’t sufficiently pre-warn us. We would have turned around and left if we hadn’t just driven a couple of hours across state lines to get there, and in any event it really did kill the day. Those little shows like Harper and Toyhios? Those are a couple of hours digging through long boxes and toybins and then out. Concoction is a weekend long event With after parties that go from dusk till dawn. It’s not the sort of thing that you want to wear a mask for 20 hours at.
Ironically, those restrictions probably wouldn’t affected me anyhow. My costume choices for the event were going to be Skeletor and Pinhead. It’s actually why I chose those for my last two convention appearances at Astronomicon and Fantasticon. They were really being pulled for ConCoction. Indeed, I’ve continued to stay clean shaven and delayed growing back my beard (which I keep to hide my weak chin) SPECIFICALLY because I can’t have it with the Pinhead makeup. It would have been very simple to add a samurai mask around my nose and chin to compliment the slightly Japanese look to my armor. Skeletor himself is a completely enclosed mask. Problem is, I don’t want to support the mask porn Concoction is still promoting. Which is a shame, because I’ve already bought my ticket and there are no refunds. I received no communication back from my emails to the show… and to be fair, we’re so close to showtime I can’t imagine it would be easy to contact me even if I didn’t end up in their Spam folder. However the entire affair has left a bad taste in my mouth. I’m not going this weekend, and I won’t be buying from their vendors or their artists, nor will I be roaming around the halls in big detailed cosplay to amuse people and take photos with attendees.I always hope I add value to a show by supporting the people there and being a walking bit of decoration. But I’m not expecting to be missed. I don’t wish harm or ill will on the show. I simply won’t be participating in it.
I’m not sure what the future holds for me in Concoction. Maddie and I will not be returning to Hazard Con, ever. In this case with Concoction, it’s not quite as dishonest as Hazard, nor is it on the level of negligence that led me to complain about the North Coast Comic Con, But I still very much resent the fact that my pittance of admission is non refundable and that I’m not hearing back from registration. Concoction has definitely fallen off of the A list for me. It’s not going to be one of my automatic must-goes any longer, the way Cinema Wasteland and NEO Comic-Con are. I can’t trust them that they won’t take my money, then add new rules and run away. It’ll take some years of watching the con and it’s regulations before I’ll be comfortable buying a pass from them again. You probably won’t hear too much about me promoting them any further either. I’ll stay home and put away the armor that I’d left out, staged and ready. Perhaps I’ll check out The Columbus Toy and Game show.
But I won’t be back at concoction anytime soon.
Fantasticon 2023
The Joker walked up to Skeletor with an outstretched hand. Skeletor shook hands.
“What’s your name?” The Joker asked.
“Skeletor”.
“So,” The Joker paused.” What’s your deal?”
“I’m here to take over the world!” Skeletor cackled.
The Joker shook his head.
“No, that’s my deal. You’re going to have to get a new deal.”
“What if I take over a DIFFRENT word?” Skeletor asked.
A few steps away, the the UA high teacher just laughed at them both.
I’ve got t
o say, it’s probably not a great idea for me to do Masters of the Universe characters two years in a row for this convention, but Skeletor had been itching to get back out since October and this is one of those sort of shows that really appreciates those kind of characters. The 40 times that I got stopped (across three hours) for photos is a good testament to that.
Fantasticon is a frequent if not regular stop for us. But I couldn’t help but notice that the place was packed this year. Last year it was manageable. In prior years, there’s been more than enough room f
or me to move around… to the point where I’ve actually brought out Lego costumes for the show. Not this year! Skeletor is bulky enough that he still presents a problem though… and like Pinhead last week, wardrobe malfunction seems to be the word of the day. Those huge shoulder pads are always difficult to manage. You have to get the elastic all the way under your armpit for them to set correctly, and even then… there’s a certain sweet spot that you have to get where they’re resting on top of the vest, and where the fringe parts in just the right place To really balance on your forearm. If that’s not difficult enough, as soon as I put on the harness, the lower right hand strap broke. There we are, on the sidewalk by our parked car in downtown Toledo. The temperature has plummeted and the wind is blowing, and this thing has completely broken apart. I ran to the car, grab duct tape and patched it up as best I could. It was just too cold for Maddie and me to really gear up outside, so we
stacked up my armor and ran to the convention center. The harness held until we got inside, where it promptly came apart again. now separated from my emergency repair kit, I snatched a safety pin from my mask, and pinned the foam together. I also noticed that my belt felt loose for most of the day. It wasn’t until I did my final check before the costume contest that I discovered the back of the belt where the clips connect had torn. Not all the way through, it was still connected, but it created a gap that left everything terribly loose. At least Skeletor can swagger around with one hand on his belt buckle and still look natural… and it will hold long enough for me to shake a fist in the air… but still. One problem after another. I’m glad I left the stiff monster feet at home (I’d tangled with those stage stairs before!).
We headed down the comic creators isle. The few actors that they had brought in didn’t really interest me, and are charging too much to meet anyhow. Then again, it seems like the comic creators are also trying to price me out of this game now. Sam De La Rosa is all business, and as I handed over a single issue of Venom he proudly warned me “I charge you know!” I nodded. “That’s why I don’t have any money left over to buy stuff from your table!”
At least Ron Marz was interested in talking a little bit about his time on Green Lantern and how the run came about. The real treat of the day was Geof Isherwood. Not only was he signing for free, he was really happy to talk about his time on Suicide Squad. It’s one of my favorite books, and he was generally engaged.
“It was such an interesting time,” he told me. “The book has shifted into this espionage, spy sort of thing. It was really different.”
He flipped over the next book in the stack which is the cover of Superman Batman and Aquaman searching for the Atom.
“A lot of people actually tell me this is their favorite cover,” he said. 
“Really?” I replied, intrigued. It’s a good one, and I definitely wanted a signature on because of the mainstream characters, but he produced so much more interesting work, that I was surprised.
“For me it was one of those moments… I finally get to draw Superman!”
I tried my best to get into a couple of the panels, but it was standing room only, with the crowd spilling out past the panel area and into the aisle. Like I said, it was a crowded day. No less crowded when it came time for the costume contest. Fantasticon brings out really great cosplayers. I saw an amazing Venom that I just had to 
chat with about his foam method. It had been his first contest, and he ended up placing. I love it when first timers win!
Despite being a reasonably short day – we were probably there for only about 3 hours, it was a pretty exhausting one and Maddie and I were pretty quick to head out after the contest. I made a quick sideline to grab a beautiful Hellraiser print, and check out the lego figures now that I had my mask off! But before too long we were back in the car, And headed to Burger King for ice cream.
Fantastic con remains a good solid show and I almost wonder if they’ve outgrown this venue. Time will tell. We’ll see you next year. I’m almost certain we’ll be back.
Maddie’s review is below, and the scroll further for photos!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUW66Q1UtZo&list=TLPQMTMwMzIwMjMAvkIzSbMn1w&index=11
Astronomicon
I’d actually been meaning to get out to Astronomicon for several years now. I’ve heard about it mostly from my friend Dirk who was a frequent guest there. When he mentioned once again that it was coming up this weekend, I took a quick glance at the calander and noticed this weekend that I had one kid at grandma’s, and the other one out with her mother… and it was a perfect opportunity to sneak back out to Detroit.
The show had always struck me as one of those medium to small cones…. something pop culture and horror and comics. Burton Manor is a nice little facility out on the outskirts of nowhere, and after a glance a
t thier website and Google earth, I figured I knew what I was in for.
Still, the staff were efficient, friendly and really good people. They kept traffic flowing, and could point you to wherever you needed to go at a moment’s notice. One of them saw I was having trouble with my shoulder pads and offered to give me a hand… hooking the pads onto the clips on my vest, and then sending me on my way with a smile. These guys really do go above and beyond the call of duty.
I spent the day fielding the occasional question “Since When does Pinhead dress like that?”
“Since the Scarlet Gospels!” (Clive Barkers literary end to the Hellraiser saga, where he descripes Pinhead stealing Lucifer’s armor) I’d had this new costume sitting in my basement since just before the government lock downs. This Hellraiser armor had originally been intended for ConCoction that year, but ConCoction was one of the 1st shows to have to close their doors due to the widespread lockdowns (They’re actually only coming back for the first time this year). I hadn’t had an appropriate horror themed show the really shown this off out since then. At Astronomicon there’s a heavy cosplay influence. They encourage it by running costume contests on Saturday, with prizes designed to encourage people to bring their “A” game. The kids and pet costume contest was so much fun, with so many terrifying and yet adorable costumes parading by. One little girl, She couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7, paraded around in a Venom costume. As I was walking by I smiled and complimented her her pointing out that she had a very scary mask. She grinned, pulled the mask down over her head, took a step towards her 
father and started biting on his arm!
A Warhammer cleric meandered around the show in dark red robes, techno glory and four legs .A-war hammer cleric mold around the show in dark red robes, techno glory and 6 flags. I made a point to find him so I could get photos, and he was thrilled to talk about his costume. He’d only completed it the night before, so this was absolutely its 1st time out. It was the first time out for my Hellraiser armor as well, and that’s always a struggle. Actually, struggle is putting it mildly. The words of the day were “wardrobe of malfunction”.
Before I even arrived on site, as I was driving out , my chain mail ripped off of the right shoulder, and then completely off my left arm. Fortunately, I came with a full repair kit. I pulled out the wireless hot glue gun, and welded them back into place once I was safely parked. After I had gotten in to the show, the Velcro on my belt decided to give way. I excuse myself and headed back to the car. I punched a hole through with the back of the belt, and then Connected it using the belt clip on my keys. That made heading through the metal detector interesting. “I’ve got a set of keys on me, but I can’t actually reach them or take them out!” the Security guard checked behind me with a chuckle, and waved me through.
My left boot was the next to go. The Velcro just wasn’t holding, and things felt a little too tight. I ended up grabbing a roll of duck tape, and actually increased the width of the foot itself. Then I reglued the Velcro on top of the new boot flap. That would hold for the rest of the 
day, only coming apart once I made it back to the car to leave. On the other hand, the left boot was giving my left thigh ideas… and the armor just would not stay connected to the garter. I finally ended up fixing this problem By grabbing a duck tape roll again, and literally taping the garter up to the armor, forcing the Velcro together and adding extra adhesion. It managed to hold until after the contest walk through, but I did attend the awards hand out with my leg strategically pressed up against my staff to hold it in place. Up on the stage, I was joined by the Warhammer Cleric I mentioned earlier. He looked over at me and lifted his helmet.
The costume contest isn’t the only programming though, I watched an interesting presentation of speed painting. An artist in a shirt riddled with flashing Christmas lights proceeded to create 3 distinct pieces relating to the guests that day. Each Painting is beautiful and recognizable, despite being done within 15 minutes. It’s amusing to watch him dancing paint as music pulses in the background. I also made it out to the Clerks panel. I’m really only at best, a casual fan of pre #KevinSmithLied work, but I always enjoy listening to tales from the film set. My particular favorite of this panel was Jeff Anderson
telling the story of a young PA. You see, Jason Mews, who plays Jay, had a tendency to wander off. He sees something interesting going on, or flirts with a girl, or sneaks off to get high… and he just was never around when they needed come. By the 2nd week, the film hired a PA whose sole job was to keep track of Jason and know where he was at all times. Jason of course, didn’t take kindly to this. At one point, he ran to the bathroom. The PA waited outside, until grabbing Anderson and asking “could you check In there to see what’s going on?” Jason had snuck out the window to ditch her.
The deal
er’s room is vast, and I spent a lot of time circuitously moving through it. It’s the best way to get people a chance to check out the costume and take photos with it. Interestingly enough, one thing I noticed was babies love Pinhead! I don’t know what it was, if it was the stark white skin or the gold armor… if it’s just that hes highly visible and easy for them to see, but more than one kid being carried by his mom would just stare and grin at me, reaching out to touch the pins. I would offer up the box and watch them grab at it. One Mom laughing hysterically told me, “This was the best part of our day!”
That’s one of the things I love about horror conventions. You meet the nicest, friendliest people… I know that’s counterintuitive, but it’s just the way it is. Even more so than Comic-Con’s, horror conventions have a sort of 
camaraderie that you don’t find anywhere else. At one point, I was staring through The dig bins of cheap action figures and spotted the perfect He-man… but I couldn’t reach it in my armor. I tapped the shoulder of the guy next to me, and asked “could you do me a favor? I can’t actually bend over in this. could you grab that He-man with the blue boots and that bin there, so I could buy it?” he laughed and scooped up the figure for me. The dealer accepted some slightly sweaty dollar bills from the inside of my glove and I ran off with my prize. We always want to shop the dealer’s room, it’s what makes these conventions happen and I definitely want to make sure that it’s worth their while. Especially if I’m going to be clogging up the aisles with a bulky costume like this!
All in all, I’m very glad I headed out to Astronomicon however, I don’t think I’ll be back. It’s a little too expensive for my taste, and quite frankly, it’s already outgrown this venue. I arrived early in the morning so that I could do the difficult parts of my makeup application in the parking lot. I was fortunate to be able to find a spot pretty close to the building. Apparently I was the only one with that sort of good fortune, as all day people complained about the parking situation. I believe it too, because I constantly heard announcements over the loudspeaker about this car getting toad and that car being illegally parked.
ZipCon 2023
So
I gotta say, the last time Maddie and I hit Zipcon, I was not impressed. I really like the Zipcon of old… a student run anime con, and a free one day event… that always worked for me. Then the management flipped, and there was more pressure to put in guests. More pressure to bring in names and with that comes expense. And that expense gets passed on to the attendees. Last year in particular, the show was just not worth the $10 admission. There were a bunch of problems, with lackluster panels… when those panels actually occurred. People blowing stuff off and just not showing up, Not enough help, not enough ratio of staff to visitors… it was just a mess. I really wasn’t interested in going back.
Of course, this was one of the last shows right before the government locked its citizens down, and Zipcon would not return for 2021 or 2022. When it came back on the schedule this year, Maddie in particular was really eager to go again. It’s not just that she wanted to do more conventions, she wanted to do more anime conventions, so off we went.
I will admit, it’s actually helped that we’ve had two years to watch a bunch of anime and get me caught up on modern series. I was in my Gran Torino costume, accompanying Maddie’s Eraser. The Gran Torino made a big enough splash that we hadn’t even made it into the show before the gentleman at the register desk looked at me in amazement. “Gran Torino! That’s a first for me!”
It might be fair to say that the two year break also did the panelists some good. Talks and skits and demonstrations that had been prepared two years ago had time to be refined and revisited before presenting them this year. We actually ended up hitting three different ones, all really good talks. I especially enjoyed seeing previews of upcoming stuff, as well as look back at some older anime that’s not necessary Studio Ghibli.
For whatever reason, the dealer’s room felt bigger too. I don’t think that it was physically, but I certainly felt like there was more to browse through, as we dug through booth after booth of brightly colored kawaii.
One of the stranger things that happened, we were walking down the promenade, And after stopping for some pictures, the photographer ran up to us and asked if we could come back with her and be in a group picture of My Hero Academia cosplayers. We happily followed her. It was a nice big 
group, not quite a dozen people. The thing is, the group kept growing. People would walk by and getting pulled in. We kept adding to this group, one my hero cosplayers after another… until it turned into this massive photo. I’ve looked on with envy over the years, friends joining these huge planned photo shoots. Batman family, Justice League, Mandalorians, that’s sort of thing. This was the biggest one I’ve ever gotten to be a part of and it was just amazing. It absolutely made Maddie’s convention.
For me, the highlights of this sort of thing is always seeing friends that I haven’t seen in a while. There are some people here that I haven’t seen since the lockdown. Others may have popped up here and there, but a really nice day to catch everybody all at once. I got to apologize to my friend Allie for not recognizing her at a Hall of Fame City Comic-Con. That always bothered me, but then again, it’s 
a occupational hazard of cosplay. Also good to catch up with Chris, now 3 months newlywed.
Maddie and I rounded out of the day playing video games in the game room… Mario Kart projected on a giant screen which was absolutely amazing . We also had to catch up with The Confused Greenies Patchwork Players. This improv troop is one of Maddie’s favorite things about specialized. I’ve always enjoyed them, but they’ve always seem a little weird part of con programming, but always welcome and fun.
By the time 6 o’clock was rolling around, we were too tired to even look for the cosplay masquerade. It had been a long day, but a genuinely excellent way of kicking off convention season. Maddie’s done her own video review, which you’ll find down here, then jump past it for way too many pictures!
Oddmall: Hallowondrous 2022
It’s actually been a while since I made it out to an Oddmall. I like Oddmall. It’s hard to peg down exactly what it is… It’s not really a convention, more of a marketplace. But it’s a marketplace with entertainment. They don’t usually have full panels, though sometimes there are readings and such. Usually there is music and some comedy. There’s also typically a costume contest. In that, there’s definitely more in common with a full blown convention then say, one of the Harper shows… And those do bill themselves as conventions. The programming itself feels a little bit more like a library convention, but on the other hand, those don’t tend to have such a focus on the dealers room as this marketplace. Like I said, hard to define.
I had actually intended to hit Oddmall : Hallowondrous back before the lockdowns. The last one that I’ve been put on, I had sat, looked at my costumes and thought “I should really go down there and check this one out. It’ll be a great place to test out this suit of armor…“ But, when the weekend came, I ended up just not feeling it, too busy, too tired, whatever the excuse was. I thought “I’ll just go next year.“
Well we all know what happens next don’t we?
Truth is, I haven’t been back to an Oddmall since then. They canceled it a good years worth of shows, and I wasn’t digging the mask mandates… then the political administration changed and gas immediately went up by over 50%, then the Ukraine war started, and gas went up another 50%… all truncating my con tour.
Still, I wasn’t quite ready for convention season to be over, and I figured I could sneak out to Hallowondrous Friday night after work. Skeletor hadn’t been out too much yet, and a second appearance in a smaller venue would help me work the last of the kinks out. I also wanted to bring him because this version of Oddmall has a peculiar feature… Half of it is outside. Andy fills the Shriners hall Full of vendors, surrounding the main stage. Then he adds an extra three or four rows of vendors outside, as well as a line of food trucks to peddle their wares to the hungry attendees. Because it’s Halloween, the vendors all have buckets of candy for kids to trick-or-treat from booth booth. All in all, it’s a great set up. It also makes for a nice environment for Skeletor … Outside with the lights on the costume glowing, he becomes a particularly striking figure.
Inside, I watched the open mic section going, then transition into a DJ doing nerdcore music. All fun, as I browse through the endless isles of curiosities and handmade art. I had one small child in a storm trooper costume just fascinated by me in my costume. At one point he ran up to me and exclaimed “I have something to show you!“ So I followed him over to a vendor that was selling a hand carved Skeletor art box. A lot of fun to be able to play like that.
When the costume contest finally came around, I hung out in the back with a giggly bunch of anime girls and a man dressed as macho man Randy savage. That sort of thing always makes these events interesting, the strange cross sections you get. Macho man is convinced that we are in the same universe, since Mattel had been releasing the masters of the WWE figures. We headed out on stage to battle it out for the contest title. And as we enter, we were shocked to see a giant chicken on stage. A strange inflatable costume. Even stranger was when a second giant chicken in a fluffy yellow feather costume jumped up and got into a fight with the first chicken… It’s moments like those where you just stand and wonder about how you got yourself into the situation.
Andy came up to interview me and I introduced myself.
“I am Skeletor , and my newest plan to defeat he-man and the masters of the universe is to conquer Oddmall!!!”
“It’s not that hard, You can have it,” and he replied with a sardonic chuckle.
They followed up the costume contest with a performance by local band Gothnicc – a surprisingly good concert, and nice way for me to wrap up my night. Oddmall is always a delight, and I’m so happy to finally made it out to Halloween dress. We’ve typically hit at least one of these a year, and I think that’s a habit I need to get back into. We’ll see you guys next year!
Hall of Fame City Comicon videos
One of my favorite things is discovering videos of events that I pop up in. You may remember that Maddie and I hit hall of Fame City Comic Con a couple weeks ago. Just this morning, these two vids popped up on my feed and I wanted to share them here!
Hall of Fame City Comic Con 2022
Besides the fact that it got canceled for a while because of the plague, I have missed a lot of Hall of Fame city comic cons simply because it’s settled into always being scheduled the week of cinema wasteland. However, lately, wasteland hasn’t really been a three day thing for me, and my daughter really wanted to squeeze in as many conventions this year as possible, considering that she had to sit out a year and a half of canceled conventions just as she had started getting into that sort of life. So, I carved up a Skeletor costume, and glued together a Batgirl suit for her and awfully went to Canton.
I will admit, I’ve kind of missed the show. It’s a genuinely good convention with a lot of heart. There’s some smart ideas here, bringing in a couple of big names… Usually one or two big name creators and one or two celebrities. It’s a formula that works both for them and for Youngstown Comicon. I was actually excited to see Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche, but even more so… I was here for Al Snow. Now you may not know this about me, but I’m no
t a wrestling guy. I’m really not interested in wrestlers at all… But back in the early 2000s, MTV ran a wrestling show called “Tough Enough“ and like all MTV shows, they ran it constantly, and something about Al’s character on the show really spoke to me. I’ve always wanted to meet him, and was really happy when he started on the autograph circuit recently.
Much to my delight he instantly recognized the costume and was actually quite excited for it. “Somebody finally shows up cosplaying the Shadow!“. That’s actually a fun response, and it was enjoyable to chat with him for a little while.
I’ve actually chosen the Shadow so that I could spend about half of the show in a lighter costume that I could move around in… something I could see well in and still have access to both hands. But I was genuinely surprised at how many people recognized the character. The Shadow was getting a lot of love at Hall of fame city, con, with people constantly coming up to me and declaring “who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?“. I did have one young man come up to me and ask “Phantom Stranger?”. I explained to him who he was and described him as a character that Batman had been based largely on. He asked me an interesting question, “is he crazier than Batman? Because at this point, Batman is kind of gone insane…“ I had to think about this for a moment. I replied “I’m not sure, the thing is, with a shadow, there’s not much that human left in there anymore.“ That’s actually kind of cool thing not to just get to talk about your favorite character, but to explore it with somebody who’s new to the hero.
Right around the halfway point, we snuck back out to the car so I can change into my Skeletor costume. I’d been laser focused on this suit for about six weeks, carving the armor from scratch, spray painting the bodysuit to give it an airbrushed look, and installing lights in electronics specifically near the jeweled areas so they would sparkle more. I’d run out of time though, and was going to end up wearing a mask rather than doing a make up. This was a disappointment to me, but in the end, the mask looked just as striking… Perhaps 
even more so. Much to my surprise, I had noticed earlier that Acheww Cosplay, one of the costume contest judges, had actually shown up also in a Skeletor costume. I wasn’t sure if that was good luck or bad. My friend Micheal from far far away cosplay actually stopped me shortly after I got in, just wanting to take in the whole thing. “How did you know it was me?“ I asked. “The foamwork.“ He replied, nodding slowly. The foam shoes made it difficult to walk in, but I managed to
I’m not sure how long it was before I noticed my belt was slipping. The Velcro hadn’t separated yet, but it was certainly getting loose and causing me problems. I fidgeted and adjusted, while trying to keep my giant shoulder pads above the harness. The first time out in a new costume means that’s when you’re gonna find all the flaws. Still, I managed to shift and push the belt up enough to wedge it against my belly and keep it in place as I tried to chat with the people backstage. In her group, Maddie was having a fine time getting to know the other teenagers in the lineup. She was making friends and reassuring the ones who were nervous about going up for the first time. This is fun stuff that she’s been growing further and further into. She walks into the convention and just breathe it all in, “I am home!”.
I managed to get across the stage and through pre-judging without anything coming apart. I did however
get lost on stage and I had to be turned around to hit the proper exit! That was embarrassing enough, but it got even worse when the belt gave way after I was back down in the hall. Dream, the Sandman came to my aid and help me get the thing re-fastened. It held long enough for me to get called back on the stage… And that’s when it popped for good. I took up a place right behind the green goblin, and posed in such a way where it looked like my head was resting on the belt buckle… What was really happening was my elbow was pulled in tight to keep the belt flat against my hip on one side while I angled my staff to press against it on the other side. With photos over, and us getting ready to leave, I finally gave up on trying to keep the suit together and let the ball belt come loose once I got outside. I think in the future I will be securing that thing with hooks rather than Velcro.
I may also need to rig up some sort of a spike or hook to help stabilize the shoulder pads,And remove the chain mail from around them. It’s not doing anything for the look and just getting in the way. Still, this is all the sort of thing that you go through and learn as you’re trying out a new suit. I’m very happy with the way that Skeletor was received at the convention. One person even stopped dead, pointed and said “That’s the movie Skeletor!”, taking in the jewels and the detail. It was 
a nice discussion about the Masters of the Universe film, and how Frank Langella steals every scenehes in. While the suit isn’t strictly meant to be the movie version, it’s certainly influenced by it. Likewise, Maddie was having a good day in her new Batgirl costume. We had settled on Stephanie Brown from the current Batgirls comic that I’ve been constantly raving about here. It ended up being a good look for her, and really well received. Like Steph, Maddie is also Distraction Incarnate! It was a nice comfortable suit, something that’s important when you’re putting her in a costume! In fact, Maddie liked the jacket so much she wants a plain version for every day wear. I’m also really proud of that belt. I 3d printed a Batman ’66 Batgirl buckle for her, as well as little black bat accents that I pasted on my standard design foam pouches. We cinched that purple bet at the back with a hook (LIKE WE’RE GOING TO DO WITH SKELETOR DAGNABBIT!) and tossed an old Covid mask and a lovely purple cloak she got from her grandmother on her. It’s just perfect.
We walked away with stacks of comics, new Lego figures and the autograph I’ve been seeking as well as fun memories. Hall of Fame is a good show, and I’m eager to return to it. We’ll see what happens next year!
Geekfest 2022
Look, I’m as surprised as anyone. I was certain that geek fast was dead. I mean, the plague killed bigger and more powerful conventions than them… And they already missed a year here and there even without those complications. It’s a difficult event for the library to mount, a lot of variables a lot of planning. I really wouldn’t have blamed them for just deciding to sit this one out.
I’ve actually only heard that they were coming back about three weeks ago. Definitely not much more than two weeks before the event itself, and it was so close to Neo Comicon that I wasn’t sure if we really had it in us to do two back to back shows. Still, it’s a show I like, being one of those more programming driven events. Maddie hadn’t been out to this thing since all the way back in 2016, and she found herself really looking forward to it, another chance to bring out her 
my hero academia costume and connect with other people. So, Saturday morning, we loaded up the car and headed out.
I was taking a chance bringing out my Borg costume for this one… Star Trek is passé these days, and Star Wars is real the real attention is at. Still, I was pleased to discover I wasn’t the only person and track garb there. This event draws a lot of boomers and Xers, with children that they’ve raised on Star Trek. I was surprised at how often I was recognized, not only by adults, but by teenagers! Around the corner at one point and one of the vendors piped up “now there is the scariest summer of my life!“. He was of course referring to the Star Trek next generation cliffhanger “the best of both worlds“. I nodded. “It’s funny, but of all the two-parter is they did after that, they never quite managed to get you to those same stakes.“ The vendor agreed. “During that third season,“ he told me. “They’ve gotten into the habit of always resolving everything within the last five minutes… But we got closer and closer to the end of this episode, 10 minutes, five minutes, three minutes, and I found myself wondering how tehy were going to wrap this up. I spent all summer nervous and wondering what was going to happen when the show came back.“. I remember that summer too. I mentioned to him that I was certain that Captain Picard wasn’t coming back to the show, that he’d be taken off with these bad guys, and that Patrick Stewart would basically go off and go back to Shakespeare while Commander Riker would take command of the enterprise for the remainder of the series pack. It was fun chatting with somebody about this and reminiscing about the days when Star Trek was genuinely good and had such cultural 
relevance. As I wandered around, I made sure to menace the other people in Star Trek costumes, and was surprised to how many there were… In fact, I wasn’t even the only one carrying around a triple! There was a great looking doctor crusher with a triple in her jacket pocket. It seem to be behaving better than mine, considering I couldn’t get mine to sit on my shoulder the way it’s supposed to. I managed to get it attached just before pre-judging for the costume contest and about 20 minutes before I had to walk on stage for the main competition. That’s really my main goal, to have him ride out on my shoulder so that I can remove him and display him to the audience. I’ve gotta remember to use a better magnet the next time though.
That pre-judging was a problem. One of the main events that Maddie and I were looking forward to was a screening of Howls moving castle. The Akron Summit public library has a massive auditorium with a large screen… Just about movie size, so they get to see this on the big screen is a real treat. However, the movie was screening from Eleven to One, and pre-judging was at noon! It didn’t help that Maddie and I were a little late getting in as well, so we probably missed about 20% of the movie, but we did get to watch was every bit as good as we remember, and incredibly fun to watch on a proper screen with a good sound system.
Costumes were in abundance, despite the fact that the costume contests itself was a little lightly populated. Queen Anna Boleyn shuffled through the doors as I was making my 
way out for a swag dump, she waved a wand at me to vanish the evil machinery! She would occasionally come up to me throughout the convention with a screwdriver adjusting my mechanics. Another running joke was the way that R2 D2 seem to keep running into me. The R2-D2 builders club had a table downstairs with the 501st Legion, creating of nice Star Wars presence there. But occasionally the droid would roll his way upstairs and mingle with the rest of the people. It would see me and Emmett allowed high pitch scream, as I’d come over and scan it and examine it for the edification of the crowd. At times I almost felt like a little droid was following me!
I’ll say this, not only did Geekfest return, they veritably exploded. It’s bigger than I’ve ever seen it before, with them really pulling out all the stops. I remember the days when this show was basically maybe a half dozen tables up by the auditorium, mostly library personnel making buttons and playing games with the kids, one panel room and maybe some improv going on in the main auditorium. This time around they utilized all four floors. Star Wars characters on the ground floor along with a cosplay repair station… I can’t even tell you how amazing that was! When fingers started popping off my glove, I was grateful to be able to use their hot glue gun to put myself back together. Also video game rooms downstairs with retro video games and custom ones made by one of the guests. Another floor had board games… Some of 
them giant size. A couple tables in the middle were reserved for first timers playing dungeons and dragons. Another floor gave you a chance to explore strange history, along with a table of comics to give away. The vendors and artists were spread out as well. Instead of a handful of tables… A group of vendors that are slowly growing more and more numerous over the years, you could now find artists and vendors scattered throughout the library. There are tables around the length of the entrance, and then spread down below the atrium, and then even more nestled in between the bookshelves and rose and valleys of the library. It’s a fascinating set up, and the library actually went out of its way to draw attention to them by issuing kids a “passport“ where they can get stickers from each booth… Trying to collect them all, and thereby visit all of the guests. This is all in addition to the art show that was going on on the ground floor, one that you could vote in for People’s choice award… And constant 
panels and games going on in the two conference rooms in the atrium. Indeed, the overlap was so great, that we always seem to be running from event to event, particularly towards the end when we were coming out for the costume contest lineup. Maddie was none too pleased to have to leave her panel to get in line. “They were going to give away BOOKS at the end!” She lamented.
Still, despite all the challenges, as we drove home, Maddie and I agreed this may just have been the best convention we went to this year. Being so program driven just makes for a far more entertaining experience, and is exactly the sort of thing that will keep Maddie (who’s convention attention span is usually about 2 to 3 hours) completely occupied for over five hours. It’s also a great place to make new friends, something that kiddo is discovering and taking full advantage of.
Here’s the thing, the festival bills itself as a mini comicon? I don’t think so. There’s things I’m much fuller convention experience than a lot of the ones that we pay much more money to get into. It’s also become one of our favorites, and will be back next year.
NEO Comicon 2022
It’s summertime, and con season is in full swing. The end of July is always reserved for NEO ComiCon… Also known as “the closest comic convention to my house”. We usually go to the early service at church on these weeks and then hit this show afterwards, they’ll open the doors at 10, and we’ll be able to get there before 11 that way… Literally 10 minutes down the street.
NEO ComiCon was of course one of those that had to close due to the plague, but they came back last year… Sort of. Well we’re happy to see the show back, last year and this year included no programming. No panels, no costume contest, no talks at all really. And the comic creators that were present, they’re all local guys. No that’s not necessarily a bad thing, the Cleveland area has a lots of great local artists, some true elder statesman from DC like Tony Wsabella and Mike W Barr… but I’m missing the days where NEO was bringing in people like Phil Hester from the Green Hornet, or Tom Mandrake, the artist from Ostrander Spectre run… people that I’ve never gotten to meet before, and who would do a panel or two to describe their time in the industry. I missed the fight demonstrations that the stunt people would do… I miss all of this kind of stuff, because that’s what really makes a comic con for me. Right now, NEO ComiCon feels a lot like a gigantic Harper show… A huge flea market… But what a flea market!
Spanning the course of two soccer fields, NEO ComiCon is still a massive marketplace, and one that welcomes in cosplayers and fanboys of all types. My McMandalorian is not a competition level suits, so it seemed a perfect event to bring out… Especially since it hasn’t gotten that much floor time since I created it last year. Maddie on the other hand was bringing out her my hero character Todoroki again… Basically we were a carbon copy of the pair that we were for Mahoning Comic Con a few weeks ago.
There’s a much bigger and diverse crowd here. Maddie ran into a ton more people from my hero academia, and a lot more recognized her costume as well. For my part, I was content to just be looking silly, and hanging out with friends. My buddy Josh had brought out his Mandopool costume… 
There’s actually a full Deadpool mask on underneath that helmet. We compared our Baby Yodas and just had fun freaking out the people around us.
Speaking of freaking out, I’m always pleased to see how much horror these things draw… A girl in a Chucky outfit, a Pennywise floating down the aisle, Jason stocking the corners… All of this stuff is fun. It also speaks to just how varied a crowd NEO ComiCon draws.
It’s not to say that the day went off without a hitch. The shuttle bus from the convention center to the parking lot went MIA for a good half hour… It was bizarre. They were some hot tempers in the crowd as well, be reading the Neo representative who is coming out to keep us updated. To his credit, Ed handled it very well, and definitely didn’t deserve the abuse he was getting.
There is also a very strange moment… I was chatting up a young woman and talking about foamsmithing, admiring her armor and shield, while she asked questions about my clown shoes. Then, a sketchy gentleman dressed in black came up to us to pitch Akron comicon…
“I know you’re coming!“ He said to me “I’m sure I’ve seen you there before!“
I was polite and didn’t question it. But it was a strange pitch… And afterwords, Lady Red asked me “what do you make that guy?“ Unseen behind my helmet, ice smiled sadly with a small sigh. “Huckster.“. And proceeded to explain to her why I don’t go to Akron comicon anymore (A combination of them moving it out of Akron and into a strange converted grocery store that they have an interest in… To the way they stiffed the old owner on the payment when he sold them the convention, to the way they named checked a customer that they were having an argument with and name the new rule after him on a live stream… It was all in poor taste, and Akron just isn’t the same show anymore.)
Still, all in all good day, a little exhausting, but great fun. I hit Comic’s Are Go’s dollar bins pretty hard, and found a custom Lego booth selling minifigs for $3 (as opposed to the $5 booth on the other side of the con) which I plundered. (I still regret not grabbing more marvel zombies). We played plinko at the TV station’s table and Maddie won a backpack and I got a great poster with HandI’s comic heroes on it. I even found tons of cheap horror movies (again – I regret not going back to that quarter bin after I broke that $20 bill) and Maddie found stickers and some Hunger Games trading cards that just fascinated her! We took tons of fun pictures -not quite as many setups as I’ve been seeing at other shows, but I got to say, that 501’s wanted booth – good stuff there.
I spoke to Sean, the founder of the show, and he assures me the costume contest will be back next year, I’m hoping that the panels and more programming will be back with it. The show needs that… It’s the sort of thing that made it the best successor to Akron comicon I could possibly have asked for.
Scroll down for the link to Maddie‘s review, and dozens of photos past that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usblATXW4Vs
Hazard Con 2022
Maddie and I were so excited to get back to Hazard Con. We only just discovered it before the plague, and that totally shut down our return visit. In our one trip out though, the show it made a big impression with good panels, interesting guests, a beautiful arcade, and a tiny but surprisingly diverse and effective dealers room. We liked Hazard Con. Maddie and I were already to go with our Promised Neverland costumes, breaking both of these out for 
the very first time. Maddie was dressed as Isabella, the mother figure from the series, and I had crafted a demon that only appears in the Mangas, Arch Duke Leuvis.
As we pulled into the parking lot, I noticed things seemed a bit empty. It was enough for us to almost wonder if it was the right day. I double checked the website and we were definitely in the right place at the right time. Our fears were abated when I saw a couple of other anime kids pull in, jump out of the cars and start to prep their costumes. I handed Maddie the admission money because I have Tentacles rather than hands in that costume, and in we went.
Then they stopped Maddie at the registration table and informed her she would be required wear a mask.
I’ve got a bone to pick here. Because I’ve been watching to see what the rules were. No where on Hazard Con’s website is there any mention of a mask requirement. Nor is there one anywhere on the hotels site. I double checked Pennsylvania’s website. As far as I could see, there was no mandate for masks in all enclosed spaces, though there’s some government offices were still requiring them themselves. I never found an announcement until well after the convention, after searching for a Facebook account that I didn’t know existed, and digging through past posts. This isn’t really an argument or discussion about whether or not it’s necessary or helpful to mask somebody who has been fully vaccinated and has already had Covid (in that order btw). My beef is that we didn’t know going in and that it wasn’t made clear enough in enough ways. Being on the border, Hazard Con must surely know they’re getting attendees from out of state. Every anime convention I know of does. Ohio’s laws and rules aren’t always the same as PA and that gives them a responsibility to do better.
Then something happened. Maddie impressed me. She 
decided that she was going to try and have a good day anyhow. Her wig kept slipping, and giving her problems. So she decided to ditch it and just be an original character… (The photo with K-9 in fact, gives me serious Romana vibes.)… perhaps some kind of character that would justify the mask… In fact, we went back to the car, ditched the one that the con had given us in favor of a sleaker black one. We found the arcade and got her on the drum game and her spirits began to lift. We stumbled upon the Guilty Pleasure panel and blew her mind with some new finds. She snatched the volume of Assassination Classroom I had just purchased and started to flip through it, and by the time we hit the Japanese art panel she was having the time of her life again.
I discovered that the mask I was wearing needs some work. I need to create some extra space for my nose, because it was getting smashed down and by the time we were about 2/3 and I couldn’t stand it any longer. Now the fun thing is, Archduke Leuvis is really just a repurpose of my Shadow costume… It’s got extra belts and accessories, but the red neck gaiter was still in the pocket along with my ring. So I detached the mask from the hat, pulled up the red scarf and removed the belts, heading back into the convention.
“A mysterious stranger has entered the room!“ One of the anime girls said in a video game voice as she spied me. This was fun. But I was astonished when I headed over to the game room to find Maddie. No sooner had I entered the arcade then I saw the Riddler walking towards me with a quizzical look on his face.
“The Shadow?“
Because the lower half of my face was covered, he probably couldn’t see my jaw drop. I don’t know what was more surprising, getting recognized in this costume or getting recognized as the demon from the Promised Neverland.
I ducked out of the art panel a little bit early. Despite being fascinating (I got Maddie to catch me up later) It was also scheduled in the middle of signing hours for Barry Yandell. Barry is a personal guy, and happy to chat a bit. Of course, I don’t know most of what he’s done. I probably should watch Black Butler at some point, but I’ve definitely never gotten there. Still, he was participating in Sunday sales with a lot of the other vendors, so even autographs were marked down! I got a nice 5 x 8 with a bunch of his characters displayed signed for $10. Those of you who know me, no I’ve been complaining about autograph prices going crazy for the last two years. I love something like this.
Maddie grabbed a blind box and some pins, I found a few buttons I wanted myself as well, along with a nice glittery skull pen. But the real thing I was there for was Japanese candy and chips and all the curious kind of things you just can’t buy in the US. I love seeing these kind of vendors, and I loaded up. It almost makes me wish I’ve been in a Koro Sensei costume instead. We played more games, as including a claw game that was set up by one of the booths and went over some of the more 
fascinating wears. Vintage video games, anime music, dolls and keychains and plushies. We went through all the dig bins, and grabbed stuff out of the secondary dealers room… This year’s anime flea market. With the flea market you’ve got to be ready to buy immediately. Seriously, stuff flies out of there quick, and tables increasingly vanish as the day goes on. They’re scheduled all the way until 3:30 or so, but honestly, if you get there around 1:30 or 2, pretty much everything is gone. I was still able to score some cheap mangas, but am still kicking myself for missing that Supergirl trade that just slipped through my fingers while I was checking out another booth!
Hazard Con was not the day we expected. The price, even for just Sunday has increased by 25%. The content however, seems to have decreased. Fewer panels and no anime screenings which I find REALLY weird. One of the entire reasons you go to a con is for screenings – a good way to test out anime you’ve never seen before and share the experience with others. But we had a good day nevertheless. It’s another one of those where it’s just the right size that I wish it was closer to home, although to be fair, two hours is not a terribly arduous journey. We’ll keep our eye on them next year, and perhaps ask more questions going in. There’s still a distinct possibility that we’ll be back.
Free Comic Book Day 2022
Free comic book Day was this weekend. It’s a little different these days since the pandemic, and those of us in Cleveland very much miss the midnight release party that Carol and John’s used to throw. It looks like that may be gone for good, it’s a hard event for the staff to do, and John’s literally said flat out he doesn’t know if he’s bringing it back. On the other hand, he’s shifted more towards trying to bring in a high profile guest every year. Last year was Chris Claremont, and this year of course was Jim Shooter. I have a great and abiding respect her Jim Shooter, despite what many, professionals say behind his back. He created the valiant universe which brought me Shadow Man… One of my all-time top favorite characters ever. The man was a prodigy, writing Legion of superheroes as a teenager, and shepherded marvel into the 80s, finally establishing royalties for creators, and trying to make comics more 
familiar. He also created one of the first high profile company wide crossover events in Secret Wars… Which is what Carol and Johns were celebrating this year, complete with mock ups of the cover that you could pose in front of.
But before we hit them, we stopped by Comics Are Go… a shop closer to my home, and the other one of my regular comic shops. These are the same guys who throw NEO comic con every year, and hitting both shops would assure that Maddie and I both got the books that we were looking for, as well as a couple of duplicates to give away to kids we know. Maddie was eager to break out her new female Iron Man cosplay – one we’ve dubbed “Toni Stark” It’s a simple, casual one, with just one gauntlet and the arc reactor, as well as a wig and E.D.I.T.H. glasses.
Comics Are Go is a little bit more subdued of a environment, focusing on local artists and not so much on cosplay. Still, they’re friendly and this is a great way to get people into that shop. It’s a hole in the wall, 
and the more people who know about it the better.
Over at Carol and John’s, this year‘s mural was being painted upfront, while we headed into the side room to grab comics and look over the various artists wares. I pulled out my venom costume again. This was a nice little find right around the end of Halloween last year… Four dollars and it came with a mask. It’s about a half size too small,… A little tight and doesn’t want to close correctly in the back, but otherwise looks fairly good. I ended up doing a new mask for it using the plastic shell the costumes mask had come packaged in. A 
little bit of spray paint and some marker letting the paint just drip over the clear plastic. It gives an altogether uncomfortable look and makes it a bit more terrifying of a venom. I only scared one child… That’s a good thing. But one little boy did see me coming and just started backing up behind his father going “nope, nope, nope!“
All in all, it was a fun day. Maddie found buttons and stickers she wanted for her school bag and folders. We hit the ice cream store around the corner from Carol and John’s – they were offering an “Infinity Gauntlet” flavor with multi colors and rock candy on top. I found some interesting comics, including a deadpooh issue from one of the artists over at Comics Are Go. It’s amazing. We were in and out in just a few hours, but a nice chance to catch up with friends and get back into the scene a little.
Mr Freeze and the Suicide Squad
Mr. Freeze wasn’t actually in the Squad, but he could be – Captain Cold did at least one mission and it’s the only way I could justify this really strange line-up!
Mr Freeze and the Gotham gang
I pulled out my Mr. Freeze outfit and did some minor repairs, then realized I couldn’t find my freeze gun. A whole new freeze gun became a part of these upgrades!
Iron Sapphire redux
Out of nowhere, Maddie asked me to redo her Iron Sapphire armor! I’ve always been leased with it, but we had to completely remake the midplate expand the legs because she’s grown so much since the last time she wore it!
Mr. Freeze vs Wonder Woman
I actually ended up doing two versions of this – the first one among the ruins didn’t really thrill me. WW kept blending into the rocks. The blue and red background may be simpler, but it really pops a lot more.
Fall Zombie Walk 2021
Let me just say, Carol Baskin and the Tiger King were definitely the peak of our day.
I’ve been going to the zombie walk in Lakewood for ages now. Ryan got up and announced that it was the 14th one, seven years… But I’ve got photos that prove it’s been going on longer, just under a different name and management. Nevertheless, the thing I noticed this year, was a lot more children. October is always a little bit light, because the hunters already have gigs that they are committed to. We usually see more in April, but both Madeline and I commented to each other on just how many kids were running around, playing, bonking people in the head with plushy bats, and playing catch with the odd grenade. It’s a glorious time, and nice to catch up with friends like Ryan and Rhonda.
Madeline got to break out her Clementine for the third time this year, and she was thrilled. There weren’t a lot of survivors this year, so she was delighted to be one of the few humans participating in the walk. I decided to go half-hearted, and bust out my Starro mask on top of a Gotham city police detective outfit – I got the badge for my birthday! Nice subtle way to celebrate Batman day at the same time.
I do still enjoy these events, and I’m far more curious to see what April brings. Attendance has been dwindling over the years, but with a good 70 people are still in attendance this time around it’s still gives me hope. We love being able to serve the community this way, and all donations go to the greater Cleveland Food Bank. Will be back at the bar in April, and you should totally come out and join us!
Argo City Comics 