Travel: Salt Lake City Comic Con 2013

For the first time ever, Comic Con has come to Salt Lake City, from September 5th to the 7th of this year.  For those who don't know, the Comic Con is a major convention for all things comic-book related, although nowadays, it's expanded tremendously to encompass all interests in comics, films, TV, animation (or anime), video games, card games, collectables, art, books, and more.  It usually revolves around all things sci-fi, fantasy, or superhero-related, so the convention is like a Mecca for nerds world wide.  Comic Con has traditionally been held in many major cities around the world, to include San Diego, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Baltimore, and more.  I've been told that ticket sales for SLC have set a new record for most amount of tickets sold at a Comic Con's opening - last I heard, over 30,000 tickets have sold.

For three days at the Salt Palace Convention Center, fans would have the chance to roam around rows and rows of vendors, selling any number of things.  A number of major celebrities were available for autographs, photo opportunities, and probably a few major presentations:  such celebrities included such folks as William Shatner, Adam West, Burt Ward, Ray Park, Lou Ferrigno, Henry Winkler, Kevin Sorbo, and more.  There would be oodles of different events and panels open for visitors to participate in.  The most interesting thing, however, may be the sheer number of visitors coming in costume:  everywhere you look, you could see intricate, detailed, faithful replications of favorite comic, movie, and game characters.  Among the myriad of quality costumes, I was able to identify plenty of Star Wars outfits (most especially Darth Vader, Padme Amidala, common stormtroopers and scout troopers), Star Trek uniforms, X-Men characters (specifically, Mystique), Batman characters (The Joker, Bane), Harry Potter characters, a few Ghostbusters, Iron Man, Spiderman, Gandalf, Inuyasha, Ichigo Kurosake, one of the henchmen from the Crazy 88s, splicers from Bioshock, block-headed people from Minecraft, a soldier from Mass Effect, soldiers from Halo, Warcraft characters, orcs, ghouls, zombies, and lord knows what else.  Even if you don't see much else, just watching the people all around can be a unique experience as it is.

I personally attended the convention solo, wearing nothing more than a Cyberdyne Systems tee-shirt (but heck, it's a grade more unique than all the Superman and Batman shirts everybody else was wearing).  This was my first time attending a convention like this, and I was rather anxious to start with.  I arrived early for registration - even though I've bought my ticket online earlier in the week, it's still necessary to register at the convention center to receive a wristband pass that will allow you to enter and exit the building freely, in addition to a goodie bag, which contained a booklet and poster.  Then I had to wait for the actual event to open; I was an hour early, but there were plenty of other people waiting already.  The line was already extending out the door and wrapped around a length of sidewalk that was partitioned off with caution tape.  As I waited, the line continued to grow, until it wrapped around the block and past the front of the building.  Once the doors opened, the line moved pretty swiftly; after standing in the heat for so long, it was pretty refreshing to enter the wide-open air-conditioned building.

Once inside, I was overwhelmed with a vast stretch of stalls and booths, selling all manner of comics, graphic novels, manga, artwork, videos, games, and paraphernalia.  I pretty much spent my time combing through the aisles, looking for interesting stuff (in addition to gawking at the costumed visitors all around).  Among the more interesting sights, I got to see a full-sized R2D2 roaming around, some Ghostbuster equipment that was actually glowing, and some kind of Fear Factory display, which included a painted bus, some large scary statues, and some zombies running around.  The Weta workshop had a stand set up as well, displaying some weaponry and make-up work from The Hobbit films (they also showed a sneak peak of the upcoming Desolation of Smaug film, but I somehow missed it).  There was also a big display set up with all kinds of intricately-designed Lego sets (which included an Arabic palace, a working train, the flying aircraft carrier from The Avengers, and some Star Wars vehicles, among other things).

Among the cool things I picked up from the stalls, I took the opportunity to buy some inexpensive comics that I've never heard of before (something called Xenoholic? The guy told me it was good), a couple of graphic novels (Red Sonja omnibus, and Unique), some cards and a playmat for Magic:  The Gathering (I believe the mat is exclusive to the convention), a couple of pieces of artwork from a fellow named Ken Meyer Jr.

Afterward, I figured I should attend a panel, to see what wisdom I could get from one of the many guest speakers.  There were many possibilities, but I opted to attend one concerning how to become a bestselling author in the modern publishing environment.  The speaker was author Aaron Patterson; he explained his experience with e-book publishing, underscoring its key advantages, and he provided a basic overview of what to do.  The man seemed pretty well-off through online publishing, and it sounds like a simple and beneficial solution.  It also sounds like a lot of time and money to invest in it.  I did walk away feeling a little more enlightened and motivated, but it also had me considering additional aspects that I never gave much thought to before.

After that, I felt I had enough, for I was feeling exhausted.  I know there are probably a million more things I could have divulged more in:  I could have attended more panels or events if I really planned it out better, I could have asked for more pictures of costumed guests, and I never did meet any major celebrities or anything.  However, that is not to say that the trip was a waste at all:  it was a unique experience that was satisfying, and generally way more fun than I imagined it would be.  Despite the size of the crowd, I felt well within my element there.  I'm certain that SLC will continue to host the Comic Con annually, and I'm certain that I would go again.  Now that I've tested the waters a bit with this type of thing, I'll probably be more involved next time.  Maybe I should go dressed as Alucard from Hellsing...hmmm...