This year I once again had a wonderful time at Planet Comicon, hanging with cosplayers, authors, artists, gamers, collectors, and other strange and wonderful creatures. As always, I took a lot of pictures because some of these folks are so amazingly imaginative and talented that I had to capture it for future inspiration. In spite of the huge crowd, everyone was polite and patient and friendly, kind of makes you wonder why people aren’t that way all the time. People of all sorts were welcome and accepted–well, there might have been a little Star Wars versus Star Trek rivalry, but not so’s you’d notice unless you were really looking for it.
Of course, I had to spend some money on a few unnecessary items–how could I not? And “unnecessary” is really a judgement call, wouldn’t you agree? I noticed most people were careful of their budgets, adapting the best they could to uncertain times, but sometimes you really need one or two (or five) more books, comics, action figures, autographs, accessories to round out your costume, and so forth. You know, the bare essentials.
Some of the highlights for me personally at this year’s con were:
1. Recognizing that you don’t have to be only one thing. I loved the mashups of genres and identities. My personal favorite was the little girl in a Tardis dress who was wearing elf ears. Why not?
2. Hanging with the authors and meeting some aspiring authors. There aren’t too many things more fun for me than encouraging people to write. Everyone has at least one story in them. And if I can help make it a good story and well written, all the better.
3. The generosity and graciousness of the guests. These folks are famous and probably have a heck of a lot more money than I do, but they were wonderful in every way, taking time and effort to interact with the crowds of people there to meet them. The number and diversity of the guests was amazing, representing a wide variety of entertainment forms and genres.
There was a lot more, of course. If you’ve never been to a con like this, large or small, you really ought to visit at least one. It will restore your faith in people. And aliens. And monsters. And elves. And fairies. And…whatever that thing over there is.
Image: Dennis Young, author, and me hanging in his booth.