My First Awesome Con

What do you do when you're surrounded by guys who love everything Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Star Wars? You make your way to Awesome Con, DC's Comic Con! I reached out to the people who put it on, and they sent me a press pass to check it out for the first time!

Now, when I was a teenager, eons ago, I was fascinated by Dr. Who. I started watching it with my dad when Tom Baker was the Time Lord. That was back in the early 80s. I didn't realize at the time that I was watching a series that would become a cult classic. I hadn't actually kept up with it at all. Then a couple of months ago, I randomly started watching BBC America. Dr. Who would play for a few hours and then Star Trek would come on. Needless to say, my husband was mystified as to what was going on with his wife.

That being said, I watch these kinds of shows & movies for fun. My guys, and attenders at events such as Awesome Con, are serious about everything. Fred is a huge fan of Star Trek. He can tell me the names of planets they've visited, what each of their weapons are called, which crew goes with which captain, etc. My oldest son could pretty much tell you everything about Star Wars and Marvel. I have a feeling he'd like to be best friends with Stan Lee!

So, when we got to DC, Fred had to take the lowly front entrance since he paid for his ticket. He was able to mingle with all of the elaborately dressed people. A couple thousand of his closest sci-fi loving friends. I on the other hand was able to enter through the press entrance and walked right into the event. When I got in, right at opening, it was super quiet on the floor. Man, that is the WAY to go! No lines for anything, no trying to squeeze myself through throngs of people. I made the most of it!

I walked around all of the merchandise booths. SO. MANY! I had no clue there was so much to sell at a Comic Con event. I also didn't realize that there were so many artists. I walked through the Stan Lee collection and sakes alive, it was amazing! Again, it was so nice to be able to spend time looking at everything without being surrounded by hordes of people. I can't imagine what it's like being Stan Lee and living with such a vast collection of memorabilia.

After walking through the collection, I walked down to where the actors were hanging out. They each had a little booth. Not many were there yet, but wow, being an actor at an event is definitely a money maker. The actor who used to play Harry Kim on one of the Star Trek seasons would take a selfie with you for $25! Others like John Barrowman was there and I think with a signed photo it was $40? He also had his sister there who was out chatting with people in their line.

I meandered down to the large, closed off curtain area, and I guess that was where Stan Lee was going to be. To get inside the curtain, you paid $120 to take a photo for him to sign. It is definitely GOOD to be Stan Lee. I know my son would've given his left arm for that autograph, but I just didn't have it in me.

Fred finally made it into the conference center about an hour and a half after I did? lol Poor guy. By that time, I was hungry and getting something to eat at one of the handful of vendors. After he got in, we walked around and looked at the artists and merchants. I've never seen to many leather bustiers in one place! lol

We found an artist who had a portfolio full of original work. Displayed he had the artwork printed and able to be purchased. It was black and white, but if you wanted pieces of the characters colored in, he would charge a higher amount. We bought my son The Arrow and the mask was colored green. Then we found a lady who was doing artwork on a variety of journals and doodle pads. We got Fred's daughter one with a dragon on the front of it.

One of the booths Fred wanted to go see was the Legion. They have people who dress up like Star Wars characters for a variety of events and donate money to a good cause. We caught them as they were doing a fun group photo!

I'm hoping we can get back again next year. If so, we're definitely dressing up and we're taking the boys with us. I'll have to make sure they bring a good amount of money because I know they're going to want to meet the actors and actresses. lol