Day 129: Comic Con!

This isn't a post about the real comic con. I mean, the really big comic con, the one in San Diego. But it is a post about my first comic con experience which happened today. In Austin. For like almost 2 hours.

So a few weeks ago there was a Groupon for a $10 pass for the last day of the Austin Comic Con. We snatched it up because we always want to go to these conventions, but it never seems to work out. We figured $10 a ticket isn't too bad even if we don't end up going.

Well, we did go, we were just a little late. My wife did the Race for the Cure 5k this morning and then we went and had breakfast before we had to drop her aunt off at the airport. Once we got home and got ready and then got back downtown it was after 3:00 and the con was only open until 5:00. That's OK, we already had tickets and they were only $10, plus we were in costume so we couldn't just go home.

Oh yeah, we wore costumes. Did I forget that part?

My wife wore her April O'Niel costume which she worries over and complains endlessly about every time she wears it and then ends up getting like a million compliments and picture requests. She was definitely the favorite out of the two of us. If you're attractive, you have boobs and you're in costume you will get stopped every two feet for a picture at a comic con. I know that now.

I, on the other hand, was wearing a new costume I put together and was slightly less recognizable: Dr. McNinja! I've been wanting to put this costume together for a while, I just haven't had the time or reason to. I was quite pleased with myself even though most people didn't know who I was. The nice thing about being Dr. McNinja is that it works on two levels. On one level you get the people who recognize the character; on the other level you get the people who see you and say, "Oh, cool, a ninja/doctor." Close, but not quite.

Since it was the end of the last day of the con we didn't have much time to look around, but we did see some cool art and talked to some interesting people. We spent some time chatting with a local artist, Tim Doyle, who did a poster that we just happened to buy last week. We actually have two pieces of his in our house, but more on that in a later post.

We didn't end up buying much of anything seeing as how we don't have much to spend to begin with, but it was a lot of fun. I'd say that $10 was worth the hour and a half we spent at the comic con. Maybe next year we'll get to experience more of it.

I drew the Turtles walking a stereotypical convention floor. Donatello's checking out a comic booth where the artist and writer are waiting to sign something. Raphael is looking at the weapons. Michelangelo is checking out the costume booth and trying on an oversize head piece modeled after his own head (very meta of you, Mikey). Leonardo is just walking and taking it all in. There's a lot to see at comic cons after all.