A Day at The 'Con' (Comic-Con)

Once upon a time I was a comic book character. For a day. It was magical. Chase is an obsessive super-hero/comic-book nerd and he wanted to go to Comic-Con in Tampa. Well, honestly, he wants to go to the national one in San Diego, but we compromised on starting small.

His favorite character is Gambit, a little known comic book guy who may be getting his own movie soon. Channing Tatum will be starring, so if husband insists I go with him, I won’t protest very much. Gambit’s girlfriend is Rogue, whom you may recognize from the X-Men movies. We wanted to dress up in full character and really embrace the Con (that’s what we call it in the biz.)

You can tell the veterans from the beginners by the way they compliment you. Newbies refer to your outfit as a ‘costume.’ The experienced ones say, ‘nice cos’ (cos= cosplay). 

Now I’ll admit this whole idea was hatched over a bottle of wine- I ordered tickets and my Rogue wig that same night. By the next afternoon, Chase was already deep into planning his own outfit and there was no backing out. A small hiccup occurred two days before the event, though. Our neighborhood is relatively new so the mailman frequently mixes up the streets and delivers packages to the wrong house. The person who opened my sexy, spandex costume happened to be the parent of one of Cayden’s classmates. She left it with the receptionist at the school for me- open and in plain view, of course. I considered not explaining, and just letting them think I was…well, never mind. But some of the teachers watch my kids and I would Never jeopardize a good, dependable babysitter! 

Anyway, Comic-Con was So. Much. Fun. It’s a three day event that over 50,000 people attend. There was a food truck rally outside with lines of anime and caped avengers waiting for their turn at the deliciousness. Meanwhile inside, there were hundreds of booths full of merchandise, collectibles, unique art, and everything in between. We came home with a huge Star Wars light shaped like an ‘S', an obscene amount of Pop Toys, a couple original pieces of art, and very little money. I accidentally insulted a lady when I held up a cute little onesie that said, “Walker Bait” and commented that it would fit my son. She snatched it out of my hand and announced it was for dogs, not precious children. Oops?

One of my favorite aspects was that because we weren’t the normal characters, we literally spent half our time being asked to take pictures with people! (I lost count of how many Super Women, DeadPools, and Harley Quinns there were.) It’s an empowering experience pretending to be someone else and getting to forget your own hang-ups. I do not like new situations; it makes me uncomfortable and insecure. As Rogue, I was brash, confident, free, and not intimidated by the strangeness of my environment.

The amount of collectible items was totally overwhelming!

This was just the lobby, first thing in the morning. By the time we left, it was so packed you could hardly walk.

Orlando is hosting MegaCon at the end of May, and, if we can come up with even better costumes, I plan on attending. Suggestions for a character? Maybe Star Wars this time, but not Princess Leia- no cinnamon buns or metal bikinis! Think I could pull off Chewbacca? The guy who played him will actually be there! Guess I’m a little bit nerdy too…

With Love,

Susanne