The very first ever, most inaugural Denver Comic Con kicks off tomorrow at six o’clock! (DCC runs June 15th – 17th check the DCC website for show hours.) There is a ton of stuff going on and you can find events on anything your nerdy little heart could desire. The DCC features panels on all kinds of comics and manga—obviously—but also topics as varied as Eureka, The Walking Dead, Cartoon Voices, Star Wars, Horror Literature, Battlestar Galactica, Video Games, Independent Films, and on and on. You’ve got the obligatory cosplay contests, video game tournaments (including handful of FPS and fighting games), and a whole slew of kid-friendly events for those of you with younglings. Beside the classic nerdy topics and fandom, the DCC has an emphasis on education as well. There are a bunch of career-oriented panels on comics art and writing, animation art and writing, cross-media adaptations, and video game development.
Obviously this is more than a single intrepid reporter can hope to cover, especially since a rock decided to play Whack-a-Mole with my foot the other day and I sprained my ankle. I’m suffering from a decreased move-speed debuff at the moment, does anyone have some Boots of Speed I can borrow? Despite all that, I’ll report back to you on everything I get a chance to see this weekend. If you’re coming down yourself and you see me walking around, don’t hesitate to say hello! I’ll be the guy rocking a cane and a BigShinyRobot press badge.
If you haven’t checked the DCC guest list in a while, take a gander. It’s grown like crazy in the last couple weeks and you’ve got big names from every corner of geekdom. It’s just impractical to list every guest and every respective project, so check out the full list, it’s pretty impressive.
Quick shout-out: our very own editor Mr. Bryan “Swank-mo-tron” Young will be selling books in Artist Alley booth 104, so make sure you track him down, say “Hi,” and buy one of his awesome books! I also want to give a shout out for my friends at Needleforge in Artist Alley booth 43, they create great nerdy crafts that make great gifts or simply things to adore because they’re adorable.
It’s hard to know where to start with the comics guest list, but some notable examples include Neal Adams (Batman, X-Men) and James O’Barr (Creator, The Crow), as well as multiple Eisner Award winners and nominees including Georges Jeanty (Gambit, Deadpool, Weapon X), Mike Baron (Flash, Batman, Punisher, Nexus), Peter Gross (The Unwritten), and Amy Reeder (Fool’s Gold, Supergirl, Batwoman).
Guests from other nerdy media include Billy West (Futurama, Ren & Stimpy, Doug), Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: TNG, the internet), James Marsters (Spike, Buffy), Colin Ferguson (Carter, Eureka), Aaron Douglas (Chief, Battlestar Galactica); father and son Michael Uslan and David Uslan (Dark Knight movies); from Tron, Bruce Boxleitner (Tron) and Cindy Morgan (Yori); from The Walking Dead TV series Steven Yuen (Glenn), Lauren Cohan (Maggie), and Chandler Riggs (Carl).
In addition, there’s an Artist Alley with tons of famous and local artists and craftspeople, the exhibitor list is pretty huge, and there are a handful of special events going on as well like the Rock Comic Con event at the Hard Rock Cafe with nerdy musical guests including Paul and Storm.
It’s shaping up to be a great weekend, and everyone nearby who can afford the time and money should make the trip and support the DCC. For those of you already planning on going: What are you most looking forward to this weekend?