This past weekend, Wizard World Comic Con was held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The convention began late Friday and ran until Sunday, allowing fans to greet the celebrity guests, shop the dealers’ tables, and attend panels for three days. Located across from the CNN Center with its convenient food court, and the Omni hotel, the Congress Center proved to be a great location for Wizard World. 

 But was it worth attending? For me, the answer is an undeniable yes. One of the celebrity guests happened to be none other than Sean Patrick Flanery  (“Young Indiana Jones,” “The Boondock Saints”), so of course I didn’t pass up a chance to have my picture taken with him. Again. Though his line moved slowly, it was great to see how he really took time with each attendee, answering questions and posing for pictures. 

Norman Reedus (“The Boondock Saints”, “The Walking Dead”) had his table next to Sean’s, and women jostled each other as they tried to get closer to get a picture of him. It’s a well known fact that fans will revolt if his character is ever killed off “The Walking Dead.” Fans of “The Boondock Saints” also had an opportunity to buy tickets for a VIP experience with which they were able to get ahead in line to meet Reedus and Flanery, as well as David Della Rocco. It also guaranteed seating at their panel and allowed guests to get a photo with all three actors. 

Two of the other big name guests were Karen Gillan (“Doctor Who”) and Stan Lee, whose very name brings joy to the hearts of Marvel fans everywhere.

One of the most entertaining panels I attended was presented by Retroblasting, in which they celebrated the 30th anniversary of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” They shared a video that counted the number of times Willie Scott screamed throughout the film (I believe it was 30) and made comparisons between “Doom” and “Gunga Din.” It was an informative and interactive panel, and I actually didn’t want it to end. 

The convention center offered plenty of space for the dealers’ tables and artists, and it was easy to navigate the large room. The aisles were wide and made browsing easy, and I returned home with more art prints than I’ll ever hang on my walls and some Yoda necklaces.

There were also costumes seen on the convention floor, though not as many as I might have expected. And those that didn’t quite dress in costume still showed the love for their fandoms. I wore my brand new Rebel logo skirt from Her Universe, and another fan came up dying to know where I bought it.

And while it was great to see Sean Patrick Flanery again and buy Yoda merchandise for my collection, the best part of the convention was spending time with my friends. Regardless of which celebrity guests are signing or what the panels are about, a convention is so much better when you have your friends with you, pointing out things you might have missed or teasing you about your celebrity obsessions.

And it would seem that enough people attended and had a good time that Wizard World Atlanta will be held once again at the Georgia World Congress Center in  2015, dates to be determined.

During the Salt Lake Comic Con Fan X event Arse-Bot, Lance from Entertainment is Dead and I got a chance to interview a few professional Cosplayers. We talked with Joanie Brosas, Nicole Marie Jean, Destiny Nickelson and LeeAnna Vamp. We asked them about their experience at the con, apparently we all smell good, how they got into cosplay, how they make their costumes, and the proper etiquette for taking pictures or approaching cosplayers. 

Listen to the interviews here.

Who doesn’t like the idea of putting on a mask and bounding around the city to fight crime, protect the innocent, and work for justice? Well, if you’ve wanted to do that, even if it’s just for kick, DC’s made your dream come true by releasing 4 cut out masks for fans. Along with the masks they’ve also declared this July 23^rd to be Batman Day. Each of the masks comes from a different era of Batman: The Original era by Bob Kane, The 66 era based on Adam West’s time under the cowl, The hardened Batman of “The Dark Knight Returns” from Frank Miller, and the modern era by Greg Capullo.

Batman day will also be celebrated in thousands of libraries across the US on Saturday July 26^th because of a partnership with DC Entertainment and Random House. This year is the 75^th anniversary of Batman and it appears that DC Comics isn’t taking their foot off of the celebration peddle. There are all kinds of crazy happenings in the world of Batman with Dick Grayson becoming a super-spy and Batman possibly picking a successor to his recently killed Robin, Damian Wayne. It’ll be hard for Batman to replace his son Damian, but with the number of fan favorite characters in the Batman family, Bruce isn’t hurting for options. For more information on Batman Day head on over to DC’s blog and check out the Batman Masks below.

Images DC Entertainment

Images DC Entertainment

It’s hard to be a geek and not love Halloween. You get to let your cosplay flag fly and talk about making costumes with people who may never attend a convention and see the amazing costumes there. We at Big Shiny Robot are no different. These are just a few of our geeky costumes.

We’ve got Sithbot as a “Crossed” missionary,Zombie-tron as Cap, myself as a Ghostbuster and Matt Smith’s 11, Arse-Bot as Captain Six Pack (who is apparantley buddies with a shaved Thor), Miss Mecha Zero is Armed and Ready as Teemo from League of Legends, KMC1138 did some great zombie makeup and Swank makes a great Death Eater

This kid has got it made. His parents made him a Ghostbusters costume complete with an Ecto-1 cart to make his Halloween night a bit easier. You may remember him from when he had a Delorean cart last year. As amazing as that was his parents have stepped up their game this year.

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I’m impressed. I did Dragon Con a few years ago and was exhausted on day one. Taking pictures all day is fun but it gets tiring. Fighting the crowds and the light and trying to get a good position to photograph isn’t easy and Beat Down Boogie did a great job. Take a bit of time and watch their huge undertaking.

Today I learned: there’s a Japanese subculture related to customized motorcycles called Bosozoku.  And a quintet of Southern California “Sailor Moon” fans decided to create a cosplay photo shoot inspired by artist Babs Tarr, who created this Bosozoku picture of the five Sailor Scouts:

As project coordinator Michelle “Chubby Bunny” Nguyen explains, “My friends and I got together to make this fun Sailor Moon cosplay shoot happen. Having grown up with the series, we are all huge Sailor Moon fans. We were inspired by Babs Tarr’s amazing Bosozoku-themed Sailor Scouts and set out to recreate it along with adding our own styling to her vision.” (via crunchyroll).

“Own styling” is right. Sailor Venus reminds me of a 1930’s pin-up girl while Sailor Mars seems to be channeling Vampirella. I think the Sailor Mercury wig and visor is very visually striking.  Just love the blue in that image.

So perhaps not for “Sailor Moon” purists, but obviously a lot of love and effort did go into these photos.

Wow. I am still taken aback by what we were all a part of. The turnout to the Salt Lake Comic Con was tremendous. Seeing the carpet on the floor was a rare site, while seeing amazing costumes was not. For three days the Salt Palace was jam packed with people geeking out. This con wasn’t just a big deal for local fans of all things comics, but for the Salt Lake Valley. According to the Governor’s office this was the largest convention ever held in Utah. Our first year we rivaled some of the biggest comic conventions in the nation.Because of this there were some hiccups, but nothing catastrophic. Even the long lines it didn’t seem to get most of the attendees down. In the same sentence we would hear, “I just waited for two hours to get in here and it is so awesome!”

There was lots to do, and even more to check out. If you didn’t want to wait in line for a signature there were tons of vendors with amazing stuff to buy. If you didn’t feel like spending cash you could attend one of the panels. Or maybe take a photo with one of the many cosplay groups there. The Ghostbusters of Salt Lake and the 501st had a huge presence. 

Here is what the official Salt Lake Comic Con had to say in response to the event:

According to fire marshalls and Salt Palace Convention personnel we had 70-80,000 people attend Saturday which makes 2013 Salt Lake Comic Con the largest 1st year Comic Con in the nation.

 

The Governor’s office tells us we had the largest convention of any kind in the State of Utah.You were a part of history. Next year Salt Lake Comic Con will rival San Diego, thanks to you.

 

There were some glitches, without a doubt. We will make sure that next year, things will be better in every way.

When Stan Lee tells you at the last minute he’s willing to come to Salt Lake City for your first Comic Con, do you say, “Sorry Stan, we don’t have enough time to plan for your participation.”

When Adam West and William Shatner tell you in the last week that they will agree for the first time in history to be on stage together, do you say, “Sorry Gods of Geeks, we don’t have enough time to plan for this.”

We did the best we could. And we hope that you, our fans, sponsors, vendors, volunteers, guests will look at the best that we did, rather than the worst. You’ll find whatever you’re looking for.

Thanks again for making this a super fun, record breaking event.

Those are some big numbers. Thanks to all of those that stopped by and said, “Hello.” And a special thanks to all the cosplayers that let us take their picture to post up on the site. We have shared some in our posts about Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3. For all of our pictures of the cosplayers visit our FaceBook page. Oh, and of course go check out our audio recording of Stan Lee’s Q and A. We will definitely see you all at next year’s Comic Con in Salt Lake City.

Friend of the site and Full of Sith listener Roel Veldhuyzen snapped a whole bunch of photos from Star Wars Celebration: Europe II and was kind enough to provide them to us.

I asked him to choose his 25 best photos of the best costumes he saw and this was what he brought to me. There’s some pretty great stuff here and it really emphasized the point that Star Wars is everywhere.

You can follow Roel on Twitter.

I think my favorite might be the Qui Gon, though. That’s just the best I’ve ever seen it done. It’s perfect.

Big Shiny Robot! is proud to be a sponsor of SLC Nerd 2013 which is taking place this year on April 20 at The Complex, and we really hope to see as many of you there as possible!  Not only will there be a costume contest, D&D, Magic: The Gathering, a Street Fighter tournament (with a pretty bad-ass prize!), an art gallery, live music and a science fair, there will also be tons of panels delving into all things geek.

And who will be hosting one of these panels?  Why it’s our very own Swankmotron, also known by his alter ego, Bryan Young!  Voxnerd, will be presenting at least six 15-20 minute panels about topics varying from “Becoming a DragonSlayer (Good Career Move or The Dumbest Thing You’ve Ever Done?)” to “Zombie Rights: The Downfall of America“.  Bryan will be covering ” Imperial Espionage in the Context of the Galactic Civil War“, and if you’ve ever had the chance to sit down with him and discuss Star Wars, you know that not only is he incredibly knowledgeable on the subject, but he also brings a new and unique take to the topic at hand.  Voxnerd will begin their panels at 2 PM, so show up on time!

We here at BSR are incredibly proud of Bryan and excited that he will have such a large part in this event.  We’ll also have a booth there, so you should definitely stop by, play some Street Fighter, check out some shwag, and meet some of your favorite robots!

SLC Nerd will be open to the public from 9AM-9PM, and all ages are welcome.  Tickets are available now for only $10, and you can pick them up at SmithTix or PartyTix

For more info, be sure to visit SLCNerd.com