The last three days were amazing! Not only did we have wonderful weather during this Father’s Day weekend, we also had an extraordinary annual event that took place here in Colorado: Denver Comic Con.
Comic Cons take place all over the world. They’re an opportunity for nerds of all walks of life and diverse lifestyles to gather and cosplay. Everyone at these Comic Cons enjoy true diversity that they feel to the core of their soul. It wakes them up, screams in their face and dances with them as they journey through every panel, exhibit, and performance. I’m not kidding, there’s always some tap dancing going on, I just know it.
To make this particular Comic Con even more spectacular, Denver’s is for a good cause. Denver Comic Con is part of the Comic Book Classroom program, which is a non-profit organization. This event raises funds to help promote literacy for children. We attend the Denver Comic Con event every year since it launched three years ago.
Last year it was unexpectedly crazy busy with delayed starts that caused chaos for the crowd and disorganization for the staff. It made me think of what life would be like during a zombie apocalypse. So this year I used doomsday prep techniques. I bought our tickets 8 months in advance. I am happy to say that the world was not taken over by zombies and we were able to exchange our 8-month-old tickets for badges two days prior to the start of this event. I almost felt like a proud mama, but we still had to see the opening of the doors on Friday morning. That was going to be the moment of truth and we were, of course, prepared.
Hours prior to opening time on Friday, we parked our car at a Light Rail station to take the train into Denver and have a quick get-away by foot if need be. There was no way we were going to drive into the mouth of this beast. Many cosplay attendees were on the train with us ready for the adventure we were about to take together.
We arrived at the Denver Convention Center and were quickly herded into a long line. I was scoping out our escape route, just in-case zombies did arrive. There were a few moments of group chanting and “the wave” being performed. At 10 minutes to opening, a few of the staff members came out the doors. There was panic. Will they delay this by two hours like last year, are they going to tell all of us that we’re in the wrong line, we need to go to the other side of the building and start all over, or were they going to feed us to zombies. To my surprise, they handed out lanyards to put our badges on. You could hear a sigh of relief throughout the crowd. Then with just a few minutes to go, they ran out of lanyards to hand out and I thought it would start a stampede. A staff member took lead of his group of red shirt co-workers, spoke calmly, authoritatively, and let the crowd know that they were about to open the doors, if you didn’t get a lanyard, then the additional lanyards could be found throughout the convention center and not to panic. A minute later the doors opened and the cast of cosplayers walked through the doors in a most organized manner. That my friends was the beginning to the best Comic Con I have attended.
Here are the panels I attended:
- A Guide to Traditional Publication for Novelists
- Focus on Ellie-Ann Sodertrom
- Unlocking the Story Within
- Focus on writers Amalie Howard and Kristie Helvig
- The importance of strong female characters in sci-fi/fantasy
- Women in Fiction
After each panel, I met with a few of the authors. To my surprise, one of the authors, Sarha Ockler, had last worked for the company I currently work for. Then to a panel that focused on just one author, Ellie-Ann Sodertrom. She is the phenomenal author of The Silver Sickle that I was sure to pick up a copy of while at the Con. Can’t wait to read it! She had such great insight into the industry and what it takes to make it as a female author. I also enjoyed meeting with two authors Amalie Howard and Kristie Helvig after their panel. Amalie is the author of Waterfell, The Almost Girl, and Alpha Goddess. Kristie is the author of Burn Out. I was sure to pick up a couple of copies of their books too. Their panel was a discussion between both authors and the audience throughout the hour. It was such a delight to go to each of these panels, hear their stories, learn from professional authors and be among creative souls.
In addition to the panels, there was plenty of good food and entertainment too. A few highlights for my husband and son; Our son won raffles both Saturday and Sunday in the Gaming Room. My husband spent time with our tattoo artist at his booth.
The event was well organized this year. There were a few technical glitches on Friday. The staff handled it well, really learned from last year’s mistakes, and stayed calm. The zombies that were there were all cosplayers and looked realistic, yet didn’t bite anyone. We’ll be back again next year. Same bat time same bat place. Now back to our normally programmed schedule. Make it a great Monday!
Ladybug Effect 