We got an interesting recap of a Comic Con today, in particular the Boston Comic Con of 2016.
This is different from the other recaps on this site for a couple of reasons. Unlike the others I was the only member of Film Fad present and was not able to obtain a press pass for the event. We’re unsure as to why as this site has been to and covered bigger cons like New York Comic Con. I had a VIP pass, but other than that no special access. However I do think I had a wonderful time at my second time coming here.
Day 1:
My younger sister and I went to the Comic Con last year and through trial and error learned some important things. We started off the day by getting the lay of the land and seeing what sort of vendors were there. There were new ones, but mostly the same ones from last year. Although they had new stuff, so it still felt fresh which was great. We found some new areas including a T.A.R.D.I.S. which we immediately got our picture with. A few months ago I had taken my little sister to the library where she borrowed a Squirrel Girl comic and became a fan. As luck would have it Squirrel Girl artist Erica Henderson was one of the featured artists. My sister immediately saw her and dragged me across the room to her table… then was incapable of forming words around her. After a little time had passed, we returned so my sister could actually talk to Ms. Henderson and I think we both found her and the gentlemen helping her at the table to be delightful. We even bought a sticker from her. The other main comic legend we met was Marv Wolfman who I had to explain to my sister why he was such a big deal. For those would don’t know, did you watch the “Teen Titans” series from 2003-2006? Are you a fan? Then you have Marv Wolfman to largely thank as it is his run that the series was primarily based on. So I got the chance to thank him in person as he’s had a HUGE impact on comics in general. Frank Miller was also there, but I was okay not meeting him. We concluded our first day and returned to our hotel ready for dinner (at the “Cheers” bar) and our next 2 days of Comic Con.
Day 2:
I’ll start off with a story. The second day we had been sleeping in as we’re both a fan of that and cons are tiring endeavors. Late last night my stepmom had surprised us with tickets to the William Shatner panel. I should have double-checked the time on the tickets, but I didn’t assuming the time would be later in the day. Well luckily our stepmom did and sent us a text message telling us it started at 9:45am which was surprising since the con itself did not begin until 10am. So my sister and I had to go from zero to ten in a few minutes, get dressed and head out from our hotel room which while close was still a reasonable hike to the convention center. Not knowing if we’d even be let in we forged ahead and arrived about 7 minutes late to the panel. However, we were allowed in with no problems and got there in the middle of Shatner’s stories about his hatred for the LA Rams. Afterwards, the mayor of Boston himself came on stage to give his own speech (as Shatner interrupted a few times to add funny comments) and declared it William Shatner day.
After that, the panel was finished about 15 minutes early from what the tickets said. After last year’s Elvira’s panel it was a tad disappointing, but hey we got to be in the same room as The Shat so I couldn’t complain much. As we left the wing of the convention center my sister stayed back to hold the door open for people because she’s a nice person. I turn around and who do I see walking behind me, Captain Kirk himself. I’m shocked as I can see in my area of vision the sight of William Shatner brushing past my sister holding the door open (like their clothes briefly touched) her with her mouth agape and eyes as wide as I’ve ever seen them. The main thought that passed through my mind was how perfect of a shot this was IF I had my camera out which I did not, (and at the brisk pace T.J. Hooker was trekking I knew I wouldn’t be able) so I took as many mental pictures as I could and barely noticed how much of similar height he and I were or how I could have put my hand on him stopping him if I wanted. Best missed photo-op ever. And as a final epitaph to that story, it wasn’t until I relayed this story to other people that I realized that no, he did not thank my sister for holding the door.
The rest of the day, we spent exploring around the con for gifts. I picked up stuff for friends and family as well as a few things for myself. We returned to the Squirrel Girl artist’s booth for a third time once we realized we never asked Erica Henderson for a photo. After that, we explored the top-level and realized this year that they had expanded the space some and found that they had also moved the food court and some photo ops with famous cars. It was shortly after this that we finished our second day.
Day 3:
The third day we had a few plans of things we wanted to accomplish. My sister had decided to try to find a Harley and Ivy comic she had seen earlier, we wanted to buy a Wonder Woman glass cup for my stepmom as a thank you to all the stuff she did, watch a documentary in the film festival, search for a comic that I plan to use for a later article, and if at all possible we wanted to get a picture with Marv Wolfman. Unfortunately we looked and looked, but could not find him nor either of our desired comics. However, the documentary was interesting. It was about Charlton Comics, most famous today as containing the superheroes that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons would later use as inspiration for the seminal work “Watchmen”. I assumed it was a short documentary as it was only scheduled for 30 mins though that’s not quite what it was. Instead, the producers (Keith Larsen) of said documentary came out and showed us a trailer for the film and then a few clips not seen before of the interviews. The film is still in production with certain key interviews yet to be filmed. It almost felt like a pitch meeting and if I was some crazy millionaire with plenty of money to spare I’d be glad to fund this as from what I saw was fascinating. Seriously keep an eye out for this once it comes out, I think it could be big. Afterwards, with only a little more than a hour until the Con close we wandered around the floor getting our last photos in.
Once again it was a great experience and I enjoyed my time there. Hopefully I’ll go back next year, preferably with a press pass but even if that doesn’t happen I’ll gladly return and hopefully help this website cover other cons. Please enjoy our cosplay gallery below: