By A. Hawkins.
As a first time convention goer, I did not know what to expect at the Long Beach Comic Con Expo, but I loved it. There where people in costumes dressed up as characters. There was Spider-man, the Ghostbusters, Dead Pool and so many more. Not only were there characters but there was also an extensive program schedule with different panels to attend. Comic Cons have grown beyond the mega shows in San Diego and New York as many major cities have their own cons, with Denver, Phoenix, and Seattle growing rapidly with audiences over 70K each year.
I was only able to go into a few. The first one was “Hunger Games Meets Audio Drama” which was an audio adaptation of “The Katniss Chronicles”. The cast and crew went into detail about how they came up with the idea.
The other room I went into was a conference with the artist of Wetworks. He answered questions about how Wetworks got started and also went into detail about a few of the characters like Dozer and Bane. He also shared stories of his younger years and why he became an artist.
Another interesting panel was “Cosplay Doesn’t Equal Consent” where they talked about how some people can be rude to the people who dress up as characters. The overall message was to watch out for each other.
My experience was amazing. I never knew people gathered together like this and I look forward to covering future events.
