Welcome to Comicon

Captain's Log: Stardate one-hundred and thirty seven point five. Enterprise on mission to Comicon. All systems normal and running - ohmygod is that Spiderman not wearing boxers underneath his costume?

Recently, I graced the event known as "Comicon," which celebrates the culture surrounding comic books, its artists, and well-known (sometimes not so well-known) celebrities that have impacted the pop culture world. For some people, this has been deemed as a "nerd fest" - but believe me - it's not all just pen and ink and superhero costumes, though there was plenty of it.

When my boyfriend and I first walked in, it was like entering a giant comic book store crawling with masked men and women, space creatures, and media. After snapping a few photos here and there, including one of pint-sized Super Woman, I found myself in what can only be described as veteran row for wrestlers. It was like seeing a dozen Mickey Rourkes bartering for your attention. My eye was quickly caught by the one and only Ernie Hudson. You know, one of the original Ghostbusters. He was relaying to us how some collector card salesmen had somehow convinced him to buy a box of old, crusty Ghostbusters cards (with gum included...ew.) Did they know he was in the movie?

"Yeah...I dunno. Guess not!" He laughed.

We managed to pose for a picture with him and chatted a bit longer, thanking him for the memories and of course, the photo.

"Yeah...no problem," he said with slight apprehension in his voice, "but I still need the 20 bucks for the photo."

Oh yeah...how could we forget? Not only did you have to pay for a photo with Winston the Ghostbuster or any ex-wrestler, but you even had to pay for a photo with rejects from The Bachelor and pregnant porn stars. Argh! Why didn't I save my Christmas money? In all fairness though, it's not the celebrities who set the price, but you could definitely tell who was harder up for cash than others; I know you're flaunting it hard for a reason, Adrianne Curry.

Although it was fun trying to figure out where these TV personas burgeoned from, it was also important to check out the drawing talents of the Comic Book artists. As we ventured into this section, it was amazing to see the variety of styles and subject matter that were on display. What was even better was you could actually flip through their portfolios while they sketched away all day. In a way, you kind of got a tidbit of their artistic process. At one area, an artist worked along side his young son who was also getting a few customers with his superhero drawings. The sight of this father and son artist team made my heart melt into a little action figure.

After watching a wrestling match between some comic book characters and snapping a few more photos of spandex-clad couples,it was time to go. I emerged through the light sabers and Proton packs as a happy visitor.

Photo credit: courtesy Thomas Duchnicki Creative Commons.