Tiny Doom's 2014 Boston Comic Con round up!

After a great experience with a 2-day pass last year, I (and The Goog and The Red Menace) decided to attend all 3 days of Boston Comic Con 2014.  Armed with Ladies SWAG and excited to see friends, cosplayers, and creators, we embarked on our 3-day Con Saga.

Friday- Thanks to picking up our bracelets the day before, we had no trouble getting in at 2pm when the con started.  Because many people were still at work, or traveling, Friday was the "lightest" day in terms of people traffic.  It was still plenty busy, but you could move, find people, and browse booths easily.  It was a delight!

Speaking of a delight, The Goog and I decided to catch the Sean Astin Q&A.  I haven't been to many of these, so don't have a huge basis of comparison, but I thought this session went very well. Astin is delightful and charming, giving people what they want.  And what they want is to talk about Goonies and Lord of the Rings.  After sharing some stories about his time in Boston helping his daughter look at colleges, that's exactly what he got into.

As he said himself, Astin is a talker, and even though he had probably told these stories hundreds of time, he was engaged and enthusiastic about sharing his experiences.  He said quotes, did voices, and totally knew his audience.  The question "How was working on Lord of the Rings?" (can you even imagine how many times he has been asked this?) prompted a story about meeting Sir Edmund Hilary while in New Zealand.  Astin uses the same answer regarding his LOTR time as Hilary gave him when he asked how the view was from Everest, "Pretty good!"

I was very impressed by the way Astin handled the crowd.  He was super professional, making sure everyone got a chance to ask their question, even if that meant a rapid fire round at the end.  And yes, he did weigh in on the whole Justin Bieber/Orlando Bloom thing.  Unsurprisingly, he's totally Team Orlando.   It was a great start to the con.

Then The Red Menace and I did some wandering and somehow ended up doing an interview for a documentary! The film -maker asked questions about the appeal of comics, and how we thought they connected with people's dreams and ideals.  In a bit of a mishap, the first time around the camera wasn't rolling, but that was OK, because we think we did better the 2nd time around.

Of course, there was also commerce....

Friday's purchases:

• Stickers from The Adventures of the GWF  (Remember when I reviewed the first two issues?  The third is out and it keeps getting better!)
• Iron Man dragon pin from "Make me a Dragon"
• Baby's First Mythos from Erica Henderson 

Saturday-  You guys.  Saturday was cray.  Fun, but totally bananas and much more crowded than Friday.  However, the Ladies still managed to find some fun.  The Red Menace, Cartoon Sara and I (Smalerie had already left for the day) were interviewed by our friend Izzy for Somerville Community Access Television.  This was technically the 3rd interview TRM and I had done at the Con and I think we were starting to get the hang of it.  Then it was all business, handing out stickers and bookmarks like it was our job, 'cause it kinda was.  So, if you are reading this right now because you got one of those stickers or bookmarks….Hello and thank you!  Let us know you are here in the comments :-)

The big news for the TD/Goog household is that we brought home a Stan Sakai sketch.  The Goog was very excited to have the opportunity to get a sketch and asked for one with Usagi and Gen.

Saturday's commerce:

• Post cards from Mod Hero  (I bought some of these last year too, love love love them)
• A super cool old costume Starlord print from Block Nation

Sunday-  Day 3.  Feet a bit more sore, but still ready to browse, purchase, and maybe get into another Q&A we headed into the Con on Sunday morning.  Thanks to The Goog and his mad seat saving skills The Red Menace and I were able to join him at the Jason Momoa Q&A!

This was a lot different than the Sean Astin Q&A, let's say, less family friendly (but perhaps more hilarious).  First off, Momoa spent some time out in Southie the night before and as he told us, the man likes his beer. He likes his beer so much that while they were filming GoT in Ireland, it was his idea to have a wide waistband as part of Khal Drogo's costume so he could drink beer and do no sit-ups.

Despite being a bit um, sleepy, he engaged with the crowd in his own way, jumping in to take questions pretty quickly.  Questions largely centered around Game of Thrones, Stargate, Conan (he is a huge Robert E. Howard and Frazetta fan), his own directorial work, and rumors of him playing Aquaman in an upcoming DC comics movie.  Before you start to wonder if we got any secret heads-up on Aquaman, we didn't.  In fact, the man went stone cold when that topic was brought up.  Some of the audience took that as him not wanting the part, but The Ladies and The Goog think his silence is likely because he's not allowed to talk about any potential role yet.

Momoa has a great sense of humor, often referring to himself as a fool.  He told a hilarious story about how when filming a nude scene for GoT he went out and bought the craziest polka dotted fuzzy sock he could find (ladies size XL) to cover his man parts.  Needless to say poor Emilia Clarke didn't stand a chance in keeping it together.  Apparently, he also walked around naked just to make people uncomfortable.  Momoa also was a really good sport about some of the stranger requests from the women in the audience.  He gave hugs, flexed his arms, and on numerous occasions, spoke Dothraki (which I have to admit, was totally something I wanted to hear).  He also shared how he used to prepare himself, and the other Dothraki for their roles.  To get in the right headspace, he would do a Haka, which is a super intense Polynesian war dance.

The Jason Momoa Q&A was the only one we were able to get to for the day.  The one for John Barrowman already had a huge line, and as fun as that would have been, we decided our time might be better spent hanging out with over with the awesome people at  Bad Kids Press!

This table had info about projects like The Adventures of the GWF, Nefarious Twit and Rogan, not to mention info on Comicazi events (many of which the Ladies frequent)!  That was a lot of bang for our (making our way through the crowds) buck.  And while I haven't mentioned it yet, the Sunday crowds weren't as bad as Saturday, but it was still pretty busy.  This is great for all the writers and artists!  Everyone we talked to said they had great days at the Con.  However, this is less great for one Tiny Doom.  After 3 days of being at elbow/armpit height, it was time to call it a Con.

Sunday's commerce:

• The Red Menace and I had some fun digging through a treasure chest of skull bracelets from Skully Kouture.  We each walked away with a set of 3.
• A super fun super hero painting from Reks Dox

Final thoughts- 3 days at the Con was fun, tiring, exciting, and hopefully created an even stronger comics community in Boston area.  BCC seems to get more popular each year and I wonder if they are starting to outgrow the current space (with the more popular celebrity guests I think this is already the case).  While it may not rival NY or San Diego, Boston Comic Con did a great job of focusing on comics and the people who create them.

Stay tuned for some mid-week Cosplay profiles for the Con!