A Houston native’s first time at Comicpalooza
A few years ago, I found out that Comicpalooza was a Houston based comic convention, rather than a comic convention that is sometimes held in Houston. Ever since I have been dying to attend as a guest. I’ve also been interested in selling my artwork in the Artist Alley. Being a digital artist that regularly makes fan art, I have found out that conventions rather than galleries are the best ways of having a positive engagement with your art.
This year at Comicpalooza (on its tenth anniversary) I was able to attend as part of the press. It didn’t meet my expectations, but surpassed it in every way! My only con/expo experience has been Penny Arcade Expo-South in San Antonio in its inaugural year, 2014, so I wasn’t a complete newbie, but I still was blown away. After attending Comicpalooza (abbreviated as CPX this year), I see the subtle distinction between an expo and a convention.
The art and cosplayers
As an artist and a person that loves most of the subjects that fan art was created from, it is really hard not to go to the artist and not go in debt. There is something for everyone down in the Artist’s Alley. I purchased X-Men, Harry Potter, Parks & Recreation and (a shameful amount of) Overwatch fan art.
It is also hard not to ask for a photo of every cosplayer you walk past. One of the best aspects of cosplay was seeing people as an ensemble or as something similar and become friends. At one point running to an event to make it on time, I came across a cluster of spider people from Marvel’s Spider-Verse ask another costumed hero to join along for a group pic.
The celebrities
While I did not have the cash to purchase an autograph or photo with any of the celebrities, I did get to attend their Q&A panels. These panels included Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, Tom Holland and Ruth Carter.
The only Q&A session that I missed featured four voice actors from “Overwatch” the Blizzard title that has taken thousands of hours of my life the last few years. Every panel that I went to the moderators and the guests (‘celebrities’ sounds weird when you see them in the flesh) were amazing. The guests were so humbled by the compliments and questions given to them by fans and many went past time just so that a few more questions could get squeezed in. Cox and Holland especially you could tell that if they had the time and energy to speak with every fan – they would.
The main issue I came across was going to an event where the headliner was basically a teenage heartthrob (something I forgot existed having left school so many years ago.) Holland’s Q&A session was too wild. It was great that the event was in the general assembly and so many people got to see him even if they couldn’t pay for the photo or autograph. But there was a large percentage of extrovert fangirls screaming phrases like “I love you!” or “Go to prom with me!” every 30 seconds which took away from that experience. Holland was very kind and acknowledged half of the comments that were passionately screamed at him, but it was almost to a fault. That only encouraged more people to go wild.
The events
As I stated above, for a person that has so many interests and loves to learn, the scheduling was so difficult. There were 5-10 events going on every hour across three floors of the George R. Brown Convention Center. I ended up only attending a small percentage of the events I wanted to attend. Other than the Q&A’s previously mentioned, I attended “Gender Bending Cosplay Panel,” “Muggle Quidditch,” “Nerdy Bitches Podcast 100th Episode Live” and The Houston Outlaws Overwatch Finale (and a few games between events.)
The verdict
My final conclusion is that there is just not enough time in the day. There were so many more literary topic discussions, tv/movie discussions and contest I missed. This is one of those things that a time-turner would be really nice to have, so computer science students please get on that! That way next year I can see more! Luckily, I get to relive many moments via Twitter and Instagram since Brandon, the editor-in-chief of The Signal, and I were live broadcasting the convention. That being said, it was just the perfect amount of time and accessibility for a jam-packed convention of so many nerd communities.
