Soooo Much Fun!
While it's easily one of the geekiest things you can do, going to a comic book/sci fi convention is just oodles of fun. The price of admission is totally worth the entertainment value of seeing über dorks running about in costume, geeking out in every way imaginable. (And of course, it's nice to be able to geek out without feeling like your geeking out in an environment such as this.)

And then there's the wonderous media and sales overload that threatens to discombobulate your senses. "Oh, look at that, the unaired pilot of Birds of Prey featuring Sherilyn Fenn." "Is that a lightsaber I hear?" "If you buy two of these DVDs, I'll throw in a third free... you won't find them anywhere else!" "I've gotta see the Star Trek blooper reel... again."

So, let's break this pseudo-review down into some more manageable tidbits...

Star Wars
Originally, I was mostly excited about this convention because Billy Dee Williams would be in attendance. (I believe Peter Mayhew -- Chewbacca for you lesser nerds -- was on hand last year.) However, upon checking the featured guest list the day before the con (on Hobbystar's site), I became even more excited because they'd added Mike Quinn, the man behind Nien Nunb! Who's Nien Nunb you ask?

In short, Nien Nunb was Lando Calrissian's co-pilot on the Millenium Falcon during the second Death Star run. For more Nien Nunb fun, please visit X-Entertainment and get their take on Nien Nunb: here, here, and here.

While I didn't end up meeting either (due to not wanting to pay a higher admission price to get autographs), It was still cool to see the fans lining up at their booths from afar.

What I did get to see up close were members of The New England Garrison, 501st Legion of Stormtroopers. Yup, you've got it, guys wandering around the convention in full Star Wars garb. Highlights from this included: a tall, imposing Vader trying on girlie velvet capes from a "fantasy" vendor; a stormtrooper bussling his way through a crowd while warning (through his nifty little radio speaker), "Make way for the Empire!"; and a pretty darn good looking Boba Fett. Sweet.

Another highlight from the Star Wars side of things included Lightech Industries's booth with "functional" lightsabers. Not only were their sabers able to light up all cool and withstand punishing blows on the blades, BUT they also had one set-up with some funky glove contraption that helped transmit appropriate lightsaber sounds to a stereo nearby. Tough to explain, but trust me, it was MUCH cooler than those cheap plastic officially licensed lightsabers from Hasbro.

Comic Books
I managed to walk out of there without purchasing a single damn comic book. Yay for me. But, one thing I would like to mention is that one vendor at the show probably had over $100,000 worth of comics on the display board behind him. Hell, he had at least eight copies of X-Men #1 propped up in a small section back there. Damn!

80's Nostalgia
Apart from all the toys that I wanted to buy again, there were also a number of old cartoons bootlegged onto DVD for which I yearned. (Remember the old Teen Titans cartoon? Mighty Mouse? The entire run of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends?) There was one nearly forgotten jem in particular that I almost had to nab (no, not Jem and the Holograms).

That jem was The Mighty Orbots. I can't even tell you how happy I was to see that airing at one of the booths. For more info on the Orbots, visit Well-of-Souls.com. I'd seriously entirely forgotten about this cartoon, but after seeing two minutes of it, I nearly bought an (over-priced) DVD.

People Watching
Other than watching stormtroopers frolicking about, there was another people-watching event that proved equally entertaining. The event? Watching semi-cute female vendors dressed in short black skirts and knee-high boots dealing with socially awkward customers.

It was great! These vendors didn't even really have to flirt with the nerds to help sales along. A simple smile was enough.

I should say, though, that the overall atmosphere at these things is great. Most attendees and vendors are pretty friendly anyway. You only occassionly stumble across a snooty vendor or an annoying know-it-all geek.

Newmoanyeah in Da House
Caucassianal Kenny ended up buying a schweeeeet HR Giger poster and three bootlegged Prince concerts on VHS.

Otherworldly Kerri ended up buying yet another Riker action figure: Geriatric Riker. And if you have no clue what the Hell I'm talking about, go read this article. She also donated funds to the Save Farscape Campaign.

While Comic Book Convention Queen, Jennifer was unable to attend, she was definitely there in spirit amidst our Hobbystar frenzy. After seeing some talented lesser-known artists doing sketches for people, I think I'm going to follow Jennifer's advice in the future and bring a sketch book with me to conventions. Just in case, y'know. There actually was an artist with whom I wasn't familiar... I think his name was Chris King. If I'd really thought about it, I probably would have had him sketch something for me. I liked his stuff.

I ended up buying a bootlegged copy of the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special on DVD. While horribly overpriced, it was easily the clearest copy of the program that I'd ever seen and one of the few copies I'd seen on DVD. Ah, gotta love technology. I also picked up one other thing that I can't talk about right now because it's a X-mas gift for someone.

Newmoanyeah Later in the Day
This section is totally and completely unrelated, but I figured I'd add it in, just for ho-ho's. Went to dinner with Lemusrish Matt, Scattagoric Missie, her husband, and my girlfried at Bugaboo Creek after the convention.

Good wedge salad (with bacon). The best baked potato I've ever had (with bacon). And yummy steak. While the food was good, I was disturbed to hear happy birthday sung every five minutes by the tone-deaf staff and to hear the stuffed buffalo head mounted on the wall mumble something about how great steak was every other five minutes.

But, I'd have to say it was a pretty good day overall. The convention gets an "A". And the meal gets a "B+".