Strong Female Characters

First, I know I haven't blogged in forever. No I haven't forgotten, but to say life got a tad bit busy is the understatement of the century. That said, I wanted to take a brief moment to talk about something extremely impactful that happened to me this weekend at comic con. Yes, I said comic con.

I've always believed strong female characters and their representation are super important. I'm an aerospace engineer. A women in a male dominated field. I spend a lot of my time trying to defend women in STEM fields, and serve as a role model for future females pursuing STEM fields. It's not an easy task. It seems to be never ending.

But starting at comic con this weekend, I witnessed some interesting things with respect to strong female characters. It started with a lovely discussion about strong female characters at a leading ladies panel Friday night at comic con. And no one in the room denied that strong female characters are not only critical, but they are necessary. We named strong female characters, and the qualities that made them so. It seemed so obvious to me then. But I don't think I had a full understanding of how essential strong female characters are until I showed up to comic con in my Rey cosplay and started walking around in the crowds.

First, I must note, that Rey was by far one of the most popular costumes at comic con. And while that isn't overly shocking, it's Star Wars, it's a fairly easy costume, and she's awesome, keep in mind only a handful of those Rey cosplays were adults. That's right, most of the 25 or so Rey's I saw, were young girls.

Every time I passed one, they smiled so hugely at me, and as I waved, they waved back. Without a doubt, it's an amazing thing to see that many young girls identifying with a character enough to want to portray her.

But of bigger note was the number of girls, who ran up to me and asked to take a picture. Including these two, who without any inhibition ran up and hugged me then told me how Rey was their favorite character.

And I see some of you rolling your eyes through your computer screen right now, but it wasn't just girls who responded to Rey. Let's talk about this little Kylo Ren, who I only had to hold out my light saber before he lunged at me ready for a fight. He didn't care that I was bigger than him, that I was girl or about the standard female stereotypes we often face when it comes to female heroes. The only thing that mattered was he knew Kylo Ren and Rey were supposed to fight and I held out a lightsaber. So he went for it and loved every minute of it!

There was also this boy who really wanted to take a picture with two strong female leads, but was so afraid to ask. So I asked him if he wanted a photo and he nodded shyly. You can't beat that grin on his face. He clearly loved being able to pose with two awesome female characters.

And I wont even go into the number of adults who screamed REY at me all weekend or smiled widely as I walked by. People love her and it's for so so many reasons. She's strong, she's a fighter, she's caring, she's a pilot, she's a budding jedi, she's so many wonderful and amazing things. She feels real. She feels human.

So after all of this, the excited young boys and girls, and enthusiastic adults, why are we still having to defend strong female characters? Why are we having to fight to get our female lead movies?

There's clearly a love for these kinds of characters. There's an audience there. We need to keep giving these examples to children. Girls need these role models. They need strong women to look up to. They need to know women can do anything. Boys need these role models. They need to see strong women are amazing. That they aren't a threat to them.

The more we see them, the more normal they are in the world. Their representation is important.

SCREAM THEIR PRESENCE FROM THE ROOFTOPS!

After this weekend, I know how much impact one strong female character can have. Let's flood the world with them in any way possible. Recognize them, write them, draw them, defend them, whatever it takes. Let's make a difference.

Who are your favorite strong female characters and why? And who is missing from the big screen? Let's bring these awesome characters to the surface.

And if you have strong female REAL LIFE role models, I want to hear about them too. Sound off in the comments. :)

St. Louis Comic Con 2014

If I had to use one word to describe St. Louis Comic Con 2014, I'd probably say surreal. Then I'd quickly follow it with amazing, exhausting, exciting, and awesome. Really I could go on and on and on with all the wonderful adjectives but suffice to say, I am one lucky girl. The weekend was downright fantastic.

Wizard World STL in 2014 was several times larger and definitely more badass than 2013. For starters the vendors and artist alley was held inside Edward Jones Dome instead of on the convention center floor which served as the entry to the con this year. From the moment I stepped onto the floor, I could feel the con energy. There's something about a nerd dressed in cosplay surrounded by her people. And while I was bouncing off the walls for at least a month prior to the con, when the day finally came I was calm cool and collected because I was finally in my element, finally home. It’s the best feeling in the world to be in the place where you know you belong.

Stargate Sg-1

After getting our wristbands and waiting in line for the con to officially start, the lines finally started to move. We wandered the vendors and artists alley for a bit, looking at geeky tshirts, toys (yeah I still REALLY want a lightsaber), and awesome art! I even ran into the awesome Heather Brewer who was signing books and giving away swag! It was also fun to check out all the people in cosplay. In general there’s tons to see and explore.

Ghostbusters cosplay

After that we went to a Doctor Who panel followed by a panel on the psychology of science fiction. Both were really interesting. And then it was time to head home and rest up for day 2!

Day 2

When we arrived we waited in line to get in. Then we wandered the vendor floor again and I got my picture taken for the online cosplay contest. After that we headed over to the theater to wait for the awesome panels. As much as waiting in line sucks, I always ALWAYS meet the most awesome people. And day 2 was no exception. We met fellow whovians and other sci fi fans, and honestly when you put a bunch of nerds in a room together they will never fail to find something to talk about. We talked everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Doctor Who while we waited to get into the theater.

And then once again the line finally moved! We found our seats on the first balcony and waited for the first panel, Eliza Dushku. I loved her in Dollhouse and Bring it On but I honestly had no idea what to expect from her. She was surprisingly very funny. She talked about Buffy, Dollhouse, even Bring it On as well as the difference between working for James Cameron and Joss Whedon. She joked about how her hair was her superpower and her comfort zone (which call me crazy but I can totally relate too) and how Joss Whedon loved to take her out of her comfort zone by frequently putting her hair up in Dollhouse. She later got a tattoo on the back of her neck so that every time they’d want to do that they’d have to put her through 30 minutes of makeup. Check out a brief clip from her panel below.

Next up was the Sean Astin panel. He mostly talked Lord or the Rings but there was a a couple questions about Goonies, which was fun because someone asked about what he thought about the possibility of Goonies two and if he’d want to be involved. He responded “It’ll be sooner rather than later.” And sure enough 4 or so questions later, someone said they had announced online that Goonies two would happen. Astin’s response “What did I say before? Sooner rather than later.” In general Sean seemed very down to Earth and loved interacting with the fans. Check out a clip from his panel below.

And then it was time for the main event! Matt Smith’s panel. The theater filled to capacity and after a sonic salute, Matt took the stage. There was a lot of I love you’s and some awesome questions from the fans during this panel. Matt was a lot of fun and a great sport about all the crazy fan love. I recorded his whole panel so check it out below.

And then it was time to rush out of the theater and stand in line again. This time to meet Matt Smith. We tagged up with some friends and did a lot of people watching while we waited in line for his autograph. And finally FINALLY it was my turn.

Matt looked up at me and the first thing out of his mouth was “Are you an expendable?”

I laughed and said “No I'm an incredible”

He said, “Oh right, the Disney thing. Is expendable even a thing?”

I said “Yes.”

Although very different, close enough Matt I’ll give it to you. I said nice meeting you and we were off and back to wandering the vendors.

After another panel that shall remain nameless because it was badly organized and rather insulting, it was time for me to line up for the costume contest. Now let me pause here for a minute to explain a few things.

1) I hate HATE being the center of attention

2) I hate HATE being on stage

3) I’m a huge HUGE introvert

4) I could go on and on with reasons why this is out of my wheelhouse but I think you get the point.

So why I subjected myself to the costume contest I’ll never know. Maybe it was because I was super excited about my Violet Parr costume or because I felt like I was in my element. I’m not really sure, but when it came time to line up in my spot Lucky Number 2 (no not daunting at all!) I started to freak out. Especially since the people I was with filed into the theater and I was alone. Okay not really alone, I was surrounded by a couple hundred awesome cosplayers but not gonna lie I felt kind of alone. AND NERVOUS. But I quickly made friends with those around me. A girl dressed as Poison Ivy and a fantastic family dressed as Firefly. If it wasn’t for them I might have walked away in a ball of tears. Not only did they calm my nerves without even knowing it but they made the whole experience fun, no not just fun AWESOME. We had a mini dance party back stage while we waited to be announced and then I strutted my confident Incredible (pun intended) self onto the stage and struck my pose!

Me as Violet Parr in the Cosplay Contest

Then I exited stage right and joined my fellow cosplayers in the upper balcony. I sat next to the firefly clan and we had a massive dance party in the penthouse of the theater as we cheered on the rest of the cosplay contestants. It was a complete blast! I didn’t win anything but I’m so SO unbelievably glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and did this. It was 100% worth it.

The Firefly cosplayers

After the contest we jetted off for some food at Pi and ran into none other than Sean Patrick Flannery. I eyed him from across the room but gave the guy his space. He didn’t need some crazy fans interrupting his dinner. But as luck would have it, his group was exiting at the same time we were. I looked at him said I’m a huge fan and he said thank you and walked off back to the convention center. We followed and hung out with other con attendees at the after party in on of the boxes at the dome, then headed home thoroughly exhausted.

Day 3

Before we knew it we were back in line to get into the con. I met some other lovely con goers who just so happened to be big Arrow fans. So we talked about how awesome the series is and how worthless the Lance girls are (okay not worthless, but if you watch the show you can understand the dislike). And then it was time to enter the con for the final day.

We headed back to the autograph area and I jumped in line to meet Nathan Fillion. We weren’t sure if there would be time to meet him after all the VIPs but before his photo ops but we got really lucky and squeezed in at the end. The poor guy was nursing a cold but despite that he was really nice and appreciative of the fans.

Two people in front of us he stopped and said “Snot break.” Then ducked under the table with a tissue and proceeded to take care of his nose blowing. His manager/agent whoever she was stood waiting with the hand sanitizer. And then he went on to shake the next person’s hand in line and wiped a ton of the excess all over the guy shaking his hand and saying “Nice to meet you!” Definitely a really surreal moment. I know actors are people too, but this was proof that he’s just a regular guy. Then it was my turn, I shook his hand, said I was a big fan and that is was nice to meet him and we were on our way.

And it was back to the theater to wait in line again for more awesome panels! First up was another Doctor Who panel led by St. Louis’s Doctor Who fan club the CIA. No not that CIA, but the Celestial Intervention Agency. It’s a classic Who reference for those unfamiliar. I also learned that St. Louis has the longest continuous Doctor Who fan club in North America. Which is pretty cool. The answered questions from the crowd about classic and new who and what they thought about the newest doctor, Peter Capaldi.

After that Karen Gillan took the stage to talk about Doctor Who, Occulus, and Guardians of the Galaxy. She also seemed really down to Earth. She talked about working with Matt and their final filming and her appearance on Matt’s last episode. She said she really just wanted to be there for him. Cue the Awwww’s. Check out some clips from her Q&A below.

 

And then it was time for the panel I’d been waiting for all weekend. The Firefly panel. I knew it was going to be amazing! And it truly was! Unfortunately Summer Glau had to fly out early, so we were treated to a boys night with Adam Baldwin, Nathan Fillion, and Alan Tudyk. You can tell these three are friends and they were having a lot of fun up there. They mostly answered questions about Firefly and talked about working on set. And Alan gave away free signed “shit” including butt wipes, which apparently are good for removing the bags under your eyes. Oh and Nathan Fillion may have dropped a hint about Guardians of the Galaxy… just maybe. But I could go on and on about how awesome this panel was. And in fact you can see how awesome it was in the video below!

And after the Firefly panel, it was sadly time to go home. Well not too sad because it was an amazing AMAZING weekend. Utterly exhausting, but full of so much awesome! And after all the excitement I went home and slept for a million years. Oh and I also blew up the internet… but that’s a story for another time ;).

The Day I Blew up the Internet

Okay, so I didn't really blow up the internet cause you're all here reading this, but things kind of did explode today. I honestly thought my next blog was going to be about the awesomeness that was St. Louis Comic Con. But something interesting happened to me in the last 24 hours and I wanted to talk about that instead. And it is indirectly related to comic con, so while I gather my thoughts on that, here's the story of how "blew up" the internet.

When I attended the Firefly panel with Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, and Alan Tudyk on Sunday, I knew I wanted to record it. I'd been told that Firefly panels are always fantastic and lets face it, these three are top notch. As a huge fan of the show, I knew I'd not only want to remember it but also want to be able to relive it over and over again. I knew it would be great, but I never expected it so be so downright hilarious. I also never expected Nathan Fillion to drop one of biggest, geekiest spoilers EVER.

Toward the end of the panel, a fan asked Nathan Fillion if because of his connection to James Gunn (a St. Louis native), if he was wanting a role in Guardians of the Galaxy.

"Wanting to get a part... or maybe did," was Fillion's reply. And at that moment the air got sucked out of the room as 1400 people collectively took a breath together. "I'm just saying maybe. Maybe you'll be surprised. Maybe. Check the credits after the movie when you watch it," Fillion finished.

To say the room went bat-shit crazy is the understatement of the century.

I of course took the news to Twitter and Facebook. My friends all replied with "HE BETTER NOT BE KIDDING" and "THIS BETTER BE TRUE" and "OMG THIS IS AWESOME" and other such all caps excitement. And I said I'm pretty sure it is true, but I couldn't put into words the feeling that occurred in that theater as Nathan Fillion answered the question. I couldn't explain why I felt in my very gut that this awesomeness would come to pass. But I did have 40 plus minutes of video including this very announcement.

I wanted fans, truly diehard fans, to share in the news. Sci fi nerds, while on the rise in popularity, still frequently get a bad wrap. So we nerds and geeks have to stick together. We have to look out for each other. We also LOVE to speculate. And this is the perfect thing to speculate about. I wanted everyone to have that opportunity.

So I decided to take the news to one of the biggest sites for geeks, nerds, and fans, Hypable. I wrote up my story and I included the proof. And then I waited to see if it would get approved. An hour later it was on the site and then posted to Facebook.

But a short time after I had a tweet from one of Hypable's site managers, Andrew Sims.

hey! Q for you. Thanks for writing the Nathan Fillion article. Did you happen to find it at http://ComicBook.com ?

My first reaction was to get a little defensive. I'd seen their article, but not until an hour after mine had gone up on Hypable. Apparently they were concerned that I'd stole the story from them. I was being accused of plagiarism. That couldn't be true. I was the one that had been plagiarized before. I never would even dream of doing that to anyone else. It sucks, and I'd never wish that 8th circle of hell on anyone or want to cause them that kind of pain. It was just a crazy coincidence that we both posted the same story with Nathan's quote. It happens a lot, both in the news world and also in the writing world.

I can only liken the feeling to when you start to read someone's book synopsis that just sold and your heart skips a beat thinking they've stolen your idea. But you keep reading on in fear and find out PHEW it's vastly different. It's a tough thing to experience, but it happens. A LOT! And it's equally as bad when it happens with big news you think you've scooped. You can't and probably wont ever be the first person to think of something. But that's okay. The only thing you can do is be true to yourself and your story. Each person brings a different perspective to the situation and/or story and it's important to remember that when writing. And it was a good lesson for me to learn. But that's not where the lessons stopped for me. In fact it's only where it started.

At any rate, I popped in on the story periodically throughout the day yesterday to see if people were enjoying it. I want my fellow nerds to be happy. For the most part people were. (yeah, LESSON #2 is you can't please everyone!) People were excited, chatting about it, and liking the post. The video had a couple hundred views. I'd done my job... or so I'd thought.

This morning I woke up to about 1200 views on the video. Cool. People were REALLY enjoying it. I was a happy nerd. By lunch time I had a post on my facebook wall from a fellow friend who attended the con. The video was popping up all over the internet. And it had over 5,000 views. FIVE THOUSAND! I couldn't believe it.

YEAH THIS FACE!

AND THIS!

SAY WHAT?

I started searching and my video was on many news sites. Sometimes my original story was referenced, but often times the video was there and no credit was given at all. NONE. In this case, I honestly didn't care. I'd shot some crappy, shaky video and happened to capture an awesome moment that I shared online. But I quickly realized that this happens ALL THE TIME. People don't give credit where it's due. They steal ideas, images, videos, stories, and on and on and on and don't credit the source. And there's not a whole lot you can do about it. LESSON #3 your shit's going to get stolen. You often aren't going to get credit for it. It sucks, but it happens.

But even more interesting, there were sites that had done their homework, not only credited me by my truncated youtube name, but some had even gone as far to find my full name and give me credit that way. Which leads me to LESSON #4 some people truly are wonderful. They will give credit where it's due. Your job is to say thank you and take it as the credit you didn't get in the past. Enjoy the moment.

And that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm laughing with friends, finding all the new places the video keeps popping up, and watching the views tick up and up and up. Which brings me to my final lesson, LESSON #5, you never know what might explode on the internet. You just can't predict it. I never expected this to happen in a million years. So to that end, be yourself online, and don't be an asshole. I REPEAT DON'T BE AN ASS! Then you wont be disappointed when the thing you least expected goes viral. You'll be proud. You'll be able to laugh about it and truly enjoying the crazy. All 7600 views of crazy and still climbing!


And if you are looking for the Guardians of the Galaxy bit it's at around 38 minutes in.

Con Fever - I Haz it

Over the last few months I've had this raging excitement growing inside me. On the outside I probably look like this:

But my insides are really doing this:

But seriously... I'm just going crazy with excitement! Why do you ask?

Well for one thing our local con is less that a month away! (And we wont even talk about the awesome that will transcend in August at Dragon Con) And the closer it gets closer to con season, more and more announcements crop up. And with the increased announcements, the more crazy awesome the con becomes. I mean I'll probably get to meet this guy:

And his buddies:

And even:

I'm going to take a minute here to catch my breath....

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Are you still with me?

**BREATHES INTO PAPER BAG**

And even better, every day the list seems to get even more awesome. But that's enough name dropping because I might explode (or implode) from all the AMAZING!

Because I really want to focus on what I'm missing most about comic con and what really has me itching to go back!

The atmosphere:

I mean the minute you see that banner you can't help but get completely giddy!

The costumes:

 

And the people:

I mean the whole thing is just so infectious! And I've caught it CON FEVER!

So BRING IT ON! I'M READY!

and please excuse the flailing, I really can't control myself at this point.

Celebrating 32 and so much more!

Today I turn 32. It’s not really a birthday milestone by any of the normal standards, but for me it is quite a milestone. It’s taken me thirty two years, but I’ve finally learned some important things. Many are as a result of one big thing, I’ve learned to become confident in my own skin and not worry about what other people think.

You might say big deal, but for me this really is a big deal, and let me explain why.

Growing up, I quickly learned that people can hurt you for the things they think they know about you. Whether that be something you said, did, or even something they came to their own conclusion on. So my method of dealing with this was keeping my mouth shut as much as possible. Letting things roll off. Letting people say horrible things about me and just letting it happen. I was a bystander pretending like none of this affected me. Let me tell you, even though I pretended and probably wasn’t very good at it, this all affected me very deeply.

So good, bad, or ugly, I rarely talked about myself, the things I was interested in, what was going on in my life. I hid pretty much anything other than superficial crap, because I was afraid of what people might think of me. Even worse I was afraid of what they might say and/or do to me.

I spent the better part of thirty years walking around afraid to do or say anything. Not knowing what might set people off, what might make people hate me, what might make them say nasty and horrible things to me and about me. And one day I looked up and realized I was completely miserable with my life. And the worst part, no one knew how miserable. They knew I wasn’t happy but not to what extent. No one knew that I had bottled up everything wonderful about myself, buried it in a trunk, locked it up, and threw away the key. I couldn’t be myself because what if people didn’t like me? What if what I said left me with no one? I couldn’t take that kind of rejection.

And you know what? I didn’t get any rejection, because I’d completely taken myself out of the game of life. I was getting worse than rejection from others, I was rejecting myself. And one day I looked up and wondered how I got to where I was and it seemed like an utter mystery.

And yet I had no idea how to fix it, or any idea if I even wanted to. I was perfectly content hiding from the world, and I wasn’t, all at the same time. I was a mess.

And then I started burying myself in books. Finding magical worlds I could hide in. And somewhere in that span of time, I found others who enjoyed those magical worlds too. I talked to those people, and they didn’t think I was crazy. I slowly started to open up. Let little bits of myself sneak out, but never so much that it might come back to haunt me. And never in real life, only online, with the protection of a computer screen and a million miles between me and the people inside that crazy place called the interwebs.

But this was just the beginning of my transformation. As I started to throw little bits of my real self out online, I still was very much closed off to the real world. I wasn’t ready to test it out in public. What if it backfired? I wouldn’t be able to hide what it did to me. My shell was much too thin. It would break far too easily.

With so much bottled inside, I still didn’t have an outlet for my feelings. I was buried in the pages of imaginary worlds, and between the pages of internet forums where I could only leak little pieces of myself.

And then one day I started writing. Not because it was an outlet, but because I was bored. I needed something to do, and writing worlds I could escape to seemed like a good idea. It was just messing around with names and symbolism at first, but it quickly transformed into ideas, lots of them. Crazy ones that would take over my brain and force me to put them on the page. And even though I never intended for writing to be an outlet, somehow it became exactly that. The emotions I couldn’t share with anyone else, came out in these characters that spilled onto the page.

And then something totally insane happened. I decided I needed to share my work, decided I needed to find out if I was wasting my time. See if I was onto something. And for some reason sharing my characters and their stories was a lot easier than sharing my own.

Honestly, I wanted someone to tell me I was awful, that I should give up and not even bother. That I was wasting my time. And at a time in my life when I tried more than anything to sabotage myself, I got the exact opposite. Okay well not the exact opposite, but I found a ton of encouragement. While many people in my life, my family and closest friends, had always been encouraging of what I did, this was the first time I’d gone into the world (or in this case the glorious interwebs) and gotten it from complete strangers. People didn’t jump down my throat and find things to make fun of, they built me up without even knowing it.

So I went back to the drawing board. I started to learn how to write. I took classes, I joined writing groups, and I worked toward finishing the book. I was all in. People saw my mood shifting. They saw how busy I was. They started asking what I was up to. Because I was on this new high, I told them. I’m writing a book. And the weirdest thing happened. People not only thought it was awesome, they supported me, they rooted me on. They took interest in me and started coming to me periodically to ask how things were going.

I slowly started to realize that maybe letting the world know who I really was, wasn’t such a bad thing after all. It wasn’t so bad, because not only were there people out there who cared, there were also people out there just like me. People who also enjoyed the same things I did. People that wore their nerdom proudly, like a badge of honor. And I wanted to be just like those people. So I pinned the nerd badge to my lapel and began to wear it proudly as well. And the more I did, the more people stood with me. The gravitated to my genuine sense of self.

Then this wonderful thing happened. Comic Con came to St. Louis last year. And I realized that there were proud geeks just like me that celebrated that out in public. That it was more than okay for me to do the same. I could not only be myself online, but I could be myself out in the real world. 

And even more amazing, last year at Less than Three, I found a similar experience. People just like me who were often afraid because they'd been beaten down as well. They'd been told they weren't cool and they'd shut themselves down too. And others had found ways to open back up. We all talked about how to stand up to people who beat others down, how to band together, not only to sympathize but to start making a difference. To start the seeds of change.

And in those two events I realized, I’d found my people. Found a world where it was okay to just be me. I’d arrived. And I’d found my confidence. The walls came crumbling down. I was finally me. I didn’t hold anything back. But beyond that, I stopped caring what other people thought because I knew there were people out there like me. There were people that liked me for me. And more importantly, for the first time in my life, I liked me as me.

But I didn’t stop there. Because there came a time when people started to challenge me. It was my childhood all over again. Just because I was an adult didn’t mean I was immune to bullying. It sucked. I was tired of being beat down. I was done keeping my mouth shut. Done letting things just roll off. I decided to let people know that what they were saying hurt, and it wasn’t okay. That the things they were saying did more than just hurt. They were detrimental because they were contributing to the stereotypes in the world. That what they said was preventing the world from changing and moving forward. Preventing the world from accepting others as they were. That there are infinite forms of wonderful in this world, and just because they are all different, doesn't mean one is any better or worse than another. And I wanted to help let the world know that.

Somewhere in learning to speak up for myself and others, the bad conversations began to end and the good, productive ones began. People started looking at what could change instead of who they could beat down. They stopped to think before they spoke. They wondered how the things they say might affect others. And that is a world I’m proud to live in, and a life I’m proud to have.

In all this, I’ve finally learned to be me and be happy with it. And I’m so much richer for it. So this birthday I celebrate all of that, the confidence, the ability to speak up, my nerdery, my writing, my life, and all the wonderful people in it that have been rooting me on along the way. I celebrate the person who finally found herself. Who finally came out of the shell and joined the world. I celebrate the emergence of me!

Wizard World Comic Con St. Louis

This weekend I attended my very first Comic Con. Now I know some of you are asking 'what took you so long?' and after this weekend my answer would be: I don't know cause boy was I missing out! The truth, however, is that up until now, Comic Con was far away, and extremely expensive. But thanks to Wizard World, I was able to experience my first con ever, in my hometown of St. Louis, and it was a complete blast!

By the time Friday rolled around I was about to bounce out of my seat. I couldn't wait to arrive and when I did, I instantly felt at home. I was surrounded by some of the coolest vendors and people I'd ever encountered in my life. An entire room full of people -- selling geeky t-shirts, drawing cool things, selling awesome toys and gadgets, and dressed up as some of the most awesome things from geek culture.

Working R2D2 on the vendor floor
(it made noise and rolled around the floor)

                 

Full scale Dalek from Doctor Who

Friday night I also attended an awesome panel with director/artist Rob Prior (check out his upcoming Red Brick Road - pitched as Oz meets Game of Thrones), and St. Louis' own authors Heather Brewer (Soulbound, Chronicles of Vladmir Tod, Slayer Chronicles) and Antony John (Five Flavors of Dumb, Thou Shalt Not Road Trip, Elemental)

This lovely trio talked about creativity in writing. I live tweeted this panel so if you want more details check out the hashtag #creativitythatlasts. In summary, they are all amazing creators, and such fun people. It was a great panel. They shared lots of great advice on how to harness your creativity and when to fight for it.

And if all that wasn't exciting enough, we ran into Henry Winkler aka The Fonz, walking out of the convention center at the end of the night on Friday. At first I didn't recognize him but as we walked towards each other I started to smile as it dawned on me who was headed my way. I'm sure he saw the realization forming, so he smiled, nodded, and said good night. And the bf shook his hand. Too cool!

Saturday was busy, and by far the best day at the con. I'm still grinning from ear to ear two days later. I was so excited to dress up! I donned my army BDUs, my black top, and of course my belt with holster, carrying my zatgun! The gate was open and I was headed to day two!

My first stop was panel presented by Lionsforge Comics called The Writers Journey. They discussed how you can break out into the comic book industry, and even start gathering a following now with your own web comic. Even if you can't draw! I've always been interested in comics but really don't know the first thing about them or graphic novels so all the information was really intriguing to me. For more info check out my live tweets at the hashtag #thewritersjourney. There's some great advice on how to find an artist, how to write comics, and writing in general.


After the first panel of the day, I rushed back to the vendor room to jump into the autograph line to meet Tom Felton. Yes, I said Tom Felton, aka Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter! Let me just say, he is one of the nicest, funniest, most awesome people I have ever met. For a celebrity he is a true class act! He was genuinely excited to meet his fans, and took a couple minutes to talk to each and every one of them. Saying hi, shaking hands with the fans, answering questions, and just joking around.

Later in the day, I attended his Q&A panel. He was so appreciative of the fans, and how they've kept Potter alive after seven books and eight movies. He answered a ton of fan questions. Some of the highlights:

1. A future role he'd love to play is a bond villain. (I'm totally on board with this!)
2. He lied in his audition. They asked each kid what scene from the book they'd love to see in the movie, the kid before him said Gringotts. His response, yes I love those Gringotts they're awesome! At this point I'm sure the director knew he had his hands full! He also stood right next to Emma in one of his early auditions. Out of thousands, what are the odds?
3. He talked about his role in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He said Andy Serkis (Caesar) was such a nice guy but in the scene where Caesar beats up his character, Andy really beat the $#&! out of him. Tom said Andy took him by surprise.
4. He read the scripts before the books because he didn't want to be disappointed that something in the books, was left out of the movies or changed. So he had no idea what Draco did to Dumbledore before he read the script!
5. The most disappointing scene to film was flying. It involved four to five hours of sitting on a stationary broom with a wind machine in his face. (Totally anticlimactic!)
6. If he was a dinosaur (yes someone asked this!) he'd be a velociraptor.

All around Tom Felton is a fantastic guy. If you ever get the chance to meet him or see him on a panel, I highly recommend it. For more from his Q&A panel check out the hashtag #tomfelton

Saturday afternoon, I watched Rob Prior live paint batman! Now, I wish I was artist and could draw and/or paint, but watching Rob paint was ridiculous. He paints with two hands, which is really, really cool to watch. I even took some progression shots as he went. He is seriously talented.
 

 

Start to finish, he talked us through what he was doing and answered questions that people shouted out to him. He's a funny guy. Once people saw him licking his paint brushes the questions got interesting. In case you are wondering, yes he eats his paint (not as a habit just while he's working), he can tell the difference in color based on taste, and the worst tasting color is purple! Who knew? He also likes to experiment with things. Earlier in the day at his booth he was painting with Mountain Dew. So don't be afraid to try new things, the worst that can happen is you mess up so badly you have to start over!

And to cap the day off, we ventured over to the costume contest. Let me just say the costumes at this con were phenomenal and the MC of the costume contest was genuinely impressed the St. Louis came out in force for the contest. We had so many people in the contest there was forty people waiting in the hall at the start. We apparently had greater participation than some of the bigger cons! As if there was any doubt that St. Louis could rock a Comic con!

 

Voltron

Darth Maul

Predators

As the people in costume each took their turn on stage to get rated, the judges provided some hilarious commentary. One judge in particular really caught my attention as I was surprised at how funny he was. He was none other than Jason David Frank aka the original Green/White ranger from the Power Rangers. That guy is seriously hilarious. He even got into a "sparring" match with a guy dressed up as Kato from the Green Hornet. I missed most of it but here's a small clip of what went down.

 

I also grabbed a short video (sorry for the blurriness) of the guy who won the costume contest. He was dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow, and he seriously looked the part. He could have been Johnny Depp. And the whole day, he played the part and never broke character. He was absolutely fantastic and hilarious! I'm not surprised in the least that he won the costume contest. It was a well deserved win!

Sadly, I missed out on day three due to a foot of snow in the St. Louis area, but all in all I had a blast at my first comic con. I met some truly awesome people. I'm still on a high from the weekend, despite the exhaustion, it was so much fun and totally worth it! And the best news, Wizard World will be back in St. Louis, April 4-6, 2014!!! I will definitely be going again, so maybe I will see some of you there :)

Me and a fellow Stargate cosplayer!