It's been a rather geeky few months...

Well, it has indeed been a rather geeky few months. I mean, I have had two geekfests and several pickups (toys-wise) since my last posting. The big news (and success) was the inaugural Denver Comic Con (DCC) that came and passed on Father's Day weekend. 

First off, I had a BLAST as my home city put it's best foot forward. Honestly, the only problem that I had was the fact that the con was taking place on a holiday weekend which kept me from experiencing the whole con. That was a different feel for me as I tend to attend all cons from beginning to the end. I'm really looking forward to seeing how DCC grows and if it can become a huge force in the Rocky Mountain region. As it is, there are many artists, writers, etc who call Colorado home and many of them were quite pleased with how it all turned out. I can't say that I blame them. 

Honestly, I'm not sure if there is such a thing as too many Iron Man cosplays...I mean, when it is done well, this is one of the better characters out there.

Wonder Man and Ms. Marvel. Very nice couple.

 I love this version of Nightcrawler and I'm always a sucker for a Jean Grey/Marvel Girl/Phoenix cosplay...

Black Widow times two with X-men movie version Sebastian Shaw

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prior to DCC was the ol' stand-by, StarFest!

As a BIG fan of Red Sonja, I couldn't pass up this shot...of course, the lighting could be MUCH better...I'm no professional, that's for sure.

StaFest, once again, provided the geeky itch for my scratch as it always does. Plenty of cosplayers were around the building and I spent some good quality time in the Dealer's Room. I found some Marvel Legend figures that I was coveting (Havok and X-23) and a couple of t-shirts. 

Not all things were rosey, though. Comic Fest took place next door (actually across the street) from the Marriott at the Hyatt. The dealer's room there was a little bit of a disappointment as it was smaller than it was in the previous two years. As it was, I did find a couple of X-Men back issues that I was missing and I went back to the main convention at the Marriott. HorrorFest, a StarFest mainstay for me, was something of a disappointment this year as the good folks from "Not For The Squeamish" didn't make it out. Bummer.

Both of those disappointments aside, StarFest still provided me with several things to be thankful (and happy) for.

Let's see...cosplayers...

Lady Deadpool goofing around, of course...

I'm not sure what she is cosplayed as but, I loved the outfit.

...and then there were the guests....

Number One was in the house this year!!! Jonathan Frakes wasn't able to make StarFest last year so he made up for it this year. Very cool dude. His Q and A/panel was a highlight for this year.

I remember snapping this pic of Dark Phoenix just before passing out Saturday night...don't ask.

All in all, the springtime con season was fairly eventful in the Mile High City. DCC showed a lot of potential and, with the announcement of Patrick Stewart and Stan Lee showing up for 2013, StarFest looks like it will continue to be a big-time player.

Now, on to the Sweet 16 of Nan Desu Kan...

Some catchin' up to do Part 1

Inspired by all of the tweets that I received from San Diego Comic-Con this year, I have finally decided to get back on the blogosphere with a little overview of last year's SDCC.

Our first day in town, we ventured out into the Gaslamp District to see what trouble we could get into during our stay. We ran into this Cartoon Network-themed pizzaria and decided to step on in.

The food was pretty good and we kept it in mind for a future visit...

Preview Night was on the menu afterwards...as we stood in a long, yet speedy, line to get our con badges and swag... Once inside, I finally understood what all of the hullabaloo was about.

This convention was BIG!!! Bigger than any other con that I have ever had the pleasure of going to...and we, the OtaKrew, geeked out... I saw the above Gundam-themed backpack in the dealer's room on Preview Night...Honestly, I could have taken more pics from that night but I was just overcome by the vast amount of geekiness that I was engaging in...

The next day was spent standing in more lines in order to pick up Con Exclusives like the Carded Marvel Universe Galactus, Zentradi battlepod, etc.

While in line, we met this guy with this cooler than cool tattoo. You know, one thing about this con that I noticed early on was that the con-goers where really, really nice. I mean, if you wanted to take pictures, they took time for you. People were very polite. I was very impressed.

Another neat thing that happened while standing in this line was that someone recognized my KCUV t-shirt (a radio station from Boulder, Colorado)...It really is a small world as we met quite a few people from Colorado in San Diego.

Then there were the cosplayers...

Gotta love this version of Leia...

Then there were quite a few Baronesses but this one was easily among the best that I saw...

We went to the Robotech panel the first official night and saw this awesome Misa/Lisa cosplayer...afterwards we went out with some people from RobotechX as well as Tommy Yune and Tony Oliver (Rick Hunter)...a good time was had by all at Dick's Last Resort.

While we were there, we met World Champion pole dancer, Felix Cane...

She was nice enough to take a picture with me before heading off for the evening...

As for us, after the bar closed, we went back to the pizzeria from the previous day to munch on a few slices of pizza...

The first "official" day of Comic-con in the books and we were just starting to get loosened up...Here's Card and I sporting our Galactus gear while waiting in (another) line... Is there a theme here?

It's that time again...convention time!!!

Coming to you from StarFest, with the beautiful Scarlet Salem at his side, it's buffalostyle (aka: H Mike). If it's mid-April in Colorado, not only is it time for StarFest at the good 'ol Marriott DTC (Denver Tech Center) but, it could also be time for a spring blizzard. Hooray for wet snow!!!

Let's see... blizzard on Friday which tapered off on Saturday and all but melted away on Sunday. Gotta love that Colorado weather...

One neat thing about this year's StarFest was the addition of ComicFest to the festivities. Since most of us are comic book geeks, this brought some members of the Krew to this convention for the first time. The sucky thing was that ComicFest was taking place across the street at the Hilton and that we had to brave the snow to get there. Luckily for us, the snow ended while we were at the Hilton so we didn't have to worry about getting our newly purchased comics wet.

I went absolutely nuts over the $1 bins as I found quite a bit of Vampirella comics that I was missing in my collection.I love J. Scott Campbell's work so finding these comics was like finding GOLD. Honestly, though, I probably should have stuck with looking for X-Titles but I didn't have a wishlist with me so I would have been stabbing in the dark. As it is, I did pick up a couple of issues that I needed from the "X-Men: The End" series and the sorely missing "X-Men" no. 196.
Madarame went completely nuts over the $1 and .50 bins. He ended up with two boxes full of comics. I came in a distant second.

As we (Card and I) always do, we went to HorrorFest (with the rest of the Krew) and watched NFTS (Not For The Squeamish) Productions' new movie, "Terror Overload". It starred the beautiful and talented Scarlet Salem and Joe Knetter as the creepy truck driver. I honestly have to say that it was the best movie that I have ever seen at HorrorFest. Hands down...After the movie, we were treated to a question and answer session with all involved with the movie. From the left: Scarlet Salem, Joe Knetter, Ari Lehman (The Original Jason from Friday the 13th) and Jason Stephenson.

The thing that was really neat about it all was that they were all so down to earth and were just having a good time being in Denver. I can't wait to see what they bring next year.

Along with going to ComicFest and HorrorFest, this convention is fun for seeing what people come dressed up as. Above is Sailor Joe with a Felecia cosplayer.

With "The Watchmen" recently in the theaters, we had a few Silk Spectres running around.

And then there was "The Monarch" from "Venture Brothers". Well done...I was told that he actually glued the eyebrows on making for an interesting coming day.

Ari Lehman says, "Good bye from StarFest 2009"...

I had a blast (as usual) as we stayed pretty late and had a few...ahem...beverages at the bar. I'm seriously considering getting a room for Saturday night next year so that I can really let my hair down and PARTY!!! That said, it looks like this could be my last year staying at NDK the whole weekend. We'll see. I'm already locked in for Thursday night through Sunday morning so we'll see how the con goes. It does look like most of the Krew is currently only going for Saturday's events, though. Ah...could this be the end of an era???


WISHLIST ALERTMy new wishlist item: Kotobukiya Bishoujo statue of Rogue from the X-Men.Let me just say that Rogue is probably my favorite heroine in all of comic-dom as she was the character that brought me back to my favorite series, X-Men, after a long absence. I already have two statues of her already and this statue, which comes out in June, has risen to the top of my must-have list.

DECULTURE!!!