Posted: February 28, 2018 at 12:21 pm / by Steve Heineman / comments (0)
Comic Books, Local
Review: Planet Comicon 2018 (Kansas City, MO)
SATURDAY
Immediately upon arriving on the con floor I was greeted by a massive Star Wars presence. After feeling the distinct lack of a presence at Wizard World STL (the R2 Builder’s Group was the only one there), but at Planet Comicon in Kansas City, there was enough Star Wars to lock down a good eighth of the main floor! The 501st, Rebel Legion, and Mandalorian Mercs were all in attendance, as well as some very impressive prop builders like Far Away Creations. The R2 Builder’s booth was nearly twice the size it was at Wizard World! I knew within my first 10 minutes of Saturday that I’d have more than enough content for my Beyond the Blast Doors coverage.
It wasn’t long before I started to see some of my lovely St. Louis friends, both cosplayers and photographers alike! Speaking of which, the weekend held an interesting issue for me. Katsucon was also being held up in Washington D.C. where a huge amount of my con friends and family were in attendance. It’s times like these I wish I could double-sleeve like in Altered Carbon so I could be in two places at once! Despite the split among cons, I had a fantastic time seeing the friendly faces of Terrible Trio Cosplay, Thousand Faces Cosplay, Muddy Waters Cosplay, SKS Props, and more!
The day rolled on quickly, and soon enough it was time to grab lunch before the Twisted Toonz panel. By the time I looked for food though, just about every single food truck and stand had a line of 30+ people! Fellow STL photographer Pat Dyer and I bounced from place to place, looking for anything that looked like it wouldn’t take an hour to get through. About a half an hour before the show, we decided to give up and head to the Great Ballroom to secure some seats. Fortune shined upon me as we neared the ballroom. A lonely hot dog stand sat in the hallway, with only four people in line. Having prepared myself for skipping lunch, I was delighted to see that I would be getting at least something to eat. The kind woman selling the food even hooked me up with some nacho cheese on my hot dog!
My stomach stopped growling and I made my way into the Great Ballroom to grab a couple seats for myself and Pat. Several other members of the press sat next to us in the front row as I set up my camera. About five minutes before the show was to start, I looked up off to the side of the stage and spotted a face poking through the backstage curtains. Maurice Lamarche, legendary voice actor behind beloved characters like The Brain and Calculon, was only visible because of the light from his phone. It was only a few seconds before he looked up, but by then our entire row of press were awkwardly staring at him like the bunch of star-struck fans we were. He smiled and gave us a friendly wave before disappearing behind stage for the beginning of the show.
Once again, the Twisted Toonz show did not disappoint! The cast consisted of Rob Paulsen, Maurice Lamarche, Jess Harnell, Khary Payton, and Jim Cummings. The show’s creator Jeff Zannini started off by announcing a programming error. The Planet Comicon schedule stated they would be reading Star Wars (which would have been amazing), but they were actually reading Back to the Future. While it was similar to the C2E2 show I saw last year, it was still a unique and insanely fun experience.
Unfortunately, the fun was cut short when one of Planet Comicon’s staff (a.k.a. minions) came out and tapped Jeff on the shoulder, telling him that they were about to run over their allotted time. Jeff asked for five more minutes and the crowd chanted, begging for one more scene. The minion stood his ground and they called the show. I have to feel sorry for this guy though. He may have been the most hated man at the con for those few moments he was on stage.
After the show, I went back to the floor to capture more of the experience. I found plenty more con friends to catch up with, including Ben and Amanda Bregenzer. This fantastic cosplay couple can be seen playing D&D on Vs.Nerdstuff. Ben and I always nerd out over our mutual love of the popular tabletop RPG and we discussed the possibility of me making an appearance on the show Chaotic Awesome!
We also crossed paths with Elea Rudder of Muddy Waters Cosplay, who was sporting a fantastic Atom Cats jacket along with some very impressive facial scars. I had been thinking of adding a few wounds to my vault dweller, so I talked to her about them. She responded by saying they were nothing compared to Amber’s (another member of Muddy Waters).
Late in the afternoon, we began to discuss dinner. The costume contest was approaching quickly and we were suddenly facing a choice. Tom and Justin hadn’t eaten much since breakfast and I already burned through lunch. We opted not to attend the costume contest and get dinner instead. On our way out, we spotted a booth that featured face painting, Aunt Nancy’s Face Art. Tom stopped to take pictures of the expertly painted faces while I asked about the price of a scar. After seeing Elea’s, I was curious. They were so excited to help me out that they gave it to me for free! It looked awesome too. I just wish I had found them earlier in the day.
We left the con to drop off our gear at the AirBnB, where I took the opportunity to change back into street clothes. I kept the scar though. It looked pretty cool so I didn’t want to wash it away only an hour after getting it. About the time we were on our way to The Flying Saucer for dinner, we heard word of some issue at the cosplay contest. Hannah and Sarah of Terrible Trio Cosplay were disqualified! Apparently, their win at Wizard World STL barred them from winning anything at this convention as well. It was a shame because they had not entered these particular costumes into a Planet Comicon contest before. They were asked to walk in the show anyway, and they understandably refused.
It wasn’t long before we found out that another one of our con friends, Ben Watkins of Brass Engine Creations, won Best in Show for his impressive Talion costume. I have to admit, I saw and spoke to Ben earlier in the day and I did not know what character he was. And for those of you that don’t know, Talion is one of the two player characters from Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War.
After Tom, Justin, and I had a weird experience at Flying Saucer (lots of wrong items being brought to our table, but the food was great so no big deal), we decided to wander the after parties. We first went to the Marriott Hotel, where we found Pat Dyer who told us he’d lost his car. It turned out okay; he just couldn’t remember where he parked. I also got a lashing from Jen Beaudette of Jade Photography, another of my STL con friends. I knew she was there working a booth, but I didn’t get a chance to say hello. I did go by the booth a couple of times and she was absent. Jen sure spotted me though! I mean, I am a big blue beacon in my vault suit. I’m pretty hard to miss. But we enjoyed chatting and catching up on the events of the day.
Just as we were ready to move on to the con’s official dance party, we were joined by all of Muddy Waters Cosplay. I was immediately struck by facial scars. Elea wasn’t kidding when she told me Amber went all out for her Atom Cat cosplay. They were brutal and brilliant! Pat went off to continue searching for his car while the rest of us, half of which were displaying gnarly face wounds, carried on to the dance party. Needless to say, we got some looks.
Not long into the dance party we discovered that we were having a better time just chatting than dancing, so we all decided to find a quiet corner in the Marriott hotel for a quick game of Shit for Brains. It’s a trivia game with questions that dive into some weird territories. Elea and I nearly carried our team to victory, but the other team came back to steal the win when we were just one card away! It was a really great end to an epic day.
