Comic Books, Local

Review: Planet Comicon 2018 (Kansas City, MO)

Posted: February 28, 2018 at 12:21 pm   /   by   /   comments (0)

SUNDAY

Our final day in Kansas City was no less awesome than the first. I wasn’t in costume on Sunday, opting to represent Beyond the Blast Doors with a logo shirt so I could shoot a stand-up for my coverage video. Justin quickly helped me take care of that, then we decided to walk the floor again to see who we could find. It wasn’t long before we ran into a wonderful cosplayer we’d photographed the day before, Lady Kate Cosplay. We hadn’t spoken much on Saturday, but on Sunday she shed some light on a question that had been on our minds since arriving at the con the previous morning.

For three years, a 9-year-old boy named Gabe Marshall had been battling cancer. Gabe accompanied his family to Planet Comicon for two years before being invited to be a special guest of Supergirl this year. Unfortunately, only a couple of weeks before the convention, Gabe’s fight ended. Supergirl wanted to honor the little hero over the weekend, so she teamed up with William Binderup of Elite Comics to buy 20,000 pink plastic swords to give away while they collected donations for Children’s Mercy Hospital. On Saturday morning at 10am, they held Gabe’s “10,000 Sword Salute” where a parade of heroes, villains, princesses, and monsters alike joined together to cheer for Gabe. I really regret missing the beautiful sight, and I greatly appreciate Lady Kate for sharing it with me.

Walking the floor on Sunday was much more relaxing… mostly because I didn’t have 30lbs. of gear weighing me down, but also because of the general vibe of Sunday at any given con. Most of the people on the floor are just winding down after the Saturday rush, trying to get in their shopping any see the things they still hadn’t over the course of the weekend. It was no different for me and my con friends. I spent a while walking around with Justin as he mindlessly bounced from table to table, shopping for gifts. Jen and I made a lap around almost the entire floor, spotting a pretty hilarious sight of a man doing what looked like some kind of astronaut training. He was all cheers and smiles at the beginning of the ride, but we watched as he grew silent and just held on for the ride. When he got off, all the color had drained from his face and he struggled to walk steadily. I guess he won’t be putting on a space suit any time soon!

I certainly made it a point to see all the art aisles. On Saturday, I was so busy getting b-roll and photos that I wasn’t able to take the time to find my friends Mike & Ruth Czerwonka, of Wonka’s Marker Art. Mike shared his experiences meeting both Alice Cooper and John Cusack, and we discussed strategy for booths at future cons. He and Ruth signed up for Archon in October, which is the same con I’m hoping to debut Beyond the Blast Doors merchandise. If the stars align, Wonka’s Marker Art and Beyond the Blast Doors could be sharing adjoining booth space at the biggest party convention near St. Louis.

Tom and I also made sure to visit a very talented cosplayer, Cara a.k.a. AZ Powergirl. Both a cosplayer and an artist, Cara is immensely smart and talented. I took notice of some copies of a Magic the Gathering cards on her table the first time I visited her. When I noticed this particular card was one of the more powerful cards in my favorite deck, I just had to ask. Turns out, Cara was the model for the card’s art! I would have bought one from her on the spot if I hadn’t already owned multiple copies. She shared with me her plans to one day cosplay as the character, Emmara Tandris, and print some cards with photos of her cosplay on them. I really hope she does, because I will absolutely buy one and use it in my deck.

At every con, I hope to run into random celebrities wandering and enjoying the con floor. This time, I got a chance to meet and briefly speak with Jeff Zannini and Jess Harnell! I spotted them stepping up to a booth selling DVDs. Jess Harnell is hard to miss with his studded hat, jacket, and… well pretty much everything he had on was studded. They were both happy to talk about the Twisted Toonz performance the day before. They both shared my disappointment in the show being cut short and my feeling sorry for the minion that had to go out on stage to end it. I thanked them for their time talking to me and for the amazing show they put on. I absolutely cannot wait to see Twisted Toonz again at C2E2 in April!

As the day came to a close, I scrambled to get my interviews for Beyond the Blast Doors. I spoke with Kevin Schwarz of the Kansas City R2 Builders Group and Cal Pierce of Far Away Creations. We reveled in our mutual love of Star Wars and prop building and each of them gave me some wonderful sound bites for my recap video. It’s always inspiring to meet people that are so passionate about what they do. You can see my interviews with them and some of my highlights of Star Wars cosplay from the weekend on Beyond the Blast Doors’ YouTube channel.

Of course, we savored every last minute of the con Sunday afternoon – leaving shortly after the floor was technically closed. Justin and I hopped into Tom’s car, I downed about half of a 5-hour energy for the ride, then we were headed home. I had gotten the 5-hour energy from their booth on the con floor, where they were giving them out for free. I haven’t had one, so I was curious to see if it worked. Well, I think I was asleep maybe 20 minutes after drinking it. I slept most of the way home!

I’m going to sleep until April. See you all at C2E2!