Ah, Colorado Springs, I haven“t seen you in about a year and you had so much in store for me as I loaded up my little car on on August 24th. My little fur babies looked at me longingly as I balanced my camera in one hand a three uncrustable sandwiches in the other, and for a moment I wondered if I could shove at least one of them in my con backpack and pass them off as some kind of cosplay mechanic. My better half quickly shut down that idea, and we took off with the soothing sound of Google Maps guiding us.
Braving the traffic that turned a two-hour drive into one that nearly took five hours, only stopping for two bathroom breaks, a new record in itself, our spirits never wavered. It was time to nerd-out hard, and nothing would stop us. Finally we arrived and as I hunted down my press pass, the beautiful doors parted and I followed a pirate Harley Quinn into the Colorado Springs Comic Con.
The noise hit me like a train, and being super sensitive to smells, my nose quickly informed me of all the bustling bodies, different print papers, sharpie pens ready for signatures, and fabric of all the cosplayers proudly showing off their creations. Plus the vegan waffle truck outside added a nice touch to everything.
The con was biz-zay and very very hot. I didn“t know where to go first and did a quick lap around what I quickly found out was only one half of the con. My first fangirl stop was at Jim Mahfood“s table, and only freaked out a little bit as I loaded up on a couple prints and some Grrl Scouts: Magic Socks variants that I had somehow didn“t have in my collection. He was lucky to have an end cap booth that had at least a little bit of moving air, as the con had no air conditioning in the half that held the Artists“ Alley, cosplayers, and publishing booths. This seemed particularly weird to me, and ventured over to see who had the privilege of staying cool in a comic con with thousands of people on a hot Colorado summer day.
As soon as I crossed the threshold into the Other Side, the difference was immediately noticeable. I remembered what is was to breathe, and it seems that only the celebrity guests and the booths that shared the space with them had the privilege of having air conditioning. I know comic cons are places with all sorts of guests, but I felt that only keeping the celebrities comfort in mind was pretty rude, and surely there could be some way to help the writers, artists, and other vendors comfortable as well?
Other than that, the con was bigger than I imagined, and man they packed it to the brim with all sorts of booths that were hard to walk past with my budget that was quickly growing bigger as I made all sorts of excuses to purchase more and more. There were a multitude of different people there, all different ages and there truly was something for everyone. I saw a woman who screamed at the site of Joey Fatone, a little girl who bravely jumped into the mouth of a giant reproduction of Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors to get her picture taken, a pair of extremely tall and beautiful twins who were both dressed as Game of Thrones characters buying prints from Zombie King Arthur Suydam, and a man forking over a large wad of cash to get Neal Adams to sign his books at $50 a signature.
I found the most perfect headwear in the world, a handmade Raichu hat which has now taken on a green sheen from my hair on the inside, from a vendor named Two Fish and a Lion who has no idea how happy she and her magic creative skills made me. A woman who looked like she walked straight out of Wasteland Weekend chatted to me about her fantastic booth centered around the comic Rot Town, which I had to purchase. Ashley Witter and Ash Maczko were extremely kind as they signed a gorgeous print in shining golden ink from one of my favorite series, Squarriors, and I had to tear myself away from a welded Big Daddy art piece made by Metal Souls. The sky IS full of Adam after all.
After hunting for the Altered Reality booth and discovering I had passed it about 6 times, I finally got the privilege to meet Joe St. Pierre, a wonderful creator and friend to Comic Crusaders. I was hot, sticky, and extremely giddy as we spoke about Colorado, the CC team, the con, and his series The New Zodiax, a series which I now genuinely love.
It would be impossible for me to describe all of the wonderful creators I met and got to interact with, as well as all the funky-fresh peoples exploring the con with me. I had a wonderfully wonderful time and I only wish it could have lasted longer. Thank you for having me Colorado Spring, and thanks for sending me out on the nerdy hunt of awesomeness, Comic Crusaders.
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