comic con recap

Last Friday Tim and I had the opportunity to go to Salt Lake Comic Con with a friend and it was a total blast!

waiting to get in

 SLCC has only been around for three years now but every year so far they've broken their attendance record which makes me super happy and hopeful that they'll be around for a good long while. They also had a meet up the evening we were there to break the Guinness Book of World Records' record for largest group of people dressed as a comic book character and they did! Utah does no have a shortage of nerds, let me tell you. This is the first time I've ever actually attended a con so maybe others have a system like this but for SLCC you get a wrist band that registers with scanners when you walk through them, arm raised. Ben went last year and said that, being at the back of the line, it was only about a fifteen minute wait to get in. They seemed to be having technical difficulties on Friday morning so staff were scanning each wristband individually long before the doors opened. Once they did it was just a massive surge of bodies and voila, everyone was inside. Let me tell you, riding a wave of excitable humanity is a good way to start the day.

I decided to revisit my Peter Pan Disney-bound from last Halloween as a simple way to dress up but still be comfortable.

creepy side-eye

A friend helped me figure out how to create some fake bangs as my hair is a good six inches longer than the last time I did this. As a curly girl I've always kind of envied people who have bangs but having spent a day with hair constantly getting in my eyes and itching my forehead I'm now wondering how any of you can stand it! Sneakers would definitely have been a wiser option that the flats I wore but my feet are fairly used to extended periods of abuse so it wasn't too bad. Honestly, eight hours of walking around made me most grateful to sit for panels for my joints' behalf. The trekking was harder on Tim but he's a trooper and taking a lazy Saturday was a enough to get him back to normal.

The convention center where the con is held is huge. I could only get a decent panorama shot of the half of the main hall that held a lot of vendor booths, the cafeteria, and the photo-op area all the way on the right. The hall extends about the same distance on the left making a large L. And yes, that is a food truck. The balcony I took this picture from hosted table-top games of all kinds and there was an official D&D room in the building. 

I like playing I-Spy with this picture. Can you spot the Man in the Yellow Hat and Mr. Freeze?

I spent the majority of the day rubber-necking at different cosplayers and probably annoying Tim with how frequently I was poking his arm to show him another one. We saw these guys almost immediately after entering the con and every time I saw them after just left me grinning ear to ear.

at what point do you realize that you and your bros are the
perfect body types to pull off Chien-Po, Ling, and Yao?

These ladies were also getting stopped left and right, for good reason. Hocus Pocus is a classic and it is Halloween season. Whenever they came across a kid you'd hear Winifred cry "A child! A child!"

and check out that steampunk guy in the background!

There was a lot of Star Wars stuff around in anticipation of the new movie [there was a guy in line dressed as an AT-ST with stilts] but while they had more official looking props my favorite thing was this balloon sculpture of an AT-AT. I'm glad that guy's sitting their for scale. This thing was about 10 feet tall and still blowing my mind. What do you do if one of the balloons breaks?

And in case you wanted your con-going experience to feel a little more neighborly...

Totoro! I'm not sure how much this guy [girl?] got around because people kept coming up to hug him/her. I really wish I'd gotten a picture with the little girl who came up to him just after this. She was so little that they knelt down so you couldn't see their legs which was total perfection.

Whilst browsing artist alley [guys, can we maybe expand the aisle sizes next year?] I found this absolutely adorable Maid Marianne who very obligingly pulled her tail to the side when I asked for a picture.

I had to explain to Tim why I got so excited about this next one because he hasn't seen Gravity Falls - and if you haven't either you need to check it out right now.

Dipper and Mabel! And Waddles!

I love how well they emulated the age of the characters given that these two obviously aren't children.

And last but not least, to end on a classic note:

The Rocketeer! I love this movie so much, how can it have been so long since I last watched it? This guy's cosplay was totally on point as was his pose. I should have gotten a shot of his jet pack but you'll just have to believe me that it was legit.

All in all, I had a really excellent time and I'd love to go again, maybe check out a few of the numerous writing panels next time!

In other news, my younger brother got home from his mission today!!! I wish I could have been at the airport to greet him but he'll be flying out our way in a few short weeks so for now I'm just glad he made it back from Brazil safely. Take it easy on the greasy foods for a while, kid! Welcome home :)

picture stolen from my sister's facebook