Our return to the Great Allentown Comic Con

I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum.

Well, we went to another con this weekend. And I dressed up. I fought it for more than thirty years, but I guess it's time to stop denying that I'm anything but a great honkin' nerd.

It was the Great Allentown Comic Con. Lily and I had gone last year. This time it was the whole family.

We all wound up dressing up. Lily's initial plan was to go as a fashion designer and I asked her if she wanted to dress up again for the con like we did  Rhode Island, but she said she didn't, because "there are no fashion designers in comic books."

I said, "What about Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp?" Daddy's knowledge of b-list superhero civilian careers saves the day once again!

I intended to go as Dipper Pines.



I had the hat already, and the vest. The only thing I was missing was a red shirt. Perhaps it was some vestigial fear from Star Trek. I don't know.  Jen went to a thrift store, and as it was just a few weeks after Halloween, there were a ton of costumes for sale. (It struck me as somewhat ridiculous that someone would donate a costume to a thrift shop, but, seeing as we bought one there, I won't question it further.) She grabbed a mask and a cape, and Lily wound up going as Batgirl instead of the Wasp.

Jen was Buffy. She was on the fence about dressing up, but it was supposed be a dollar off admission if we did, so she threw together a costume. We didn't get the discount, but it's possible that the woman at the door didn't recognize that we were supposed to be anyone, other than perhaps a streetwalker and a grown man in short pants.

This photo probably didn't help. Lily took it. My instructions were to "Pretend you're eating the book". She told Jen to look horrified, but that was probably unnecessary. 

A wedding was held there as well, and they asked friends, family and anyone who wanted to attend to proceed. We thought it would be neat, so we did. We sat behind a pair of Klingons. Lily has attended two weddings in her seven years, and they were both costume weddings. We're warping the poor kid.

I didn't buy a ton of stuff. It was packed and we didn't feel like fighting our way back after the wedding. Lily bought some stuff from the artist at Geek Boy Press, whose work I had picked up for her at Monster-Mania a couple months ago. He's an extremely nice guy and a talented artist. I always try to support those artists whose work I enjoy, so please click through the link and check him out. 

Guest-wise, they had a few celebrities who had been present in the Rhode Island Con, among them Walter Jones, who had played the Black Ranger in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and Bonnie Piesse, who had been Aunt Beru in the Star Wars prequels. Comic artists and a ton of vendors rounded it out. 

Overall, the con itself was okay. A lot more crowded and with many more costumes than last time. I really think they're going to need to move to a larger venue next year, because there was barely room to move. Some guy dressed as the Joker was periodically setting up a camera on a tripod to take footage of other con-goers which did nothing to help, but the Joker always was an asshole.