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| STAMPEDE!!! ... For John Cena on Thursday! |
My Adventures at Wizard World
Philadelphia 2013
(Part 1)
DAY 1:
Wizard World Philly 2013 was an adventure to
say the least but definitely a fun outing. After taking the bus from where I
reside to the Greyhound Station in Philadephia, I stepped out to enjoy the sun.
With less than 2 hours to kill, I ran some errands and grabbed a little snake
before the convention began. And was I ever glad I did.
I hit the convention floor
after communicating with BI’s own Hector Ramirez. As I and the rest of the
press entered the hall, I saw people beginning to make a mad dash. Where to do
you say? Well, it was Thursday at the convention. The first day. No one was
really there but … oh yeah, the Fruity Peebles
eating, multicolored wearing, charismatic wrestler we know as John Cena. And
when I say people were sprinting … they were literally running down the
convention lanes to get to the line to see John Cena.
After
seeing that stampede roll by, I began to walk the convention floor. Merely 5
steps after I turned around, I noticed a very LARGE set up for Zenescope, with
books ready to be sold and multiple staffers ready to sell them. The table was
actually several, turned into a large cube for Zenescope’s set up. It was easy
to see and it was in the main walkway of the convention. That was my first time
on that table and ended up picking up the Godstorm trade paperback (for only
$10 bucks= YEAH!!!) and the Neverland hardcover (for $20 … love it!). After
that brief adventure, I began to walk down the aisle. As I passed more and more
awesome things … like TARDISes (there were 2 there), the DeLorean, the
Batmoblie, a GIANT Skeleton monster & even a great display full of figures …
I made my way into Artist Alley. And I
saw a slew of artists … Greg Horn, Jerry Gaylord, Bob Layton, Tom Raney, Bryan Turner and so
many more.
I stopped to go over and see
my friend and BI’s own Jake Estrada, who had come up from Florida for the Convention. Jake and I
chatted it up as he was wearing gear with the Broken Infinite logo on it … abet
the old logo but still representing BI , yeah! I had then met up with Hector Ramirez, who was
excited and autograph crazed at the time. We ended up talking with Jake for a
bit … and missing one of the panels I had planned to go to. Whoops.
After talking with some other
people I knew (Scott Beach & Shawn Alleyne) and getting a good feel for the
convention floor, it was nearly closing time. Yup. Time FLEW! Hector and I shot pics and video and then the
announcement for the show about to close was heard. After getting the feel for
the con and talking with some creators, tomorrow was poised to be a great day.
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Cobra Commander was Scouting on Friday & Saturday!
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DAY 2:
Friday
had arrived. I was up early and was shaking off sleep when I met up with
Darryll B Carter (Vice President of BI). After shooting a quick promo, which
may show up later … we entered. There was definitely more people today than
there was on Thursday. And it was exciting. I ended up walking around the
tables, introducing Darryll to Jake in person and then we set off to do a few
interviews. We lucked out as we got to spend a few minutes interviewing Tom
Raney (That will get posted soon). After that, we got to talking with creator
Scott Beach and I egged on Darryll to perform the interview. Darryll did me
proud, doing an excellent job on the interview while I was the cameraman. Ah …
I hadn’t been a cameraman in a LONG time. Before I lunch, I was stopped by Cobra Commander who was asking me to join Cobra. He talked of World Domination and that Cobra was all powerful. I just smiled and walked away.
We
met up with Hector than journeyed to Reading Terminal for lunch. And boy, did
we enjoy our lunch … Chinese food. Cooked in front of us. After we finished
lunch, we raced back Hector had ended up
going to a Meet and Greet event while Darryll and I killed a little time. Our
respected panels didn’t start till 5pm. As Darryll was looking at artists, I
once again stopped at the Zenescope table. And as I looked over the $1 issues,
I went back to the trades. Originally, I was going to pick up Grimm Fairy Tales
vol 1, to kind of really get into the swing of it all. I had read a few of them
but nothing in succession. And with news of their upcoming Animated Series (see
my views on that in a separate post) … I kept looking at the Dream Eater Saga.
A couple years back, I had done a news story on that very crossover event. Yet, I had not picked it up. I had always
promised myself I would. After a few more minutes of deciding, I grabbed both
volumes of the crossover and resigned to my fate.
After
which, I stopped at one table and got a quick grab bag for a $1 which contained
for different comics: The Lethal Foes of Spiderman # 2, Deadpool Team Up 897,
Red Sonja # 65 and Action Comics # 875. Feeling good, I had met up with Darryll
and Jake then rushed to the panel rooms. Darryll had decided to tackle Webcomics
Bootcamp while I was going into Marvel: Breaking Into Comics the Marvel Way
but as I went through the panel I found out some interesting information (which
I will post in a separate article) that also may have helped me change my life
. . .
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
