My First Experience at Comic Con

My first experience at Comic Con was good. Not quite great, but good. I was alone, and the idea of being at a large venue with people that I didn’t know was not as scary as I thought. I just needed a plan. My plan was to figure out who to cosplay as, which wasn’t as easy as you would think. There were tons of options, from popular characters to DIY to sexy versions, and the list just kept growing.  After weeks of shopping I decided on a ready-to-wear costume of DC Comic's Batwomen Bombshell. I found the costume at Hot Topic, and all I needed was a baseball bat to complete the outfit. I had an outfit and I knew the panels I wanted to go to. Everything was planned until I got there. 

I was not prepared for the hot, windy weather. If the sun wasn’t make me sweat, the wind was making me wish I wasn’t wearing a dress. The Javits Center was within two blocks, and then I saw the line. I was stunned by the look of it. It went from 36th 10th ave all the way to 39th 11th ave. These four blocks had massive amounts of people standing in line with anxiety and anger about when the line would move. I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to get make it to my 11:00 am panel. I stood in line for two hours to finally make my other panel, called Rising from the East. 

This panel featured three Indian- born comic creators that discussed the history of comics in India. They talked about reading the most popular comic series in India called Archie. These comics were imported from England and it would take them years to know of any other comic series. Creating their own comics were difficult because of the dialects the writers would use would not be understood in other parts of India. They all agreed that distribution is hard to find in India because comics are still considered a new source of goods.  There are over 330 million gods in India and the writers use every one of them to create stories.  Although they are often criticized, they try to be delicate with the subject but at the same time deliver a great story.  I learned that they also created their own comic con in India which was a huge success. 

I went to other panels such as diversity in comics, Salem and where music and anime intersect. My favorite panel was Where Music and Anime Intersect. This panel featured the rapper Logic and voice actor Steve Blum, most popular from Cowboy Bebop. They discussed the album the Incredible True Story by Logic and how anime and rap can go together because there is a growing audience for it. I wished I had more time to go shopping, visit the artist alley and buy an autographed poster. I'm excited to go next year because I now feel fully immersed in the comic culture.