My First Comic Con Experience
Hi, I’m Amy and I’m a Comic Con newbie. We were invited to attend the annual Long Beach Comic Con this past weekend in Long Beach, CA and I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve never really done cosplay, unless making your own Halloween costume counts, but I do work with an avid cosplayer/Comic Con-attendee (You can see her coverage of LBCC in her article LONG BEACH COMIC CON 2019 COSPLAY RECAP) so I have heard things about Comic Con through the grape vine… or just on the internet since I don’t totally live under a rock. Here’s a recap of my first comic con experience.
I decided to attend my first con in regular street clothes as if I literally had no idea what to expect, which to be honest really wasn’t far off. Initially I was a bit overwhelmed by the crowd, but it was nothing that I’m not accustomed to, I attend plenty of music festivals, amusements parks, and lets face it, living in Los Angeles is kind of like living within a crowd all the time. Once I adjusted to the crowd and how the event was set up, it was time to check out costumes and booths.
From my personal experience, it seems that cons have a few consistent elements:
- Pannels: Professionals associated with the con industry will get up and talk in conference rooms about a specific topic.
- Cosplayers: People that enjoy dressing up and/or crafting costumes to look like a character from a comic book/movie/tv show/video game/etc.
- Merch Booths: Vendors that come to sell you sweet swag from your favorite comic book/movie/tv show/video game/etc. This includes toys, games, comic books, clothing, art, etc.
I did not end up viewing any panels, so I’m still not quite sure what goes on in those banquet halls, but I enjoyed checking out everything else LBCC had to offer. There were quite a few vendors selling old comic books, which is exactly what I would have expected.
There were also toys. This vendor below sold Funko Pops….. WALLS AND WALLS OF POPS.
And my personal favorite, pop-culture related backpacks and purses. I think I would have bought them all if I could.
Although the merch is fun and there is a lot to look at, the costumes that the cosplayers wear are even more impressive, and really are the star of this “show”. I saw some really great detailed costumes such as:
This Tim Burton inspired Willy Wonka and Beetlejuice couple.
This fabulous Poison Ivy
This super spooky Pennywise
This playful Harley Quinn
This super sleek Spider-man. Spider-man was very popular this year, I saw a few different variations of our favorite web-slinger all over the con.
These snarky Deadpools
And then my personal favorites….
A really creative Carl Fredericksen
and Stan Lee with Spider-Man. The wig and mustache can be found here.
All-in-all I had a really great time, there was a lot to look at and I loved seeing how creative people got with their costumes. This is a great event for adults and children of all ages.
I even spotted some dogs wearing costumes of their favorite characters, one of them being…
This convention even had a spot outside reserved for customized cars, my favorite was…
The Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters!
I really enjoyed the event, maybe next year I’ll even dress up but I better start planning my costume now. See you next year LBCC!
Amy
Latest posts by Amy (see all)
- How To Celebrate Halloween With Social Distancing - September 22, 2020
- Social Distancing Cinco De Mayo - April 29, 2020
- DIY Paper Mache Masquerade Mask - April 27, 2020
