I
had a busy and awesome weekend.
I
knew that I would be attending Wizard World Atlanta on Saturday. I
didn’t attend the show a couple of years ago, but I didn’t hear
anything good about it. This year’s production looked a little more
interesting and appeared to be put together more professionally. As a
member of the media I was intrigued by the idea of attending a big
media convention and reporting on the differences between it and my
beloved fan cons. It would be an opportunity to provide the
Phantomaniacs with an engrossing article about the success (or lack
thereof) of Wizard’s transition from influential publishing entity
to traveling media convention.
Also,
Karen Gillan was going to be there.
Actually,
I need to address that since it was part of the experience.
I
have never preordered something like that before. Dragon Con offers
it, but since getting my picture taken with celebrities is generally
a foolish and expensive thing I tend to leave it to fate as to
whether or not it happens. Also, my Dragon Con schedule is super
hectic. I might not even be able to show up for that 2:15 on Saturday
photo shoot with Lloyd Kaufman.
Wizard
has a page set up for each of the con locations’ photo ops. All of
the Atlanta Guests were on one page. It was pretty convenient except
for the disclaimer to “See Photo Op Schedule for Times”. This was
not a link to the actual photo op schedule, just a sentence floating
there at the top of the page with no indication as to where said
schedule was located. It took me a while of poking around the site to
find it and I thought that was pretty ridiculous.
Eventually
I was able to discover that Ms. Gillan’s photo shoot was at 1 PM on
Saturday, which was as close to perfect as I could have wanted. Not
too early and not too late. I bought my ticket with no difficulties,
so good for Wizard for making that portion of the process so easy.
Okay,
so I was good to go on Thursday night when I received a message from
WrestlingWithPopCulture.com’s
very own Jonathan Williams. He wanted to know if I’d like to go to
The Walking Dead Escape Saturday night as media to do a story on it.
Of
course
I wanted to do that. And not just for the journalistic value – I
thought there was a good chance I’d get to act like an idiot in
front of large numbers of people and there’s very little that
motivates me more than that.
We
had the option of being Survivors, Walkers, or Spectators.
Walkers
would get made up as zombies and dispersed throughout the attraction
to stumble around and menace the Survivors. This didn’t appeal to
me because I didn’t want to just stand around in one area and I
don’t particularly care for having anything other than form-fitting
lycra on my face.
Spectators
would stand along the path or sit in the arena seats and watch. This
did not appeal to me because I am not a giant pussy.
Survivors
would set out upon the path and do their best to avoid the Walkers.
In my mind this would involve running, jumping, crawling, and all
sorts of other physical activities that I am by no means equipped to
perform but that I will not shy away from in the face of possibly
getting a good post. And the aforementioned idiot thing.
I
told Jonathan I wanted to be a Survivor and made arrangements to pick
him up Saturday morning and head down to the Phillips Arena/CNN
Center/Georgia Dome/World Congress Center are for our big day of
adventure and dorkery. I’m sure there’s an actual name for that
massive area of venues, but I have no idea what it is.
I
managed to wake up at 8:30 on Saturday – something I do not
normally do. I loaded my gear into the car and headed to Atlanta’s
own Stardust Adult Novelty store to pick up Jonathan and Professor
Morté. I ended up having a very exciting conversation there about
sponsorship for something that I can’t discuss just yet. It’s
very exciting and I normally hate it when people do teases like this,
but I want to wait until the stars have successfully aligned before I
announce anything. Actually, there should be several huge
announcements coming soon.
If
you’re going to go down to the area I mentioned above, I have to
recommend the Red Deck Parking Garage. It’s ten bucks – which is
ten bucks more than I normally want to pay for parking – but it’s
clean, easy to find and navigate, and central to all of the stuff.
It’s also not a bad place to change clothes if you happen to be
attending a convention in full costume and then running in a zombie
race thing later the same day.
Check-in
at Wizard World was not a problem at all. The ticket area was
virtually empty and I was able to walk right up and get my wristband.
From there we proceeded into the actual con area, which was fairly
well thought-out and organized.
Everything
was in the same massive room, similar to how Heroes Con (the most
user-friendly con I attend) operates. The artists and dealers are at
the front of the room closest to the entrance and the guests are at
the far end. This is good because it means you have to make your way
through the folks that have paid good money to have tables at the con
and are hoping to bring home some bacon. There was even thought put
into which dealers were put where, as you wouldn’t find two sellers
with similar wares too close to one another. I was very impressed
with this aspect of the con.
The
artists’ area was very open and accessible; to me it felt like a
featured and important area. It was immediately to the right upon
entry and the only thing drawing attention away from it was the
gigantic X-Men: Days of Future Past tent that Norton Antivirus was
sponsoring. Aside from not liking the movie,
it took nothing more than a glance inside at the exciting cardboard
standups to convince me that I didn’t need to give that thing any
attention.
After
wandering around for a bit I realized that Wizard World was pretty
much just like any other con. It was mostly the same dealers selling
all the same stuff. Later on I would amend this conclusion, but for
the time being it actually served me well because I realized it would
probably be a good idea to go and check out the photo op situation. I
knew it was scheduled for 1 PM, but I didn’t know anything about
lines or procedure or anything else. I mean, it’s not like Karen
Gillan is a well-known and popular actress. I doubted there would be
more than a few other people wanting pictures with her. Ahem.
I’m
going to go ahead and give Wizard all the props in the world for how
they handled the photo op process. I had to print up my ticket –
which was kind of irritating when most places can scan codes from
cell phone screens – but everything else was a well-organized
breeze. I went to the clearly labeled and centrally located ticket
table and exchanged my ticket for a card:
I
then got in the clearly labeled line and waited. Right before 1 PM
the friendly staff – and every single member of Wizard’s event
staff was exceptionally nice and well-informed – started corralling
us into shape. At precisely 1 the line started moving through the
tent where Ms. Gillan was waiting for me. Um… everybody.
The
line moved amazingly fast. Before I knew it I was up front chatting
with the staff and then inside, gazing upon the visage of Ms. Gillan
as she posed with the folks in front of me.
She’s
probably one of the most beautiful human beings I’ve ever seen.
Fortunately for me I didn’t have any kind of anxiety attack or nerd
seize-up and was able to walk on up and ask her if we could do the
pose I wanted to do. She said, “Of course!”, assumed the pose,
and told me I looked fantastic as I was whisked out the door. Er,
tent flap.
Now,
I’m sure Ms. Gillan tells everybody in any sort of costume that
they look fantastic, as ti’s the polite thing for a celebrity to do
in such a situation. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t detect a
little twinkle of sincerity in her big, gorgeous eyes as she said it.
I
mean, of
course
I looked fantastic:
I
was able to pick up my photograph later on. It was obviously rather
easy to find.
After
the photo op I hooked back up with Jonathan and we made our way
around the parts of the con that I had not yet seen, which was most
of it.
The
most interesting exhibitor there was this company that was doing
full-body scans in order to produce little statues of con-goers.
Obviously this was pertinent to my interests. They were actually
referring to them as action figures, but these were unarticulated and
were basically miniatures and small statues. The sizes range from too
tiny for detail to around eight inches and the prices were slightly
less than what I would have expected – fifty bucks for the tiniest
one and I think about one-fifty for the largest. They looked pretty
good and captured a lot of detail. Certainly not at the level of a
mass retail or collector line, but still pretty darn good. There were
four people in line to get scanned in front of me and the guy said it
took a couple of minutes for a scan so I hopped in line, ready to
drop fifty bucks on a tiny Phantom Troublemaker figurine.
Fifteen
minutes later there were still three people in front of me and that
fourth was experiencing some sort of difficulty with his scan. I
decided I didn’t want to waste any more of my day standing in a
line and told Jonathan we should probably just keep moving. We were
expected to check in at The Walking Dead Escape at 5 PM and I didn’t
want this action figure thing to be the only other experience I had
at Wizard World.
One
of the things I experienced was an unusually high number of people
asking for pictures and
an unusually high number of people that recognized me. I think the
former was due to the low number of folks in costumes and the latter
was due to the low number of folks in general. There was just a
better chance of running into friends.
Speaking
of friends, we made a stop at the Zenoscope Comics table (podcast
coming soon, right Jen? – RIGHT?) to make sure the world-famous
Rock N’ Role Models weren’t; being too sexy for public
consumption. But even surrounded by images of the half-naked,
well-endowed ladies of Zenescope Lord Johnny Danger and Mister Matt
Sex Sells, Esq. were radiating a blinding, raw sexuality that stunned
all those that walked past. I basked in that machismo for as long as
I could stand it and reluctantly moved on to other pursuits.
I
located Billy’s Toys and unlocked what is probably one of the
greatest achievements of my career to date – I convinced Billy, the
greatest toy mind I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, to take a
picture with me:
He
insisted I ask his wife how hard it was to get a picture of him and
she said that she barely had any pictures. She also told him that the
one with me had better not be the last one she got. Billy had one of
the more interesting setups at Wizard World, as he had a bunch of
vintage toys alongside a few more recent releases. Most of the other
toy dealers there had the same ol’, same ol’ – similar
selections of currently available action figures. Stuff you could get
online and buy from Amazon, likely for less than what these guys were
asking.
There
were a couple of other exceptions. There’s a guy named Joe that’s
at most of the local cons and always has a great selection of toys
from the last twenty years. I’m always glad to see him and he is
currently looking for a Wun-Dar for me, so that’s great. One of the
others had one of my toy holy grails. An item that I have been
wanting since I was a child. There aren’t very many things from the
GI Joe or Star Wars lines that I wanted and didn’t have. I wouldn’t
say that my parents spoiled me, but those two lines were very
accessible for me. And there was one iconic vehicle that somehow or
other always managed to elude me.
From
its first release from Kenner in 1983 to the more recent, post-2000
repainted Hasbro re-releases, the Imperial Shuttlecraft has been a
tough find. I think I missed out as a kid because it came out at the
tail end of the Star Wars toys and I was well into GI Joe at that
point. My dad – being military – was easily convinced to buy Joe
toys and Star Wars was sort of left behind. I never saw the 2002
release or the 2006 Target Exclusive, which is what the gentleman at
Wizard World had high atop his grid cubicle.
As
soon as I saw the big, metal grid encasing this dealer the
Shuttlecraft caught my eye. The box is enormous and beautiful – all
Vintage-style graphics. I just stood there and stared at it for a
while. I had never even seen one in person. The price tag on it was
high – more than I could comfortably spend. But this was one of the
very few items that had been taunting me for years. I spoke with the
gentleman about it and he said that he might be willing to negotiate.
I told him I’d probably be back. I, of course, was. I made him an
offer, he counter-offered, and I was the proud owner of an Imperial
Shuttle. I’ll be reviewing it soon. It will be one of the more
emotionally charged reviews I have done.
Side
Note: This all actually happened on Sunday when Phantom Troublemaker
was not, technically, at Wizard World. I was having a family day. But
this felt like the right place for the Imperial Shuttle tale in the
recap. On that same day we also bought Lil’ Troublemaker a bunch of
LEGO minifigs and I got a great deal on NECA’s videogame RoboCop,
which looks way cooler than I expected and will be reviewed soon, as
well. Though with considerably less conflicting emotion than the
Imperial Shuttle.
We
wandered around long enough to get a feel for what was at the con –
which I will summarize at the end – and went to grab some grub at
Taco Mac. Thanks to my recent health prognosis I am eating much
differently than I used to and stuck to a chicken/rice/beans meal.
Which leads me to highly
recommend Taco Mac’s chicken burrito plate. It was awesome. The
black beans were super spicy in a pleasant way, the rice was just
okay, and the burrito itself was outstanding. It was a huge affair
packed with seasoned chicken and covered in queso that I should have
requested they leave off. But I cleaned my plate. I wasn’t
expecting much, as I haven’t generally had very positive food
experiences at Taco Mac, but this thing was great. Two thumbs up.
Side
Note: The next day I ended up eating there again with the family. I
wanted the burrito, but decided to try something different. I ordered
the buffalo chicken sandwich and was thoroughly disappointed. It
should have been called the “Pile of Feta Sandwich”. What a lousy
piece of shit that was.
After
lunch me and Jonathan headed back over to the World Congress Center,
hoping to catch the end of Big Show’s panel. It’s not something I
would have done on my own, but Jonathan wanted to and I had already
fulfilled my Gillan-centric agenda for the day. I ended up being very
glad we went. We only missed the first few minutes and Big Show was
fantastic. He has a very dry, subtle sense of humor. The panel turned
out to be a Q&A.
Normally I wouldn’t wipe my ass with a fan
Q&A, but these folks had really good questions. One even inspired
me to ask my own question.
I
was the last in line. When I got to the front I thanked Show for
being there and he asked me if I was the Purple People Eater. I told
him I was Phantom Troublemaker and he said he couldn’t hear me. I
repeated it and he said for a second time that he didn’t hear. I
thought for sure he was setting me up, and he might have been because
once he finally got the “Troublemaker” part he said Phantom
Troublemaker was what he was in a movie theater after eating too much
popcorn. Once the laughter subsided I related my experience of
watching The Giant’s (Big Show’s name in WCW) return from Kevin
Nash’s botched jackknife powerbomb. The audience groaned here for
some reason. I don’t know the real story behind all of that, I just
knew that it was the first time as an adult that I got utterly caught
up in the action and story of a pro wrestling show and completely
forgot what I knew about the business. It was one of those magic
moments for me. I asked Big Show if he still ever had those moments.
He
said that he did and went on to talk about when the fans latched onto
somebody or popped really big for a specific event. He talked for
several minutes and laid out a very solid close for the Q&A based
on my question. It was some neat and inspired storytelling on his
part. Inspired by me, the Purple People Eater.
Of
course, this also led to Marko Polo, Johnny Danger, and Matt Sells
marching around me and chanting, “POPCORN
FART! POPCORN FART!”
later on, but that’s okay. I’ll be introducing those guys with a
live mic again someday.
Wizard
World was charging too much for everything. The tickets were too
pricey, the photo ops and autographs were too high (I’ll address
that further in a moment), and even the Wizard merch was overpriced.
But in the end I had a great time there. What I experienced was an
organized show free of inconveniences or unpleasantness. I feel like
everything was thoroughly planned and professionally handled and
quite frankly I couldn’t be more impressed.
Was
it the biggest con? No. Was it the most fun? No. Did it do anything I
haven’t seen before? No. But what it did do was provide a slick,
homogenized dork experience that made for a great weekend. If they
would provide or partner up with somebody who could provide some
evening events I could see this being a worthy 3-day con. As it is
it’s a fun media event that costs about a third more than it
should.
As
far as the prices for photos and autographs, I guess the guests set
those prices. That’s how it is elsewhere. But they all seemed just
a tad high. If I had gotten Karen Gillan to autograph the picture I
got it would have been an additional sixty bucks. There wasn’t even
a combo deal for that. That seems unreasonable and I didn’t do it.
And there was a weird scaling where guests were just asking too much.
One in particular seemed to have an overinflated opinion of
themselves. Of course, noting the total lack of a line at their table
all weekend, I’m going to hope they reassess their worth and do
better next time. If the price had been right I definitely
would have gotten a picture with this person. But they were not even
close to being within ten dollars of Karen Gillan.
If
I were rating Wizard World I’d have to go with a strong 4 out of 5.
It didn’t blow my mind, but everything went so smoothly and I had a
fantastic time both days I was there. I’ll be back next year,
hopefully as part of the show. And I won’t charge anything for
pictures.
Probably.
Be
sure to come back tomorrow for the latest installment of my Previews…
uh… preview. And then check back in on Thursday for my recap of The
Walking Dead Escape!
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