Phoenix Comicon, Part 4- The People

Part 1, Build up
Part 2, Our Costumes
Part 3, Panels

The people were weird. They were strange. They were smart. They were dumb. They were kind. They were jerks. Basically, take a sampling of humanity, and you have your Comicon group. I didn't really "connect", but that isn't surprising, given that I was in charge of two very excited young people. There was no real time for chatting.

And really, we were there for the costumes. We were not disappointed.

I think, when we go again, I'd like to have some time set aside to just sit and watch. I've been seeing some pictures on Facebook of incredible costumes that I didn't see. There really was no way to see everyone, obviously. Everyone that dressed up did a great job. Most people were very nice when asked for photos. We all got many compliments on our costumes, and were asked for photos ourselves. I think the kids were asked by the official Con photographers every day - I have 7 cards from them.

Ariel, Rapunzel, Aurora and Hermione

Z and Nick Fur-reeee (as he says it)

Awesome 11th Doctor and Tardis in kid's fashion show

Tonto, Kid's Fashion show. Maybe one of the best, most original costumes I saw.

Ood and Weeping Angel

Belle, Rapunzel and Ariel

Edward Scissorhands at wand making class.

The Riddler with Iron Patriot and Bat Girl.

Harley Quinn and Bat Girl

Bat Man and Bat Girl

Peter Pan handed out magic jewels to the kids. So awesome.

Bat Person and kids

The only Thor (adult) we saw.

Z was blown away, because Thor let him "try" to pick up Mjölnir, and he did it! He told Thor that he had never been to Asgard, but that he was very strong. I think Thor laughed. I don't know who Thor's companion is, but Z was taken with her.

This one was funny. This Steampunk guy came up to us out of the blue and started playing like he was shooting Z. Z stood his ground and protected us. The Steampunk guy acted defeated. It was a little bit of awesome. I guess I need to find out what Steampunk is.

There were a lot, I mean a LOT of Jokers. We weren't in close proximity to many. This guy was sweet.

Homemade Iron Man. It was really well done. Very nice guy, he looked like Jim from "The Office."

This was the best Superman.

Quite a few Captain Jack Sparrows. They were all mostly awesome. This guy was in character and I wanted to hang out with him and party.

Empty child. One of several we saw. I want to do this for the kids. Except better.

More Iron Man. This is the AZ Avengers "official" Iron Man. We had to (like, Zane really really wanted us to) wait for him to suit up. There was no reasoning with him, and he had been really patient, so we waited. Worth every second.

Scarlet Witch. We saw 2 or 3, which I thought was awesome. A loves her on Super Hero Squad. The kids call her super powers "Pink Power" because she shoots out pink charges when she attacks. Funny.

A really cool Wonder Woman. Maybe my favorite. Z was sad he chose not to take a picture with this one, and asked several times over the weekend if we could try to find her.

Super Man and Super Girl with Kryptonite.

A couple of Super Kids at Xavier University.

Captain America and Scarlet Spidey. Cap is Z's favorite person. We saw a lot of him, and he was incredibly sweet and patient with the kids. All of the "professional" cosplayers were, really.

So, I was calling this girl "Joker", and I still think that's right, but I'm not 100% sure. After the weekend, I realized there is a LOT I don't know about comics, pop culture, etc.

Iron Man hugging Bat Man

Captain America and Iron Patriot

Harry Potter and Hermione

Wasp and Bat Rapunzel

We learned how to be a mermaid from this girl. SO cute.

Hawkeye and Cap. Seeing a theme here?

Katniss!

Zombie Alice and Mad Hatter

Phoenix Comicon Part 2- Our Costumes

 The continuing saga of our first Comicon. The part that, to the kids, was the most important. The costumes. See the first part here- it's kind of dull, the leading up to getting there.

COSTUMES

As previously mentioned, we pulled together costumes. The kids got such a kick out of that.

Day One, Bat Girl and Bat Man. 
Super cute, and super popular. I think about 15 people stopped us to take pictures, and we were only there from 4:30-7:30 or so. There were lots of Bat people there all weekend, but I think Ada's Bat Girl costume was definitely the cutest of the lot. Sadly, she dropped her mask as we were walking out for lunch on the last day. Someone saw it drop and ran to tell us within 2 minutes, but someone else had grabbed it and never turned it in to lost and found. Jerk. Not the only one we ran into.

Day two, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. 
These were the costumes that needed the most supplementing, but everything was super cheap on eBay and Goodwill. I lucked out. Zane was a fabulous Harry, although he didn't want to be for very long, and Ada's Hermione was out of this world. The two of them together, once again, were huge camera draws, and got lots of photo requests.

  

Harry and Hermione. Expelliarmus!

Harry Potter

Harry and Hermione take on the TARDIS

Days three and four-
Anything goes. I found Iron Patriot for Zane, which we only saw 2-3 others of. I think that was is favorite costume, although it was my least favorite. The body of the costume is just a simple Halloween costume, polyester jumpsuit. Not clever at all. But he loves it.

Ada brought her Rapunzel dress. She wasn't sure she wanted to wear it, but the third day, we did a hybrid of Rapunzel and Bat Girl. That was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.
   

Mostly Ada did Hermione for the last two days, though. She really liked the attention. Can't imagine where she gets that from.

As for me, I switched it up over the days, but I think it went like this:

Day one:11th Doctor 
Easy to pull off, just needed suspenders and a bow tie (got a Jerry Garcia one which was on clearance at Kohl's for $5.)  Black skirt and tights and shoes I already owned, cream colored long sleeved shirt and cami, I went femme Doctor. Oh, and the fez I got a while back. Can't forget the fez. Fezes are cool.

  

Days two and four: Captain Mal Reynolds-
This ended up being my favorite, much to my surprise. It was also the most under-represented at Con, also much to my surprise. I just added brown ribbon to the sides of khaki pants I had, long sleeved burgundy shirt, 11th Doctor suspenders, brown boots I already own, black cami. I spray painted one of the kids' toy guns. Belt from Walmart. Femme Mal. I have to say, the Browncoats were kind of assholish.So sad.




 
Day three- morning
4th Doctor- Costume Tee, grey skirt, brown hat. Simple. I thought it was cute, and probably the most comfortable. Not as clever as the others, though, and nowhere near being a great 4th Doctor.

Day four, afternoon/evening TARDIS - 
I would hazard a guess that the TARDIS was the most done costume at Con. Or at least the most represented symbol. You couldn't walk 10 feet without seeing a t-shirt, hat, or full-blown costume. I was hesitant to do it, because it's way overdone, and I'm all about originality. However, since I already owned three TARDIS t-shirts, I tried to think of a way to incorporated them into something interesting. Two weeks ago, Ada had her dance recital, and one of her costumes gave me the inspiration I was looking for. I mad a TARDIS tutu. Awesome, no? Eh, it had great potential, but I don't think I pulled it off. I made it far too fluffy for someone as big as I am. I will redo the fluffy bits, and next time I need a TARDIS tutu, I will be rockin' it. I paired it with my TARDIS tank, some electric blue leggings and my blue and black canvas shoes, plus used some blue and white tulle in my hair. The hair bits ended up being smoshed around by the kids, so I took it out and used it like a headband. Not quite as cute.

Of course I don't have a decent picture of me. Some may pop up on the forums, so I'll keep my eyes peeled. 

Phoenix Comicon - Part 1, The buildup

Holy crap on a biscuit. I have literally spent all day writing up our Comicon experience, and it is gone. AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!

So basically, the deal is- I am a huge geek. I have never been to any Comicon, ever. I rectified that this weekend in a huge way by attending Phoenix Comicon for all four days WITH MY KIDS in tow. The Con (that's what the cool kids call it, "Con") veterans that I spoke with had varying responses about that- from "best mother ever!" to "glutton for punishment." I think it's somewhere in the middle, but really closer to the first. Yes, there were a few unpleasant moments, but overall we had an amazing time and can't wait to do it again. Hence, my chronicling of our adventure.

So yeah, again, I'm a huge geek. Not extreme, but heck, I am living with my mother again, so maybe I'm more of a nerd. I started reading fantasy books when I was... I don't know. The first series I remember really devouring was the L. Frank Baum Wizard of Oz series when I was 10 or 11. I moved on to Terry Brooks' Shanarra books when I was about 13 or so. From there, you name it. Some light sci-fi, fantasy, pop culture, gaming, graphic novels and now with the kids super heroes and comic books, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot.

Last year, I started watching the current run of Doctor Who, starting with Stephen Moffat's 9th Doctor. Hooked in 2 episodes (maybe 1, but I think it was 2).  I ran through 9th and 10th Doctors super fast, got to 11th Doctor and realized I was going to run out of episodes, so I started limiting the time I watched, but I still finished all of them, and got caught up on the current series. TARDIS gear started appearing, and I think  my attitude might have started changing. I know my attitude started changing, not sure if it is coincidence or not. But it's for the better.

A few months ago, the kids and I went to Geek's Night Out in Tempe, because it boasted a TARDIS. Sold! We had a blast - on top of the TARDIS and lots of Doctors and companions to go with it, people were dressed in all manners of costumes. The kids were wide-eyed, and we all geeked out. I talked to some people at the Comicon exhibit and started thinking it might be fun. The kids and I talked about it on the way home, and I pretty much decided we would go. I purchased our membership (kids are free with adult).

First day, Bat Kids posing with Cap's poster

Kids with Cap (Z's new bestie) and Scarlet Spidey

Then I got sick. Really sick. Seriously. Not dying sick, but I have had a fever every day for the past 10 weeks, maybe longer, exhaustion, body aches (not gentle aches, like someone took a hammer to me ached). For at least 10 weeks. Every day. So my plans were kind of put on the back burner.

A few weeks ago, I realized the date was coming right up, so I did what I do best. I panicked. Then I multi-tasked. I worked on being sick, finishing my daughter's school's yearbook, and planning our Comicon experience. Because everyone knows that I can't just walk into a place wearing jeans and a t-shirt where 85% of the people are dressed up. Nope. That would be far too easy.

So I planned, plotted, checked, hunted, and in the end, I think we did Comicon (oh, sorry, "Con") in the absolute best way we could. We had fun, we looked good, and we learned some valuable lessons which will serve us well at future conventions.

..... and on to Part 2... Costumes!