LONG BEACH COMIC CON IS BACK!!!

 

Welcome to October CRAZIES!!!  Yet another tradition returned in 2022 after a three year hiatus, but we'll get to that in a moment.  First, take a look at my poor pumpkin patch...

It started off with a lot of promise, big healthy vines, flowers and leaves everywhere and an abundance of little pumpkin bulbs.  But within a month, they all shriveled up, leaving me with a handful of piddly pumpkins. Needless to say, I was disappointed and decided to cut my losses and pull up the dead/dying vines.  But then I walked out into my backyard and saw this strange occurrence...

Hot damn!  They'll put those things up in ANY open space, won't they?  It wouldn't be so bad if the patrons actually bought something!  It's the least they can do for hogging up all the parking on my street!  Perhaps next year, my pumpkins will be more successful.  One can only hope...

Now, back to the return of a yearly tradition.  Long Beach Comic Con has returned from the pandemic-induced hiatus!  In recent years prior, they'd cut back a lot in size and festivities.  Would they come back strong and blow things up like they used to?  Afraid to say no.  They didn't. In fact, they downsized even further.  I'd go on, but there are pictures waiting, so let's just get right to it.  Enjoy...

Here we have the winner for most creative use of a pool noodle in a cosplay prop!

Next up, the winner for most creative use of a frilly shirt!  So many frills!

The R2 Builders Club were one of the few Fan Clubs that returned to this year's show and as always, they were a hit!  They even brought Rex, the original pilot of the beloved Star Tours attraction at Disneyland!

Not a whole lotta booths this year, but some of the ones that did go had some nice displays.

There were many poor unfortunate souls in Long Beach that weekend, where a record high of 108F hit the city on the last day of the con!  Ursula took it in stride though!

Hook Deadpool and Tinkerbell!  I've seen a lot of Tinkerbell cosplay over the years, but this is the first time I've seen anyone do the version of her from Hook!

Catwoman enjoys her some lemonade!

Rambo knows it's important to mask up still!

An R2 unit went to fetch some pizza and chicken strips for its maker!

Would this be considered a Doggo-gorgon?

Party on Michael!

Johnny 5 came to chill with the astro droids!

Judging by the color of the flames, those were some particularly sweet donuts that Ghostrider was eating!

The Hyatt Regency Long Beach!  It's a very nice hotel and the adjacent Rainbow Harbor Lagoon is so much fun to walk around!  You can see numerous fish and birds hanging around the water, even several species of sharks and rays!  It's a pity they took away the bridges to the islands in the middle of the lagoon.  Still a fun site to visit.

The are many great access points and walkways around the Long Beach Convention Center, which is one of the things that makes it so sad that their comic convention has downsized so much in the last five years.  Hopefully that'll change with coming shows.

The only other fan group that came this year: The Trekkies!  Live long and prosper friends.

The Cars of the Stars were back in their usual spot, though they too downsized from the amount of cars that they usually bring.  And I should note that they brought more than just these two Jurassic Park Jeeps!  The rest were behind me!

Another amazing cosplay!  Even in a downsized year, LBCC still brought out some incredible cosplayers to the show!

Looks like the Riddler was able to score a few hard-to-find back issues!

And that was Long Beach Comic Con 2022.  It wasn't a good show.  It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good.  This show used to be my favorite one to go to, more than SDCC even.  How it fell this hard this fast is beyond me. One could point to the pandemic as a cause to the cutbacks, and it's a valid excuse for sure, but this was happening long before COVID was ever heard of.  I hope they turn it around, I honestly do.  Long Beach is a fun place and I love visiting there.  They deserve to have a top notch Comic Con.  Next year though, I think I'm gonna go to Mid-Summer Scream instead.  That show looks awesome!

And that's it for this first week of October.  Be sure to drop in next Wednesday for some monstrous art kicking off a monstrous month!  Until then, take care, stay safe and I'll catch y'all later!

LBCC... WELL, IT WAS NICE TO GET AWAY AT LEAST...

Welcome to October CRAZIES!!!  The haunting month is upon us!  And because it's a month full of spooks and masks and costumes, what better way to start things off than with a trip to Long Beach Comic Con?  Yes, it happened over a month ago, but I already had September's posts queued up.  Plus, it just fits the theme of the month better.  So let's cut the jibber jabber and get too it!  LBCC is a go!  Enjoy...

IT, the feel good family movie about a murdering clown!  This is both adorable and frightening! 

Excellent dudes!  I get the feeling we'll be seeing a LOT more Bill and Ted cosplay in the coming years.  Hopefully, someone will finally do some Rufus cosplay! 

Live wrestling returned to LBCC this year and thankfully, Jim Cornette wasn't there to witness it!  As you may have noticed, the wrestlers were dressed up like comic book characters WHILE wrestling!  The legendary manager isn't a big fan of such things and he likely would've entertained the fans in a different way had he seen it!

After years of hoping, I finally saw some Steve Urkel cosplay.  Next time, somebody needs to do Urkelbot cosplay! 

Not to be outdone, this lady did Punky Brewster cosplay!  The 80's are taking over y'all! 

This is Laughing Sal.  She was once a part of the long defunct Long Beach Pike amusement park which sat across the street from where the Long Beach Convention Center now sits.  She was a very early form of animatronics that more or less gyrated and jiggled as a laugh track played behind her.  There are roughly a dozen of these left and this particular model is among the very few that's still in pristine condition.  She now resides in the lobby of the Convention Center and was drawing a bit of a crowd throughout the con. 

The Empire might have been more successful with Ghostrider's bike! 

John Hammond spared no expense on his gear for the con! 

I don't think it would be wise to steal a Power Ranger's baby brother, Jareth! 

Probably the best pic of the show!  Pennywise and little Skeletor!  Remember that story a few pics back about Laughing Sal and the Long Beach Pike?  Well, the Pike also inspired another feared figure: Old Bony himself, Skeletor!  You see, like many seaside amusement parks, the Pike had a haunted house, only, their's had a REAL skeleton in it!  One particular kid was scared out of his wits during a visit to the park and never forgot the image.  He later became an artist at Mattel Toys and used that vivid memory as the basis for He-Man's greatest foe!  Wild, no?

For decades, sailor suits were a feared and dreaded part of childhood.  Now, kids are wearing them willingly for sight gags.  My how times have changed!

Their wedding reception was killer! 

He was the champion my friend! 

The Planetteers!  These two were awesome.  They cleaned the entire floor of the Convention Center!

Attendance may have been startling low at LBCC this year, but the quality of the costumes was as amazing as ever! 

WUBBA LUBBA DUB DUB!!!  WE'RE GONNA SAVE THE REBELLION MORTY!!!  YOU AND ME!!!  AND GET THAT BLUE MILK!!! 

MORTAL KOMBAT!!! *Techno Music Hits* 

Even the Rescue Rangers are no match for the power of the Dark Side! 

Punisher War Machine.  Nothing legally stopping this now! 

Krampus was there to remind everyone that Christmas isn't too far off! 

In years past, there were dozens of fan groups at LBCC.  This year, there were only two: The Mandolorian Mercs and the R2 Builders Club.  Needless to say, many of us were baffled at the lack of fan groups.  They're a staple of every con.

Totally visible eyes aside, this Black Manta costume was pretty cool!

No, that's not a Howard Stern cosplayer hanging out with Garth.  But we can dream, can't we? 

We wrap things up today with some amazing Wizard of Oz cosplay!  Was hoping I'd see more of it at cons this year, given that it's the 80th anniversary of the film and the 100th anniversary of L. Frank Baum's passing, but the costumes I did see were awesome and these folks were no exception!

And that was Long Beach Comic Con 2019.  I'm not gonna lie folks.  This year's show was a HUGE let down.  Attendance was down dramatically, major vendors that used to be there every year were gone and the size of the show shrunk.  About two hours into the last day, I gave up and met my family at Disneyland instead where, amazingly enough, lines weren't bad at all!  I honestly don't know what happened.  Three years ago, I didn't want to leave.  This year,  I ran out of things to do within the first hour of the show.  Part of the problem stems from them moving it to the beginning of September where they have to compete with several other shows across the country that bring in higher attendance, which in turn takes away many vendors.  I'm not an expert, but I honestly believe the easiest fix here would be to put LBCC back in mid-to-late September where it thrived for the longest time.  It may be time to bring in a new organizer as well, like Wizard World.  Their Anaheim shows were a blast and they are very well run.  Will I be back next year?  It's hard to say.  I love Long Beach and it's a fun weekend away.  But it's not cheap and it's hard to justify going when the show just isn't growing.  We'll have to see how things go.  I'll always remember the good times if not.  Fingers crossed!

That's all for now folks.  We'll be back next week with art celebrating the mood of the season!  So get ready for a monster of a time!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

LONG BEACH COMIC CON 2017... FINALLY!!!

Welcome to October CRAZIES!!!  After a week delay, we finally got our review of Long Beach Comic Con 2017 up!  And really, what better way to kick off Halloween month than with a bunch of people in costumes, am I right?  It was a weekend of fun, wonder and some awesome action figure scores, so enough clowning around!  Let's hit the road and go back to Long Beach!  Enjoy...

Sexy Dumb And Dumber cosplay.  Some things just aren't meant to be sexy!

Hey Arnold! cosplay!  "Helga" had the perfect unibrow going there!

Cholo Peanuts!  This is a variant I can get behind!

Some great The Mask cosplay happening here!

My favorite cosplay of the con!  Hard to tell in the pic, but his vest and "Lightning" lit up!

Couldn't get to close to this dude.  He nearly put an eye out!

Spy vs. Spy, friendship is mayhem!

And the most creative use of a "Hoverboard" award goes to Aladdin!

One of the cooler things LBCC has is the laser tag arena they put up in the exhibit hall every year.  They also had a gaming arena set up on giant screens where people took part in Mario Kart and Smash Bros tournaments the whole weekend!

She put a spell on Billy!

Slapshot cosplay!  It's about friggin time!

She's Mary Poppins y'all!

"Peace among worlds!"

The Justice League was there and ready to take on their worst foes yet: Film Critics!

Sorry dude.  The Festival Of Fools is in Washington, DC right now!

His spidey sense was tingling at the thought of a non-MCU Venom movie!

I've seen plenty of Mad Eye Moody cosplay since the Goblet of Fire came out, but this is easily the best one!

 Little Flash, meet R2!

One step ahead of the Sith...

The new It hadn't come out yet, but I'm almost certain Pennywise cosplay will be dominating all the cons next year!

And that was Long Beach Comic Con 2017.  Despite the circumstances leading into the weekend, I still had a good time.  It was somewhat of a down year for LBCC.  Attendance-wise, it was probably the most people I've ever seen there.  Doing it during Labor Day weekend helped as they didn't have to compete with the NFL on Sunday this time.  However, they also did it during the same weekend as DragonCon in Atlanta and Fan Expo in Toronto, so many of the big name vendors that usually go to LBCC weren't there.  At least 13 regulars that I see there every year didn't come.  Hopefully next year they'll be back.  I did get some awesome action figure and trading card scores at least!  I'm always on the look out for obscure treasures, and one booth had them in spades!  Overall, I needed a weekend away and it helped out a lot.  It was a good time and I look forward to being back next year!

That's all for today my CRAZIES.  We'll be back next week with some art celebrating the very personification of Halloween!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!