June 16th, 2018
Heb Center
Cedar Park – Texas
Greater Austin Comic Con
It’s almost mid-way through the year and comic cons are booming. Darthyday and Sir Nick Justice got to venture off to visit the first year’s attendance of Greater Austin Comic Con. This took place a bit passed Austin onto a more outskirt – post city life feels with wide-open spaces as compared to Austin itself.
If you’ve ever been to San Antonio, they have an Alamo dome – this would be like a sister to it but smaller. With parking being $5 after about a 2-hour drive from. It was super easy finding parking.
Venue:
As like most sports event dome buildings there is 2 sections to be seen at the convention – the out rim and the main floor. It took almost 15-20 minutes due to bad communication between staff and staff running the tickets booth to finally approve a lot of the Press of our group and others. But once going through Metal detectors and removing everything inconveniently (but for safety), we got in.
We were welcomed by a mass crowd of people in every isle of vendors (about 6) in the main floor with minor crowding occurring in the celebrity wall. In fact, the longest line at the time was Walter Jones as they were just setting up an impromptu tape flooring when we arrived 2.5 hours into the show.
Later on, there was a lot of miscommunication with how the line for Doug Jones was going to be setup since they kept commanding everyone to zig zag hug each other only later to be converted into a split line at a door near us carrying on into the out rim.
Body on body is as close as it got to how it felt walking around the main floor with some of the voice actors from DBZ were awkwardly placed in the mix of others, allowing almost no personal room to meet them. But when wandering into the out rim it was far less packed – enough to enjoy yourself looking and walking around.
Cosplay and Guests:
This convention honestly felt like it had been around at least 3 years but operated on a first-year level since I was especially impressed with some of the guests they brought. As mentioned earlier, Walter Jones of the Power Rangers original series was there and full of energy. He was a great surprise as to how much life and comfort he brought into making conversation. There was also John Wesley Shipp (original flash), Kevin Sorbo (Hercules), Sean Schemmel (Goku), and of course…. Doug Jones!
The greatest impression left was Doug Jones as his line grew within minutes of his Delayed arrival. It took awhile to get through especially being close to the start but when meeting it made sense why. He was giving almost everyone big hugs and smiles, getting to really talk to them, and overall deliver an unforgettable experience. Even his manager was very nice in assisting with how certain autographs were done such as a t-shirt that had to be stretched with everyone’s (and his) help.
The cosplay guests on the out rim of the building were also mixed with some food, special vehicle (like the bat-mobile), business, and regular vendors. Some notable guests were Cosfit Reza, Ronin Cosplay, Scarlett Hellion, The Walking Doppelgangers (located in the main hall), and the Lone Star Hunters. You can check out some of the video interviews on the Facebook page of Drop The Spotlight.
Overall, I felt the convention did well for being its first year. It was crowded for sure and I hope that was beneficial for the vendors. I don’t believe it should be held at the same convention center since it was way too packed for a comfortable visit. I think they are on track with bringing great guests with phenomenal personalities and look forward to seeing their improvements next con. Hopefully with walkie talkies so everyone’s on board 😉
