Philly Comic Con Day 1

Thursday I was lucky enough to go to my first Comic Convention - Wizard World Philly.  I attended on a press pass that I was given by The Best Damn Nerd Show.  I have been looking forward to this for months and I sure didn't know what to expect at all.  The Con opened at 3pm on Thursday and I arrived around 2:30 to pick up my press credentials.  After waiting in a loooong line until 3:15 they finally let us in and I was taken aback by the size of the convention floor.  John Cena was at the Con and his fans were out in full force.  The doors opened and within 10 minutes the line to get his autograph was enormous.

Waiting for Cena

I took about 90 minutes to walk the floor and look at all of the vendors and artists tables.  Having never been to a convention of this size it was a little overwhelming.  I had been told a few weeks prior that this convention was "not about comics anymore" I was surprised to find that I could literally buy any comic I wanted here.  If I had the cash I could have gotten caught up on any New 52 or Marvel Now book I wanted.  This brings me to Rule #1:  Bring more money than you will think you need.

Autographs and comics and art are expensive.  Looking back I should have plunked down the cash to buy a comic that Stan Lee wrote and gotten him to sign it.  More on Stan later...

It wasn't long until I came upon the Romper Zombies.  These little treasures are a collectible figure that features little kids as zombies.  If I remember correctly they are toys, working on an app, a video game, a movie treatment, and a TV pilot.  They had a huge space and for some reason had beauty queens splattered with blood handing out brochures.

I kept on walking around a soon come upon an icon of my youth. The 1966 batmobile.

Just as I was reaching for my wallet to get my picture taken in it I looked to the left and made my day.

My favorite movie of all time is Back to the Future and for a $20 donation to TeamFox, I got my picture sitting in it and all the pictures I wanted to take inside it.  I would have paid $50.

 The remainder of my afternoon was spend in a panel entitled "Drawing Cult-Classics to Fairy Tales to Old School Comics featuring Bob McLeod and Chrissie Zullo.  Bob was, of course, co-creator of The New Mutants and drew all kinds of books from the early 70's to today.  I learned a couple of things:

1. Bob McLeod didn't like any writers he worked with because they would have ad books full of word balloons.  He also drew heroes out of necessity and really wanted to work for MAD Magazine.
2. Chrissie wanted to be a Disney animator and got into comics by being persistent.

After the panel I went to the artists booths and found Bob basically ignored and I resolved to bring my Spiderman comics on Friday for him to sign.  I talked to Chrissie for a few minutes and ended up buying a couple of awesome prints. 

To be continued on Day 2!