Many of you have already experienced the greatness of Comic Con, that incredible nerd fest which brings tens of thousands of fans together to celebrate all things Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action, and Horror. Many fans shell out hundreds of dollars on memorabilia and autographs from their favorite stars or series, such as Star Trek, Dr. Who, Hellboy, and hundreds of others. For Dallas/Fort Worth, Fan Days works like a mini-convention before the big show happens at the Dallas Convention Center each summer. So, where about 20,000 fans showed up here at the Irving Convention Center this Valentine’s Day weekend, that number could easily go up to 60,000 or 100,000 at Dallas Comic Con which makes its home at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Dallas Convention Center each summer. Fan Days and Comic Con offer much more than the opportunity to meet your favorite celebrity, however.
Organizers continually look for ways to enhance the experience for fans. To go along with the thousands of cosplayers just dressing in character for fun, the convention hosted a few professional cosplayers, mostly women, who travel to conventions around the world and attain a celebrity status of their own. Among these, I spoke with Jennifer Van Damsel, Silly Little Missy, and Krystal Starr. One constant between them is each began her venture out of a fandom of a set of Con-centric shows or comics and a love for dressing up.
Silly Little Missy sums it up well, “I am a professional nerd.” She made this statement with a lot of pride in her voice. Having been a pro since the sixth grade, she’s developed quite a following and her nerd cred is way up the charts. While pro cosplaying brings in the majority of her income, many others work full time jobs or spend their abilities in other parts of the entertainment industry. Jennifer Van Damsel holds a degree in Accounting. Krystal Starr has Irish roots and has a great love for cosplay, but also works with developmentally disabled adults, is an actress, an artist, a writer, a director, and is currently shopping her first feature film. As most professionals in this arena are women, most also model and play up the sex appeal in their costumes and presentations. Krystal Starr’s work can be found in magazines and calendars across the world.
As gaming has become more and more popular, and technology advanced to more and more realistic worlds and believable stories, it has become integral to comic cons across the country. For last Fall’s Fan Days and this weekend’s as well, organizers finally brought in a group to set up a gaming room. Exhibitor Ultimate Gaming Championship came in from Illinois to set up a competitive room, allowing gamers to test their skills against one another for cash prizes and t-shirts. Their setup is a fairly intricate network of monitors, computers, gaming systems and cameras. Matt Jackson, the company’s founder, says the idea started in Southern Illinois as a group getting together to have fun competing and morphed into a business that looks to eventually rival the massively popular tournaments seen in places like Korea and Japan.
Fans of the Star Wars universe of films, TV shows, games, books, comic books, and everything else related to the seminal franchise have been known to push the nerd quotient up to 11. While any con attendant will see lots of Star Wars cosplay and stuff, immense amounts of stuff, there is one organization that takes itself seriously not only as a fan group, but as charity as well. North Texas has its own 501st Garrison, Vader’s Fist, commanded by Scott Wilcox is made up of cosplayers who create detailed costumes made to exacting standards, allowing them to realistically represent the Star Wars universe at charity events. They raise money and visit hospitals to raise the spirits of children and adults in need of a little fun. This particular group bends toward the Dark Side of the Force, representing the Empire and other baddies from the films. Other related organizations do represent the Rebel Alliance/Galactic Republic, but for me, it sounds more fun to be bad for good.
One of the most interesting offerings this time around involved something I never would have thought about, but probably should have-speed dating. SciFi Speed Dating tours cons across the country, offering love sick singles the chance to meet the love of their life. According to company president Ryan Glitch, speed dating at cons is a natural fit.
“You’re all super huge fans of something. So, you have that in common. You can build from that.”
He called out instructions to all the guys trying to sign up at the last minute. There were plenty of spaces for girls, but guys were on a long waiting list. Overall the event went well, however. Those I talked to enjoyed the experience. Lauren, from an unpronounceable town in East Texas, had friends who felt she needed to go. “They pushed me in the door,” she claimed. Even she had a great time and said she would possibly do it again. I can imagine, since 16 out of the 24 men in the room left her their contact information.
The Valentine’s weekend Fan Days had plenty of celebrities with the stars of the hit TV show “The Arrow”, a “Dukes of Hazard” reunion, Brent Spiner, Bruce Greenwood, and several others. one of the great moments came during Greenwood’s Q&A, when a young girl asked him how to get over stage fright. His first words in response were, “Come here!” He brought her up on stage and stood with her in front of the crowd, telling her, “See all these people…They all want you to succeed.” It was a classy move from a fantastic actor. Brent Spiner came out in full form, throwing snarky one-liners around like Rodney Dangerfield, only without the crassness.
The folks at Dallas Comic Con put on a Fan Days Con in the Fall and one in the Spring to keep fans interested in the main event, which will be this June. The Summer event dwarfs Fan Days in both attendance and scope. The big guest this Summer will the woman who made the double bun hairstyle a fad and broke up with Han Solo. If you don’t know who that is, stay tuned.
