Now in our eighth calendar year!
PCR #399 (Vol. 8, No. 46) This edition is for the week of November 12--18, 2007.
Tampa Comic Con Report - Nov. 11, 2007
Tampa Comic Book & Toy Convention, Nov. 11th 2007
In what's become a traditional meet-up place for the Crazed Fanboy contingent (including yours truly!), the always-fun Tampa Comic Con (that's what we call it) has once again returned to Tampa at the Doubletree on Cypress Street. The creation of Tim Gordon, the Tampa Comic Con has been delighting fanboys & girls for, what is it...five years now? And for those who can't get enough, Tim hosts the con twice (sometimes thrice) times per year!
I arrived on-scene at about 11am, checking in on Nolan en route. Nole said he was running behind slightly, giving his ETA at 11:30a. He and Tez finally strolled in along with Chris Woods and a surprise appearance by Simon Lynx! After swapping greetings, we entered the con, smack dab into a sea of independent artists, authors, filmmakers, actors, Stormtroopers, etc. Our Close Encounter of the First Kind was with familiar author/sirens Glenda Finkelstein and Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc. Glenda had her movie Perfect Copy screening at the Creature Productions Film Festival that day.
Across from the ladies was the always enthusiastic Joel D. Wynkoop and his wife Cathy. For newbies, Joel is one of the best-known actors in the area and has starred in countless fanboy-friendly fare since the mid-'80s, and is recognized largely for his collaborations with filmmaker Tim Ritter . Joel's had an enormous amount of publicity lately, making appearances in round table discussions on local news stations, newspaper articles, the web, and radio.
Another great element of the con's "gateway area" is seeing the uber-authentic Stormtrooper Squad with their fearful leader Darth Vader. For those who prefer their characters in tights, fans in detailed superhero costumes (Spider-Man, The Riddler, Batman) were also milling about.
The dealer's room is always a fun stroll, with a lot of familiar faces and items vying for my attention. I noted there was a dealer new to the con who featured largely classic Godzilla and Ultraman memorabilia. His prices were reasonable, so I walked away with two pieces, ironically not related to Japanese fantastic cinema: Slithis on VHS (sorry, Tez) and a 1986 reprint of a Vault of Horror comic book, which I have been thoroughly enjoying!
We the gang strolled around the dealer's room easily about five times, constantly running into friends and acquaintances. The celebrity area was in its usual place at the far side of the dealers room. This year's featured guests were from some TV show about wanting to be a "superhero". Most Oddservations readers know that I am vehemently against any TV shows post-1982, so it goes without saying that the TV celebs this year totally underwhelmed me (two years ago the con featured Noel Neill, now that's more like it). Other media celebs included Jeffrey Breslauer (Swamp Thing, Muppets Take Manhattan) and the voice of Space Ghost George Lowe (Nole was looking forward to meeting him).
Tampa Comic Con's comic book guests as usual were first-rate, with Nick Cuti and Chuck Dixon returning from the March con, in addition to Joe Staton (E-Man), Pat Broderick, Fran Matera, Alex Saviuk, and many other local and national names.
Over in the screening room, Creature Productions once again hosted the traditional Film Festival, with the main draws being the latest cut of Dark Dimensions, and the aforementioned Perfect Copy by Glenda Finkelstein. Crazed Fanboy resident John Lewis was master of scarimonies.
At about 2pm, we were all surprised by the appearance of Fangrrl herself, Lisa Ciurro, in a fashionably late entrance. In essence, Lisa was perfectly timed to coincide with our quest to find a place to eat lunch. Unfortunately, we were foiled by a gaggle of football fans, who proceeded to take over our beloved haunt - Players Sports Bar with their hootin' and hollerin'. I was really looking forward to having lunch there (with their double-decker burgers and all), but that just wasn't meant to be. We had to opt for Chili's on Dale Mabry, which turned out fine. Sure, it was no Players, but we all had a good time.
Our group (at this point it was Nolan, Chris Woods, Lisa, Tez, and myself) ventured over to Chili's and got ourselves a very loooong booth. Fanboy topics ranged from the usual gossip to the first three episodes of the Star Wars films(!). I'm honestly surprised the gang memorized so many lines from those movies! Well, I guess they were in an odd way honoring those turkeys for Thanksgiving.
Thanks to Tim Gordon and the Crazed Fanboy gang for making the Nov. '07 Comic Con another great time!
"Oddservations" is ©2007 by Andy Lalino. The Oddservations banner is a creation of Andy Lalino. All other graphics, except where otherwise noted, are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2007 by Nolan B. Canova.