HelioCon 2014

I hadn't heard of HelioCon 2014 until about two weeks ago.  Terry Parr of ShoNuff Studios told me about it, knowing that I was a big fan of one of the guests of honor - Linkara of Atop The Fourth Wall.  On the odd chance there's someone out there who is a fan of my work who doesn't know who Linkara is, let me say that in the professional field of comic book criticism he is one of the best and certainly one of the most famous critics out there.  He also lives a goodly distance from Texas, so I was surprised to hear about him doing a convention in DFW, much less a first-year one.


HelioCon was held at the MCL Grand Theater in the hart of downtown Lewisville, Texas.  The entrance was easily identified thanks to a conveniently parked TARDIS, which I believe is fast becoming the standard symbol for "Nerds Welcome Here" around world.


Linkara was the first of several guests to host a Q&A that day.  As is his custom at conventions, he did a live version of his show before taking questions from the fans.  Since he usually posts his con-shows on-line, I won't say anything about the show except that it was hilarious.  I'll post a link to it as soon as he has it up for viewing.



One mark of quality for a convention is a good games area and HelioCon had that.  No surprise given that the games area was run by the wonderful people at Roll2Play.   


The staff of HelioCon were also top-notch and you never had to look far to see them all hard at work.  As far as I know, this red-shirt staff member survived until the end of the Con.


No matter how may times I see a TARDIS dress at a convention, it never gets old.  I thought this gentleman was in the male equivalent of a TARDIS outfit but now that I look at it, I realize my mistake.  Anyone know what character he is?



There's no mistaking this dangerous customer.  That's an Orc.  Whether he's a Pathfinder Orc, a World of Warcraft Orc or an oversized Reaper miniature is a subject of some debate.  I wasn't brave enough to ask.

All in all, it was a fun day and I will definitely be back for the next HelioCon.  And now, some quick shout outs to some awesome people I met and hung out with as the day progressed.

* Sarah at Boomerang Comics, with whom I spent a goodly amount of time speaking about Green Arrow.

* Tony Franklin and Michelle Millette, whose comic Chantilly Mace I will be reviewing sometime soon.

* The Jedi Cole and his wife Cat, whom will be doing many awesome things at All-Con 2014.

* Halo and Terry from ShoNuff Studios, for getting me to Lewisville today in the first place.

* David Doub of Dusk Comics. For listening. I'll be reviewing one of his books shortly soon too.

* Kristen McGuire, who I didn't get to talk to because her table was swamped whenever I got near.

* Linkara, for being as cool as I hoped and for giving me an awesome picture to close with.