Dallas Comic Con 2014 - ALL THE PICTURES! - Part Six

The Doctor vs. Galactus - it's a license to print money, Marvel!
That's Reese of Reese's Pieces as Galactus.


This cosplayer tops himself every year with his balloon animal costumes.
This year: My Neighbor Totoro!


The Dread Pirate Wilson a.k.a. Pirate Deadpool



A rather sizable group of X-Men cosplayers.  Can you name them all?


Jubilee, Storm and Dazzler from the previous group.


Lara Croft - Tomb Raider. 


Hawkman


Gandalf The Grey


I'm not sure how I feel about this more-mature Sailor Moon reboot...


Derek The Red Dalek  - quite harmless after a visit from The Doctor.


The Crushinator from Futurama.


Ramona Flowers and Godzilla.

Dallas Fan Days 2013 - Saturday, Part Two

An Ewok and a Twi'lek.  Do I really need to explain they are from Star Wars?   

Tank Girl, from the comic of the same name.   

I saw this sweet Amber Sweet from Repo! The Genetic Opera while waiting in line.  Luckily, I stumbled across her again later and she hugged me for being the only person thus far to recognize her. 

I should mention at this point for the benefit of my readers in Dallas that if you are a fan of Repo!,  Amber Does Dallas does live productions of the show on a regular basis and that tickets for a Halloween Double Feature of both Repo! and The Rocky Horror Picture Show are now available on-line. 


I also ran into this amazing Blind Mag from Repo! The Genetic Opera later in the day.    

Alice in Wonderland.   

My friend Diane as Rocket Raccoon.    

How awesome is Halo of ShoNuff Studios?  She can draw even with a bow in her hand!   

KillerQueen of IHOGeek.com as Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.


The Fifth Doctor.  And where there's a Doctor, there's almost always a Master...  

Not THAT Master!

THIS Master is from the infamous cult B-movie "Manos" The Hands Of Fate - a film most fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 will almost certainly be familiar with. 

All-Con 2013: Day One

Friday would prove to be my shortest stay at All-Con. I only had one panel to teach (Secret Origins: The History of American Comics) and with a show in Dallas to perform in that evening (Amber Does Dallas' bi-monthly performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the historic Lakewood Theater) my time was limited.  Still, I found plenty of time to wander the halls and snag several pictures of some interesting cosplays and other interesting sights before I had to dash off for the evening.

Despite our troupe doing double duty, with a show at our regular venue on Friday night and a performance at All-Con on Saturday night, some of our number took the time to create and staff an amazing display table to promote our work.  Pictured behind the table is our promotions manager Ali, looking cool as ever.

I'm no Bronie but even I can appreciate the craft and complexity of this costume, which I am informed by someone much more knowledgeable about these things than myself is the character Rarity.

This costume, however, I knew straight away.  That's The Shoveler from the cult-classic Mystery Men.

Here we see my fellow ADD member, Nako Sweet, cosplaying the Winter Lady Maeve from The Dresden Files.  Note the poor fellow frozen in time behind her, due to Nako's very real fairy magic.

Batman and Romana Flowers.  A strange pairing, no?  But nothing's truly strange at All-Con.

I haven't seen Rise of the Guardians yet, but even I recognized this wonderful Jack Frost cosplay. 

Great Hera!  It's Kingdom Come Wonder Woman, with the golden eagle armor.

My buddy Paul Riddel was present, manning the booth for The Texas Triffid Ranch. If you've ever had the hankering to adopt a carnivorous plant, Paul's the man to talk to.

This lady cosplayed a most impressive Princess Zelda and her music was as lovely as her costume.  She played various themes from The Legend of Zelda games on an ocarina and it was enchanting.  But don't take my word for it!  You can hear some samples of her work at crisgale.com. 

 

My friend Rick Gutierrez of The United States of Geekdom cut quite a fine figure as Captain Hammer, MCing their annual Doctor Horrible screening. While Amber Does Dallas wasn't a co-sponsor this year, I was still on hand to offer my riffing expertise to the proceedings.

Sadly, not all of my pictures from this day turned out clearly after the fact. So I'd first like to apologize to Princess Peach and the other Princess Zelda, whose pictures I couldn't share with everyone.  I'd like to apologize to my friend make-up artist Lizzie Lynch, whose class on special effects make-up I learned a great deal from but - again - failed to get any clear pictures of.  I'd also like to apologize to my friend Zander Price - proprietor of Nerdy NotionZ - for failing to get a decent picture of him in his Casey Jones costume.  I hope that encouraging everyone to buy one of your amusing decals or charms will make-up for it. :)

Finally, I'd like to give a shout-out to artist Jessica Grundy, who was kind enough to share a brief conversation with me after I mistook her for someone else and patient enough to wait until I could break a $20 to buy one of her adorable buttons.  Check out her store at the above link. 

All-Con: Day One, Part Two. A Pictoral Report

The history of Anime & Manga class proved to be not nearly as popular as I'd hoped. Granting that All-Con isn't as heavily devoted to Anime as many other local cons (Dallas has three regular Anime conventions of note), I had hoped to fill the larger room they'd given me for my second class. Still, it was a fun time.

After grabbing some dinner, I hit the Dealer's Room to browse around and check out some more cosplay costumes. Thankfully, everyone was polite even though I had to explain that I was practically broke. And by practically I meant completely. Though what I lack in riches, I can more than make up for in press. So here's some websites you should all consider checking out.

Steampunk Stitchery - though their website is still under construction, their wears looked quite well made to my admittedly untrained eye. If you're into Steampunk but can't sew yourself, give them a look see.

Henry Melton -A local science fiction writer and a heck of a nice guy, I'll be checking his work out sometime soon.

DreamHats.com - They were kind enough to try and help me find the right floppy brown hat for my Fourth Doctor costume.

Ties That Bind - an interesting web-comic I have yet to get into that far.

Neither Noir - the best professional cosplay photographers in the business, bar none.

Supergirl, of course.

Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Not sure what character she is, but it's a nice looking costume.
Apparently she works for a local events site called Samaze.com

"This book is crap. They make me look like Hitler and sound like an idiot.

Find out who created this, hire them, then fire them!"

Yes, J. Jonah Jameson, in all his glory.

I don't think she's any particular character. But there's something about a blood-soaked school girl that just demands that you take pictures. Perhaps it is the bloody bat?

I closed the night out with an MCing gig. My acting troupe, Amber Does Dallas, was co-sponsoring a screening of Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog along with The United States of Geekdom. While we weren't able to shadowcast the show legally (something we've been wanting to do for a long time) we did prepare a special pre-show based on a song by Felicia Day from The Guild.

The show itself went well, save for one jackass who kept standing up in front of the projector. It's rare that I riff on a show I actually like but if Mike Nelson can take on Casablanca I can take on Doctor Horrible. The show was over at 11 but I decided to head to bed early and skip the room parties. I had a long day ahead of me tomorrow.

All-Con: Day One, Part One. A Pictoral Report

My day began early on Friday. The Con officially started at 10 am and I had a class on the history of American comics to teach at 11 am. After doing a quick circle around the second floor, where most of the convention rooms were, I found my room and began to set-up.

The first class went better than I expected. The first morning of a Con is usually slow but I had a good size crowd. More importantly, they were very receptive and asked some good questions at the end. I got a lot of complements on my PowerPoint and one woman was particularly thankful that I discussed how the portrayal of women improved during The Bronze Age. Thankfully, there was nothing else scheduled in the room until 1 pm, so I was able to spend a good bit of time talking to people afterwards.

After checking into my room and unloading a few things, I went and caught the first show by The Damsels of Dorkington.





An improvisational theater troupe who specialize in comic book Cons and other geeky gatherings, The Damsels are comparable to The Reduced Shakespeare Company in that they do a lot of shows based on classical works. The key differences are that, apart from one bloke in drag, they are an all female troupe and they are about ten times filthier than the RSC. Well, at least the last show I saw them do was. This was the first time I saw one of their "clean" shows and... well, you could tell they were struggling a little to keep things on a child-friendly level. Despite this, there was still a lot of things that would likely make your grandmother uncomfortable, like the scene in which my buddy Rick from United States of Geekdom was called upon to play the part of Igraine, mother of King Arthur, giving birth to her son.

Once the show was over, I had an hour to kill before my next event - a class I was teaching on the history of Anime and Manga. With not much else to do, I decided to wander the floor and check out some of the costumes.

Todd Ingram and Envy Adams from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Twilight Sparkle & Discord from My Little Pony

Doctor Horrible from Doctor Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog

I wasn't aware they they had Slave Leia outfits in the dark future of Fallout. Perhaps the players controlling these Vault Dwellers are running some sort of mod?

Either way, the costumes are all amazingly detailed. Apparently, they had to sew the jumpsuits special. The soda bottles in the holster have custom-printed Nuka-Cola labels and their Pip Boys have working, light-up screens!

Barbarella? Psychedelia!

There was quite a lot of Steampunk at All-Con, but this was the best outfit I saw the first hour.

Luke Skywalker & Mara Jade from Star Wars

Five Things About Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Nobody Is Saying

Or, at least, 5 Things About Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World I Haven't Seen Anyone Say Yet

There's a lot of reasons why I think Scott Pilgrim didn't have a huge blockbuster opening. It opened against two of the most anticipated movies of the summer. Its' target audience is the rich in heart but poor in cents twenty-somethings who can't afford $9.50 for a movie ticket at a fancy first-run theater. And perhaps most damning of all,is an Indie comedy about relationships disguised as a with a blockbuster action flick.

Now, I liked Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. But even I, a fan who read all of the books beforehand, will admit that the movie had some flaws. That being said, I wasn't expecting some of the complaints that I've seen coming from the professional press. How it panders to nerds at the expense of the mainstream. How nobody under the age of 30 has any point of entry into the movie. And my personal favorite, how it isn't really a nerd movie, despite being based on a comic book, because it's about guys who are in bands and stuff, not geeks sitting around in their parents' basements playing World of Warcraft.

*sighs* Ignoring how utterly ignorant that last statement is regarding myself and the many other geeks out there who - oh my gosh - actually leave the house and get away from the computer once in a while... I would like to vent my spleen regarding a few things about the movie - and the criticism - that did bother me, which I haven't seen anyone else address yet.

1. Michael Cera Actually Acts In This Movie!

I know it's generally acceptable to hate on Michael Cera because he plays basically the same stock schlemiel character in everything he is in. Believe me - I was worried when I heard he was playing Scott Pilgrim. But honestly? He does a good job.

Granted, there is a fine line between being a clueless dork (i.e. Cera's usual character) and a clueless jerk (i.e. Scott in the comics) but Cera does manage to make the distinction in the early parts of the film, where he genuinely has no idea that most of his behavior is utterly inappropriate. And yet, Cera's still manages - in my mind at least - to show enough of Scott's inner humanity to make us want to root for him, even as he is dodging the drama of dumping his current girlfriend while actively pursuing the girl of his dreams.

2. Wallace Is Turned Into A Negative Gay Stereotype

Wallace, Scott's roomate, is possibly the most popular member of the supporting cast from the original comic. Indeed, rumor has it that Bryan Lee O'Malley may be planning a spin-off sequel comic series centering upon Wallace. It is a credit to O'Malley that so many of his characters are openly homosexual but it isn't treated as a big deal and that he avoids the cliches that so often go along with gay characters in comic books.

And yet in the movie, the fact that Wallace is a flirt and a drunk is played up to the degree that he is depicted as cheating on his boyfriend (something that never happened in the comic) and sharing his bed with two guys - not including Scott. In the comics, Wallace being a flirty drunk was never equated as being part of his being gay. And even though Wallace is a minor character who freely admits to his own hypocrisy when called on it by Scott in the movie, it still bugs me that such a cool character has been reverted to being a promiscuous gay stereotype.

3. Ramona Is A Damsel In Distress.

The books are just as much about Ramona coming to terms with her own callous behavior regarding how she used and abused her exes as it is Scott realizing what a jackass he's been and making the decision to grow up. In short, the journey of discovery is not one-sided and both male and female readers can find a protagonist to relate to. And in the end, Ramona joins Scott in the final battle against her manipulative ex-boyfriend Gideon.

Not so in the movie, where Ramona is - for the most part - passive to the very end regarding the idea that she is a prize to be won. And in the final battle, Scott is assisted by his much-abused ex-girlfriend Knives, who is - for no reason readily presented in the movie - content to let Scott move on to a life with Ramona despite having been a crazed stalker for most of the movie.

4. Scott Pilgrim Is Not About Hipsters!

One thing that really disturbs me is how many people have been quick to dismiss this film - not as a stupid video-game/comic flick - but as being yet another comedy about whinny hipsters who need a serious boot up their ass.

Strictly speaking, most of the characters in this movie aren't hipsters. Hipsters, by definition, rebel against the popular mainstream culture by choice. Usually this rebellion manifests in the use of styles or fashions that are opposed to what is fashionable. Odd facial hair or hair cuts, clunky glasses, old, distressed clothing and the collecting of records despite not owning a record player - these are the things that mark the Hipster.

But Scott - and most of his friends - are not hipsters. They don't shop at Goodwill because they're trying to look retro. They shops at Goodwill because they are POOR. Their T-shirts are not the $30 distressed tees sold at American Apparel stores everywhere - they are distressed because they have been washed and rewashed over and over since high school.

5. It's A Coming Of Age Story!

Seriously. Out of all of the reviews I've read of this movie, only a scant few mentioned the heart of the plot - that it is a coming of age story about man-child becoming a man. I wish it had been about a girl becoming a woman, too. But that's neither here nor there.

What's truly disturbing is the sheer number of people - some supposedly professional critics - who watched this movie and somehow came away with the opposite message. Perhaps the most inflammatory of these was the critic for The Philadelphia Weekly, who felt that the movie taught young nerdy boys the lesson that "it’s OK to treat their women like shit if something “better” comes around."

Yes, Scott is a heel who treats his girlfriend Knives badly. He's also not a bum who leaches off of his roommate, treats the friends he formed a band with badly and generally acts like the kind of jackass most people wouldn't piss on if he was on fire. But he changes. The movie is all about Scott realizing this and trying to become a better person - at first in the name of love but finally because he figures he owes it to himself to be better for the sake of being better.