I know, even I cringed when I decided to give this convention three stars, but a few incidents made it necessary to dock them a point or two.
Let's go with the basics. This is a comic convention for comic book nerds of all shapes and sizes. I love seeing everyone dressed up. Unfortunately my fiancee and I decided it was too freaking hot in Houston to wear our costumes, but to everyone else, especially those wearing the Alien and Predator costumes...you earned my respect!
Over the years, I liked how they cleaned up the ticket situation. In previous years will call and the purchase of tickets were done on the same floor, so it was a huge tangled mess. On the first floor there is what you call the dealer's room. They literally have everything imaginable. Do you need batman lingerie? Check. Do you need a painting of Wonder Woman in the form of a cat that takes up half your wall? Check. Are you in desperate need of discounted comics, toys, and fairy jewelry galore? Check. Do you want to go crazy looking at nothing but pretty drawings, ahem sexy drawings, and their artists who will make you cry as you wished you learned to color in the lines by the time you were in the 3rd grade? Check mate!
That same floor is also where all the celebrities dwell in one area of the convention for autographs and pictures. It tends to be crowded and you'll hear lots of "No Pictures," because some other fan just spent over $200 to take a hideous selfie with Stan Lee as an example. No judgement, more power to you, but sometimes the prices hurt me profoundly. I would need to be ridiculously invested in a certain fandom, say Wonder Woman's Gal Gadot with her in full Wonder Gear, for me to pay that. It also makes me sad for fans on a budget.
There are panels! Yay! The celebrity panels are usually well done with a local radio DJ personality interviewing them. I've seen mostly people from KRBE and I believe Houston's NPR doing the interviews. The fan questions can be ridiculous, good, or just a really cute little kid.
There are sports like terrible beginning wrestling, roller derby, and the like to keep you engaged and they have really great side panels too with lesser known people and just plain fans talking about things that matter to us comic geeks like the history of Bucky. I definitely advise you to buy a three day pass, so you can fully experience it.
What did I not like? One, some of the smaller panels this year, were simply not well prepared and were basically reading straight from a piece of paper. A paranormal panel had one panelist read descriptions from websites I've read in the past. If that's your field, you probably shouldn't be reading it word for word, because you looked unprepared. I hate the food prices. You are being tortured for money. Also, some of the volunteers were just ugly rude. My fiancee, a mutual friend and I went into the wrong room where they were doing Cosplay and we were lost, because the program had an error. The volunteer was rude and said we needed to leave, without even bothering to help us. As we tried to figure out where the event we wanted to go to was located, I saw this same volunteer with a few others, be just as rude and ugly to those in costumes while yelling they were doing this for the fans.
That's right. They were, because without that cute cosplayer with the $200 costume, having paid maybe over $200 to have met her favorite celebrity, and who knows how much more in the dealer's room, that nasty attitude of the volunteer wasn't warranted. Remember, you're doing them a favor by allowing them to even volunteer and have perks. You actually paid for this, make sure you complain, you adorable little cosplayer you.
It's a great experience, but be willing to leave the smaller panels, bring money, and most important of all, if you're spending crazy money, don't let some rude volunteer talk down to you. This isn't high school. It's real money. Get their name, go to comicpalooza and complain- the end. You deserve to have a fun time, because I am positive you spent more than me and if you can't even be spoken to in a professional manner, then your money needs to be spent at a Con where folks will respect you. read more